everything vintage/what is it worth?

What happens when you have sold items at a flea market for over 40 years and now you are ready to retire? You sell your stock at a local auction! That is what happened to an old timer at the Leesport Farmer’s Market in Leesport, PA. He sold items at his stand for over 40 years and he was ready to retire. I guess you get tired of almost anything after 40 years! I went to the auction. 

There were boxes and boxes of little knick-knacks and toys and stuff that had been new about 20 years ago that now could be considered “vintage.” There were matchbox cars and models and wrapping paper and pencils and stuffed animals and dime store jewelry and…… thousands of cookie cutters. This person was especially known for his cookie cutters. Plastic, metal, tin–all shapes and sizes. Most of his original prices were 1.00-3.00 a piece.

So… I bought about 1000 of them myself. My daughter was with me and she bought a few hundred and there was plenty left for others to bid on too. Most of the bidding went for 1.00 – 5.00 a box lot and a box lot contained about 10-30 pieces. This was June 2009 or sometime around there. So I loaded up my van with my treasures, figuring I could sell them by the bag at my local flea market and also bag up the older ones for my antique sales and my antique booth at Zionsville Antiques. 

I took 6 bags to the Kutztown Extravaganza in the fall and sold all of them for 5.00 a bag—a nice bargain! I’ve sold about 20 bags at the flea market and antique mall. Then I was in my glory organizing them for eBay. I had groups of animals, Christmas, dinosaurs, big Texas size ones, and little miniature ones. I am down to one bin full that I have left in my garage. They are still selling on eBay and make a great find for your Christmas cookies in all shapes and sizes!

CLICK ON ANY OF THE PHOTOS to go to my eBay store and find them there or on live auction—if I have any left!!

Lilacs, lily of the valley, PA Dutch girls, farmers, snow scenes, Christmas holly and poinsettias, these are some of the designs you can find on the great old cotton printed tablecloths from the 1950s. I love finding these at the local auctions! My favorites are the bold flowers—the bolder the better!

If I look through the linen boxes before the auction starts, I might find some tablecloths buried on the bottom and I can’t wait to bid and hope no one else has discovered them! Usually they have and I’ll have some people bidding against me. Other times I get lucky and I can get a tablecloth for 1.00 or an entire box of linens for 1.00 that has some tablecloths in it—yeah! It’s gold to me.

Then there’s the condition to think about. It is rare to find a tablecloth that doesn’t have any wears, tears, or stains. The stains can be worked on, especially if they are in a white area. Even the worn and torn ones can be valuable to someone who wants them to make aprons or curtains or purses out of them.

When I list a tablecloth on eBay that has some damage, I put the word “cutter” in the title. Those who are looking for craft projects can find them this way.

I don't have many printed ones left in my store!

Here are some stats as to what they are worth: 123 “vintage printed tablecloths” are listed on eBay at the time I am writing this. I think it is important to use the word “printed” in the title. In the last 30 days, 149 out of 247 listed have been sold. This is a sell through rate of 60%. The highest price was 83.76 for a Wilendur Christmas tablecloth (Wilendur and Vera, and Startex are all good brand names). The average price was 14.91. This info comes from HAMMERTAP (see sidebar for info).

I have a few tablecloths in my laundry room right now that need to be washed and the stains worked on. They can be soaked in oxyclean for a few hours or a few days to see how much of a stain will come out. Then I use a bleach stick for small areas. If I have to, I will bleach the entire tablecloth but I won’t soak it too long or the fibers could weaken. Not too worry too much though because the cotton these are made out of is pretty tough! Hanging them in the sun to dry also helps the stain.

CLICK ON ANY OF THE PHOTOS or visit me at everythingvintagesteph.com THANKS!

click to view ended auction

Do you  have an ugly Christmas sweater that you don’t wear any more? Yeah, like those ones from the 80’s with the padded shoulders and big designs and sparkles. What, you still have it? Apparently, there are office parties out there with contests for the ugliest Christmas sweater. The best place to find one is on eBay! I just sold one from Eddie Bauer that wasn’t really that ugly but I got 15.50 for it. (above).

cute snowman sweater

This sweater is kind of cute too but I listed it as an “ugly” Christmas sweater. I also have one more listed on eBay right now and they both will be over on Nov. 19. Are these from my closet? No! They came from the same place that my jeans come from that I sell a lot of—the 75 cent bins at the Morgantown, PA Goodwill store. I love that place! I was just there on Thursday and bought 23 items that are worth selling on eBay. Check out the sweaters and some of the jeans at everythingvintagesteph.com.

At 5 weeks old she is already smiling! (Not for sale on eBay!)

Ok, I only got 7.00 for the vintage nun doll. That was the opening (and closing) bid. It is only a 1.00 or 2.00 more than what I paid for her! Here’s what we wonder now… Did I start the doll at the correct price? If I started her lower, would she have gone for more? If I had started her at 15.00 would she have sold for that? These are ALWAYS the questions that eBay sellers ask themselves and the answer is… you never know! It is good to do research before you price an item but unique items like this are very hard to research. But again, that’s the fun of eBay—you never know what is going to happen!

So… on to the next item!

You can watch this doll auction at everythingvintagesteph.com

The antique NUN doll (featured below) finally has a bid at 7.00. She has 6 watchers and is over on the evening of Nov. 3. I will report on her progress! You can see my auction listings at everythingvintagesteph.com.

I also just listed a large group of something NON vintage! Crocs socks! Yes, these are specially made socks to wear with your crocs in the winter—since those Crocs are so comfy. Now you can wear them all year long. Click on the photo to go right to my eBay store and search for “crocs”. Or click HERE. I have a couple of different listings for different styles (and I am adding smaller sizes later). I will report in a later post how I got the croc socks and how they are selling and how I did the research to decide on selling them. So come on back!

