Went for Legos, left with jewelry.

Everester

Jr. Member
Mar 8, 2014
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Mid Michigan
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So I have been doing very very well with hitting up rummage sales with Legos posted early in the morning. I saw one posted yesterday that was a little over an hour away and decided to hit it since they said they had alot of collectible sets. Well I was 15 minutes late for the rummage because of road work. The rummage was a multi family one as well as a partial estate sale. I went right over to the Legos but was disappointed that they were all marked sky high. Higher then what I could have sold them for on eBay. The kid who had them in the rummage looked them all up and went by listed eBay prices. So I started looking around and saw a lot of people gathered in one area. Went over to it and saw there were 4 large boxes of jewelry. I had to wait awhile to actually get to them and almost left because I figured 20 minutes into the sale and with so many people picking out multiple pieces there wouldn't be anything good left. Wow was I wrong. I ended up spending $21 on the jewelry.

This first one was a grab bag I bought because I saw the baseball mitt pendant in it. It cost $3 for the whole bag. These are what I pulled out of it.

image.jpg

All of the gold in the picture is 14k.

These are the silver pieces I ended up with that were all separate items.

image.jpg

These are the gold pieces I ended up with that were all separate items. The heart pendant and the earrings that are missing their pearls are 10k. Everything else is 14k except for the piece that is holding pendants on the large necklace, that piece is 18k.

image.jpg

All together I ended up with 84.3g of silver, 1.6g of 18k, 28.8g of 14k, and 5.7g of 10k. Some of the pieces are singed so I will have to start looking them up.

Then on the way home I bought a $3 instant lotto ticket and won $25. That paid for all my jewelry.
 

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billjustbill

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Feb 23, 2008
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LUCKY day...just saw the $25 lottery ticket comment.

Everester,

Now you had some good luck today!! Patience and Persistence are two talents you seem to possess and also use well. Plus, I do like the way you see how to spread out your options to end up with more dollars!

Several years ago, when Lockheed/Martin bought General Dynamics, they reduced all types of inventory. At a surplus business, I found 13 reels of Unidirectional (one direction), 7/1000's thick, six inch wide Carbon Fiber and bought everyone. The R/C flyers love this stuff because it light as Balsa but strong as steel when overlaid on wing spars and skins. I began selling it at $2 a running foot or 12ft for $20.00. Each reel listed the total length on it as high as 85 meters. Early on, one group of R/C flyers from far West Texas got together and asked to buy a full reel. For the bulk buying, I priced it at $1.50 a foot, and the first reel brought just under $400.00.... The second time I sold a full reel, economic times had changed and I sold a 60 meter reel for $300.00. I'm down to 4 reels, and about 6 months ago I sold a 3rd reel, there is "stay at home hobby money" out there, and I got just over $450.00. Each reel cost me $10.

Let one hobby fund another and you'll find dollars from one to make another hobby not only better, but have some dollars left over to spend on home expenses, too.

Metal Detecting, woodworking, garage sales, and selling carbon fiber and related R/C items at a large R/C swap meet, lets one hobby fund another.....This blending process has paid for deep insulating and finishing out the inside of my workshop, buying woodworking tools and equipment, and is now fully funding my upcoming solar panel electric project.

Keep looking and keep blending your hobbies!
Bill
 

Last edited:

diggummup

Gold Member
Jul 15, 2004
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Everester,
Let one hobby fund another and you'll find dollars from one to make another hobby not only better, but have some dollars left over to spend on home expenses, too.
Bill
Sounds familiar. Good advice.

:icon_thumright:Nice finds on the gold and silver. You can never dismiss a pile of jewelry just because people have already ravaged through it. People miss all kinds of things all the time. This thread is just one example.
 

Rodbuster209

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Oct 26, 2010
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Wow! Home run for sure! I would be stoked for a week!
 

Butter Hat

Sr. Member
Apr 6, 2014
389
282
In ur innerwebz
Primary Interest:
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Everester,

Now you had some good luck today!! Patience and Persistence are two talents you seem to possess and also use well. Plus, I do like the way you see how to spread out your options to end up with more dollars!

