May Recap

I sold 22 items.

I spent $100.18 on those items.

I sold those items for $641.15

I paid $72.49 in fees to eBay.

I made a profit of $468.48

From my Flipping Experiment with Chris:

We sold 5 items
We sold these items for $874.97
We paid $104.31 in fees to eBay.
We made a profit of $770.66 - meaning $385.33 each

My total profit this month was $853.81

This was my first time selling in Q2, when retail sales are typically slow. It is hot and people are outside and not shopping. While my normal sales were one of the lowest months, the flipping experiment really helped boosts sales. If I make $850 in one of the worst months, I can live with that. I have been increasing my inventory as much as I can, preparing for Q3, getting my store filled with items ready to sell. The flipping experiment is looking like it will be a success. I spent most of May organizing everything and listing all the statues. The statues are finally all listed, and 5 have already sold, which is not a lot, but has made some good money. The plan is try to get some of the comics posted in June, and maybe some posters in July. I have no doubt that we will make back our investment without question, and making a very nice profit. 

King of Tokyo

Bought: $10.00 Sold: $30.00 Fees: $0.00 Profit: $20.00

I picked this board game up at the Glebe Garage sale this weekend. It was new in box, still sealed in plastic. I posted it on the Facebook board game group, and got some interest pretty fast. This is a really fun board game - it is actually one of my favourite. It is a simple and fun game. $10 was a lot to spend at a garage sale, but I knew I could flip it fast for $30 with no problem. If you ever come across this game, it is worth picking up - if not to flip, to keep and play. 

Superfection

Bought: $4.51 Sold: $29.99 Fees: $3.01 Profit: $22.47

This is a vintage board game that Chris picked up for me at VV. It is a variation on the game Perfection, except that instead of placing shaped objects into their respective holes you need to match two matching shapes to form a square. I am not sure why this game has such an appeal, but it seems to sell consistently and even when not working - most of the listings had issues of some kind. Mine worked, although it popped up a few seconds before the timer was completed, which I guess just makes it a bit harder. Almost immediately after listing it, someone from the Philippines messaged me asking if I could meet their friend who lived in Richmond Hill to save on shipping. I explained that Ottawa and Richmond Hill were not actually that close, but if their friend was in Ottawa they could do local pickup. After some back and forth, he just had it shipped to his friend in Richmond Hill. His account is for a large online game company based out of the Philippines, so he is clearly a legit buyer. Not sure what he plans on doing with this - whether he is going to keep it or try and resell it. Either way, it was a fast sale with a good ROI.

French Ergonomic Keyboard

Bought: $4.51 Sold: $25.00 Fees: $2.56 Profit: $17.93

This is a french ergonomic keyboard that has two halves, allowing you to position them as you need. Found this at VV, and realized that any oddly shaped keyboard is probably worth grabbing. The fact that it was a French Canadian probably helped it sell, since French ergonomic keyboards are not likely as common. It is always a good idea to keep an eye out for both odd keyboards, as well as ergonomic electronics. Some ergonomic mouses can fetch a good penny.

Vintage Axis & Allies

Bought: $7.50 Sold: $29.99 Fees: $3.57 Profit: $18.92

This was one of the 16 board games I bought as a lot off the guy on Kijiji. This was not one of the games I wanted from it, but I figured there was no harm in listing them all on eBay. This was one of the games that I thought wouldn't sell quickly, mainly because Axis & Allies is a very popular and common game - sort of like Risk or Monopoly - and so I figured that one in this bad condition wouldn't sell. Apparently, though, this version, from the early '80's, is desirable, and so I undercut the going rate by about $10 to account for the massive amount of damage to the box, and it sold in less than a week. Granted, the game was complete, and so for someone who doesn't care about how the box looks this would have been a good buy. This is the 2nd board game from the lot to sell, and I am well on my way to making back my entire investment.

Money made off the lot as a whole so far: Spent: $120 - Sales: $72.99

Flipping Experiment #1: Comic and Anime statues, comics and posters - Month #1

UPDATED ON MAY 29th!

