eBay
August: 15 sales, 824$ before fees.
September: 12 sales, 685$ before fees.
Total: 1509$.
eBay sales were slow, as they usually are (at least for me) in the late summer. Fortunately, I sold a whole bunch of stuff at auction to help even things out.
Notable sales:
Carl Poul Petersen sterling silver tie clip: 64$. I probably would have scrapped this if not for the input of reader who recognized the signature below as that of Poul Petersen, a noted Canadian silversmith and apprentice of Georg Jensen. Monograms generally reduce the value of an item, but M.D. has obvious appeal to those with medical degrees. Part of a great haul from early 2016 – it took a long time to sell because I didn’t know where to price it.
1959-1960 Toronto Maple Leafs pocket schedule: 100$. I seem to have a knack for finding these old schedules. I couldn’t find any others like it online, much like the 1940s Canadiens schedule I saved last year. The Pepsi vending machine catalogue from the same pile also sold for a great price (75$).
Gio de Armani Eau de Parfum (50ml): 95$. There’s a solid market for this scent, which was discontinued however many years ago. This was part of a nice perfume haul I found in Hampstead earlier this year.
1921 Pope Benedict XV blessing: 240$. Pope Benedict XV stuff is relatively hard to find, so this was worth a bit of money even though it was likely signed by one of his assistants. I found it last year in the Plateau.
Montblanc “Hommage to Mozart” small-size ballpoint pen: 200$. This was a relatively recent find, tossed by some especially dumb rich people. It was in its original box (along with a complementary Mozart CD) and looked to have barely been used. Some other finds from this spot will make the blog soon.
Local Auction
August: 1309.25$ after fees
September: 1722.25 after fees
Total: 3031.50$
It was around this time that I dedicated myself to downsizing my unintentional collection of junk. As a result, the auction folk and I both made a bunch of money.
Notable sales:
Wine pump: 230$ (before fees). This ended up selling for a lot more than I expected! I guess it helped that the auction happened to end right around wine-making season. Found in Ville St Laurent.
Anti-explosion lights + misc junk: 85$. Found in the east Plateau.
Architectural element: 32$. I’m sure this piece will get turned into something nice! Found in Westmount.
Dried puffer fish & pike head: 32$. These were among my most unusual finds of the summer. Both will probably be turned into lamps. Found in Ville St Laurent.
Vintage Ford V8 hubcap: 32$. Found on the outer edge of Cote-des-Neiges.
Miniature perfume lot: 80$. Included in this collection was a lot that went unsold for some time on eBay and several others I found while digging through my junk (which I apparently forgot about). I’m happy with this total – miniatures aren’t really worth enough to list individually (at least for me), and it’s also hard to get people to pay reasonable money for them at yard sales.
Jo Malone sample lot: 55$. I spotted a huge number of these samples at the bottom of one of a bags. At first I thought they’d be more of a hassle than they were worth, but then I figured that I’d probably be able to get 20$ for them at auction. It turned out they sold for more than that!
Jo Malone is a quality brand and these samples were still fresh. My guess is that the previous owner worked somewhere in the retail industry. Regardless, this is a great example of how the auction house allows me to make easy money on things that would have previously been a hassle.
Antique domed glass frames + photos: 60$. I pulled these out of a dumpster in St Michel. Amazingly they didn’t break, though I did have to clean some garbage juice off one of them.
Yard sales
1220$ over four sales. To be honest I kind of lost track of my yard sale income, but I think this is a pretty good guess. This year I’ve often hired friends to help me with the sales, which cuts into my bottom line but really helps reduce my workload.
Total
5760.50$, 20265.75$ so far in 2018. A pretty good couple of months! It’s unlikely that I’ll get to 30k this year but I’ll probably get pretty close.
A twofer! I was wondering how you’d handle these monthly sales report posts, with the auction house now in the mix. 🙂
I never heard of an “anti-explosion light” before, so your post prompted me to undertake a Googling learning curve. Hahaha.
Here’s wishing you a surfeit of sales over the next two months! Hoping for that end-of-year 30k!
great news on many of the items! Good work with the auction house 🙂 Love thos frames but would have thought that they would be worth more. Still think I was royally screwed on my perfume bottles at my last Garage Sale. I got a lot less than what I paid for them 🙁 Love that architectural element..it would make a beautiful headboard. Good work Martin!
Yeah I find it’s annoying to sell perfume at yard sales, and I’ll probably avoid doing so going forward. There’s always a lot of haggling involved, and people don’t want to pay a good price for it (I always price things a decent amount below what I could get on eBay, because I figure the theoretical buyer is doing me a favor by saving me the effort of listing etc.). Not to mention the possibility of theft, as a nice bottle of Chanel #5 disappeared after the chaotic yard sale I had this summer.
Hi,
Did you receive my email about the silver bracelet?
Thanks. 🙂
Yes, it might be a while before I can get to it though. Very behind on emails.
Oh wow, someone tossed out that Montblanc Mozart—you said it, Martin: Especially stupid rich folk! These pens have a cult following, among pen folk. Good work!
Please upload your pictures to Wikimedia Commons, or at least make them available under an open licence, so that they can be used on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Images_from_social_media
The photos in the round convex glass frames are known as “crayon enlargements.” Over the years I have seen many such photos but I only just recently learned the name when I walked by a photographic restoration business that has examples of their work in the windows. I then read and learned more about them online. It was interesting.
Very exciting that the auction house is paying off so well! I can only imagine a Puffer fish or fish head lamp lol. People really do throw out the craziest things. I’m glad you are saving some of them from eternity in the dump.
i hope you do get to 30K by year’s end.
I hope you make $50,000 this year doing what you do.That would be something to merit a few champagne corks propping.
That would be a miracle… haha
Hi,Martin,please check out Everett street west in St.Michel/Villeray on trash day.Sagard,Louis Hemon street,Louis Hébert street and 6th Avenue all intersect with Everett and have several big,fancy houses.I would scavenge there more often if I had more time.
I do like that part of town. I stopped going relatively recently because my luck ran out, but I will return sometime in the future.
One of your goals must be to try out as many new streets as possible to forage.Have you foraged on tiny Louis Archambault street,Joseph Melancon street,and Olivier Marault street in southern Ahuntsic,just south of Louvain?These streets are lined with posh houses,townhouses and low-rise apartments.Try them out.
I’ve been there in the past, no luck as of yet. These days I’ve been exploring Cartierville more, and have found some cool stuff. I’ve also toured around the Pont-Viau area of Laval because my sister lives there now. I like to explore new streets and areas, it’s fun to find places I never knew of previously.
Marty as a fellow ebayer, I like to watch what you sell. I see that you have 15 people watching the Doc Marten boots, but have not sold them for an very extended period. My experience is that If you mark them down in this scenario, you will likely get a bidding war. I listed a signed pueblo piece for $39.99 and had 5 watchers and no bids, I marked it down to $35.00 and got 6 bids and $51.00!
Hmmm, yes maybe that’s a good idea, especially since it’s getting to boot season. I’ll think about switching them to an auction this Sunday (I like to end auctions on Sunday evenings generally, as most people are home then).
Please let us know what finds you make in Laval in the Port Viau region and also in régions like Vimont,Chomedey,Fabre,Ste.Rose and Laval des Rapides.Very interested
My sister lives in the Laval-des-Rapides area so I’m there fairly regularly, often on the day before trash pickup (which is the same day as the one in Pont-Viau). I found a few interesting things recently that I’ll share on the blog in the near future. I haven’t checked out the others, however.