Because we are extremely lazy, we've decided to throw away our possessions, rather than pack the stuff and then pay for it to get moved. Last week, we caught our breath and decided to see if we could sell some of our stuff, rather than leaving everything for the Veterans for pick up on Wednesdays.
Over the weekend, we put some crap on eBay for the first time. We probably shouldn't be wasting our time with getting ten bucks here and ten bucks there. It actually does take a lot of time to list and mail stuff out. But it's amusing to see what people like and what they don't.
I'm wrangling four kids today. We're off to the swim club in a bit. I probably should write something about the stock market, but I don't have the brain power for it at the moment. Instead, I offer a quiz. Guess which of this stuff is gathering the most interest and what is worth a surprising amount of money.
11 old Thomas VHS videos.
War board games from 1983.
A model boat that had belonged to Steve's grandfather, which was painted by pre-teen Steve.
A hobnail milk glass lamp that I bought at an estate sale ten years ago, when I was going through a Vintage Granny stage.
A photograph that I bought at the same estate sale. It had belonged to an old German Jewish lady. Wonder what happened to that little girl.
We're keeping the wooden Thomas set, but decided to sell the plastic set.
Quiz: What is worth the most money? Which item has gotten the most clicks? What has sold so far?
Apt. 11d 
For most money, I’m going with the Panzer Leader game. I think we have one of those (unopened) in my parents’ basement.
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Panzer leader as well. How about telling Jonah he can do the labor and keep the profits.
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I’m guessing the Thomas track set has gotten the most clicks but not sold because people keep clicking but they actually want the wood track with the lead paint.
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I think the Thomas track set has gotten the most clicks, and sold. There are more wooden sets out there (in my opinion), so the supply of plastic sets is limited.
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I don’t know the valuations on a lot of the stuff, but the milk glass lamp may be a surprise hit. Depression glass is very big these days, and that’s sort of a distant cousin.
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We Craigslist stuff periodically and it’s always a surprise what people will take. I once had about 8 calls for a free windchime.
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Oh! A quiz!
I’m going to guess the board game as the item that gets the most clicks and sells for the most. And then maybe the plastic tracks. I’d guess the lamp and framed photo get the least amount of interest. I think you’re the person who once said “Nobody wants your sh*t”?
I am personally fond of the boat and the Thomas videos are quite nostalgic for me. We still have some of those in the basement somewhere.
Ebay is crazy, though. So I’m not betting that I’m right.
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The model boat is actually a 1910 Pond Yacht, which is much prized by decorators for use in palatial beach homes. When restored, the boat is worth $5,000. We had originally listed the boat at $25. Oops.
The plastic Thomas tracks sold immediately for $40.
We had a bid on the war game for $25.
And the item with the most page views are the Thomas VHS tapes.
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Oh, I missed it! But this is fun and I wasn’t going to try to guess anyway. I just wanted to let you know that we have double, perhaps TRIPLE the Thomas tracks that you have. And now I CANNOT let my boys know that you sold this for 40 because they might want to get money for another iPad or something! 😉 They do play with it SO MUCH, though (in fact, they’re doing it as we speak downstairs) that I don’t want to part with it.
WOW… that boat is worth 5K? WOW! I hope you can sell it for a decent amount.
Haha… the tapes! We have a LOT of Thomas, but all on DVD, some recently bought. My boys really are crazy about Thomas, even though they’re 9.5 & 7. ;).
Fun!
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You know, but it’s good to know people buy this stuff (and we have a respectable collection of trains and accessories and adaptors (from blue to beige track) that I bought on e-bay from England + other stuff (total of 50 dollars!) because…
Kelvin is so into trains that he wants to own a model railway someday (and we actually want to put one in our garden perhaps, like Philly’s Arboretum or Longwood garden’s), so I think it’s a good idea to take good care of our tracks, sheds, tressle bridges, movie tie-in sets, trains and the DVDs and hope they’ll sell well a few years from now. 🙂
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The boat does look nice.
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“When restored, the boat is worth $5,000. We had originally listed the boat at $25. Oops.”
You might easily have thrown it out or given it to Goodwill.
Speaking of treasures in plain sight, one of my relatives recently discovered that one of the trees on some land he recently bought is a type of maple suitable for violins and worth probably between $3k and $5k.
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We have a copy of Panzer Leader, too, but there’s no way you’re prying it out of Mike’s hands. He still plays the game a couple of times a year. Thank heavens for a spacious family room in which to play board games!
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We have family legends of stuff ancestors tossed out. My uncle claims our great-grandparents got tired of the old stuff (Chippendale), and got rid of it to make space for the hottest, newest furniture–heavy, Victorian mahogany.
Then there’s the branch of the family which felt it was sensible to store used mattresses in unheated sheds. Their descendants had to cart off the decades-old, musty results of their frugality.
Ebay makes sense! Much better than letting it all rot.
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Janice, tell Mike to take a look at http://www.2xsindustries.com/. He will lose his mind and you will lose him.
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Their descendants had to cart off the decades-old, musty results of their frugality.
That would describe the carpets on the floor of a house I looked at this weekend except nobody carted anything off.
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“That would describe the carpets on the floor of a house I looked at this weekend except nobody carted anything off.”
Househunting?
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Sort of, but I don’t often go look. This was curiously cheap for its street, so I wanted to see why. It was about what I expected. They’ll probably get close to their asking price if asbestos isn’t involved and the global economy stays solvent until the end of the month. For us, it was just too small to justify the trouble.
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Wow. That photo looks very similar to the photo of my grandmother on our dresser — another old Jewish lady, once young, now passed away.
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My guess was true to form, I suppose.
Champagne taste (in yachts), Thomas the Tank Engine VHS tapes budget.
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