At the beginning of May, I saw an ad on kijiji of someone selling the contents of a storage locker that he had purchased which contained a number of anime figures, comic book and posters. These were all items that are collectible and with value, and he knew this, but didn't want to sell them online and was looking to sell them to someone who was willing to do the work. He wanted someone to make an offer. I messaged him and we agreed on an amount of $2,000.

This would easily be my largest investment to date, and while I was (and still am) confident on my ability to turn that into a profit, I asked my brother, Chris, if he wanted to split the cost with me 50/50, share the work of listing with me 50/50 and share the profits 50/50. He checked with his wife and agreed.

So, one night after a long day in court, in the middle of a multiple-week murder trial, I drove out to Kemptville and bought it all. The guy was quite nice, he owns a thrift store in Kemptville, but doesn't have any interest in selling online. I spoke to him about eBay, and told him to contact me if had any other finds that he thought would sell better online. After a short chat, and after loading my car to the brim, I made the drive back to Ottawa. My car was so full that I may, or may not, have had to drive back with two unusable rear view mirrors.

Once I got it home, I spent the first few days counting and inventorying what we had purchased. In total we had: 64 statues/figures; 263 comic books, and 71 posters.

Unfortunately, almost all the statues and comic books were manga. These have a market, but it is much smaller and more niche than standard comic book readers. That being said, there is still good money to be made here. Instead of doing a post every time one of these pieces sell, I will do a monthly update on the progress of the experiment. This will serve as the first of such posts.

The Numbers:

Initial Cost: $2,000
Number of items sold: 6

Gross Profit for May: $874.97

Fees to eBay: $104.31

Net Profit for May: $770.66

Net Overall Profit: -$1,229.34

Chris and I have each recouped $385.33 of our initial $1,000 investment so far.

Sales:

May 12 - Black Widow Painted Statue

Sold for: $99.99     Fees: $11.62

This sold within an hour of posting it to eBay. Normally I would take this to mean that it was quite rare and desirable, or that I undervalued it. I don't think either was the case. There was at least a dozen others on eBay, and I only undercut the cheapest one by $10. I think the explanation is that I was selling from Canada, and so by buying mine people avoided expensive shipping from the states combined with duty fees. So, while mine was only $10 cheaper, to Canadians it was likely closer to $40-50 cheaper. It actually sold to someone in Ottawa, about a 5 minute drive. I offered for him to pick it up and save on shipping, but he said that shipping was reasonable and he was fine paying it, so off to CanadaPost it will go.

May 12 - Art of Shunya Yamashita Mirei-San School Girl Figure

                                       Sold for: $40.00     Fees: $5.18

This sold pretty quickly, within a day of posting. This one wasn't rare either, there were a lot of them on eBay. That being said, a lot of these statues ship from Japan, so I assume by shipping from Canada I offer faster and cheaper service. This statue was a bit risqué... For some reason Robin wouldn't me keep it. I really do not understand the appeal of these kind of statues, and this overly sexualized feminine statues are what make up 90% of the ones we bought. That being said, there is clearly a market for them. 

May 15 - Kotobukiya Supergirl DC Comics Bishoujo

Sold for: $199.99     Fees: $21.70

This was the most popular statue we posted, with 4 watchers in less than 48 hours. It sold in only three days. The box on this one was a bit damaged, but wasn't too bad and the figure was in great shape. This was the only DC character. I really wish more had been Marvel and DC, as they would be a lot easier to sell. 

May 18 - Brian Pulido's Lady Demon 

Sold for: $175.00     Fees: $22.83

This statue was one of the larger ones we had - it stands over 15" tall - and it is quite intricate with Lady Demon looking into a mirror with three goblins around the frame of the mirror. This was a limited edition statue released in 2001, limited to 2,000 copies. It is a shame that Lady Demon is not a more collectible or popular character, or this would fetch a lot more. That being said, it is still a very nice sale. I was asking $200, he offered $150, and we settled on $175. This was off to Texas, and due to the size and weight, he paid $60 to ship it. This will be the largest, and most fragile, thing I've shipped to date and it has to cross the continent. I am anxiously awaiting it arriving safely so I can stop stressing about it.

