Tell us your earliest sourcing stories.
Summary: quadcitypickers reminisces about their early auction experiences with their dad, highlighting the changes in auction dynamics and the impact of technology on reselling. They also share insights on pandemic effects and challenges with online auctions. profitweb shares their journey starting with estate sales and the evolution into more efficient sourcing practices, expressing concerns about shill bidding in online auctions. squinkercat59 reflects on transitioning from selling vintage items in school to participating in antique malls and online sales. gurlcat describes a mixed experience with storage unit auctions, leading to lessons learned about sourcing more manageable items. krazzykats, sin-n-dex, and mcdougle4248 share their personal sourcing stories, highlighting shifts in strategy due to market changes. A participant recalls childhood memories of collecting items from backyard dumps, maintaining the sentimental value of their discoveries over the years.
Earliest memories I have of auctions is probably going with my dad to a local one. I remember they would always have coins and Morgan/Peace dollars would sell for around $10-$12.
This was probably 2004-2005.
There used to be about three times as many auctions and auctioneers in this area 20 years ago.
When I first started on eBay, under my parents account, smart phones weren't really a thing yet, so I'd call my mom at home to have her look up stuff on eBay for me.
I remember getting my first smartphone, a Motorola "Droid", in mid 2010. It was quite funny how many resellers and antique dealers accused me of "cheating".
No, not making that up, they thought of me cheating simply because I could look up completed listings, being one of the first people to have one.
Of course, that entire sentiment would change 10+ years later, I see people in their 80s using Google Lens and looking up stuff on eBay.
The farm sales were great. I did really well with electronics and cameras. Most were there for implements, tools, etc.
In fact they had so many implements, tractors, etc items would often just be buried in boxes on hayracks.
One of my best finds was a $1,700 camera lens I got for $30.
Garage sales used to be killer, I would fill up my entire car every weekend. Now after the pandemic they have become a joke. So many are "extreme coupon" sellers buying bottles of shampoo for $1 and selling them for $2, or just a random array of things that have little to no value, decor from HomeGoods, etc.
The pandemic saw many auctioneers retiring or going online. The online auctions aren't that great, as you are bidding against the entire world, and most have clauses that the auctioneer or seller can bid, and boy do they love running their own stuff up.
1786davycrockett
·1 week agoMy earliest sourcing memories are from about 1951 or 1952, when I was about 4 or 5 years old.
My family had just moved out of a big city, into a semi-rural suburban community that was so small, it didn't even have a name.
But there were wide open fields, and several acres of woods, plus swamps and a fantastic creek that ran through our property.
One day, while wandering through one of the woods, I came upon a backyard dump (it was not unusual back in the early 1950s, for non-city residents just to toss their unwanted items somewhere in the backyard, since garbage haulers were few and far between back then).
And it was heaven -- old pop bottles that could be re-deposited for up to 5 cents a bottle; boxes of old, unwanted books; beautifully crafted perfume containers; but my favorite was a small metal box, with a retractable handle on the top, that I glommed onto immediately, and proudly lugged home.
My father sanded the box down, to remove all the corrosion; then painted the entire box black, with my name on the top, printed in red -- and, whenever I would fill my pockets with "treasures" which I had found on my kid-style wanderings -- well, right into my backyard, junk-pile metal box they were all deposited.
And, downstairs in my garage, sitting on a radio-cabinet desk that I had rescued in 1968, that box still remains today -- still filled with many of the "treasures" which I had discovered over 70 years ago.
mcdougle4248
·1 week agoMy sourcing only began when I started selling my creations, 14 years ago. At first, I was getting cans just from family and friends. Then, as sales picked up, I began asking my friends to ask their family and friends to save empty cans for me. Soon after that, I asked businesses I frequented to save cans for me. A huge source pretty much fell into my lap when a friend who works in a large complex on the nearby Army post started putting recycling bins around their work area to collect empty cans for me. Those folks also started saving empty cans at home for me.
By this time, word was getting out that I would pick up empty cans, or that they could be dropped off at my gate. I soon had more cans than I would ever use. That is when I began my relationship with our local animal shelter. I now make a weekly trip to the shelter to drop off scraps from my crafting process and unneeded cans. They sell the cans to a recycling plant and use the funds to help care for the animals in their facility.
I have met so many wonderful people over the years. I feel very blessed.
sin-n-dex
·1 week agoMost of my inventory is stuff the shop I work at has sourced, so no stories to tell since I'm not in on the sourcing, just getting to pick through it when it comes back to the shop.
