Some newbie questions

[skeletonbuster]

Hello all! I've been lurking on Tnet for awhile now and finally have decided to join. I've always enjoyed hunting for treasure at yard sales and thrift stores, but never really thought to look out for silver and gold. So my main questions are as follows:

1. the girlfriend and i went around to various thrift stores this afternoon and saw many things that said they were silver plated (silverware and platters mostly) i assume this has little value as they were everywhere. Is this correct?

2. While thinking of silver, if it is pure silver and not just plated, will it always say sterling on it? Will gold have some sort of identifying mark?

3. I have seen mentioned on numerous threads a "what to look for" type of thread, could someone please shoot me a link to this? I've looked and haven't been able to find it.

I think that's it for now. .. thanks!

-sb

 

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[dw171]

Here's what I do on those items. The silverplate goes to scrap as copper unless it's silverware then it's $0.60 a piece. Sterling is almost always marked. If it's not marked I wouldn't mess with it unless you know what you're doing. The most common marks are sterling 925 900 800 ster. Gold is same way it's always marked most of time. Avoid any marks with ge gf rgb. I'd recommend doing a search for gold marks and go from there.

 

[tamrock]

Go to the pawn shops and just ask to look at the gold and platinum items as if your interested in purchasing them. Get to know the feeling of the weight in the center of your hand to the size of it and stare at the deep luster of real gold. You'll begin to come under the effects of what is know by most as gold fever, so in the future when you hold it and gaze upon it you will feel the effects of the illness for evermore. As for silver it has a look to it, such as the oxidation color. Study all the markings on the web such as this site Online Encyclopedia of Silver Marks, Hallmarks & Makers' Marks These images will burn in to database of your mind as you seek these treasures of silver. There are a few other silver mark sites to review also. In each of these items of gold and silver the higher the quality of the made piece the better the value. Learn the signature styles of these makers and their origin for the best results. Now wax on wax off and be patient, Danielsun.

 

[Tallone]

I have seen mentioned on numerous threads a "what to look for" type of thread, could someone please shoot me a link to this?

Welcome to TNET, SB! I think there are a few threads of this nature buried somewhere but the ones I have seen are nowhere near comprehensive. There really is no such thing as a complete list of items to look for. Such a list would have thousands of items on it which would be far too long to be of any use.

Successfully picking items at yard sales, thrift stores, auctions, etc. is more about recognizing quality and value than having a checklist of items. The more you know, the more good buys you will find. A good place to start building your knowledge base is to go to the beginning of this forum (way back in 2006) and read every thread (at least the first few posts on each thread). I did that (even after being a "picker" for several years) and I learned tons of useful info. There is a wealth of knowledge here and reading the threads is a great way to get rolling.

Here is a technique I use to this day to continue the endless process of building my knowledge base. I look at auction and estate sale listings as much as my time allows. Most of these listings have dozens (sometimes hundreds) of pictures. I browse the pictures and when I see something that I'm not familiar with, I look it up on eBay to see what the item sells for. Not what people are ASKING mind you. I want to know what somebody actually PAID for the item. Being able to search completed listings on eBay is one of the great benefits of that organization. I have discovered many, many things this way that I had no knowledge of before.

Good luck!

 

[OldSowBreath]

Tallone, Tamrock and dw171 know what they are talking about and heed their advice!

In the beginning, until you get comfortable, just concentrate on the marks for gold - 10K, 12K, 14K and 18K. In some foreign made pieces, the K will be in front of the number, i.e, K14. For now, stick with Silver that does say Sterling, or .925, 900, 825, etc. When you have free time, read through the hallmark links above. Its complicated, though. The other day, i bought a piece because it had like ten hallmarks. Not one of them meant silver, as I found out. I bought it for nothing, and that's sometime the fun! Another purchase that day was a bagged gold pearl and necklace with chain. Lady said it wasn't gold, but it felt and looked like gold, so I bought it for $2.00. It was a 14k (marked) Mikimoto. BTW, I bought an EMPTY Mikimoto box on ebay the other day for around $38.00. Never underestimate the value of name brand boxes. Look up Tiffany boxes, for example.

Also, pay attention to the posts of Diggumups and Cyberdan. They, and others on here are real pros.

It all comes from experience, and learning from this forum. Welcome and good luck!

 

[Tallone]

Let me add one other piece of advice. This applies equally well whether you only look for precious metals (or any other specific category) or, like me, you are more of a "generalist" who will buy pretty much anything that you believe you can make money on. That advice is: Get out there and buy something! There is no substitute for real world experience. Reading is great and I read all that I can but actual experience is a better teacher and is WAY more fun!

If you are just getting started, you probably shouldn't take on too much risk by making expensive buys. Set yourself a limit on how much you will spend on any given item and stick to it. It is a given that you will make some bad buys. That is part of the learning process. You just don't want to make a huge mistake that costs you hundred of dollars and kills all your profits for the next six months. It won't matter much if you spend $10 on something only to find out it is only worth $5. As you gain knowledge and experience you will make fewer mistakes and you can raise your limit. When I first started, I would spend no more than $5 on any one item. Now my limit is $100 per item except in very rare circumstances.