I don’t have the time to write now because the next game of the World Series (go Phillies!) is about to start!

I have an old antique doll listed on eBay right now. She is dressed like a nun and made of composition. I don’t know how old she is and there is no manufacturer so it is very hard to tell what she might be worth. I started the auction at 7.00. I am not sure how much I paid for her—I think it was either 5 or 6$. Here is the listing… NUN DOLL. I also added a video to the listing to make it more descriptive. You can click on it above. The auction will be over Tues. November 3 so I will report back how much she is worth!

see all my eBay sales at: everythingvintagesteph.com

Remember that quilt I showed in the video a few days ago? (see Oct. 12 ).

I promised I would tell you what it sold for. The final bid was 48.44. I think I got more interest in it because I used a video. If you sell on ebay, this is very easy. Go to vzaar.com and upload your videos and then click to put them in your auctions. That’s it! It doesn’t cost anything extra either. Any video site (including youtube) could also be used.

You can see the auction here.

Check out my new auctions at everythingvintagesteph.com. 

newly listed NEW Italian leather gloves

I promised my twitter followers that I would tell them my secret for finding all the jeans I sell on eBay.

It’s the Goodwill store! Not just any Goodwill store—certain stores (in my area—and maybe yours) have a clearance store where all they sell is clothing thrown into bins at 75 cents a piece. We have one in Morgantown, PA and it is HUGE. They change the merchandise every day too. I find lots of great bargains for the grandchildren and myself too but I just recently started looking specifically for brand name jeans in excellent condition. I bought 11 pair last week.

I start them on eBay at 3.00 (plus the postage is usually for 2 pounds) and sometimes they sell for that but I usually get up to 10$ or more. If they don’t sell on auction, I move them into my eBay store and price them at 9.99. I have sold quite a few that way too! The best brand for me so far has been the Tommy Hilfiger ones. I’ve sold at least 4 of those so far.

They are easy to list too. I take 3 photos and measure the inseam. Descriptions are short and to the point. That’s it!

Click on a photo or go to everythingvintagesteph.com.

Bill Blass jeans on auction until 10-23

Linens is a generic term for quilts, tablecloths, doilies, lace, tea towels, etc. Anything made of cloth! Perhaps you have some passed down to you from a family member or you have found some at a thrift shop or yard sale. This is my favorite category to sell in on eBay because I love the feel of the old fabrics. I find a lot of “linens” at estate sales because women were very proud of their table settings and bedroom items in times past. OK, we still are, but it was very special to have a handmade quilt or embroidered tablecloth and you just didn’t get rid of that sort of thing.

vintage tablecloth

  When I bid on these items at estate auctions, I can usually get them for a very reasonable price (with the exception of a nice quilt!). The reason is that they don’t display very well at an auction (they might just look like old rags) and people are thinking (especially men!) that they don’t want to wash and iron it and take the chance of it having holes or stains. I can usually pick up a box of doilies for 1-2$ and a tablecloth for 2-4$. There could be a lot of waste though with torn and badly stained items but there are also the great treasures and that is what I buy for!

My favorites are the printed tablecloths from the 1950s. They can have such a variety of bold flowers and scenery and fruit and geometric designs or animals printed on them. AND the stains are usually easily removed on the white backgrounds. There are even good brand names like Startex and Vera and Wilendur.

Their value depends on the condition and the style and the amount of handwork on the piece. Here are some recent examples from eBay(not mysales):

vintage printed tablecloth with chefs and cooks: sold for 76.00

vintage triangle quilt: sold for 386.99

black americana vintage tea towel sold for 36.99

Most of this info is easily found by searching completed auctions on eBay and sorting them from highest to lowest price.

chenille bedspread I sold

Another great tool that I use for more detailed pricing information is Hammertap (see sidebar!). This is an eBay marketing tool that gives you all kinds of crazy stats on products, categories, and sellers. Here is what I found:

(Info was sorted for June 4-Oct. 4, 2009)

All categories listed were subcategories of the “collectibles” category (not home and garden).

1. Lace, crochet, and doilies: has a 32% sell-through rate (sell-through means that is the percentage of items that actually sold in the time period) and an average sell price of 10.24. Highest price was for a lot of 53 crocheted doilies that sold for 19.99.

2. quilts: 51 % sell-through rate, average sell price of 42.46. Highest price was for an antique 1930’s Dresden plate quilt with feedsack fabric that sold for 338.00

3. tablecloths: 50% sell-through rate, average sell price of 19.32. Highest price was for a WWII silk shawl tablecloth in brocade that sold for 311.00.

4. sheets and pillowcases: 55% sell-through rate, average sell price of 15.21. Highest price was for a vintage bedsheet with pink embroidery and crocheted lace that sold for 262.77

 Hammertap (see sidebar!) stats give a very realistic picture of the marketplace and what you can expect to sell an item for and if it is worth your while to sell in a specific category. I sell LOTS of linens and have an overall sell-through rate of 65%. (anything over 50% is supposed to be very good!)

Some of my recent linen sales:

Christmas vintage printed tablecloth: sold for 5.00 (someone got a great deal) although it did have a repaired hole and one stain!

click on the photo to view the auction

click to view chenille auction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Log cabin vintage quilt: sold for 19.38. This is what you call a “cutter” quilt because it is not in very good condition but it can be “cut apart” for other projects. I was happy with the price since I bought the quilt for 4.00.

a "cutter" log cabin quilt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right now I have a few quilts that I need to clean and a pile of about 5 that I need to list. I also have some nice crocheted afghans that can sometimes be big losers but I hope I picked the good ones—we’ll see! Follow my auctions at everythingvintagesteph.com. And if you love STATS check out HAMMERTAP!