Anyone else sourcing items right now?

[sin-n-dex]

Just wondering if anyone is sourcing... from what I can see, there are deals to be had, but a lot of what I want to buy comes from Europe and shipping is a little sketchy at the moment. (My stamp albums took 6 weeks to come from the UK. They did eventually show up, but it was past the last date).

So my B&M store (which is closed except mail order), has boxes of militaria stuff in the backroom. I have a bit more time working from home (saving 1 hour of driving, being able to take a 3 hour lunch by starting earlier and finishing later, it's a good time of day to take pictures of new items). I grabbed two giant binders packed with items 3x3 pages, along with some ziplock bags of random militaria (and other historical stuff).

I had to return everything that wasn't identified to the store (I don't make enough on the sale to waste 30 minutes researching each piece, the ones that are identified get listed for usually $10-15, and I get half... so I'm applying $5-$7 worth of effort into each listing). There are also some pretty cool things (foreign items, not just Canadian), but there's British, Australian, New Zealand, Ceylon, British India, and South Africa... there's some random European things. Lots of patches, collar and cap insignias. I sold two Traffic Enforcement vintage patches from South Africa for $27 last week. Most items are more than 50 years old. And let's not forget the hundreds of buttons I have from all sorts of uniforms.

I'm not sourcing stamps anymore now that I have a dozen albums that need attention (they got set aside when I turned sourcing stamps into collecting stamps). I did manage to take apart a few albums and make up pages of stamps to sell. They are selling.

For anyone following the stamp debacle, I've recovered 21% of what I spent so far, and I haven't sold significant numbers of items yet, but a few are going every week. (And the shop's stamps are still selling as well). I'm getting more attention from the stamps and picking up new regular buyers. In my 21% calculation, the albums that are set aside for me to pick stuff for myself are not included yet. With those albums I want a bunch of stamps for me, and to recover what I spent on the albums (or most of it) to basically obtain a stamp collection by only putting in some effort.

C.

[chapeau-noir]

I received a tumultuous education in college during the years of revelation theology so controversy is bread and butter - I say list all of them!  Hopefully you won't end up in theological arguments with prospective buyers lol.  My best selling book was a volume of outdoor debates between two prominent preachers in the mid-19th century - early bidders dropped out while two very avid individuals ended up bidding it to $120 - it was a very obscure volume but of value obviously to a number of people.

[jerzee908]

Not really doing any sourcing, but I've been sourcing just about every week for over 25 years. There's some auctions I have my eyes on (not on here). A few of the estate sale companies in my area are all doing auctions or they are taking phone offers and you can pick up your stuff curbside. Not sure if I can say the site that has estate sales, but it isn't hard to figure out.
I can't wait to go to an actual estate sale again. I go to at least one of them every single week and I haven't been to one since February (I'm a collector, too). I miss seeing the same people that I see at every sale and some of the friends I've made from going to them. Talking about our sales, finds, what number we have, what time we got at the house, and so on. The excitement of digging in an attic and hitting your head on a wood beam is something you can't get by doing an online estate sale auction.

[gamersbaystore]

Oh, I would list anything from the 70's or 80's as vintage for sure. Heck, people list video games from the 90's as "Vintage Games", so anything from the 80's is fair game.

It does seem the word "Vintage" appeals to buyers, it definitely pulls more sales.

[yuzuha]

I'm still sourcing, but I'm having a harder time of it because EVERYONE is bored at home and so my crane game apps are full of equally bored people looking for something to do.  (I watched someone who must have been REALLY bored play a machine for twenty minutes straight yesterday...)

But, on the plus side, in the past week I've had two friends pay me $25 each to win specific prizes for them, so there's that.  The only downside is that shipping anything from Japan takes forever these days due to the low number of flights.

[patd3283]

1990?  You young whippersnapper! ....

You are both youngun's.

In fact my older 'child' is 57 and younger is almost 50.

Makes me almost an antique 🙂

[penguins_dont_fly]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

I was at 50 years for vintage and 100 for antique, but that was just as a subjective collector.  30/50 sounds like a good compromise. 

To me books are like trees - very long lived.  I have volumes back to the 17th century (holding up a heck of a lot better than some of my books from the 90s!).

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Just throwing this out there 😉

"Vintage" is subjective … the word is taken from wine making, where a vintage is a certain year's production. Vintage 2020 is valid for wine 🙂

When talking about "Vintage" items, the word usually means that the item is from a previous generation, but not yet "antique". 25 years is the usual cutoff … 

Think about it this way … An adult (25+) who is looking for something that their Mother may have purchased new (1 generation ago) is looking for a "vintage" item 

"Antique", on the other hand has a standard (and legal) definition for Customs (100+), but it is usually meant to indicate an item that is 2 or more generations old.

That same 25+ year old, looking for something that their Grandmother might have purchased new (2 generations ago) would be looking for an "antique" item.

If you are a licensed dealer, some States have their own legal definition of what can be called "antique".

https://definitions.uslegal.com/a/antique/

An antique is a piece of furniture, tableware or similar property, made at a much earlier period than the present. There are definitions of antiques based upon a precise number of years, such as 80 or 100. The 80-year span is derived from the length of time of two generations, each one covering 40 years.

The Tariff Act of 1930 defines antiques as "works of art (except rugs and carpets made after the year 1700), collections in illustration of the progress of the arts, works in bronze, marble, terra cotta, parian, pottery or porcelain, artistic antiquities and objects of ornamental character or educational value which shall have been produced prior to the year 1830." My note: this is the definition that US Customs uses (100+)

Nevada State Statute:

"NRS 647.012 “Antique” defined. “Antique” means a unique object of personal property that is not less than 60 years old and has special value primarily because of its age." (2019 Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 647 - Dealers in Junk and Secondhand Materials)

[keziak]

I have a stockpile of books to auction but they are on the "blah" side, nothing exciting so hard to get motivated. I have a ton of comic books to go through. So far I have found that the newer comic books can sometimes sell in lots. I do not expect to sell the older ones because they have age/wear.  Those will wait for the library to open.

Moderate stockpile of books to list on ebay.

I spent time yesterday working on new sources of books to list on Amazon. Posted to a community group and I've gotten some response. I am going to a house tomorrow. They will put the books on the porch for me to go through. I'll knock on the door when I have the cash payment. Use hand sanitizer.  Maybe leave the boxes in the car port for a day or two. I hope they will have saleable stuff.

I submitted a large order to one book company I use. 

I found a new company but nobody is answering the phone. I would think if they are closed for covid they would mention that on their site. They are a big company and must get a lot of traffic. I've bookmarked them to check back later. 

I have a library as a commission. They are closed. I am worried that even when they re-open the director may ban donations, depending on what the governor has to say about rules for emerging from that stay-home guidelines. Paranoia about germs on books. But the library will be hurting badly if the Friends of the Library booksales do not crank back up. I hope she will work with me about donations; maybe people are cleaning house and will want to donate when the library is open again.

Saw a clip of a interview with Bill Gates who predicts that as business reopens there will still be guidelines for wearing masks, keeping distance, and limiting crowds. Library booksale draw very large crowds and everyone pressed up against others in the sale room. That whole situation sounds dubious.