Recent sales (December 7 – December 20)

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The holiday season has treated me well. I sold 18 items in this two week period (which I think is some kind of record), bringing me within spitting distance of achieving my goal of 20k for the year. With ten days remaining in the year I now fully expect to reach that goal!

Early in the new year I’m going to publish a “financial year in review” post. It’s will describe using charts and graphics where I found my profitable items, what platform they sold on, and when they sold (among other things). It will all look very professional thanks to the help of my friend Sarah, who is a trained graphic designer. I look forward to sharing it here!

Now, without further ado here are the items that will hopefully provide their new owners with holiday cheer.

1. Art market: 192$. A nice sale to finish the year with. I’m looking forward to a winter off though. These sales can be a lot of fun, but they’re also a lot of work!

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2. Switch-it radio: On eBay for 50$. A funky 80-90s portable radio. Found sometime this summer in TMR.

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3. WISC test: On eBay for 42$. An intelligence test for children made in the late 1940s. Found late July in Hampstead. Click the link if you’d like to see more photos, some of the tests are pretty cool!

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4. Citizen Eco-Drive watch: On eBay for 100$. This is one of those watches that’s near impossible to set the time for (at least for someone like me, who struggles with anything involving a long list of instructions, like assembling Ikea furniture). Eventually I decided to list the watch as it was, and it sold within a couple days. However, I had it in my possession for over a year before figuring out what to do with it. I don’t even remember where I found it. Needless to say I’m glad to see it finally leave the roost.

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5. Sterling silver box: On eBay for 195$. A nice sale! As you can see it cleaned up quite well, though this took hours to accomplish. Polishing silver (at least the pieces with really stubborn tarnish) is one of my least favourite activities. Found early November in Westmount.

6. Collection of perfumes: To a reader for 85$. This included some of the scents from my last post, a miniature Hermes Caleche I found in Villeray, and some more miniature perfumes I came across while clearing out my friend’s shed. I found the latter miniatures (which included a Chanel #19 and a couple of Chanel #5s) in TMR way back when I first started going there about two years ago. It was high time I did something with them.

7. Vintage Blue Stratos after shave: On eBay for 40$. Found in the Plateau last summer, but only listed recently.

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8. Mexican silver pendant: On Etsy for 23$. Found along with some other nice pieces May 2015 in Westmount.

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9. Silver drop earrings: On Etsy for 23$. Found with the silver pendant above.

10. Silver ring: On Etsy for 20$. Found in the Golden Square Mile back in November 2014.

11. Silver Irish Harp earrings: On Etsy for 20$. Found in the Plateau two summers ago.

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12. Momo steering wheel adapter: On eBay for 49$. Found a few weeks ago in the Town of Mount Royal.

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13. 1947 Munro table hockey game: On Kijiji for 100$. I’ve had this game for over a year and a half. That’s mostly my fault though, because it wasn’t listed for a lot of that time. I’m glad to see it go to a good home. The game is quite cool, an early example of this type of table top game. Found April 2014 in Rosemont. Click the link if you want to see how it worked, and this one if you want to read about its interesting history.

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14. Aynsley teacup and saucer: On eBay for 27$. One piece (the red cup and saucer above) from a massive collection found last October in Ville St Laurent. That night was one of my most profitable ever – I think I’ve made nearly 2000$ from the teacups alone. Only two remain in my possession.

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15. Sterling silver wax seal: On eBay for 35$. Found in Rosemont way back in January 2014, but (again) was only recently listed.

16: Vintage Lacoste after-shave: On eBay for 87$. Now that this one is sold I have another exactly like it to list. The after-shave was in it’s original box, and didn’t look to have ever been used. Found May 2015 in Westmount.

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17. 1960s Alouettes pennant: On eBay for 55$. Found May 2015 in Ville St-Laurent.

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18. Vintage tube radio: On Kijiji for 40$. This was a beautiful radio but it needed a lot of work. It was very finicky. The guy who bought it thought he could fix it up nicely, and I wish him the best of luck. I considered keeping it myself (it made for a great decoration at least) but I decided I’d rather have the cash. Found September 2015 in Montreal West.

Total: 1183$, 19963.25$ since the new year began.

Brading’s

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I’m still a bit behind, so let’s make this another quick one!

This spot in TMR has been producing on and off for months. Sometimes weeks will go by where I’ll see nothing out front, but then one day the flow will suddenly begin again. It seems that the house is being slowly cleared out: there’s never any “normal” waste (ie: kitchen scraps and so on), just random stuff you might find in a basement or garage. On a side note, the tosser is using the cheapest trash bags possible, the kind that fall apart if you look at them the wrong way.

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The most notable find so far has been the collection of Post Shooters hockey game pieces, which sold for a nice 149$ back in October. I also saved a couple of Expo 67 colouring books, and a cool die-cast tin toy from the 1950s.

The finds had previously been mostly basement storage kind of stuff. This time however the contents of the bags had a bit more of a “junk drawer” feel to them.

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I saved a collection of perfumes, some of which I sold to a reader at my recent art market sale; …

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… a collection of vintage glasses, some of which may sell for a pretty decent price;

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… a 900 silver Fend Dictator mechanical pencil, which though broken is worth a bit for scrap;

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… a nice Parker Pen “Wadsworth” compact;

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… and some travel ephemera (in the recycle bin). My favourite piece here is the Smokey Bear litter bag.