May 28 - Cowboy Bebop The Perfect Sessions Limited Edition DVD Box Set

Sold for: $174.99     Fees: $21.01

This was the only DVD Box set in the lot, but it was still sealed and is a numbered limited edition, which helps increase its value. It is the complete TV series of Cowboy Bebop, which is a popular Japanese anime. This came out in 2001, so there wasn't any on eBay, so I had to pick a price, but I'm pretty happy when someone paid this full price. While still sealed in plastic, it does appear that a lot of dust got behind the plastic, which is understandable after 15 years, some of which was spent in a storage locker and a garage. I am really hopeful that once the buyer received it and opens it that there is no actual damage.

May 29 - Resident Evil 3 Jill Valentine figure

Sold for: $185.00    Fees: $163.03

This is a barbie-esque statue of Jill Valentine from the video game series Resident Evil. This figure has never been removed from the box, but the box was damaged by water/moisture. In mint condition this figure has gone for $400, but considering that collectors want things mint, I knew I had to lower the price. I was asking $200, and kept getting lowball offers for $100 or so. I countered them all with $185, and someone finally accepted it. 

Something I thought would never sell

Bought: $1.12 Sold: $6.49 Fees: $1.50 Profit: $3.87

This is a vintage travel version of the logic game Mastermind. I got this at VV in a bag with something else I wanted, and I figured that I may as well list this as well. I, also, apparently split the cost of the bag between the two items. I've had this listed since right around the time I started selling on eBay, and never really though it would sell, but it did. I'm not so concerned so much about the profit, since I didn't buy this to flip, it is just extra profit on whatever else was in that bag that I actually wanted. 

Someone really want some Nerf Shooz...

Bought: $2.25 Sold: $30.00 Fees: $2.92 Profit: $24.83

I found this box of Nerf Shooz at VV, and I couldn't find anything on eBay or google about, but it was cheap and it's vintage Nerf so I got it. It is essentially just a Nerf version of horse shoes, so easy to play inside. Despite more intensive research when I got home, I was still unable to find any information on these online, so I threw them up with what I thought was a high price. The fact that they sold within 15 minutes of being posted - in the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday - clearly indicates that they were priced too low. I have no idea what the buyer would have paid, but nonetheless, it is still a good ROI. 

Sourcing at the Glebe Garage Sale

The Glebe Garage sale is the biggest garage sale in the city, and the entire community is out and about selling and buying. It is always worth going, if nothing else than to people watch and see what people are selling. I've been going for years, but usually don't much, if anything. This year I went with the intention of sourcing as much stuff as I could to flip. My main focus was on board games, or stuff I already knew about as it is hard to research on the spot and there is so much ground to cover. I was out there  by 7:30 am and got back at 11:30. In those four hours, I walked 14.8 kilometers. It was also an unusually hot late May with the temperature at about 30 degrees since 8 am. It was a long and hot morning, but I think I did pretty well.

The haul:

Vintage Green General Electric Clock - $3.00
Three copies of Cariboo - $1, $2, and $2
Play-Doh Mega Fun Factory Conveyor Belt Complete Set - $7.50
Batter Masters Board Game - $20
Essex County by Jeff Lemire - $2.00
Shleich Oracle (New in Box) - $5.00
Ski Gammon Board Game - $2.00
King of Tokyo (New in Box) - $10.00
Vintage Sister Sewing Macine - $25.00

I spent $79.50 on 11 items, and I'm estimating that I'll make between $500 and 600 on the sale of these ten items. Not bad for a few hours. I wish that my other garage sale hauls were half this good. Keep your eyes out for future posts on the blog once these sell.

