Recent sales (January & February)

eBay

January: 2658 – 300 (estimation of fees) = 2358$ on 33 sales.

February: 1390 – 165 = 1225$ on 19 sales.

Total: 3483$.

Old car flags: 150$. These sold pretty soon after (finally) being listed. I’m guessing they were from the 20s or 30s, and made to hitch onto the front of a car. Found in Westmount.

Red Walkman II, for parts or repair: 100$. This didn’t work at all, but was in excellent cosmetic condition and red, which is a relatively uncommon colour for this fairly early model. Found in Cote St-Luc.

Waterman Phileas fountain pen: 100$. Found near Vendome metro on one of my best runs of last year.

Vintage B&L Ray-Ban Aviators: 321$. People sure love their vintage Ray-Bans! These came in their original leather case and were in excellent condition. I went with an auction because I had a hard time pinning down a price, I can’t complain with the results! Found in the Mile End around moving day of last year.

Giorgio Beverly Hills VIP Reserve: 175$. I think this is the most valuable single bottle of perfume I’ve sold thus far. Part of a nice collection I saved last year in Westmount.

18k gold Victorian brooch: 300$. This thing sat around for years. I was afraid to list it for too little, but was also reluctant to pay someone to appraise it. I’ve learned a lot over the years, and one day relatively recently I realized that I could trust my own judgment (and eBay’s completed listings, of course). So, I finally got it listed, and made a decent chunk of change as well. Found in Hampstead.

IBM Model F keyboard: 300$. This was part of a post estate sale purge. Vintage mechanical keyboards have good value, especially when they’re like new and come in their original box.

Vintage French & Arabic canister set: 90$. Found in Nouveau Bordeaux.

Gora M’Bengue (Senegalese artist) reverse glass painting: 200$. This was the piece I accidentally listed at 16$ and got negative feedback for when I cancelled the sale. It was a good choice I think, as the bad feedback didn’t seem to affect my sales and I didn’t want to miss out on that much money. Found in TMR.

3 Frank Schirman Hawaiian black coral figurines: 120$. I found a paper bag full of these figurines alongside the Russian dolls I posted recently. I’d guess that the previous owner operated a store at some point – I can’t think of another reason one might own 20+ identical figurines. Regardless, there seems to be a market for them (perhaps relating to the resurgence of the Tiki bar) and this particular buyer bought three. This should end up being a nice haul assuming the other twenty of so eventually sell. Found in Outremont.

Local auction

2113.50$ after fees.

Two vintage tin guns: 85$. This came from the place where the tosser got really mad at me (like top three all-time mad) for looking through his trash. That encounter was nearly two years ago, but they’re still throwing interesting things out, albeit inconsistently. Fortunately I haven’t seen that guy since. These toy guns were missing a couple of pieces, but were still in very good condition for their age.

Lot of vintage earphones: 85$. Here’s a good example of my combining several items in the 20-30$ range to make a quality lot. I make less money than I would selling them individually, but doing it this way saves me so much time. There’s a near infinite number of things I can list on eBay at any given time, so I have to pick my spots wisely lest I become a workaholic.

Map from the 1700s: 85$. This one was the most valuable from the collection I saved in December. I wish I could have gotten more photos of this understated haul, but unfortunately I just didn’t have the time.

Richard W Schofield Memorial Trophy (for the St. Lambert community sports association): 44$. Apparently random trophies are worth decent money. Found in Ahuntsic.

Lot of picture / book stands: 55$. I found these in a bin (I can’t help but check them) while casually walking around my neighbourhood. The final price is especially satisfying because I feel like I got paid to live my life. I wasn’t expecting them to sell for this much, but I guess the solid brass ones were actually pretty nice. Found in the Mile End.

Untested Nintendo 64 w/ Smash Bros: 95$. Video game stuff always fetches a good price here. I didn’t have any controllers so I wasn’t able to test it. After a while I got sick of looking at the thing and brought it in as is. I’m pretty happy with the result – apparently the “clear black” N64 is a relatively uncommon model, so that might have driven up the bidding.

Faux stained glass shutters: 40$. I saved these literally seconds before they were crushed by the garbage truck. In fact, one of the sections was already in the mouth of the beast when I walked up to the pile, but the garbage man was nice and saved it from oblivion. They were just plastic and wood, but they’re still pretty cool. Found in Outremont.

Small stained glass windows: 65$. I pulled these ones of of a trash bin in Ville St Laurent.

Scrap gold / silver: 1300$. I had a pretty nice collection, including a bunch of 18k, so this run was more profitable than most.

Total: 6896.50$ so far in 2019. That’s a great way to start the year!

This week has been a great one for garbage. It’ll take a little while to process it all, and maybe I’ll have to enlist someone to help me out…

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