Things that I hunt for at garage sales / thrift stores

[famous turtle treasures]

I go hit up thrift stores on a daily basis to find things to sell on eBay. I wanted to share with everyone the things that I look for while I am hunting, to help others find things to sell, and to learn what other people look for.

I have a pretty large list, and it grows with every new piece of information I get so here goes.

FamousTurtle2010's 2011 hunting list

The first part is pretty broad, and if you don't know what they are I can explain better later.

The first 7 cover all type of decor..

Hollywood Regency items

Atomic items

Danish Modern items

Ea mes Era items

Space Age items

Machine Age items

Brutalist age items

Swag lamps - Amber being least desirable

Waterford Crystal

Vintage pendleton wool items

Harris Tweed items

Gold and silver anything

Pyrex - I sell a lot of pyrex, unfortunately I end up paying more at thrift stores

Vintage stainless steel items made in the USA.

Vintage video game systems

Unusual items

Vintage big box computer games ( I collect these )

Vintage Syroco items, especially wood. I am still looking for syroco cork screws they are a couple hundred a piece.

Vintage and modern model kits - Unused preferably, but I have sold some models that were already started.

Domino Rally - The domino rally blocks go for around .11-.15 cents a piece alone. I have sold every domino rally I have ever had.

Vintage slot car race tracks / and modern model slot car track.

Vintage hotwheel / matchbox tracks - I wish I knew more about the cars, if anyone has any information on them please let me know!

Depression glass

Vaseline glass / Uranium glass - I have sold every piece I have ever found. Plus it just looks cool

Vintage barware

Vintage cocktail glasses - I like to get my drink on, so these are always fun to find. My wife make me keep some of them though.

Dorothy Thorpe glassware.

I will add to the list when I think of something else.

 

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[SEANO]

Thanks, I'll be printing this out. I could us some additional details on the beginning items.

 

[cyberdan]

Boy Turtle I lead a very sheltered narrow life.
I mostly look for gold/silver/brass/copper

I have not even heard of half of your top list items.
I think I will be doing some googling now.
There are well over 75 thrift store within a 15 mile radius of me.

do you pics of links to what you reccommend?
I do try to limit my buys to what will ship in a 9 x 11 x 10 box or smaller.
Or what already is in its own shipable box.

 

[Unicorn]

I have found some lovely little pieces of crystal ware at car boot, or garage sales, also some pieces of porcelain. I do wish I knew how to post pictures tho, maybe I need to buy a digi camera first lol (sorry for the pun)... Also if a painting catches my eye and it's reasonable priced I will buy that. The only problem is, that some of the pieces look so good when you have cleaned them up, you don't want to sell them. Yet, I do know that some of the pieces of porcelain I have brought are over a hundred years old.

 

[famous turtle treasures]

Any recommendations on crystal ware and porcelain to lookout for? I tend to stay away from paintings. I did pick up some mid century teak inlay wall art on the way back from our honeymoon. I paid $15.00 and sold it for $59.00, I also picked up some 60s gravel art peacocks for $2.00 and sold them for 69.99.

I am going to go over the more broad decor areas that I listed. I am by no means an expert, and these decor styles are sort of up for interpretation which helps out for selling stuff.

#1 Hollywood Regency - Think of vintage items that look expensive. Hollywood regency can also be referred to as Hollywood Glam. They can be brass, plastic, wood, or whatever. Faux bamboo is considered HR and can fetch a nice price. I sell HR faux bamboo cocktail trays for $20-30.00

Here is an example http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130466318125&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT#ht_852wt_907. For some reason it won't let me put pictures in, and I don't use photobucket.

#2 Atomic - This one spills into space age. Vintage starburst items or even just things with starbursts on them but they have to be vintage.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130454831180&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT#ht_852wt_907

#3 Danish Modern decor - If you find it cheap buy it! Most danish modern stuff is wood, and its made of teak. Its sort of hard to describe, I would recommend doing research.
If I find any danish items, I buy it even if its modern.

#4 Eames Era - If it look retro or funky its probably eames era. They didn't have a lot of defined lines back then. Think of the egg chair.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...4032106&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT#ht_1302wt_992

#5 Machine Age - This one can sort of spill into other categories but think if items that look fabricated, or look like other stuff, You sort of have to use your imagination with this one to see them. Art deco sort of fits in with machine age too.

Here is a lamp I sold. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=130449840690#ht_752wt_907

It looks a plane wings on the top.

