After teaching eBay classes for the past five years, I figure I should be practicing what I preach when it comes to finding things to sell on eBay. Last Saturday I went out to one garage sale not too far from my house. I arrived at 8 AM. As I scanned the tables I gathered a few items I thought would do well on eBay. I forked over my $7.50 and hurried home to check out my new treasures on Terapeak. I was quite happy with what I found. I'm going to write about most of the stuff in the next day or two, but I thought I'd share this one auction with you to show what can happen if you educate yourself a bit in a few areas of eBay.
I saw this book poking up from a box with an orange sticker on it. It is by a very famous fashion editor named Diana Vreeland. Evidently she pretty much invented the idea we have today of a "fashion editor." (Think "The Devil Wears Prada") This lady was pretty fascinating, she was friends with all the New York society types from the 1930's till her death in 1989. People like Jackie Onasis, Andy Warhol, and oh so many others. The book has tons of photos, and her commentary on all of them. But that really isn't my point here...
I hadn't heard of Diana Vreeland...
The price was typical yard sale level and I stacked it up with my other things. I didn't know who Diana Vreeland was, or what the title "ALLURE" related to, but I didn't have to. How did I decide to buy it? Here are the things that crossed my mind, while I pushed other books aside:
- it is a big book, dealing with a popular subject, in great condition
- it's from 1980, and a first edition
- it's fashion-related, so its content is dated - likely out of print
- the book has its original dust cover
- the cover under the dust jacket is extremely nice, sharp corners and no marks inside or out
When I got home, I looked it up on Amazon.com, Abebooks.com, and eBay using Terapeak to check the history over the past 90 days. I was pleasantly surprised. A couple of copies had sold on eBay for $100-$123. Nice! On Abebooks, sellers listed it for an average of about $130-$175 in this condition. On Amazon.com they are listed for $150. I figure eBay is the best place to judge the actual market, so I hope it runs over $100 on Cyber Monday.
Oh and how much did I pay for it? I'll let you know after the sale next Monday. You will be inspired I'm sure.
UPDATE: Ok, I paid a dollar for this book. It pays to keep your eyes open, and arrive early to the garage sales...
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the tips. My daughter found out the hard way too by arriving at a yard sale several hours after it started but she did get a really great desk :) One person’s “junk” can be another person’s “gold” right?
Wow, that is awesome! I’ll wander through yard sales every now and then and am always tempted to pick a few things up, but never do. I’m sure I’ve missed out on some great deals.
When I sell all the stuff I bought that day, I may get an iPhone. :>)
Steve: If you had an iPhone you could have checked out the Terapeak data right there on the spot :-)