When I wanted to start selling stamps, what happened was I was selling stamps for the shop and it was going OK. My partner and I were in New Zealand and we found an antique shop that had some stamp collections. We figured if it worked getting stuff locally in Canada, maybe importing some collections would be a good idea.
We did very well with the first few collections we bought, then COVID hit and it became way more expensive to source. Sometimes I did great, other times I failed miserably. Now I have 1000 items I'm trying to sell, which I've cut prices on to get some of it to move. I won't source stamps anymore (unless it's early Canadian). I've already made my money back from what I sold of the stamps so far (plus some decent profits). But the craze has passed and people aren't into stamps anymore.
krazzykats
·1 week agoBack in the late 1990s, I was sourcing from a company called SMC, the one with the Tom Bosley commercials and all that. And it went really well for years until everyone else caught on.
I lived close enough back then where I could skip the shipping costs and pick the merchandise up.
Then life changed, people died and now I am selling a collection of accumulated stuff from them, as well as my own collections...sigh...
dhbookds
·1 week agoWhen I was 5................
gurlcat
·1 week agoApart from a few memorable exceptions, my early sourcing days vibe is more of the 'cringe' type -utterly, embarrassingly, BAD.
One thing I was doing was storage unit auctions, won 5 of them over the course of about 2 years. Thing with that was, the very first one was GREAT; I made huge profits from it. But that just set me up for a "chasing the dragon" mindset, where I kept trying to get such a good one, and instead only bought myself more work and storage crisis at my own home than I could handle.
A similar pattern happened with my thrift store/garage sale sourcing. I didn't mess with looking up comps (still hate doing it 'in situ"), just tried trusting my gut. And as with the storage units, I had early success that falsely inflated my trust in my gut. For example I found a still-sealed 1985 Roland drum machine at a charity shop for $25, flipped it fast for $800.
But
oh
so
many
abysmal flops after that. And not only did I source things I couldn't sell for profit; I also had a bad habit of sourcing BIG AND/OR FRAGILE things, without being prepared to ship them, if they did sell. I didn't obtain boxes or cushining beforehand, just had to go hunting for them on the fly, didn't even measure/weigh things before listing, just guessed a flat rate shipping price -again, from my gut.
This is why I'm glad I eventually found a category I don't need to look up comps for, and which is so itty-bitty that shipping isn't a problem. I simply cannot be trusted to do "broad category" sourcing wisely. My house and garage STILL contain some of the early-days idiocy.
adamcartwright
·1 week agoI loved Storage Wars and am imagining you there bidding against Brandi and Jarrod, Darrell (RIP), Barry, and Dave. That was a fun show.
Really sad about Darrell.
You have the dream inventory now -- small and easy to ship.
gurlcat
·1 week agoI only went to one live in-person storage facility auction; the rest were all online, with photos and proxy bids, basically like eBay, except you could only see whatever images the facility employee could capture without touching anything, or even stepping one foot inside the opened door.
That's the way it's SUPPOSED TO be anyway, but you never can know whether any employees actually went in and dug around, maybe helped themselves before taking the photos. But that could happen before an in-person auction too, so it's really not any better.
squinkercat59
·1 week ago · EditedI remember going to church rummage sales with my parents when I was just a kid. My Mom and Dad liked those antique shows they used to have in shopping malls too. I liked to collect fancy costume jewelry and costume pieces, so when I was in high school and college I sold some of the stuff to the theater kids; eventually turned into a vintage clothing store back in the 1980s. The clothing is harder to find now, but I have a couple of storage units full of my parents' stuff I am wading through. We go to local estate sales when we have time; I like to buy lots on HiBid and we will stop at garage sales when we see a sign (the car usually sees it before we do, and screeches to a halt).
profitweb
·1 week ago · EditedMy first sources were estate sales, then local auctions.
My “gateway drug” item was a vintage 007 backlit game I found at an estate sale in 1998. I just tried to find it online, but I can’t.
I almost didn’t buy it. It was $10, and at the time I didn’t have money to waste. I went home, found it on eBay, and went back on the last day of the sale and bought it for half price. I think I sold it for around $100.
The addiction never ended. It just changed.
Now I try to avoid buying one-off items. Now, I feel it’s not efficient to do all the work of listing something for just one sale. But I still love the thrill of the hunt, so I do it for fun... mostly with jewelry right now.
When I’m sourcing that way, I look everywhere! Estate sales, online auctions, secondhand stores, and other local places. The places depend on what you're sourcing and where you live. It’s getting harder to find good items.
I didn’t know some online auctions allow shill bidding!!! I thought they all banned it. I don’t want to shop on any platform that allows that. O.o