I’m sure you’ve all seen the shows by now, or at least heard of them: “American Pickers” on History Channel, where two guys who collect junk drive all over the country and purchase items from collectors on the back roads, then flip the items for a profit. Sometimes they get a big payout, sometimes they don’t. Likewise, A&E;’s “Storage Wars” works along similar lines. The high bidder gets an abandoned storage locker for pennies on the dollar and can sometimes hit pay dirt, and sometimes, have something that even the local landfill wouldn’t want or take. In both cases, it’s a matter of trial and error. There is a lot more work involved with it than one might think, as a lot of effort, research, and time, as well as a bit of money will go into it.
My dad was one of these guys who would act like a kid at Christmas over a box of random junk he’d purchase at a yard sale, auction, or flea market he’d pay a couple dollars for. Our home in Bernice, as well as our home in Grove, were a picker’s dream warehouse. He’d meet up with other people into the picking so I became a fan of these shows to take me back. But when the economy crapped out and I fell onto some financial hard times, I started to examine this idea a little more closely.
I rent a house so I’m sure my landlady wouldn’t appreciate me stockpiling junk that pickers would like, but, I am careful to try to select items that I can easily store and not have much of a fuss with. Here’s some of my tips that might help you too get a piece of the trash to cash phenomenon. These tips and guidelines aren’t in any particular order, so please study them carefully.
My first bit of advice is to start small, say, with a reasonable amount that won’t break your budget. Limit yourself to just this amount and if you find a prospective person to buy from, make an offer lower than the price on the item, but higher than you are actually willing to pay and you might end up getting it for the price you had in mind. If you start small and then work up, you will at least only at least be out $20 if you can’t flip your item right away.
Before you ever start out though, watch these shows and find out what people are buying. Do some research in other places too, and find out what places are buying what. You can look at the “bid only” auctions to see what’s moving by browsing sites like eBay and Amazon, but you can also pick up those free papers like “Big Nickel” or “Thrifty Nickel” or similar and browse the ads in these papers, because collectors of certain things will post “wanted to buy” ads for what they are looking for. This may range from old chairs to re-upholster and resell, or car parts. One thing to keep in mind if researching eBay is to check only the “Bid only” auctions because the items that have bids will give you a ball park figure of what people are willing to pay for something should you choose to sell in this manner, and you can price your item accordingly once the auction is over with. BUT, be aware that you may come away with a deal that could profit you in a big way too, so the next part is to research and have things appraised. (More on appraisal in a bit.)
Also, during your research process, stop at flea markets, yard sales, and thrift shops and observe what people are picking up and buying, what they are leaving alone. If you visit consignment shops, you can get a pretty good idea of what kinds of items they buy to resell. If you happen to find Atari and Nintendo games from the 80’s for $10, and there are 50 games in there, you can sell these for a few bucks apiece at somewhere like Game Exchange for money or store credit! It may be a small profit but it’s still a profit.
Once you have obtained an item, it is best to research it further and have it appraised. This is important because certain things you can do to an item may affect its resale value. If you have ever watched “Antique’s Roadshow” you will know that something that looks dirty or has a patina will be diminished in value if you clean it. So an appraiser will tell you what you must do to something in order to get the maximum value out of it, which includes whether or not it can be painted or fixed, etc.
Search around, ask people who sell like items about what restoration would cost, if any (as if you choose to refurbish something that’s sellable but broken, you may have to pay more to get it fixed for resale, if it’s even worth doing this.) Get a second opinion if necessary. If the person you’re having appraise an item is willing to buy it for more than what you paid for it, that’s fine, but don’t expect them to give you what the item is worth, because they’re going to want to make money on it too. This is something to keep in mind. But, if you don’t mind this at all and are only out to make a good small profit on your item, this is a good way to get started until you build up a network of dealers.
Often dealers and collectors will closely guard their sources and keep it to themselves. This is a strategy they use to make themselves the most money. Others don’t mind sharing their resources or giving you a reference, especially if you buy or outbid them on an item they wanted. They might be willing to compromise if you don’t want a particular item, and trade or buy it from you. Oblige them because if they end up getting a big pay out on it, yes, it was your loss, but they will be more likely to give up their help you in the future to find an appraiser or cool buyer for your stuff.