My hope is that these finds bode well for future success at this spot. The theory is that if someone is willing to toss this kind of stuff, then they’re not far off from throwing out even better things. (Some gold jewelry would be nice, for example!). It’s impossible to tell what finds are yet to come, but I’ll certainly let you know if I find something great.

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TMR was pretty productive that night. A different spot gave me an old bottle of R. Jelinek Passover plum brandy (which was mixed in with some cool vintage drinking glasses, some broken some not); …

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… a beautiful Mexican silver and abalone letter opener, which I cleaned up and listed on eBay for 60$ + shipping;

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… a neat candle (there was a second matching candle, but the other was pretty busted up);

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… and a sweet fly brooch, which looks to have been made from wicker.

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I found several ziplock bags full of junk at yet another spot in TMR, which I condensed into one ziplock bag full of good stuff including: a Chanel Mademoiselle perfume I sold to a reader for 45$, a bit of scrap silver, and a bunch of small change.

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Otherwise, the rest of the city produced a collection of old tobacco pipes (Cote St-Luc);

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… some old technology (the typewriter in the case didn’t work, but the two portable TV / radios / clocks both work fine and have some value to collectors) (Cote St-Luc);

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… and a 45 record of the electric transcription variety in the Plateau. It publicizes the long defunct Brading brewery of Ottawa.

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I’m not sure what’s on the disc, but it was apparently recorded at a May 1952 Retail Merchants Association Convention in Montreal. These kind of pressings are very fragile (it’s already in poor condition), so it’s important not to play them unnecessarily. I’m going to try to get the audio digitized, and if it’s interesting I’ll share it here on the blog. After that, I may try to sell the physical copy of the disc, as it’s likely of interest to a collector of beer memorabilia. It seems to be an uncommon piece (I found nothing at all similar in a cursory Google search) and the top would make for a great decoration.

Double Pro Fighter

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I’m a little behind on my summaries, so let’s make this one quick! I’ve been frequenting this spot in Villeray for close to a month now.

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On my first visit I saved a cute set of pink glass dishes, which I gave to a friend.

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One my second I found a collection of vintage food and medicine tins, including four cans of salmon and mackerel that look to be from the 1960s. I’ve mentioned before how food expiry dates, particularly for canned good are mostly meaningless. However, I really don’t want to know what tinned salmon looks like after 50 years. It might actually still be technically edible, but it sure ain’t fresh. Regardless, I took them because I love their labels.

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On my third week I came away with a nice silver hair barrette. I think it’ll clean up well and sell for a decent price on eBay.

I didn’t find anything interesting there this week, but I’ll be sure to keep my eye on the situation going forward.

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I found some more interesting stuff in front of the house in Mount Royal that produced the silver coin and tobacco pipes a few weeks back.

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A small white plastic bag held a bunch of interesting vintage junk, including rulers, magnifying glasses, pencils, thumb tacks, and a St Christopher medallion. The fountain pen at center right is quite nice, and has a 14k gold nib.

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The “good luck” horseshoe clip is marked as being made by an M. Myers & Sons, apparently in 1870. It’s a cool, if not particularly valuable piece. It sold at my recent art market sale.

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I also liked the Coca-Cola ruler. It features the golden rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” A lot of vintage Cola-Cola stuff is pretty valuable, but these rulers are fairly common and don’t sell for a lot. I sold it at the art market for 3$, which a good deal for both parties in my book.

A lot of people tell me I under-price at yard sales. However, I think my prices are based on a savvy understanding of cost / benefit analysis. My motto for yard sales is “there’s always more garbage.” I bring home lots of things each week, but most isn’t really valuable enough to bother listing on eBay or Etsy. Yard sale stuff accumulates quickly, and the more it piles up the more stress it causes me. So making sure these items leave my life as soon as possible is a benefit, because I never have to think about whatever it is ever again, let alone having to bother with packing it and unpacking it, potentially multiple times.

Lower prices also have the obvious pro of encouraging more shopping and repeat buyers. Many people have told me that my yard sale was their favourite one ever. Low prices make things more fun for everyone involved. I like giving good deals more than I like haggling for a high price, and customers obviously prefer this tactic as well.

It helps that I have few expenses associated with my finds, so even making fifty cents from some random thing is more or less pure profit. That’s the beauty of selling garbage! With yard sales, I’m happy as long as I can make my usual 200$ (give or take) a session.

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I otherwise found a couple musical instruments, including a vintage c. 1920s xylophone …

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… and a collection of buttons.

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My best find though came from this spot in Cote St Luc. There were only two bags on the curb, but they looked a bit angular and sat out front of a recently sold house so I stopped to check them out. It was a rainy night, but thankfully the black trash bags (somewhat ironically) generally do a good job protecting their contents.

Inside one of the bags was a whole bunch of old gaming stuff, including a working Super Nintendo, three controllers (and some others for use with different gaming systems), a Multitap (which allows for four controllers to be connected to the Super Nintendo), and an Double Pro Fighter game duplicator.

It all adds up to a nice payday overall. The Super Nintendo and controllers are together worth around 100$. The Multitap goes for around 50$. The Double Pro Fighter is an odd case. Apparently they were very cheaply made, and it is nearly impossible to find one today that actually works. Nonetheless, they sell for decent money, presumably to the collectors market. One sold for about 60$, even though there were no guarantees made to it actually functioning. I listed mine for a bit more, because I suspect the right buyer is willing to pay extra for this piece of gaming history.

Tune in soon for a summary of last week’s finds!