Let's Have Some Fun - Items You Bought and Wished You Hadn't!

[tunicaslot]

Tired of the doom and gloom here.

Let's hear about items you bought - whether thinking you would score big - or items that were more than you bargained for getting them ready to list.

This past week - I hit paydirt - at least for me - went to a block sale and a couple of people had their clothing for 50 cents each - name brand - knew I could turn it over quick as long as it was priced right.

Came home to take pics and list when I felt something in the pocket of the first item - a fleece jacket. Turns out someone had stuffed tissue in it and had washed it at least once without taking out the tissue. Now I don't know if you guys can relate to this - but lots of women can! It was in little balls and completely covering the pocket - I cleaned and cleaned trying to turn the pocket outside in - but boy was it deep - duh - it was a kangaroo pocket. It took me a good 1/2 hr to clean out the mess and the mess left all over the fleece, table and floor. I thought about just ditching it a couple of times but I had already put so much work into it and it did fetch a good price.

I will definitely slow down and check out pockets next time.

[llllady]

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@bigoljim47 wrote:

Many years ago went to an Estate sale. One room was filled with thousands if not million of postage stamps, some in catalogs and boxes full of them needing to be organized.  The other room was filled with collector plates still in their original mailing boxes. You know the ones you purchased through TV ads. I offered the man $1 each and I would take them all. Biggest mistake I ever did. In all there were 300 plates.  After sorting, describing and listing, it took me 1 week.  Selling was slow and After having them listed for a year I was down to 50 plates and now 5 years later they are still in my ebay room. For the amount of work I put in on those plates I could have gone to work at walmart and made more money.

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Oh, geez.  Did you have to remind me about the two sets of Wizard of Oz plates I bought (pre-eBay days) back in the 80s? 

[wolf*song]

I recently bought an X-Men Gold #1 (if you're unfamiliar, there's a big controversy over what the artist included in the book; you can find articles on Google), thinking it'd be a quick flip.  Nope.  I still have it, it's still listed, and when I tried to trade it, I was turned down flat.  

At least it's a cool book, so if I have to hold onto it, I have no real complaints.

I just purchased a pair of Walking Dead #168 comics, Gay Pride variant covers (both my kids are trans), because 100% of the money Image makes from the variants goes to the Human Rights Campaign.  That's not to say that if they shoot up to 100 bucks a copy I won't sell them, but still...  🙂

[ymeagainlord]

Also in the "thinking of shipping it makes me cringe" section is my daughter's milk glass punch bowl complete with ladle and (I think) 18 cups. Oh, AND her humongous generic Santa water globe (think I'll give that back now she has her own house).

[pinkrose442savings2018]

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@wolf*song wrote:

We need a "Swap Meet" on the forums for the **bleep** we can't sell.  *L*

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That's an awesome idea...!

[pinkrose442savings2018]

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@dhbookds wrote:

Well, there is the 5' long/2' wide stuffed cloth catfish..........50c, that the Better Half "couldn't resist"........the boxes of old magazines.......and the box ceramic S&P shakers that were free.....and about worthless.......and the HUGE PINK PIG, paper mache that's lurking somewhere.  That's only within the last couple of wks.  

A couple of years ago, I bought a box of 20 Church Plates for $1 for the box.  We made over $250+ on them over time......since then, the cheap "boxes" have been almost irresistible. 

@ymeagainlord  We sold some of the big green molded ceramic Xmas trees with lights for $80+ last year and no trouble shipping.....tho they were heavy, people will pay it.

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I'll jump in for the fun...first year of selling on eBay clueless as to what really sale's...but love vintage stuff period...my tax man looking over the column's of items asked me if you had to pick one item that you sold and like it what would it be...that great find...I said hand's down a sun burst Alan Stuart shirt...it was so retro in perfect condition and was one of my fastest sales...don't have a photo because old computer went down but you'd love to see it...one of a kind never came across anything close to it again.  The buyer was very happy with his purchase.

[moo*cow*corner]

Packing tape wrapped around your hand with the sticky side out is a great lint remover.

