X-Men vs the Avengers #1-4

Sold: $14.99 Fees: $2.07 Profit: $12.92

This is a four issue mini-series from 1987 featuring the X-Men and the Avengers. Not a particularly amazing series by any means, but it is complete so that helped it sell.

Current profit off the comic auction: -$308.25

Glace Bay Little League Lapel Pin

Bought: $0.00 Sold: $9.99 Fees: $1.08 Profit: $8.91

This is a pin from a little league rally held in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. Oddly it sold to someone in New Jersey. 

Du Maurier Lighter

Sold: $49.99 Fees: $7.15 Profit: $42.84

This is a lighter featuring the cigarette company du Maurier name. I picked this up in a lot of lighters that I got at auction a few months ago. Not a bad price for an old lighter.

17 The Sun WWF Animals of the World Pins

Bought: $9.46 Sold: $24.99 Fees: $4.23 Profit: $11.30

This is 17 pins from an 18 pin set of WWF pins that were sold through the Toronto Sun newspaper back in the 1990s. This is a great price for the pin set, and I would have made more profit but this sale paid all recent pin purchases. 

FemForce Up-Close #10

Sold: $4.99 Fees: $1.04 Profit: $3.95

Another of the FemForce comics sold. I have a number of these, and I know they are going to be long tail items, but always glad to see them sell.

Current profit off the comic auction: -$321.17

Sonic the Hedgehog #13

Sold: $24.99 Fees: $3.04 Profit: $21.95

This is an early issue of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic. I was surprised to learn that this comic is still being published! This is the only Sonic issue in the lot, and thankfully it is a valuable one - it is the first appearance in the comics of Knuckles, Sonic's partner. Also, there were two copies of this comic and they were both signed by the both the author and the artist. I set a high price on this and am glad one of them sold - I'm sure the other one will sell eventually. $25 for a sonic comic is a great price.

Current profit off the comic auction: -$325.12

Radioactive Man #1

Sold: $9.99 Fees: $1.55 Profit: $8.44

I had three of these, and now have sold the third one. Not a bad price for a fictional comic - this is a real comic, but Radioactive Man is Bart Simpson's favorite comic and so this comic is meant to be an issue from that fictional series.

Current profit off the comic auction: -$347.07

Stuff Magazine

Sold: $4.99 Fees: $1.04 Profit: $3.95

Another "gentleman" magazine sold. It actually sold to the same buyer as the magazine from yesterday. Guess he just needed more.

United Nations Climate Change Conference Lapel Pin

Bought: $0.00 Sold: $4.99 Fees: $0.83 Profit: $4.16

This is a pin from a UN Climate Change Conference. 

oluptuous Magazine

Sold: $14.99 Fees: $2.07 Profit: $12.92

Another of the "gentleman" magazines sold. I am running low on these, I hope I can find another lot at auction soon. 

Solido Tank

Sold: $49.99 Fees: $6.49 Profit: $43.50

This is a vintage die-cast metal tank. It was part of a military lot I picked up at auction a few months ago. There were only 3 things in the lot: this tank, a book of trading cards that were worthless, and a vintage military RPG board game that is rare. I bought the lot primarily for the board game with the hope that this tank would also sell and help offset the cost, so I'm glad it did. I just need the board game to sell now.

A Mighty Fortress

Bought: $3.15 Sold: $60.00 Fees: $6.01 Profit: $50.84

This is a wargame, which are never very popular but often sell well because they were never popular to start with and so not a lot of copies survive. This sold to someone in Italy, who paid $50 to ship this, so hopefully it arrives safely - it is going with tracking so I'm relatively confident it should be okay.

The Mighty Thor #380

Sold: $4.99 Fees: $1.04 Profit: $3.95

This is an issue of Thor from 1987.

Current profit off the comic auction: -$355.51

Catwoman #1

Sold: $1.99 Fees: $0.73 Profit: $1.26

This is the first issue of Catwoman's solo series from 1993. Not particularly valuable, but I'll gladly take $2 for it.

Current profit off the comic auction: -$359.46

MegaBloks ProBuilder Sea Wolf

Bought: $11.85 Sold: $99.99 Fees: $13.04 Profit: $75.10

Chris's 10% Commission: $7.51

This is a very big Mega Bloks set of a submarine. I normally would never buy Mega Bloks, becuase normally they do not sell anywhere near as well as Lego. The exception to that seems to be these large ProBuilder sets. This is the second one I've sold, the first being of a space shuttle. This one was not 100% complete, but pretty close. A pretty nice return on this.

Allies and Axis Board Game

Sold: $49.99 Fees: $7.26 Profit: $42.73

This is the board game Axis and Allies, which I got as part of a lot of games at an auction recently. I bought the lot for another game, so this is just a nice bonus sale.

X-Factor #92 and X-Force #25

 

Sold: $4.98 Fees: $1.56 Profit: $3.42

These are two issues which form part of the X-Men crossover story Fatal Attractions. 

Current profit off the comic auction: -$360.72

Mille Bornes Card Game

Sold: $14.99 Fees: $2.99 Profit: $12.00

This is the classic French card game. I see this all the time and I don't ever pick it up because it doesn't sell for enough to make it worthwhile. That being said, I got this copy in a lot of games from an auction so no reason not to list it. Not a huge profit, but it all adds up.

Batman Shadow of the Bat Collector's Set #1

Sold: $2.99 Fees: $0.83 Profit: $2.16

I had three of these, and they have all sold. It is the first issue of Shadow of the Bat but polybagged with a bunch of extra stuff. 

Current profit off the comic auction: -$364.14

X-Force #3

Sold: $1.99 Fees: $0.73 Profit: $1.26

An early issue of X-Force.