 

[Bassmaster96]

Welcome! As you probably know, sterling silver is not solid silver. I just wanted to make sure you knew that. I sell silverware, but I really don't buy it based on silver. I haven't found a silver or sterling piece yet. I have found a lot of plated, and it normally sells pretty good in lots. I try to get $1 each piece shipped on ebay in lots of 15 or 20, sometimes bigger. Christofle is one of the brands to look for. It is unmarked other than a small stamp inside the bowl of spoons. I don't know where it is on the forks etc. because I have only found one piece.

I am a lot better at fishing lures. If you need any help with those, let me know, send me a pm, or something and I'll help. Good luck!

 

[dejapooh]

When you are buying stuff for resale, my basic rule of thumb is that I will not pay more than 10 cents on the dollar. If something has a sales price of $50 on Amazon or Ebay, I would go $5 for it. Once you take into account fees, your expenses (your car, gas, food while hunting), Your time (I pay myself $20 an hour... If I am not making that much, it is not worth my time), items that don't sell, items that don't work, items that are not complete, etc... Once you take all of that into account, My $45 profit is about $15 to $20. That is not an outrageous profit. Of course, as things get more expensive, the risk and reward becomes greater. Do I want to risk $100 on that vase? I may get $1000, I may get $250... So far, I've not made a HUGE mistake. I think the worst I've done was $20 or $25 for some electronics that didn't work. The most I've spent was $250 on Silver Jewelry. I got Sterling Jewelry for $.15 to $.20 a gram. At that price, I bought every scrap they had on hand and threw it into my jewelry jar.

 

[Tallone]

This isn't intended as a criticism of your philosophy, dejapooh, so please don't take it that way. Whatever method works for you is fine with me but I think you may be missing a lot of very profitable deals by limiting yourself to items that will return 10 times your investment. Ten times your money is a 1,000% return. In my experience, profits of that magnitude are very difficult to come by unless you are talking about very low cost purchases.

I am more interested in the number of dollars my investment will return as opposed to the percentage increase of the return. I agree with you about taking into account your time and expenses. I do as well which is why I am looking for a minimum return of $50. But, I am willing to spend considerably more than $5 to get that $50 (or more) return. For example, I recently bought a miniature electric outboard motor at an auction. I paid $100 for it. I sold it a couple of weeks later for $200. In other words, I paid 50 cents on the dollar but I made a $100 gross profit. To put it another way, I made a 100% profit which would fall far short of your minimum criterion of 1,000% profit. Those numbers don't include fees but even with fees and taxes, my net profit was about a $70. I have made many similar deals and I'm very happy to make $50 or more each time. I don't always achieve that $50 return, of course, but that is my target.

 

[lookindown]

This isn't intended as a criticism of your philosophy, dejapooh, so please don't take it that way. Whatever method works for you is fine with me but I think you may be missing a lot of very profitable deals by limiting yourself to items that will return 10 times your investment. Ten times your money is a 1,000% return. In my experience, profits of that magnitude are very difficult to come by unless you are talking about very low cost purchases.

I am more interested in the number of dollars my investment will return as opposed to the percentage increase of the return. I agree with you about taking into account your time and expenses. I do as well which is why I am looking for a minimum return of $50. But, I am willing to spend considerably more than $5 to get that $50 (or more) return. For example, I recently bought a miniature electric outboard motor at an auction. I paid $100 for it. I sold it a couple of weeks later for $200. In other words, I paid 50 cents on the dollar but I made a $100 gross profit. To put it another way, I made a 100% profit which would fall far short of your minimum criterion of 1,000% profit. Those numbers don't include fees but even with fees and taxes, my net profit was about a $70. I have made many similar deals and I'm very happy to make $50 or more each time. I don't always achieve that $50 return, of course, but that is my target.

Yeah, dejapooh wouldn't have paid $100 for that motor unless he could have sold it for 1000$...10 times the return don't sound like a good rule of thumb to me...I would of been happy selling it for $200 like you did.

 

[dejapooh]

I will certainly go lower than 10% on more expensive items, But I would not touch $50 for $100, or even $100 for $200. $200 is about $160, after fees. Throw in your expenses and time and there is no real profit to talk about when compared to the risk of getting an item damaged in some way, incomplete, ect. A lot of those choices are based on how easy it is to sell. Is it Amazon (20 Seconds to list on Amazon). On ebay, how many are sold, what is the price range... So on... The biggest mistakes I've made were $75 for "$250" and so on. The $2 for $20 are my bread and Butter. I sell about $500 every 2 weeks on Amazon and another $200 or so a month on Ebay. I would say that on Amazon, about $300 of that $500 is $10 to $50 at a time.

