I was pretty broke for most of May. eBay sales were slow, and I wasn’t able to get a good yard sale in. Fortunately, the yard sale I had in the beginning of June allowed me to pay the bills.
I’m now thinking that my new garage is unnecessarily large, and that I would have been better off sticking with the old one. The 400$ a month is really adding to my expenses, which makes it hard to accumulate any kind of savings. I’m now looking either to downgrade, or to share the space with someone who needs to store their junk. We’ll see what happens.
Anyways, let’s get to the sales!
1. Cornell University New Student Record: On eBay for 25$.
2. Sandisk media player: On eBay for 40$.
3. Jewish National Fund coin bank: On eBay for 30$. This is headed to Israel. Found in Hampstead.
4. Krug promotional ballpoint pen: On eBay for 20$. This attractive pen was made to promote the Krug champagne company.
5. Leonore Doscow silver bracelet: On eBay for 30$. This thing took a long time to sell! I can’t even find a picture of it.
6. Creed sterling pendant: On eBay for 20$. Found in Rosemont.
7. Beats by Dre headphones, for repair: On eBay for 30$. Found in Hampstead.
8. Sansui G-3500 stereo receiver, for repair: On eBay for 80$. Sansui made some quality receivers back in the day. This one had its fair share of issues but was still in reasonably good cosmetic condition. In refurbished condition they sell for around 250$. Found on Cote St-Luc road in NDG.
9. Gold Star of David pendant: On eBay for 35$. The buyer asked for a return saying it was “too small.” The measurements and weight were right there in the listing but I offered her a 15$ discount anyways. I didn’t want to deal with a return, and at 35$ I still made more than I would have scrapping it.
10. Vintage US Paratroopers poster: On eBay for 25$. These things are selling slowly but surely.
11. Vintage medical lot: On eBay for 30$. I’m not sure what people do with this stuff but there’s a market for it.
12. Technidyne Hip Pocket Stereo, for repair: On eBay for 40$. People like their unusual walkmans. This one needed a new belt. Found in Cote St-Luc.
13. Bruce Springsteen 1980s tour shirt: On eBay for 75$. Found in the Plateau.
14. Vintage gold filled pocket knife: On eBay for 30$.
15. Weiss rhinestone necklace: On eBay for 45$.
16. Hermes perfume: On eBay for 50$.
17. Patek Philippe wristwatch tag: On eBay for 35$. I found this with the 18k gold watch buckle a few years back, but only decided to list it relatively recently. The tag wasn’t nearly as profitable, but it’s still decent money for a piece of plastic!
18. Vintage chrome spigots (4): On eBay for 45$. I’ve realized that there’s a pretty good market for architectural salvage.
19. Vintage dresser: On Kijiji for 80$. I finally got this listed after having it sit around in storage all winter. It didn’t take long to sell. Found in TMR.
Total: 765$, 9599.50$ so far in 2018. This was my worst month in some time, but June has already been better.
Otherwise, the warm weather has made me more adventurous in terms of my garbage routes. I had good luck on a Ville St Laurent heavy garbage day last Thursday, and ended up in Anjou on Friday (though there was no garbage). This week I’m thinking of checking out Montreal Nord and Laval, but if I feel lazy I’ll go somewhere closer.
Links
1. Facebook page
2. My eBay listings, Sign up for eBay, Search for something you want / research something you have
3. Etsy store
4. Kijiji listings
5. Help me pay off student loan debt / Contribute to the blog
6. Follow me on Instagram
The vintage dresser is gorgeous! I hope summer continues to bring you good finds and hefty profits.
That is a beautiful dresser, it looks like it is solid wood, no wonder it sold fast. I like the band aid box that went to Israel also, it’s the type of item I always look for in the bathrooms at estate sales.
Good luck to you on the scavenger garbage hunt.
It was solid wood indeed. I think 80$ was a good price, at that point I mostly wanted to get it out of storage.
Re the buyer who wanted to return the Star of David pendant for being too small, it’s pretty annoying when readers don’t read through the details of the listing. I once sold a pair of Birkenstock sandals that were clearly black, as stated. Buyer wanted to return them because she hadn’t noticed the color in the listing and was actually looking for navy Birkenstocks. It was such a huge waste of time.
Indeed! Fortunately it doesn’t happen too often at least from my experience. I think clothes / footwear are probably the worst category for dumb returns, which is part of the reason why I generally avoid that market. (Plus, I have too much other stuff to do anyways).
