Confessions of a Newbie

I have just recently bought my first locker for 800$. It had a piano, drum set, speakers, furniture in it and a bunch of empty boxes which I thought were full of treasure. I am still trying to recoup my money invested in this locker. I got 100$ for the speakers and 150$ for the furniture. I never knew it was so hard to sell a piano and drum set. This is very discouraging to me because it was my first locker I had ever won and now I'm in the minus for 600$.   Does anyone know of any websites that I can sell items on for free when I win an auction? I'm struggling help!!

Pianos are definitely a hard sell. Haven't ever managed to sell one. Gave one away and have done my best to avoid them ever since.  If the drum set is in decent condition you should be able to sell it on craigslist.

I've sold a Hammond organ...not the want everyone wants, the crappy low-end one. Took about 3 months before anyone even called on it. I sold it for peanuts just to get rid of it. On the other hand, I found a Korg keyboard in 2011. This keyboard was old. It had a 3.5 floppy disk drive on the side. But even though the technology was dated, I still got $350 for it.

What storage wars and the other shows don't tell you is that it costs money to get things appraised, in most cases. The way I like to appraise things is to make friends with local auctioneers. Maybe list a few items in their auctions to get the business relationship going. This way, when you get something needing an appraisal, you can always ask their opinion. Some items that you get an opinion on, you may want to list in an auction anyway..

I think, however, there is enough information online to get enough of an idea to put a price on things. In my shop, I have a big sign that says "We Welcome All Offers" because I know that I may be shooting the moon on some items. If someone has more knowledge than me, and can educate me on an item or genre, I may just accept their offer!

A good example of this is the book "The Little Prince". I have a first edition copy with mistranslations. The book was originally written in French and translated to English with errors. I have one of these priced at $100. However someone came into the shop who is a book guy. He said that while yes, this is a first edition with mistranslations, the books that are worth much more have a different color cover. Mine is a cream, the salmon covers go for much more. He pulled out his iPad and showed me examples. He said that my book, in fair condition brings $40. My book he said was better than that. So he offered me $60 and I took it.

Usually with a little work I can find an items worth on my own or one of my friends who deal in vintage / antiques can help. If i can't find it that way I sometimes use valuemystuff.com/ it cost $10 an appraisal or less; you can buy appraisals in packs of 3-5 i think. The people who appraise for you work or have in the past work for very nice auction houses like Sotherbys and Christies. Done it a few times it works well and you can print out your appraisal or attach a link to it for Ebay.