 

[mkulltra]

The best advice I could give you is that if you want to win, you have to be in the game. What I mean by that is persistence pays off in this game. It's about getting to one more sale, getting to a sale half hour early, or going to a sale even if it's 11am and you've been going since 6am. It's about going to three junk sales in a row and instead of going home you hit that fourth or fifth sale and find a huge score. It's also about really looking at a sale or even a table and looking, really looking for what you or someone else missed. Or looking all the way to the bottom of a box and finding the treasure that's hiding under the junk. These are the things that make you successful in this business. It's not just luck or knowing the value of every item off the top of your head. The people that just try this a few times and give up are the ones that aren't willing to put the work in. But I promise you that if you push yourself and don't give up, you will be amazed by the treasure you will find.

Happy hunting to all of you. Thank you for all of the years allowing me to be part of this community.

 

[trdhrdr007]

IMO you have to have a blend of profit strategies if you want to get ahead. You also need to know what your real expenses are. I can list, pack, & ship most things in 20 minutes or less. Bottom line I want to make a minimum of $15 profit after fees for those 20 minutes. I really prefer to make that $15 on an item I paid $1 for...but I'll pay $20 for that item if it meets my guidelines for low risk of breakage & a guaranteed quick sale. The more I pay for an item the more I want to make but I'll settle for a double or less (after fees) when the purchase price gets over $20.

I've got a friend that is big on what he calls "residuals". He finds identical items in bulk for less than a dollar that he can drop in an envelope, bubble mailer, or poly mailer that sell for $5-10. He'll make one BIN listing that takes him 20 minutes. When someone buys it takes him less than 5 minutes to drop the item in the envelope & slap an address label on it. He may only make $3-8 in that 5 minutes but he'll do that 100-1000 times before he runs out of that item. I haven't found anything like that yet but I'm looking.

I also buy high dollar items for a lower profit margin. I don't have any problem paying $800 for something I know I can resell for $1000 within a few days. Of course I have to have a ready buyer with cash. I won't touch anything with such a small profit margin if there is any speculation involved.

 

[dejapooh]

I also buy high dollar items for a lower profit margin. I don't have any problem paying $800 for something I know I can resell for $1000 within a few days. Of course I have to have a ready buyer with cash. I won't touch anything with such a small profit margin if there is any speculation involved.

a $1000 sale on Ebay will have $100 in fees. You would risk $800 to make $100 after your work? I've seen too many items/ deals/ sales go wrong... Too many unbreakable items have broken. Too many packages have been mistracked by the post office... That's an awful lot of risk for a little reward. I was temped once on an $1100 motorcycle. 3 had sold for $3500 to $5000 in the last 3 weeks. none were on sale. I didn't have the cash on hand (I was in the middle of finishing a HUGE transaction for an Olympic Collection, and that was taking up all of my money). I mean, that was a risk, reward that was worth it. $800 to make $200 less fees, and other expenses? I don't see that.

 

[trdhrdr007]

a $1000 sale on Ebay will have $100 in fees. You would risk $800 to make $100 after your work? I've seen too many items/ deals/ sales go wrong... Too many unbreakable items have broken. Too many packages have been mistracked by the post office... That's an awful lot of risk for a little reward. I was temped once on an $1100 motorcycle. 3 had sold for $3500 to $5000 in the last 3 weeks. none were on sale. I didn't have the cash on hand (I was in the middle of finishing a HUGE transaction for an Olympic Collection, and that was taking up all of my money). I mean, that was a risk, reward that was worth it. $800 to make $200 less fees, and other expenses? I don't see that.

Re-read the 3rd & 4th sentences. I understand your objections but they don't apply in any way to the situation I described.

 

[cyberdan]

3. I have seen mentioned on numerous threads a "what to look for" type of thread, could someone please shoot me a link to this? I've looked and haven't been able to find it.

you could read my book, STOP for GOLD on kindle at Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Follow-Signs-STOP-GOLD-Thompson-ebook/dp/B00M5O0N8I

or on CD at the HOWTO guy

 

[batcap]

Welcome! As you probably know, sterling silver is not solid silver. I just wanted to make sure you knew that. I sell silverware, but I really don't buy it based on silver. I haven't found a silver or sterling piece yet. I have found a lot of plated, and it normally sells pretty good in lots. I try to get $1 each piece shipped on ebay in lots of 15 or 20, sometimes bigger. Christofle is one of the brands to look for. It is unmarked other than a small stamp inside the bowl of spoons. I don't know where it is on the forks etc. because I have only found one piece.

I am a lot better at fishing lures. If you need any help with those, let me know, send me a pm, or something and I'll help. Good luck!

Hey Bassmaster96!
I don't want to put words in your mouth, so I'll put my foot in mine . . .
Sterling is SOLID silver. it just isn't PURE silver. The sterling on top is the same sterling in the middle . . . unless qualifying terms( like "overlay", or "weighted") or outright fraud occur.The same could be said for pure (999...) silver.

 

[Bassmaster96]

Yeah, pure would have been a better word there. Thanks.

 

[skeletonbuster]

Thank you to everyone that responded, I appreciate the insight. I wish there was a hard and fast list of things to buy, but was just looking for more odd ball thins that you wouldn't normally think of (like sewing/knitting patterns for example). But everything I've read has been very informational

 

[Beachkid23]

Google top 100 things that sell on eBay. I know there is a list out there somewhere. Finding them after you get the list is the next project!