Forum

Re: How do you guys buy your inventory?
 

Estate.


Meaning someone is retiring or a family has moved one or both parents out of the home and want to sell off the belongings in the home.

Happens a lot.


With boomers getting older this will increase over the next few years.

family usually cleans out personal items and leave what they dont want.

You can find REGULAR estate sales on many auction websites ( I use auctionzip ) being sold by an auctioneer. I try to get the estate before it goes to the auctioneer who charges 25-50% to sell the items.

I also attend a couple estate or antique sales a week to purchase items.

One I go over early and leave bids on items I want and they call me after the auction to let me know what items I have won and when I can pick those items up.

I dont do this as a job. More of a hobby that turned into more then a money maker because I have been making money doing this since I was a kid. Truly enjoy doing it. The thrill or pit in my stomach to find a treasure is what I like most.

Always a hidden gem inside one of those cabinets, closets, shoe boxes.

heck, I pulled the cork out of a piggy bank from one estate sale and found 10 - 100 dollar bills in it. Good thing I looked as I paid I think 25.00 for the box lot of items and the pig bank was inside the box lot.


BOX LOTS- Great for building ebay feedback. They go cheap and you usually can make some decent money on them as well.

Re: How do you guys buy your inventory?
 

Yeah a friend of mine buys from auctions. He will often buy what looks like a box of rubbish for a £5.00 and find something in there worth a lot (a recent find was worth £60). He sticks that on eBay and then does a car boot sale to get rid of the rubbish. He can easily make £20 an hour just selling the rubbish.

Re: How do you guys buy your inventory?
 

Hi can someone from the US tell me more about stocklots (florida) I am trying to purchase form them, are they legit? They take forever replying to my emails.

And there are many companies too, all different named, but selling same inventory.

Also, having trouble getting them to answer simple question as to whether they ship to the uk , any help appreciated.

Re: How do you guys buy your inventory?
 

If you know what you are doing you can build niches - buy cheap on Ebay and resell on the higher end antique sites like Ruby Lane, Tias or your own website. Buying collections or batches and splitting them up is also a good tactic with antiques.

In the trade you build up relationships so you can sell on the stuff you have no knowledge or interest in. On the same basis people will also offer you stuff they have bought. Ive had people come up to me during am auction and offer to buy stuff I won in a "mixed" lot. Ive also approached other dealers on the same basis. Most dealers are amenable to making a quick profit on stuff they dont then have to haul home.