Avalon Hill's Naval War

Bought: $7.50 Sold: $43.00 Fees: $4.75 Profit: $30.75

Someone was selling a series of lots of vintage board games on Kijiji for $40 each. Each lot had 1 or 2 games that I knew would resell well, and a couple games that were not as interesting. He was only interested in selling them as the predetermined lots, so I bought three of the lots for $120 and got 16 board games - which works out to $7.50 each. I finally got around to listing them all, and this was the first to sell. This is an Avalon Hill game, which as you know tend to sell well. The box is in very rough shape - a lot of the game boxes were - but the guy I bought them off of was a collector and a player, so he was clearly more concerned with playing the game then storing them properly. That being said, still got a good return on my investment and made back the cost of one of the three lots with this first sale.

Money made off the lot as a whole so far: Spent: $120 - Sales: $43.00

Gilmore Girls DVD Box Set

Bought: $7.90 Sold: $85.00 Fees: $9.18 Profit: $67.92

This is the complete Gilmore Girls series on DVD in a collectible case. I found this at VV - actually it was Chris who found it. It was in the display case with a price sticker of $9.99. I am positive that it was meant to be $99.99, but someone priced it wrongly. That being said, they honoured the price and I had a 30% off coupon. It sells on eBay for about $100, and I took a best offer of $85. This was a great flip, and will help keep my May totals from being entirely terrible. 

Proto-Boards

Bought: $2.25 Sold: $24.99 Fees: $3.48 Profit: $19.26

This sale is entirely thanks to Chris - he bought these without checking with me and assured me they would sell. They are two proto-boards, which are boards designed to help you test circuits. They apparently are useful, and didn't take that long to sell. I had no way to test them, but I'm not sure how easily it would be for them to not work. That being said, a nice sale. Good work Chris. 

USB DJ Turntable

Bought: $15.81 Sold: $29.99 Fees: $2.25 Profit: $11.93

This is a DJ Turntable that plugs into your computer via USB. I am not really sure why I bought this, other than I knew that it would sell. I made a small profit, but hardly a ton. I've done pretty well selling USB turntables before. I always hope they are going to someone who knows what they are and how to use them, especially since they never come with software. That being said, these are usually worth picking up if you can find them cheap enough. These devices sell for a lot new - which is probably what I was looking at on eBay when I was in VV - but sell for a lot less used. 

Yet another reason why I am not buying books again

Bought: $2.83 Sold: $19.99 Fees: $3.00 Profit: $14.16

This is a large (12" x 15") coffee table book released for Canada's Centennial in 1969 featuring 260 photos of Canada with essays for each. It was released by the National Film Board, and was in pretty good condition. I saw this at VV's book sale, and knew right away that it was a piece of Canadiana that someone would want. There is, however, something I forgot to factor into my thought process at the time - the weight and cost of shipping. This book weighs almost 11 pounds. It is a large and heavy book. CanadaPost gets very expensive very fast for large and heavy items. I lowered the price of this significantly in an attempt to offset the cost of shipping. It finally sold today, to someone in Ottawa. The cost to ship this within my own city was $16. Thankfully someone here wanted, because any further and the shipping would have quickly outweighed the cost of the item itself. That being said, it is a really cool item and I'm glad it's not longer just sitting in my basement. 

Cheers the Board Game

Bought: $5.64 Sold: $9.99 Fees: $2.43 Profit: $1.92

I have no idea why I bought this game. I clearly didn't look up the value of it when I bought it. This is one of the oldest items I have. I am shocked it finally sold. I'm really glad it did because I recouped my investment. The $2 profit is nice, but really I'm just glad this item is gone from my basement and off to a good home. 