As always, love your posts and thanks for saving that stuff from the landfill. You always inspire us to list things that we didn’t know there was a market for…My son bought some headphones from a Flea Market last weekend. We thought they worked but they don’t work well and my son was super disappointed, but maybe we can sell them as “for repair” so thanks for the idea. I just poked around eBay and it looks like it just might work so thanks for the idea.
Jennifer,
they might be repairable. depending their issue.
There’s a solid market for repairable items / parts on eBay. It depends a lot on the brand of course, as things that are originally cheap aren’t worth much for parts. It’s worth checking completed listings though to see if anyone is buying.
I hope you’re able to find someone to share your garage space, and enable you to save a bit of a cushion for dryer times, like May turned out to be. May the rest of your summer be great finds and moneyfull! 🙂
Hi – sounds like you are busy now with the good weather but I wondered if I might jog your memory re looking for the photo with the mention of the RCMP on the reverse? Thanks ……..
I found it but there’s not much to see re: the mounties. Just a building off to the distance. Nice shot otherwise though… maybe I’ll just wait save them for winter and scan the whole bunch.
Thank you – I’ll watch the blogs then
I love the idea of renting out some storage in you garage! Maybe you could offer it for those who need to empty their homes of clutter when staging the house for sale.
Then they could leave the clutter for you to sell. Ha ha. Half the work done!
The Springsteen Concert T-shirt is an incredible find! Nice going!
I was one of those that chimed in for you taking the bigger space, so maybe I should say something. If possible, you might consider giving it more time (because these things do take time) – IF the space is enabling you to produce more, i.e., increase your listings. When all is said and done, that’s what it’s all about. The more you can store, the more listings you can have up at the same time. All of this applies IF you’re going the Scavenger Life route, which seems to be working quite well for them. The missing element may be getting someone to help you list. Maybe you could find someone who wants to learn and would work on commission when something sells – or some low entry cost way for you to have help.This is generally a slow time in retail as well, but with a few thousand listings up it might not be as slow for you personally. Just some ideas, definitely not pronouncing from on high. I know it’s all work and nothing is easy – trust me, it’s even worse for those of us struggling in that country just below you…
– Peace
It’s a complicated decision. It’s worth mentioning that I went into it thinking that I’d be paying 300$ a month and my friend would share the space and pay 100$, but she ended up having to back out of the arrangement after a few months. So the original plan was at least a little bit more cost effective, though probably still more than I should have been paying.
I think my change of heart is due in large part to the realization that with basic shelving I could fit all my stuff in a garage a third of the size of my current one, and also my realization that I prefer to have as little stuff as possible. Owning a lot of things stresses me out, and my recent discovery of this auction place gives me an outlet for getting rid of stuff quickly (especially the big stuff) that I didn’t have otherwise.
I don’t currently want to add to my workload I have too much to do as is. The idea of paying someone to do listings / organizing all those extra sales / holding onto more stuff doesn’t appeal to me much. I think I’d just become a stress-case, lol. Plus, I’m interested in writing a book, but I barely have time at my current workload!
I think the Scavenger Life approach works, but it helps that they have that power couple thing going on. So far I’m a one man operation, and there’s only so much I can get done on my own.
I think I will give up the garage, but I know someone who might take it, and regardless the lease is more or less month to month anyways.
That’s cool. It was good to try. Like you said from the beginning, it was a low risk endeavor. If you’re in business at all I think it’s good to try new things. It sounds like it clarified what you want and need, so maybe you did get something out of rolling the dice this time. I hear you about the power couple thing. It’s what I say all of the time. Doing this job alone in the u.s. is much more of a struggle without, say, healthcare and affordable rents, so at least you have a little leg up in that respect. Well, thanks for the blog and the honesty. I enjoy both.
– Cheers
Hi,Martin,this year Moving day ,July 1 falls on Sunday.June 30 falls o Saturday.There is no garbage pick-up over the weekends generally.You should do many runs in places like NDG,Cote Des Neiges,VSL,Ahuntsic,LaSalle,Dorval,West Island and Nun’s Island over the moving day weekend.Prepare for marathon sessions .
Last year I put in a lot of extra work but didn’t accomplish much for it! I think the issue is that everybody knows that there’s good trash on moving day, so there’s a lot more competition than there is usually. Plus, it’s also true that a lot of the people who are moving aren’t throwing out much that’s interesting to a picker like me. My plan is to do my usual routes, maybe a bit extra but nothing too crazy. Moving day is a fun phenomenon regardless of what I find.
More people are donating unwanted items to Eco Quartier this year because a lot of its ads have appeared on radio and television.I think people are throwing out 25 to 40% less resusable stuff.I live in St.Henri and trash-pick occasionally for fun.I may be wrong,but more likely I am right.