[siayan]

I could go on forever on this subject. In the early days I bought 50 pairs of wooden shoes, real and decorated for $2.00 a pair. Pitched them.

[rolenboy01]

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@candd205 wrote:

I am so glad you mentioned that I could have figured out a way to recoup my loss by finding someone who can use them for arts and crafts. That is what I should have done. I did try a little, searching the internet for ways to use old records. Couldn't find anything I liked, but someone else could have been creative enough to do something wth them. Yes, I feel guilty for just tossing them. But to be honest, they made me feel bad every time I looked at them. I was kicking myself every time I saw them. So, out of site, out of mind, and I got a good story to tell. I did think of a way to use them after I tossed them out. I could have used the undamaged covers to mail things that shouldn't be folded in. They could have been cut to size as needed to use this way.

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It all sounds good in theory but I've had too many bad experiences with trying to sell things as lots "for projects" and still had people complain about it and file snads and so on so I usually just leave well enough alone and trash some items.

[moondogblues]

" One room was filled with thousands if not million of postage stamps, some in catalogs and boxes full of them needing to be organized. "

Shoulda bought the stamps!

[moondogblues]

I love wine, so sell the corks at a local Flea. They get scooped up really fast.

Too bad you didn't keep the 'good' record covers...they would have sold I betcha.

[nicgola-0]

Not an item for resale, still something I wish I hadn't bought ( though I do have a few things I have gotten for resale that bombed out)

A sushi bazooka. We eat a LOT of sushi, like at least once a week we go to a sushi bar and I live on the Gulf Coast so it's dang good sushi. When the sushi bazooka came out I was stoked, then it came in the mail and it was horrible. Flimsy, couldn't hardly get the thing to stay together and the sushi that came out of it was so wide I couldn't get it to fit in my mouth. I was still determined to make my own so I went to an Asian food store, got a sushi mat and found rolling it was much easier than the sushi bazooka...
First "as seen on TV" thing I fell for, and the last.

[nicgola-0]

Happy Pride!

[copper.boom]

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@tunicaslot wrote:

Came home to take pics and list when I felt something in the pocket of the first item - a fleece jacket. Turns out someone had stuffed tissue in it and had washed it at least once without taking out the tissue. Now I don't know if you guys can relate to this - but lots of women can! It was in little balls and completely covering the pocket - I cleaned and cleaned trying to turn the pocket outside in - but boy was it deep - duh - it was a kangaroo pocket. It took me a good 1/2 hr to clean out the mess and the mess left all over the fleece, table and floor. I thought about just ditching it a couple of times but I had already put so much work into it and it did fetch a good price.

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Nice topic, Tunica! I'll have to think on my regret purchases. I've got a few helpful tips if you encounter something like this tissue situation again.

1. Take the item outside to clean it... better to leave the mess out there! If you can't bring it outside then set down a sheet of newspaper that you can ball up when you're finished.

2. If it's a large pocket, especially a kangaroo pocket, turn that part inside out as much as you can so it's easier to clean (which you already did here).

3. Grab a little brush like a dish brush or scrub brush or nail brush - pick one up at the dollar store specifically for cleaning inventory - and brush all the "lint" off.

4. If anything is still stuck use a sweater stone! They work wonders.

Since your item was fleece I wouldn't have even bothered with the brush and instead went straight for the sweater stone. That stuff will really "stick" to the fleece. I would have finished it off with packing tape for any last little bits (it's stronger than a lint roller).

[copper.boom]

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@klassic*kids wrote:

Have some real duds hanging around from when I first started selling,  Too many to count.  I soon might resort to .99 auctions.  There's got to be a buyer for some of them, somewhere.

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@klassic*kids Sell them in a bulk lot! Boys in one lot and Girls in another. 🙂

[klassic*kids]

Yes, thank you -- I have thought about that too.  I will have to get organized and see what sizes they are and then re-take photos, etc.  Been so slow here for me lately that it takes a lot to get me motivated.