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Picker's Paradise / Excellent thrift store score
« on: June 30, 2012, 12:49:27 AM »
I was doing a service call in a neighboring town a couple weeks back and decided to stop in at a thrift I noticed for the first time. Was looking at the jeans and the shirts, purses, toys... the usual stuff. On my way out I see a shelf PACKED with model car kits. I knew a little something about them from building them as a kid and thought maybe I'd buy a couple and build them with my son. So I started to look a couple up on eBay.
After looking up 5 of them I asked for a manager. They had them listed at $4.98 each. I asked, if I buy them all, how much will you sell them for? She said if I bought them all, I had to buy them ALL. I asked what she meant and she took me in the back where there were 4 more massive bins of them. I said ok and asked how much each. She said $.75 each. I asked if I could peek in a few boxes and see if they are completed or are still in pieces. I noticed most of the decals were missing but I estimated that 99% of them hadn't been touched other than to remove the decals (turned out I was right). Ended up buying 160 kits for $120.00 +tax.
Took them home, opened them up, photographed them and started putting them on eBay. It's been two weeks now, we've sold about 25 of them and I'm looking at a $780.00 paypal balance! /happydance
Something I've learned from this experience. The decal sheets sell for upwards of 10.00 by themselves. In addition to that, certain parts from the kit can be sold individually too. For example, wheels and tires and hubs, motors, roll cages, bodies, seats, and accessories like spoilers or pets or phones, chrome parts, the list goes on and on... all these items sell by themselves for anywhere from $2.00 (chrome mirrors from an incomplete set) up to $25 (Cragar rims with redline goodyears)! Spoilers, bumpers, freaking gas caps all of it!
Which led me to one last thing. I thought, hell if I can sell the individual pieces like that, why not go buy a model and part it out. When I was a kid they were 8.00 all day at wal-mart. Now, wal-mart doesn't even sell them and the stores that do want 18.00-100.00 PER kit!
After looking up 5 of them I asked for a manager. They had them listed at $4.98 each. I asked, if I buy them all, how much will you sell them for? She said if I bought them all, I had to buy them ALL. I asked what she meant and she took me in the back where there were 4 more massive bins of them. I said ok and asked how much each. She said $.75 each. I asked if I could peek in a few boxes and see if they are completed or are still in pieces. I noticed most of the decals were missing but I estimated that 99% of them hadn't been touched other than to remove the decals (turned out I was right). Ended up buying 160 kits for $120.00 +tax.
Took them home, opened them up, photographed them and started putting them on eBay. It's been two weeks now, we've sold about 25 of them and I'm looking at a $780.00 paypal balance! /happydance
Something I've learned from this experience. The decal sheets sell for upwards of 10.00 by themselves. In addition to that, certain parts from the kit can be sold individually too. For example, wheels and tires and hubs, motors, roll cages, bodies, seats, and accessories like spoilers or pets or phones, chrome parts, the list goes on and on... all these items sell by themselves for anywhere from $2.00 (chrome mirrors from an incomplete set) up to $25 (Cragar rims with redline goodyears)! Spoilers, bumpers, freaking gas caps all of it!
Which led me to one last thing. I thought, hell if I can sell the individual pieces like that, why not go buy a model and part it out. When I was a kid they were 8.00 all day at wal-mart. Now, wal-mart doesn't even sell them and the stores that do want 18.00-100.00 PER kit!