Comic Book Speculation

Bought: $15.24 Sold: $40.00 Fees: $0.00 Profit: $24.76

This is a comic book, one that came out in March. More specifically it is The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #5, variant cover. There is a whole market for comic book speculation, and while I do read, and buy, comics, I do not partake in comic book speculation. It is, like any speculation market, often as good as guessing, and not a sure thing by any means. That being said, Chris reads a lot of comic book speculation blogs and will sometimes make suggestions. When this issue came out he told me that it was limited in quantity, and that it was expected to increase in value. Variant comic covers are a very weird thing - stores can only order them based on how many copies of the comics they order overall. These are worked out in fractions, so 1:20 or 1:50. Meaning that if the store orders 20 copies of the comic, they can order 1 copy of the variant, or if they order 50, they can order 1 copy. The smaller the ratio, the rarer the book. It means that only big shops can order the variants, and if the comic is not that popular, in such that almost no store would be selling 20 copies of it, the variant cover is that more rare. It gets even more complicated by the fact that comic book stores are required to put in their orders 8 weeks in advance of comic release dates, so orders are not always based on demand (if a comic starts to get really bad, people stop buying it, but the store didn't know it was going to get bad so kept ordering), and furthermore, variant covers are often not ready 8 weeks out, so stores are ordering them blind not knowing what they will look like. Rarity alone is not enough to make a variant cover valuable, it also needs to be visually appealing or by a popular artist, or ideally both. All said, it is not a market that one wants to wander into unprepared, and really is a crap shoot. Chris is quite good at keeping me abreast of various speculations and usually I listen but don't buy into it, but this time he was quite adamant and so I listened. I spent $15 on a comic book, which is 3-5 times the usual cover price for a comic book. I put it on eBay for $50 and sat and waited, and watched as the number of copies for sale dwindled until I was one of only 3 left. It was unlikely more would hit the secondary market any time soon - it would require a buyer who just spent a lot on it to decide they wanted to sell it. Mine was price higher than any others - most people were asking $30-35, but I was content to sit and wait until I was the last one and wait for someone desperate enough. But then last week someone posted on Kijiji asking if anyone had the cover to sell. I decided that selling it locally for $40 and avoid the fees and hassle of shipping would bring me to about the same profit and less headache. He complained about the price but finally agreed when he realized there was none cheaper on eBay (after you factored in shipping) and he wasn't likely to find it anywhere else. So, I more than doubled my money on it, and I am happy. That being said, I am still going to leave comic speculation to Chris. 

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Bought: $1.10 Sold: $12.92 Fees: $2.13 Profit: $9.69

This is a copy of the children's book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang The Magical Car by Ian Fleming. This is a gorgeous copy of the novel with some really nice illustrations. This copy, however, was an ex-library book so had some stamps and had a plastic sleeve on it. I thought this would be a fast sale, which it really wasn't. I'm glad this sold, but I am not going to be jumping into any used book flipping anytime soon. That is best left for Amazon, not eBay. 

Settlers of Catan

Bought: $3.15 Sold: $40.00 Fees: $3.64 Profit: $33.21

This is a copy of Settlers of Catan, which is one of the most popular board games in the recent revival of board games. It is an easy game to learn, fun to play and overall well received. This copy is actually the 2nd edition, which is not that different from the current version, except that the water tiles are shaped differently. Catan goes for about $25-30 used, but figured I could get a bit more for the 2nd edition from someone looking for an earlier edition. Anything Catan related is likely worth buying. This game has a lot of expansions, and if you can get them for a few dollars, are consistently a good flip. 

Whac-a-mole

Bought: $3.15 Sold: $12.80 Fees: $2.22 Profit: $7.43

This is an electronic whack a mole game. I got it at VV in a bag on the wall, it had no box or instructions. In all honesty, I have no idea why I bought this. I'm shocked it sold. With such a small profit margin, I must have picked it up without looking it up online, or something! I can't figure it out. That being said, it is a sale and a small profit. 

Meccano set

Bought: $3.15 Sold: $20.00 Fees: $2.62 Profit: $14.23

This is another Meccano set that I found at VV. It was complete, but a smaller set so not a huge demand or profit to be made, but since my first sale on eBay was of Meccano I find it hard to turn down these flips. 