I also have a bullet smoothie cartridge used for
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130450157288&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT#ht_752wt_907

Brutalist - I have no brutalist stuff but its basically raw fabricated material usually metal. Think metal hit with a blow torch and turned into a swag lamp.

Space age - That aurora clock I gave the link for in my completed listing post is a perfect example of space age.

Well thats all for now, I have to go grill up some steak soon!

 

[My Precious]

#2 Atomic - This one spills into space age. Vintage starburst items or even just things with starbursts on them but they have to be vintage.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...sPageName=STRK:MESE:IT#ht_852wt_907

I'VE GOT ONE OF THESE IN THE GARAGE, OR AT LEAST A SIMILAR ONE, THAT I'LL HAVE TO DIG OUT AND TAKE A LOOK AT IT. MAYBE I'LL POST A PIC IF I CAN FIND IT. I KNOW I PAID ONLY A BUCK FOR IT AND THOUGHT I COULD MAKE A FEW OFF IT IN NEXT YEARS GARAGE SALE BUT MAYBE I'LL TRY IT ON EBAY MYSELF...I'VE SOLD ON EBAY FOR SOME TIME NOW BUT HAVE BEEN HESITANT ABOUT SHIPPING GLASS ITEMS, ANY TIPS ON SHIPPING/PACKING THESE ITEMS? THAT IS MY BIGGEST DREAD OF SELLING ON EBAY...SHIPPING!!!

 

[famous turtle treasures]

Yeah the sconce in the picture I paid $3.99 and sold if for $69.99. Its all about the listing title. I ship a lot of glassware, I have had stuff break on me more than once, but I have never had any issues with bad feedback, I try my best to make sure things work out for both parties. Overpacking is very important for glassware, Bubble wrap is a must. I usually do a combination or large bubble wrap with packing paper as a filler. I picked up a paper shredder at a thrift store so I shred up all my junk mail and use that as filler. If you are doing glassware, and you can shake the box and hear something moving thats usually not a good thing. Eventually when I get some time I want to try making my own packing peanuts from corn starch. Should be a good experiment.

I am shipping a swag lamp to german tomorrow. Its going to be a big ship.

 

[Unicorn]

Posting glass ware over seas is abit difficult. About 12 months ago I shipped a small crystal perfume bottle to the US, but it never arrived. On reflection I think it had something to do with airport security, because at the time terriorists were using bottles to put explosives in. If you remember no more bottles were allowed for a period of time, but I think that ban has been lifted now. I must admit I was rather silly, but this parcel also had a collectable wrist watch in it, and of course a scanner would immediately pick that up. A very naive thing to do under the circumstances.

U.

 

[billjustbill]

[quote Vintage Corning percolators - I have 8 of them, you can't sell them on ebay so if anyone is interested I sell them on my website /quote]

I was wondering why you can't sell them?

Thanks,
Bill

 

[famous turtle treasures]

Well certain corning models were recalled due to the way they were manufactured, ebay does not allow recalled items to be sold on ebay. These percolators have since become very collectable. I have managed to sell 2 of them on ebay, but I got slapped with a policy violation on 2 more, so I don't try to sell them on ebay anymore. The first one I sold went within 5 minutes of posting it. The second one took a couple of days, but it sold for $59.99. You can still buy the parts for the percolators on ebay, just not the body. The electrical cord for a corning percolator alone can go for $20.00

 

[SEANO]

Well certain corning models were recalled due to the way they were manufactured, ebay does not allow recalled items to be sold on ebay. These percolators have since become very collectable. I have managed to sell 2 of them on ebay, but I got slapped with a policy violation on 2 more, so I don't try to sell them on ebay anymore. The first one I sold went within 5 minutes of posting it. The second one took a couple of days, but it sold for $59.99. You can still buy the parts for the percolators on ebay, just not the body. The electrical cord for a corning percolator alone can go for $20.00

$20 For the cord, wow. Good to know. I would have thrown it in my wire scrap bin.

 

[cyberdan]

Yet, I do know that some of the pieces of porcelain I have brought are over a hundred years old.

That is a problem I have whenever in the UK. I collect certain types blue & white china and there are so many and all seem to be over 100 years old. They are priced very good compared with this side of the world. The problem is I can't buy all I want. I will either run out of money or can't carry everything back.

 

[famous turtle treasures]

That reminds me, I have a pitcher I would like you guys to look at, I know its old, but I can't find much out about it, I will post pics later.

