Auction of Ephemera Items

August 30th - Lot of over 150 QSL Cards

Sold for: $39.99 Fees: $5.25

These are really cool - they are a bunch of vintage QSL cards. These are cards that people who were into CB or Ham radios would make with their name and call sign on, and when they made a connection with someone over the airwaves they would send them one of their cards so they could prove that they had made the connection. I was hoping that there would be some really nifty ones in there that I could put up for auction, but despite being old, none were from a particularly interesting place. I just put them up as a lot, and made a good ROI on them. Not only that, but it's the first time I've sold something to someone with their own Wikipedia page. That's pretty nifty!

The Numbers:

Initial Overall Cost: $120.36

Number of items sold in August: 8

Number of items sold overall: 8

Gross Profit for August: $103.92

Fees to eBay: $12.44

Net Profit for August: $91.48

Net Overall Profit: -$28.88

I bought a number of lots at an online auction that consisted almost exclusively of ephemera (things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time or items of collectible memorabilia, typically written or printed ones, that were originally expected to have only short-term usefulness). The main items I got was 100s of vintage post cards, but there were a number of other ephemera items as well. I'm going to be listing them sporadically when I have time. I don't expect any of these to be fast sellers, nor do I expect to make a fortune on any one item, but I expect that over time I will make a nice profit on this investment. Ephemera are slow sellers, but I am okay with that. I'll list them and forget about them until they sell.

August 4th - National Semiconductor 4660 Calculator Manual

Sold for: $4.99 Fees: $0.56

I listed 3 small manuals that were in one of the lots, this being one of them. An instructional manual for a vintage calculator, that is only in French. Ephemera is hard to price because often there are none others list, and you are often looking for one or two people who might want it. I'm happy to get $5 for an old instruction manual. Could I have got more? Maybe. But if I had listed it for $10 it may have sat and never sold. You can't play that guessing game. I will list with what I'm happy to get and move on. It is all about the overall number of sales with this lot. Plus, really, most people would never have thought to buy this to try and sell, to most people it's garbage. I'll gladly take $5 for it.

August 6th - Bowmar MX100 Calculator Manual

Sold for: $4.99 Fees: $0.52

Another vintage calculator manual sold. This one is less than 24 hours.

August 7th - Electric Engineering Bulletin from 1961

Sold for: $9.99 Fees: $0.86

This is an example of the ephemera that was included in the lot - a short 4-page engineering bulletin update. It is stamped as received in 1961. I have no idea why someone would want this. Surely whatever engineering note is being made here is long out of date. I suppose someone collects ephemera from Sylvania, or just likes old engineering documents. Either way, I made $10 off a piece of paper, so I'm not complaining.

August 8th - HP Product Brochure from the 1980's

Sold for: $9.99 Fees: $1.55

This is a short 8-page brochure advertising the HP lineup of calculators. I figured this would sell since it is HP. There was no date on it, but from the products being advertised it had to be from the 1980's. I'm surprised how fast some of these pieces of ephemera are selling.

August 12th - Middle of Nowhere Postcard

Sold for: $3.99 Fees: $0.67

The main thing I bought from the auction was a couple hundred postcards. I haven't had a chance to list many of them yet, but the first one sold. This cute graphic post card from the middle of nowhere is off to Arizona.

August 29th - IBM Selectric Typewriter Adjustment Parts Manual

Sold for: $9.99 Fees: $1.29

Another manual sold, this one for an IBM Typewriter. 

August 29th - Digital Research CP/M-86 Manual

Sold for: $19.99 Fees: $1.74

The second manual to sell today, for an old computer operating system.