A sale within an hour of posting is always bittersweet

Bought: $0.00 Sold: $14.99 Fees: $2.33 Profit: $12.66

This is a Dungeon & Dragons adventure module book. It appeared to be unused. I recently bought a lot of vintage boards game off Kijiji (which I'm still in the process of listing), but one of the boxes had this inside - a free bonus! I checked the sold listings and it seemed to sell pretty consistently for $20, and there were a number of others online for sale for that amount. I put $15, as I wanted a fast sale and it was free to start with so had no investment to worry about. It sold within hours of me posting it, which normally suggests you sold it too low, except the other ones listed were only $20 and had been up for a while. I think I just got lucky and had it posted when someone came looking for it. That being said, a sale is a sale, and I'm happy.

Warcraft RPG

Bought: $5.87 Sold: $25.84 Fees: $3.15 Profit: $16.82

I picked up a number of Warcraft RPG books at VV a few months ago, and they have been sitting for a while not selling. I'm not surprised, considering that this is a niche market - people who like playing RPG games (Dungeons & Dragons essentially) and who want to play one themed around WarCraft (a popular computer game). That being said, I am the only person selling a number of these books, so when someone does come looking for them I will make a sale. This one was actually sold to someone in Ottawa, so doesn't have to go far. 

Heavy Metal Band Trucker Hat

Bought: $3.00 Sold: $29.99 Fees: $3.45 Profit: $23.54

This is a trucker hat I picked up at Goodwill before it closed. It features the logo to a heavy metal band called "Skeletonwitch". I figured that this was not a common item, and despite none on eBay, I figured that if I was the only one selling it someone would buy it eventually. Someone messaged me asking if this was the hat that was included in the special edition release of one of their CDs, and once I had that information I was able to google it and find that indeed it was. Sadly, he only wanted to know because it also came with a flask that he wanted to know if I had. But it finally sold! My first trucker hat sale.

Amazing Spider-Man is off to Denmark

Bought: $3.94 Sold: $31.73 Fees: $3.96 Profit: $23.83

This is a Marvel Essential collecting the first 20 comics of Spider-Man. These books are printed on newsprint and in black and white, so they were sold relatively cheap. That being said, this book is now out of print and getting more and more valuable. This is still the easiest, and cheapest, way to read early appearances of Spider-Man.  This was bought by someone in Denmark! One more country that I have sold something to. 

A lot of kids train cars

Bought: $0.00* Sold: $63.46 Fees: $7.66 Profit: $55.80

This was a lot of 44 Fisher-Price GeoTrax train cars. These came in a box with track pieces that I previously sold, and so these cars were pure profit. I probably could have made more had I sold these individually, but it was faster and easier to list them all together. I'd much rather make a bit less money and sell them at once, then make a bit more and have to do 44 listings and sell them over months. The box was quite heavy, and so I think I had to wait on a Canadian buyer who didn't mind paying the shipping, as the shipping cost to the states was probably too much for most buyers. I finally found a Canadian buyer, and it is off to Alberta. 

Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit

Bought: $5.00 Sold: $24.99 Fees: $2.68 Profit: $17.31

I bought this the guy on Kijiji who sold me the Star Wars Epic Duels game. I wanted to buy a couple games so to arouse suspicion, and I knew at $5 I'd be able to sell this game, along with the other ones I got, for a profit. This was last one of those games to sell, and I made a profit on all of them. I think of the $20 I spent that day, I made close to $250, which is a pretty good ROI. 

April Recap

I sold 28 items.

I spent $177.43 on those items.

I sold those items for $1,054.55

I paid $112.32 in fees to eBay.

I made a profit of $764.80

Month 9 of selling on eBay. This month felt slow, and until the sale on Friday for $200, it would have been one of my lower profit months. I still sold 28 items, which is almost one a day, which is always nice - though it did feel like less than that. It is getting close to the summer season, where typically sales drop dramatically. I am preparing myself mentally for that. At the same time, it is the start of garage sale season, so I am hoping to be able to do some good sourcing soon and stock up. All I can do is source and list, and hope things sell.