Several years ago, when Lockheed/Martin bought General Dynamics, they reduced all types of inventory. At a surplus business, I found 13 reels of Unidirectional (one direction), 7/1000's thick, six inch wide Carbon Fiber and bought everyone. The R/C flyers love this stuff because it light as Balsa but strong as steel when overlaid on wing spars and skins. I began selling it at $2 a running foot or 12ft for $20.00. Each reel listed the total length on it as high as 85 meters. Early on, one group of R/C flyers from far West Texas got together and asked to buy a full reel. For the bulk buying, I priced it at $1.50 a foot, and the first reel brought just under $400.00.... The second time I sold a full reel, economic times had changed and I sold a 60 meter reel for $300.00. I'm down to 4 reels, and about 6 months ago I sold a 3rd reel, there is "stay at home hobby money" out there, and I got just over $450.00. Each reel cost me $10.

Let one hobby fund another and you'll find dollars from one to make another hobby not only better, but have some dollars left over to spend on home expenses, too.

Metal Detecting, woodworking, garage sales, and selling carbon fiber and related R/C items at a large R/C swap meet, lets one hobby fund another.....This blending process has paid for deep insulating and finishing out the inside of my workshop, buying woodworking tools and equipment, and is now fully funding my upcoming solar panel electric project.

Keep looking and keep blending your hobbies!
Bill

Great advice!
 

billjustbill

Bronze Member
Feb 23, 2008
1,089
659
Texas
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How can anyone be so lucky!


Doing things like this help improve my "luck".... :thumbsup:

Get out EARLY on garage sale mornings. Spend under $8 for a 5x to 8x power L.E.D. lit pocket magnifying glass for those times where garage and indoor lighting is the pits, and use in when at estate sales while looking into deep bookshelves, lower dark cabinets and shelves in unlighted closets. Be willing to go to garage sales out in the county where fewer pickers choose to go.

If the jewelry is in baggies, on ones you are not sure of, politely ask if you can take the item out to keep from spending your money on junk jewelry you'll have to sell later on. If there are lots of baggies, go to the bottom of the pile first. The smaller and lighter PM baggies get pushed to the bottom as the heavier junk baggies are pulled out first then put back on top.

If you have a partner, wife, or girlfriend, get them to go with you. Two pair of eyes see more than one, plus, they can help hold questionable baggies and let you get more so you can move away from the feeding frenzy to slow down and carefully look at the items you've found. (One lady we see sells on Ebay and basically does all the above, but the one thing that seems to outwardly frustrate her is when she sees my wife and I at the same sale she's at. She knows she's "out numbered". She will even ask to see what we found by begrudgingly saying: "Now, let me see what I missed."..... Her frustration is purely of her own making and it costs her in the end. One week she showed up at a sale in a newer different car. I asked her if she'd made enough at garage sales to buy it. Because she is seen with scrapes and dents on the sides and rear end of her Dodge Minivan because of driving like a "bat out of heaven", she bluntly replied, "No, it's a loaner while mine is in the body shop." )

Lastly, follow those garage sale signs that were not put in the internet and local classified ads. I've found some of my best finds just following garage sale signs seen when in between and on the way to those sales I've planned to go to. Also look to see if the sign appears "New" and not an old one that was never retrieved.

Hope this helps improve your luck,
Bill
 

OP
OP
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Everester

Jr. Member
Mar 8, 2014
49
84
Mid Michigan
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
One of my best advantages is that I can read all of the marking on the jewelry with my naked eye. I have another friend who goes with me sometimes and he gets so mad because I don't need to use a magnifying glass to read stuff. This is the first year I have been hitting the rummages and hunting for stuff and have been doing pretty well. I am still under the $100 mark on what i spent for jewelry and including what I just got I have over 50 pieces of gold and about 150 pieces of silver. I made over $3000 profit last month on Legos that I bought and haven't even posted half of the ones I bought. My goal was to make $3000 for the whole summer and I hit that in the first few weeks. I am holding all of the jewelry for now since I have been doing so well with the other stuff.
 

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