How Do You Identify Profitable Merchandise?

[back-spin]

What's your approach to identifying profitable items when you're at garage sales and thrift stores? Do you use your phone a certain way? Do you study certain categories before going out?

[nowthatsjustducky]

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@lex-talon wrote:

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@back-spin wrote:

What's your approach to identifying profitable items when you're at garage sales and thrift stores? Do you use your phone a certain way? Do you study certain categories before going out?

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I don't need my phone. You need to know what is profitable and what's not before you venture out.

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So how the heck would I have known beforehand that the 1940s cast iron door closer I found at SA for $2.95 would be something I should look for and already know to price at $50, or that the Imaginext Batman 2 packs I came across for $5.50 in the clearance cart at Albertsons (of all places) would be worth buying and flipping for $35 each, etc?

It is absolutely impossible to know beforehand what you are going to find or what any given random find will be worth.  The only way that advice has any validity whatsoever is if you are omniscient, or you are a timid seller who refuses to deal in new product types and is reluctant to grow and expand your knowledge.

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

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@rejuvenatekalamazoo wrote:

Haha. Yeah, I don't take kindly to people that reach into my personal space. You might not get that hand back if you reached and took an item that was directly in front of me. Learn to have some respect.

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"personal space"? Sorry, but as long as that item's on the shelf it's fair game.

[bonnie-lass]

I do thrift stores differently than yard sales. If I see any thing even remotely interesting I put it in my cart. Then I go to the furniture area find a table or even a comfy chair and examine it all there. lol

[penguins_dont_fly]

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@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:

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@rejuvenatekalamazoo wrote:

Haha. Yeah, I don't take kindly to people that reach into my personal space. You might not get that hand back if you reached and took an item that was directly in front of me. Learn to have some respect.

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"personal space"? Sorry, but as long as that item's on the shelf it's fair game.

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Yep. If you are standing there on your phone and the item is on the shelf ... it's up for grabs.

It's not to say that I don't use my phone, but it's less and less often these days ... and like bonnie said, I will put it in my cart and THEN look it up 🙂

At yard sales I'm quicker on the draw than at thrifts and a bit more discreet on my phone when necessary. Especially if it's a busy one.  I'm willing to pay a buck for something that I'm unsure of because I can always just throw it up for a buck on my local sales site and get my money back 99% of the time, if not a few bucks more 🙂

[back-spin]

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@hioctane62 wrote:

I very seldom go to yard sales or thrifts any more. Most of what I sell, I get from local online auctions. I have certain types of items that I look for, but always researching new things I see coming up. Usually, I can only see part of what is in a "lot", but end up with way more than I thought I was bidding on.

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Are you referring to online storage auctions here? Are there other local online auctions besides storage auctions?

[siayan]

I buy a lot on experience and instinct but I have found one of the best ways to buy is if I think I wouldn't mind keeping that if it doesn't make a good profit. If I do that I can end up with a nice load to go to the auction and get a lump of money at once.

[sodelight]

I stick with what I know. I find when I don't, I regret it. If it's cheap enough, I may risk it.

I don't walk around pounding away at my phone like so many other obvious resellers do. It's fun to go right up to those who are doing so and easy to see what they're doing, which of course scares them! They still miss out great stuff because of their lack of knowledge or newbie-ness, they can't possibly look up every item.

Knowledge is king.

[sodelight]

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@siayan wrote:

I spent a lot of money on mistakes. Each time I learned a little more. After a while the profits outnumber the mistakes. Then you are on your way. There are no easy outs.

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The mistakes are your tuition! There's no real school that teaches this stuff.

[emerald40]

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@paudoh-16 wrote:

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@back-spin wrote:

What's your approach to identifying profitable items when you're at garage sales and thrift stores? Do you use your phone a certain way? Do you study certain categories before going out?

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I always bring a jewelers loupe and my phone. The loupe to see any markings on the items and my phone for research. But, it's really more about what catches my eye. I've been going to thrift stores for more than 30 years. After a while, you develop an eye for certain things. For me that would be jewelry and collectibles and art.

________________________________________

Never pull out a jeweler's loop in a pawn shopunless you can be discreet..  The ones I have went to cop an attitude when you do it,

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[chipper01work]

Well I sure hope all those that are afraid to pull out their phones when sourcing items stay that way. I can tell you all with a straight face that there have been 2 items that I bought that I would have not bought if I did not have my phone that I made over $1000 profit on. There have been lots of items in the hundreds of dollar profit range too. I guess that approach works well if you fridgidly stay in the genre you know. Problem is you're limiting your possibilities to about 5% of the potential you have to acquire high profit items.  I"ve been doing this for 20 years and while I'm not dumb enough to get my phone out in front of the seller, I'm also not dumb enough to not look it up in my car before I leave either when it comes to items I've not seen before but think there may still be meat on the bone. A couple times I got the whole cow and not just the bone instead of the next guy getting it, but you guys just keep on doing what you're doing.  Now of course, we should all strive to do as much as possible by memory but to refuse to use your phone is letting tons of money on the table.

[godzilla_goose]

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@myjunqueyourtreasure wrote:

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@rejuvenatekalamazoo wrote:

Haha. Yeah, I don't take kindly to people that reach into my personal space. You might not get that hand back if you reached and took an item that was directly in front of me. Learn to have some respect.

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"personal space"? Sorry, but as long as that item's on the shelf it's fair game.

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@myjunqueyourtreasure

myjunqueyourtreasure,

I completely agree with your statement that I highlighted in red.

I want to tell you about an experience I had in a brick-and-mortar store when it was having its going out of business liquidation sale in the spring of 1993.

During one week, I had purchased two attractive new Riverside wood with inlaid etched glass top end tables for $150 each that were marked down from $300.  There were two more Riverside end tables still available for sale on the floor.  One was like the two I had bought and the other had a solid wood top (no glass) and one of the corners was “bashed in”.

The following week, I returned to the store as the liquidation was winding down and on this particular day, there was this lady with a family member (possibly her mother) looking at those two end tables.  From fifteen feet away, I could just picture what was going on in her head and “see the gears turning”. 

So, I literally sprinted on the store floor and quickly found the salesperson (Anne) that I dealt with earlier who sold me the two Riverside end tables and I said, “Anne, grab a pen, a sales ticket and please, come with me . . . .”.  Anne asked me “What are you up to now???  I replied to Anne, “Please, walk with me and start writing . . . ”.

By the time that I walked with Anne back to the two tables that sat on the store floor, she had placed a sold sticker on the end table with the glass top. . . . leaving the end table with the bashed in corner still available.  The lady who was eyeing those two tables was stunned and asked Anne if the table was sold and Anne said “Yes, I just sold this glass top end table to this gentleman standing right here. . .”.

Let’s just say that the lady who I considered indecisive was um . . . not happy.

It’s like I “sniped” the table from under her nose.

[mr_lincoln]

I prefer researching AFTER going to an Auction Preview or researching what is going up for sale on online Estate auctions.  I figure out what a sale price will be then work backwards to set my highest buying price ...

Some items are acquired to get attention and will be purchased and resold at a break even price but they help with traffic.

I look for lots that can be broken down in to multiple listings which have the potential to return a higher profit.

Unique one off items are great but you are forced to sell for a set amount or higher to avoid losing $$.   

[godzilla_goose]

emerald40,

If the people in the pawn shop are copping an attitude when you take out your jeweller's loupe, take that as a clue that they are possibly overgrading their stones.