 

[boogeyman]

I buy up the odds & ends cabinet hardware and the bags of 25 cabinet handles, door knobs lamp parts etc. Great to have on hand for restorations. Two weeks ago I grabbed a coffee can of cabinet knobs for $1.25. They were $4.95 ea at Home Depot I sold them for $3 ea. I've got several other restorers and a bunch of antique stores that will buy all my hardware or vintage electrical stuff at a good price. Sometimes I'll trade with them also.

 

[famous turtle treasures]

Yeah, I picked up two lots of drawer pulls recently. One lot was 19 porcelain pulls with a european theme of houses and animals, then another lot of 19 "Streamline " Chevron pulls.

I sold the porcelain pulls for $39.99, and the chevron ones I sold for $59.99, not a bad price since I paid $2.99 for each lot.

Wish I could find more, I think I need to go take a look at habitat for humanity.

What do you mean by vintage electrical stuff? Light fixtures? I was at a thrift store that had some old stained glass light fixtures for $6.95 each. I think I should have picked them up.

 

[Reverend B*IKE*]

Yet, I do know that some of the pieces of porcelain I have brought are over a hundred years old.

That is a problem I have whenever in the UK. I collect certain types blue & white china and there are so many and all seem to be over 100 years old. They are priced very good compared with this side of the world. The problem is I can't buy all I want. I will either run out of money or can't carry everything back.

If you have buyers here that want it and a quick turn around why dont you try shipping direct to your outlet or yourself?

 

[boogeyman]

Yeah, I picked up two lots of drawer pulls recently. One lot was 19 porcelain pulls with a european theme of houses and animals, then another lot of 19 "Streamline " Chevron pulls.

I sold the porcelain pulls for $39.99, and the chevron ones I sold for $59.99, not a bad price since I paid $2.99 for each lot.

Wish I could find more, I think I need to go take a look at habitat for humanity.

What do you mean by vintage electrical stuff? Light fixtures? I was at a thrift store that had some old stained glass light fixtures for $6.95 each. I think I should have picked them up.

Insulators, brass parts from table lamps, crystals, harps for lamps, glass shades like on ceiling fans. If you luck out and find old antique or unusual light bulbs put them in an old porcelin socket add a piece of oak for a base & your $1.00 bulb is now a $15 display piece. Lamp shades in decent condition always sell good for me. Even stained or torn ones will sell to antique stores if they do restorations.

Stained glass anything! you should be able to at least triple your money.

 

[SEANO]

I buy up the odds & ends cabinet hardware and the bags of 25 cabinet handles, door knobs lamp parts etc. Great to have on hand for restorations. Two weeks ago I grabbed a coffee can of cabinet knobs for $1.25. They were $4.95 ea at Home Depot I sold them for $3 ea. I've got several other restorers and a bunch of antique stores that will buy all my hardware or vintage electrical stuff at a good price. Sometimes I'll trade with them also.

Any recommendations on where to sell draw/cab pulls? I have around 100. Most are newer, picked up at GS's. They do go for $3-$5 AT HD. I threw the solid brass ones in my yellow brass bin (yellow brass now $1.85lb). They rest are plated or decorated, but not old or antique looking.

BUY YELLOW BRASS ITEMS IF CHEAP. Be aware that many yellow brass items are alum., so feel the weight and or use a file to check color underneath.

 

[boogeyman]

I've been messing with hardware for years and years. Best advice I can give you is spend a little time building a raport with antique dealers restoration shops decorators etc close to your area. Usually they get in touch with you looking for stuff they need immediately. They usually have the cash in hand & offer more than what you'd ask. Be fair in your prices for them and your reputation will grow. You'll get calls & referals this way. Newer / current stuff = field trip to Depot Lowes etc. Check their prices & price your stuff just under. There's a ton of sites on the web that will buy old unique items & are a warehouse of info. If you just want to focus on newer hardware, hit up the manufacturers for catalogs, linecards & price sheets. Most are real glad to send you info or direct you to their site. You can DL the info & put it together with Adobe writer or similar and keep with you when you go swap meeting or garage sale browsing.

Try running wanted ads on Craigs List for junk screws nuts & bolts. You'll be pleasantly surprised whats offered to you! Another good source is junk yards. The ones close to me will let me search piles & one guy (small operation) calls me when he gets a bucket or two. Can't really beat a bucket of hardware for "by the pound prices". I get lots of lock hardware from him also.

 

[famous turtle treasures]

Great info thanks! I will have to see what is in this area. What exactly is yellow brass? Are you referring to brass that figurines are made out of?

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