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Messages - notmikeb

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eBay / Re: The price, is it right?
« on: February 11, 2013, 05:25:56 PM »
Great rule of thumb is that the more popular an item is, the lower your starting price should be.  If you look at completed listings and see there have been lots of your item sold, you can garner interest and "watchers" by starting it at a very low price and letting people think they have the chance to get it at a deal.

The converse is also true for the most part.  If your item is a little less in demand or there are few completed listings and those that have sold have only had a few bids, you want to start the auction at closer to the desired final price.

As was stated above, any item you're listing for the first time should be researched first to find what the going rate is and oftentimes this tells you that eBay may not even be the best choice as a selling venue.  I've often done better on craigslist on certain items that eBay is completely overrun with.

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Stories about Storage Auctions / Re: New Clothing With Tags ?
« on: February 11, 2013, 12:58:40 PM »
Yeah, Plato's Closet was a big waste of time. I brought 2 bins full of new with tags brand name stuff (Levi's, Nautica, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, etc..) and they only offered to buy 2 pieces for a grand total of $4.25.  They only take stuff that is a season old or less regardless of quality or condition.

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General Storage Auction Talk / Re: What in the world did Waldo see?
« on: February 09, 2013, 10:23:19 AM »
.... Gibson Les Paul case!!!! EMPTY!

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Stories about Storage Auctions / Re: New Clothing With Tags ?
« on: February 05, 2013, 12:07:37 PM »
1/3 of retail would be awesome. I'll check them out!

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Stories about Storage Auctions / Re: New Clothing With Tags ?
« on: February 04, 2013, 12:35:03 PM »
Wife and I got a unit last week that was someone's discount store and had 5 rubbermaid bins full of name brand, new, tagged clothing (Nautica, Ralph Lauren, Levis, Gap, True Religion, etc..) and 3 bins worth of new or like new shoes (Timberland, Nike, Adidas) including 2 pairs of Air Jordans.  Unit also had a lot of NIB costume jewelry and a few watches with some bits of sterling silver mixed in. I have picked a few of the better items and have them on eBay right now, the rest I'll save for garage sale season and sell it off for between $2-20 a piece. Conservatively we should turn a $225 unit into at least $1000 at the end of the day but optimistically we could see $1700-2000!!

Anyone know any other way besides eBay and garage sales for shoes and clothes? Would love to find a store that pays (even if just a fraction of value) just to unload it all at once, liquidate, and BUY SOME MORE!

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Storage Auction Resources By State / Re: Maryland Storage Auctions
« on: February 01, 2013, 07:01:22 PM »
Severn River Auctions - Storage Auction Schedule

severnriverauctions.com/storageauctions.html

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Hey guys, been lurking here for a few weeks and thought I should jump in and start contributing instead of just leaching info  :)

My wife and I have started doing this to earn extra money (newborn's aren't cheap!!) and so far have bought 4 units over the last 2 1/2 weeks.

Unit #1 $45 - By far the best so far in terms of quick payout. 10x30 maybe 1/5 full.
-Big Oak entertainment center (for old school deep TV) SOLD on CL for $160
-90 Gallon Fish Tank w/Wooden Stand SOLD on CL for $125
-Complete p90x DVD set SOLD on eBay for $98
-Big bin of wooden african masks SOLD at Pawn Shop for $50 (wish I had kept this as I'm sure I could have netted more)
-Old (late 70's) Shure PA head unit SOLD at Pawn Shop for $20 (pretty gross case)
-Matching Shure PA speakers SOLD at Pawn Shop for $5 (pity buy as it was a huge pain to drag them down there but they were pretty much shot)
-Used Magna Bike that will probably sell for $30
-Camping equipment that we're hanging onto until camping weather for better prices
-Bunch of other small odds and ends that were hanging on to until garage sale / community flea market season

Unit #2 $100 - 5x10 packed with nice looking bins (most empty) and high end labeled boxes in rear. Learning opportunity but I'm pretty sure we'll eventually break even.
- Bunch (more than 10) of Coach shoe and purse boxes that had nothing but family photos in them
- Prada purse FAKE
- LV purse FAKE
- Lots of shoes and clothes that will eventually sell during garage sale season
- TI-84 Calculator SOLD on eBay for $51
- about 15 nice Rubbermaid bins which I think make up for some of the cost as we use them to organize our inventory
- ALOT of trash
- Hundreds of dead stinkbugs (anyone know where I can sell?  :) )

Unit #3 $25 - Almost empty 5x5 that had some black plastic bags and 3 sealed Rubbermaid bins as well as mostly hidden shiny metal 3x2 "mystery box"
- Broken iPod SOLD on eBay for $11
- Dozen college textbooks SOLD 1/2 to online book buyer for $65
- "Mystery Box" turned out to be a mini fridge in like new condition (Gave to mother in law)
- Like new pair of Ugg boots size 8 (my wife's size so she kept them)
- Bunch of clothes/shoes/odds and ends for garage sale season

Unit #4 $225 - 5x10 PACKED (had trouble opening door). Would NOT have bid this much but wifey was quite insistent that she saw a bunch of stuff that had value. VERY glad I listened as this one has the potential to pay out BIG over the long run. Unfortunately, this was also an outdoor unit that mice got into so We'd be doing even better if we didn't have to throw 1/3 of it out.
- two 12 packs of toilet paper that was chewed up and I continued to find in nest form throughout the rest of the unit.
- (3) LV handbags in fair to great shape (REAL) - should triple my money just right here!!
- 4 large plastic totes FULL of brand new high end clothing w/tags (Calvin Klein, New Religion jeans, Ann Taylor, Nautica, Ralph Lauren, etc..)
- Nice Guess leather jacket for women
- about 30 pairs of brand name shoes (Nike, Timberland, Puma, Adidas, etc..) most in brand new condition including 3 pairs of vintage Jordans
- 1 large plastic tote full of new jewelry in boxes and hang tags (mostly fashion jewelry but a few sterling silver pieces)
- Weird 60's camera equipment that I'm going to have checked out (I'm guessing worthless but you never know)
- A LOT of trash
- 3 dead mice
- about a dozen dead stinkbugs
- some live roaches

The last unit I think has great potential but I still need to figure out what goes on eBay and what I'll try to sell locally.  The stuff i threw out was also nice but was way too gross to save. The clothes I did save went straight from the plastic bins to the washing machine as I don't want even the slightest hint of mouse poop/pee in and around my house.

Anyhow, we're both loving this so far and I think stand to make at least a small dent in our expenses this way. I'd love some suggestions if anyone has any on how to sell nice quality clothing other than eBay for the really nice stuff and garage sale / flea market for the rest.

Thanks for reading!
Mike

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