Amazon is much more costly than ebay. I only use Amazon to sell certain products. Electronics, computer software, and smaller household appliances seem to go quicker than on ebay. The thing I do like about Amazon is you don't pay until your item sells.

I posted a bunch of products up there for my promotional products business. Wedding favors and announcement magnets, things like that.. Never got a hit.

I have 2 pieces of art, one of which I had verified by a gallery owner in Michigan. Not very valuable, maybe $200.. The other piece I have no info on except that it was the artist's proof and the title of the piece is "Mary Rose". I can't make out the artist's name.

So, what resources do you use to educate yourself on artwork and how do you sell artwork you find at auctions?

HomeGrown,

One thing I have noticed about "ghetto" units. The good stuff seems to be in female owned units or atleast units with the presence of an adult female. Units that look primarily male owned tend to be much lower quality. I've gotten burned a several times now on male owned units in poor parts of town.

I've seen some good units in bad parts of town. But, I do agree that the units that seem to have a female's touch have the more quality stuff. My point is, you can't go into an auction thinking it's going to be all junk.

There's a guy who bid on a unit if in the legals it was owned by a person of latin descent, because "Mexicans don't have nice stuff." Crazy..

So after a couple of weeks going to auctions, I finally popped on a unit and found some really cool and unexpected stuff. I bought the unit, for $325.00, based on a dining room table, corner armoire, a small computer desk and a vintage guitar shell in the corner. The guitar is a 1962 Truetone made by Kay Guitars. It's their "Red Devil" model, really cool. Already sold. There was a white 3 drawer Sterlite storage system which was heavily wrapped in plastic. Once I got in the unit, the sucker was heavy! Popped open the first drawer.. A rusty old Erector Set (1959).. A cool find, not valuable, but cool. In the second drawer... a not rusty old Erector Set (1959)! First set must have been purchased to complete the set he had. Found a vintage/antique desk chair made by Paine Furniture Co. in Boston, MA. Research shows they only made household furniture from 1880's to 1930's after they switched to strictly bedroom furniture. Also had 2 pieces of art. 1 lithograph from artist Joanne Isaac. 1 embossed watercolor which I still have to get appraised. The watercolor has a price written on the back.. $795.00!! I can't make out the artists name, so I can't get tooooo excited.. Also found a vintage Barbie 2 doll case (1968) and an Argus Photo Slide Previewer from the 50's I presume.

Just responded to another post about your high end furniture dilemma.. The consignment shops around here take 45-50%. But, they typically sell it for more than I can on my own. So if they can sell it for 20-30% higher than I could, I'm only looking at a 20-25% discount from my original asking price.

The consignment shop I use in Raleigh starts discounting 10% after 30 days, and an additional 10% every 30 days after. So there is some higher risk of making very little if your item sits for a while.

To prevent that, this consignment has a very strong Facebook following, they post their own ads on craigslist and tweet new items. They do a lot to get your item out the door to keep fresh stuff coming in.

Maybe it was just a crappy day.  I carry very little cash and some of the places that we go to will not take cash, most will always take the card.  At this place I kinda felt that the units were going to be trash anyhow, in the middle of the getto.  Live and learn. 

Don't judge a book by its cover. Those storage facilities in the bad parts of town can have some really profitable units. People live in those areas because they don't know how to prioritize their money. They spend on themselves first, pay rent, keep the lights on, buy food later.. and what they buy for themselves is usually high end. The biggest thing to be wary of is, they sometimes keep in storage, what they don't want to keep in their homes.

For now, I sell the big stuff on craigslist, bring small stuff to the flea market when I collect enough smalls. I have 2 storage units that are waiting to be used, one on either side of town. This area is not really a "fishing" area. The reels are a tough sell, even at $10, I'd be sitting on them a while.

Part of my issue is, I want to flip the stuff quick. Many of my contacts from when I was auction hunting a few years ago have closed up shop or not in a position to purchase materials.

The way I would have priced the items you listed are as follows..

Rods - $10 ea. ($80 total)
Golf bag - $20 (It looked real flimsy)
TV's - scrap
Lazy Boy-  - $50
Love seat - $50
Chest - $150 (big gamble since I couldn't see the whole thing)

That brought me to $350, my top bid. Plus another $250 in misc. sales.