Christmas Decorations - Patience And Profit Or Not Worth The Trouble?

Every other storage unit these days seems to contain Christmas / holiday decorations. While many auction-hunters avoid these items, they may be worth a second look. The problem with seasonal items is that there’s a narrow window of time when they’re in demand. In the month or two leading up to the holiday, people will be interested in buying these items. The rest of the year, these items will need to be stored somewhere. If you have the space to store them, seasonal items sell extremely well during the holidays. You can often make an excellent profit if you’re patient.

So, is it better to sell seasonal merchandise at a discount or store it for a while and maximize your profit?

Anyone ever sold a snow globe or a moving Santa?

I save up the seasonal merchandise, especially Christmas items, & sell them this time of year. It has been worth it to me, especially since I can mass gobs of Christmas stuff on the tables at the flea market and get people to pay $.050 - $1 a piece for used dollar store items that probably only cost $1 new.

Getting ready to pull out 2 kerosine heaters, an outdoor blast heater, and several electric heaters to sell.

Currently massing lawn & garden stuff for Spring. I have 2 lawnmowers, 2 weed eaters, 2 electric hedge trimmers, and a leaf blower. Not to mention about 20 different assorted planting pots. If I sold them now, I would get killed. Those will come out at the end of March.

 i go through them look for valuables and if its before november everything else gets donated or tossed . After nov 1 stuff goes to the flea with me

Cobia, that's a great strategy.

We also sell seasonally and sold 80% of our christmas items at our September yardsale. The remainder we put up for sale as a bulk lot on craigslist. Three calls and gone the same day it was listed. Selling leftover inventory in cheap bulk lots has been better than throwing out or donating.

We also sell seasonally and sold 80% of our christmas items at our September yardsale. The remainder we put up for sale as a bulk lot on craigslist. Three calls and gone the same day it was listed. Selling leftover inventory in cheap bulk lots has been better than throwing out or donating.

I like the large Lots listing at CList. That's a great idea! We did a flea market today with Holiday items and a bunch of Barbie Dolls that we got in a unit the past week or so. We sold so much Holiday items I had to get more out pf the trailer. We sold over 60 Barbie Dolls...loose ones at $1.00 and boxed ones from 4.00-6.00 with the $20.00+ better ones going up on eBay or Amazon. We expected to only get a little for the Holiday stuff but we actually did really good! One Yard Sale coming up if the weather allows and then maybe CList. Thanks for that idea

I have different trunks that I hold seasonal items in if I think they have some value.  Most of the xmas stuff gets donated or tossed.  Goodwill will not take any more xmas trees for example.  At the store I help out in we setup a large table with xmas stuff.  So far have only sold 3 ornaments.  IMO - it is a coin toss.  Most of the stuff is small and easy to store.  The large items you sell now or out it goes.

I have sold snow globes and do semi-well with them.  Have a few collectors at the local flea.  Outside of those people, and my daughter, the rest sit for a bit and then go to Goodwill.

Like Cobia I'm looking and storing spring stuff now if I can find anything.  Searching the few yardsales for tools, pots, patio furniture, etc.  Talked with my buddy and we are going to stock up on decent furniture if we can find any for Feb/March when people get refund checks back.

I keep anything thats not broken stained or crappy looking, take it all to the flea market and sell it in one big sale. This year i sold every christmas item in one day for $360 mostly at 50cent each minus the $30 for my spot. The few crappy items left twords the end of the sale I get rid of by yelling EVERYTHING IS FREE!!! Man they can clear up crap in a heartbeat. Good way of getting rid of crap not worth bringing home...

That's what I used to do at my garage sales at the end of the day. I would load all of the valuables on the truck, then place an ad on Craigslist under the free section. About 30 minutes later, dozens of people showed up to haul stuff off. One mans trash is another's treasure.

Holiday stuff gets collected and stored in the rafters all year. With all of the costumes in the store this year I made over $500.00. (I don't sell any clothes)
Christmas moved very well this year. Any light sets that don't work (even if it is only one bulb out) get tossed. Sold about $70.00 worth of good ones for $1.00 a string. I blew out anything having to do with a manger. Dishes and fake trees didn't go so good this year. You just never know.
I have two boxes of Easter stuff that will come down soon. I always sell out of baskets.

Post-Christmas results == sold a few trees (yes those we normally cringe seeing in a unit), a large nutcracker that I didn't have for more then 2 hours, and some random decorations.  Things didn't move as well this year as in the past.  A large number of items was donated to Goodwill.  The trees go to the dump as even Goodwill don't want them any longer.