Oh eBay. You make me laugh.

Oh eBay. When I see something like this, it makes me laugh. eBay makes this whole listing thing seem so glamorous and simple: "Hey, everybody! Look at this wad of cash I have from selling stuff on eBay!! Woohooo!" The "FREE" part is funny too, because they don't tell you about the 10% they'll get when you sell something. A wad of $20s in your back pocket?!? Ha! You'll never even see that cash, it's all ones and zeros in Paypal. If you want cash, go to Craigslist.

Tip O'Neill's Ashtray ... Maybe

A few years ago, I picked up this House of Representatives ashtray at a flea market. It was only sort of interesting. The person told me it was from the desk of Tip O'Neill, which makes it a lot more interesting. I actually found a photo of him at his desk with a similar ashtray on it. It sold for $46 bucks on eBay. A good story, but not much more than that without any provenance.

The Problem with Legos (and Lego Strategies)

First, an amusing anecdote: I was once at a yard sale where the seller had carefully sorted all the Legos by color into different tubs. Can't imagine how long that took. She was a little appalled when I bought them all and proceeded to dump them into one large box to load into my car. Anyway...

Buying Legos: For a decent mixed lot of Legos, I usually figure they are worth $5/lb. This assumes that Legos figures, known as minifigs, from the kits are also mixed into the box. The problem, which has been increasing over the last few years, is that kids are KEEPING the minifigs. This decreases the value of a random tub of Legos, and it's not something that's immediately obvious when you're buying it. Especially with character minifigs, like Star Wars, Spider-Man, Batman, Indiana Jones, etc., I can see it being too tempting to keep the minifigs and let the blocks go (when the kid has his eye on that next awesome piece of technology).

Minifigs have kind of hit the pop culture big time. I don't blame anyone for keeping them. It is pretty satisfying to display a minifig Boba Fett or Darth Vader on your shelf. Who needs the blocks? These character minifigs are usually worth $2-3 each. That's some serious demand for a little piece of plastic!

More Lego Strategies: A few years ago, I did really well with a bunch of Legos from a yard sale. I decided, as a test, to take that profit and buy $500 of off-the-shelf Star Wars Lego kits. Two years passed, the kits were all out of production, and I sold those kits for nearly double my money. Not too shabby. Then, since I am nuts, I took that $1000 and bought another batch off off-the-shelf Star Wars Lego kits. They are still in my basement, approaching 1-year old. I'll let you know what happens next year.

Who Is Your Favorite Civil War General?

I was speaking another antique dealer recently, and she mentioned off hand that her favorite Civil War General was William Tecumseh Sherman. I immediately thought, "Hey, that's weird! I have a favorite Civil War General, too!" It's Joshua Chamberlain. The Big J.C.
The question is, Is it mandatory for people who deal in old stuff to have a favorite Civil War General, the way some people would have a favorite pop star or Disney character? Who's yours?

Victorian Bouquet of Flowers

On July 29, 1891, The Boston Herald reported that Edna Bragg's body was found in the Cambridgeport flats. Elsewhere on that same day, a woman wrapped a meaningful bouquet in newspaper, and placed it carefully in her attic for safe keeping. Over 121 years later, it would be discovered by yours-truly, pondered for a moment, photographed, then dropped in the trash. Without a story to go with it, it's not much more than some dried flowers. I hope you can add your own wistful sentiments to the bouquet which will live on the internet for hopefully at least another 121 years.

Worst. Housecall. Ever.

A few years ago, an elderly lady tracked me down. She'd seen an article about me and used the telephone directory to get my number. Hardcore old-school. Her basement had flooded, and to deal with the basement problem, she'd moved everything into the backyard. Of course, the problem with that is that things exposed outside for months in the weather and rain tend to not hold up very well. The place was a disaster. Anything that was paper or wood was pretty much a damp moldy mess. Everything was free for taking, but somehow I still manage to spend $50 on a lot of slide rules. I think I threw away half of it when I got home and could look at it in the light. Note to self: Don't ever let my life start to look like this!

Bronze Lion Fail

I like walking up the driveway right when the sellers open the garage door. It means you're first in to the sale. (Being first in is not hard, what's hard is finding a sale where's there actually anything interesting!) But this time, there was this awesome giant bronze lion. It measured 16" across base, was signed E. Delabriere, and I could tell it was probably 100 years old. They just don't make stuff like this anymore. I paid my $10 and loaded it into the car with a big smile on my face. I sent pics to an auctioneer who estimated it at $1000-$1500. Not bad. So I boxed it up and mailed it to the auctioneer ... who took a look at it and decided it was not an original, and not something he wanted to sell. Sigh. So, I had to pay UPS Store about $50 to box it up and mail it back to myself. Sigh. Now with shipping it twice, I'm almost $100 into this bronze lion who is worth something less than $1000 (which is still pretty good). I'm going to hold on to Mr. Lion for a while, because he's still awesome and maybe I'll have a shelf upstairs (i.e. not a shelf in the basement) to put him on someday.

Yard Sale Strategies - Building Lots

There's a lot of junk out there in Yard Sale Land. Plenty of little items that are just useless to a dealer. But, what if we buy them one at a time, and save up a BIG lot? Since I know I'll be doing this for a long time, I like to buy little cheap items and toss them in a box until I have a lot worth selling. I do this with Kooshes, Legos*, Scrabble games, and slide rules. (I have also done this in the past with Star Wars lightsabers and Build-a-Bear clothing, but those specific markets have largely gone south.) A big lot of Kooshes will go for a few bucks per Koosh, which is not bad when they only cost a quarter or two each. One thousand tiles from 10 Scrabble games are worth about $100 on eBay. When it's a slow yard sale day, buying silly little things can build some great lots over time.

* See the article, The Problem with Legos!

The Oldest Thing I've Ever Found at a Yard Sale

Aside from a set of agate bookends or that geode (which would be millions of years old), the oldest thing I've bought at a yard sale (for just $5) was this 17th century German Bellarmine jug, circa 1650s. The stoneware jugs draw their name (and possibly likeness??) from Cardinal Bellarmine (1542-1621), a very unpopular figure at the time. They were used as serving jugs in taverns, carrying liquids between casks and mugs. It sold for $284 on eBay.
I think the next two oldest items would be a 1770s Sons of Liberty-printed newspaper called The Massachusetts Spy, and a circa 1810s jasperware urn commemorating the British Naval heroes Howe and Nelson. Cool stuff.