Yes, this can be a lot of work, as you can see. But it can be fun too and so here comes the fun part. Looking for this stuff. It can seem a bit overwhelming at first but if you know what people are looking for, what collectors are willing to pay, and what’s hot at the moment. A good rule of thumb however is that something is only worth what a person is willing to pay for it. Good places to start: landfills, dumpsters (provided you keep in mind you can run into dangerous things like broken glass, medical waste, and biohazardous stuff so proceed with caution at these places) so long as you have permission to enter them. I include these because they can be a resource for things like old soda coolers, and appliances that have working parts, or contain metals that bring big bucks like copper, or, if you end up being one of these people who deals in used appliances, using these things for salvage parts. If you want to go cleaner, start at yard sales and estate auctions. Ask if you can see if items are working before you buy them. They won’t do you much good if you buy something that doesn’t work. Car salvage yards are also a pretty good place to look, because you can sometimes come away with alternators or catalytic converters (for example) that you can then turn around and sell to auto parts recycling centers and receive a core fee for it…and sometimes but not always, you can get more than you paid for them.
There really is no right or wrong place to look for items to resell.
Know some bargaining language. The key here is to never let the person know you’re going to resell the item, especially if you happen to luck upon something they have under priced. If you see something for fifty cents, for example, that you know you can re-sell on eBay for $50, they may change their mind on the item if you let them know it’s worth more than what they put on it, and then sell it for that themselves.
So, play it cool, act genuinely interested in the item (because you are, just probably not for the reasons they think.) and cut them a deal.
This is something to keep in mind: sometimes you can fall in love with something and be tempted to keep every item for yourself. This is an easy trap to fall into, and it is OK to indulge once in a while, especially if you happen to find a DVD box set of a TV show you’ve been missing from your collection for $2 or a knick knack that fits in with your collection of similar items. But, you should try to stay focused on sniffing out items that collectors are going to like that will turn a profit. If you are keeping all the stuff you’re buying, the only way to turn a profit is to attract other pickers. This is perfectly fine if this is your goal: to build an inventory. Since this is not always practical and you can easily become a hoarder with this hobby, that’s why starting small is good advice.
You are probably wondering what kinds of items to avoid. I don’t think there’s an easy answer to this question simply because you never know what someone is willing to shell out money for. That’s why doing a bit of research into what people are making the most money on at any given time, is essential. So there’s not any particular thing to shy away from, but a few guidelines: stay away from cribs, car seats, and any recalled toys, (in the case of toys, only buy them if you can be certain they’ll go to a collector home and not be given to a child.) broken, torn, stained items, unless they can be easily restored or cleaned at low cost, anything contaminated by insects like roaches or bed bugs, (again, unless you can clean it and eradicate them for low cost), junk jewelry unless it’s something like Bakelite, and things like florists bud vases. These things are a dime a dozen and unless it’s genuine depression glass made by Heisey or Tiffany, you’re not going to make anything on these things. Anything with a unique story behind it will often sell big and sometimes, if you can authenticate the story. (this pair of glasses belonged to Ernest Hemingway for example will drive up the price due to its association with the person.) If you have promotional stuff from a hotel that is historic, but no longer exists, some folks might appreciate this piece of history if it’s significant enough. Know what kinds of things depreciate in value and what kinds of things gain value over time. The sky really is the limit, but lots of work and time will have to go into it.
A few more tips: when buying things like coin and stamp collections, don’t expect to hit pay dirt and find an Upside-down Jenny Stamp or ultra-rare double struck quarter right off the bat. You could get lucky but often, you just end up with a run of the mill stamp or coin collection, but don’t despair. If you paid for it, someone else is willing to pay for it.
You may get a better deal if you deal with people by bundling things together…for example, “I’ll give you the $5 asking price on these drapes if you’ll knock $1 off the cost of this box of VCR tapes”, or “this leather skirt will look good with those boots. Would you take $5 for both?” Often times, people don’t sell stuff to make money, so much as to just get rid of it. If you happen to luck across a yard sale where the person just wants to get rid of it, you can get some really good prices for things cheaply. So search your papers for “moving sales” and you may find a lot of good, vintage, items for little or nothing.
The key with this is to have fun. It can become a full time business, and can even be very lucrative if you just be careful and know what’s being bought and sold at any given time. You will have a lot of fun, meet new people, and make some money to keep the lights on to boot if you work at it. Have fun. It would be nice if you would comment your fabulous finds in the comments section. Thanks.