Current profit off the comic auction: -$366.30

The Sacred-Heart of Montmartre Postcard

Sold: $1.99 Fees: $0.21 Profit: $1.78

Another postcard sold - this one for a church in Paris.

Flipping Experiment #2: Storage Locker - Month #1

So, I bought a storage locker at an online auction. I've wanted to do this for a while, but unfortunately Ottawa does not have a lot of them. I saw a few in the winter that I wanted but with the car being stored in the garage, I had nowhere to store the contents. Now that it is warm out, I was eager to buy one. This one was a 4x5 locker, which is pretty small as far as storage lockers go. I bought the locker for $326.29 (that is included all fees and taxes). I emptied the locker in three trips in the car, and stored it in all in my car. I slowly went through it, and managed to finish today. The contents were weird - it was all in bags (and bags inside bags inside bags). There was a lot of garbage stored away, including a ton of newspaper, and actual food (both canned goods and bags and bags of Halloween candy). There were probably over 100 candles, almost all of which had Value Village stickers on them. I threw out probably 25-30 bags of garbage, and I donated two car-fulls to Value Village. I am optimistic that I will make my money back, and I am hoping to double my investment. We will see...

April 22nd - Loose Change

Sold for: $50.00 Fees: $0.00

Sold for: $71.38 Fees: $8.48

This is not really a sale, but it's profit so I'm counting it. Inside the locker I found a lot of loose change, including a plastic bag filled with it (that promptly ripped and spilled all over the garage floor). There was $50 in loonies and toonies, which I set aside to use at garage sales this summer. Anything smaller than a loonie, I took to a Coinstar machine (dump your change in and a cashier gives you cash). The Coinstar has a 12% cost, so I had $71.30 in loose change, but I only walked away with $62.82, but still pretty good for free money. So, in total, in loose change alone I've made $112.82 - which is just over 1/3 of the cost of the locker. Off to a pretty good start, only 2/3 to go without anything being listed for sale yet!

The Numbers:

Initial Cost: $326.29 

Number of items sold in April: 1

Number of items sold overall: 1

Gross Profit for April: $121.38

Fees to eBay: $8.48

Net Profit for April: $112.82

Net Overall Profit: -$213.47

6 Creepy Issues

  

   

Sold: $84.94 Fees: $14.73 Profit: $70.21

I sold these 6 issues of Creepy to the same buyer, which was a great sale. This sale finally makes the Creepy/Eerie/Vampirella lot a profitable one! It was the most expensive lot, cost just over $900 for the one lot. I am glad it paid off, and with a number of issues still to sell it should make a few hundred dollars profit. Also, with this sale I am now profitable in 12 out of 33 lots, which is great as well. And with each sale I am getting that much closer to breaking even as a whole and will start to see a profit.

Current profit off the comic auction: -$367.56

The Groo Chronicles #6

Sold: $2.99 Fees: $0.83 Profit: $2.16

One of the Groo comics sold.

Current profit off the comic auction: -$437.77

Cape Breton Pin

Bought: $0.00 Sold: $4.99 Fees: $0.83 Profit: $4.16

Chris's 10% Commission: $0.42

All I've sold so far this weekend is pins - this one from Cape Breton.

St. Sebald Pin

Bought: $0.00 Sold: $4.99 Fees: $0.83 Profit: $4.16

This is a souvenir pin from a cathedral in Germany.

City of Carencro Pin

Bought: $0.00 Sold: $4.99 Fees: $0.66 Profit: $4.33

Chris's 10% Commissions: $0.43

Carencro is a small city in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana - as I learned from Wikipeida. Not sure how it ended up at a thrift store in Ottawa, but I'm glad it sold.

Royal Canadian Dragoons HQ Trucker Hat

Bought: $2.25 Sold: $22.99 Fees: $3.74 Profit: $17.00

I found this vintage trucker hat at VVand while the hat was really beat up and the brim is bend very badly, I thought the patch was great and super vintage. I considered taking the patch off and selling it by itself, but decided that it I'd leave it up to the buyer to remove it if he wanted. 

Deadly Class Comics

Bought: $3.38 Sold: $30.00 Fees: $4.75 Profit: $21.87

These were not from the comic auction lots, but rather from VV for $3.38. This is the first three issues, with two copies of issue #1. Not a bad price for these, and a nice return. 

Play-Doh McDonald's Set

Bought: $4.51 Sold: $19.99 Fees: $2.73 Profit: $12.75

Chris' 10% Commission: $1.28

This is a vintage Play-Doh McDonald's set. It would normally sell for a lot more but this one was not even close to complete. I priced it a bit low so it would sell and not sit around forever. Still made a small profit.

Tarzan 231

Sold: $4.99 Fees: $0.82 Profit: $4.17

One of the many Tarzan comics I have sold. It would be great if someone came along and bought all of them - there are so many!

Current profit off the comic auction: -$439.93

Nortel Pointer Pen

Sold: $19.99 Fees: $2.38 Profit: $17.61

This came in the pen lot that I got at an auction last month. This is a Nortel pen that you can extend into a pointer. Nortel stuff seems to sell. The buyer wrote me and told me that he used to work at Nortel and that these make great back-scratchers - so there you go.

Commissioned Sale: McDonald's TY Teenie Beanie Babies Pin

Sale Price: $4.99 Fees:$1.66 Profit: $3.33

My 30% cut of the Profit: $1.00

This is a McDonald's pin that was worn by employees to promote the beanie babies toys in Happy Meals.

14 Comic Books

  

   

   

   

 

Sold: $57.87 Fees: $7.28 Profit: $50.59

Someone bought 14 comics from the store today. It is a truly assorted variety of comics, almost random. A few lower dollar books, which I'm glad sold. With this sale, I am officially down to only 10% of my investment left to make back! Getting very close to seeing an actual profit. 

Current profit off the comic auction: -$444.10