'Unpack for Profit'
by Lynn A. Dralle, 'The Queen of Auctions'

OK, before I get started on this week's adventure/article, I want to update you on what happened with the offer on the golf mugs from last week. One sold for $32.77 and the other for $26.77. Now, if you recall, I was offered $100 for both. I left $40.46 on the table. A bit of a disappointment, however, I still believe in my policy to NEVER add a Buy It Now and end an in-demand auction early.

I also received this great email from Kathy which made me feel better about my decision and policy:

Hello Lynn,

Your last Ezine was sooooo true!!

NEVER, EVER end an auction early or add an immediate Buy It Now price the first time you list an item.

Get excited any time someone writes and asks you to end an item like this. Here's why. Back in 1983 I attended an antique auction in New England and purchased a beautiful little cobalt blue vase hand painted with white cherubs and angels. It was made in Meissen Germany with the crossed blue swords mark on the underside. The auction was well attended by knowledgeable antique dealers. At the time, I paid $125 for this vase as I just had to have it. It was really gorgeous and in excellent condition. It stood just 6" tall.

Read on to see what this Meissen treasure brought on eBay!

In 2005 I decided to sell the vase on eBay. I figured the price must have increased during the 22 years I had it and took it to Skinners Auction Gallery where they told me it was worth about $400-600 as it was only one of a possible pair.

I put it on eBay for $9.99 with a $400 reserve. Within HOURS of the auction being listed, I got two emails from bidders, each with a great excuse of why they needed to have it 'right away,' asking me to end the auction and offering $1,000 and $1,200! Well, that was more than double my reserve and much more than the auction house told me it was worth. However, I have learned from previous experiences on eBay to NEVER end an auction early and I didn't.

Within 24 hours my reserve price was met and by the end of the auction I had 60 people watching it. In the last 10 minutes of the auction, the vase closed at $3,550!!!! Had I sold it for $1,200 I would have lost $2,350 in additional bids.

Every item I have been asked to end early has done incredibly well. Thanks for your informative newsletters. I just wanted to share my experience with you and back up what you said 1000%! Besides, it is not fair to other bidders to end an auction early without allowing them the chance to bid. People who ask you to end early are really looking to beat the system and 'steal' the item for as little as possible, knowing full well that they will not win it for anywhere near their offer price.

Best Regards,

Kathy Duchesneau" Please patronize Kathy's auctions here: got2findit4u

Thanks to Kathy for the wonderful email!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled feature article. All about Unpacking for Profit! So, as you can see from this photo--my garages have gotten out of control. My best friend Melanie was here visiting and she said to me: "What you really need are those Costco baker's racks down the center of your golf cart garage--instead of that table. The table holds nothing and those shelves will allow you to unpack and organize." Well, Melanie is brilliant and an executive with IKEA--so I finally listened to her.

I asked my mom to go to Costco and pick up 6 of the shelves this past Thursday. It took her two separate trips because these shelves are so darn heavy she didn't want to ruin her mini-van. Well, as my mom, Mo and I started pulling everything out of the garage on Friday morning--we realized that we could use another 3 shelves. So off my sweet mother went to purchase 3 more.

I have to share a story about my grandmother and the shop here. My favorite days of working with her were when we had big projects (I told you so) and these would typically take place in summer. There was nothing like driving my little green bug over to the shop on an early summer morning knowing that I got to spend the day doing a fun project with my grandma. That smell of a Bellingham summer morning still stays with me and I swear as I got out of my car this past Friday to start on this project--It was the same smell! It brought back great memories.

I knew that it was going to be a fun day. We worked so hard and you won't believe the results. What I really learned this day was that I have bought too many items lately. Just Kidding! but I did learn that it is impossible to sell and list without going through all of those boxes and getting organized.

I have been buying like crazy and just piling the boxes inside my garages. I can barely fit my car inside. Once the 7 new shelves were set up in the garage (we put two more inside in my indoor eBay room)--it was time to unpack and start sorting. This was actually really fun.

We now have entire dinner sets together on the shelves--where before a few pieces were in this box and a few in another. There was no way I could sell them or list them like that.

Here are some of the other categories that we sorted by so that now when I go to list--I can pull an entire shelf full of similar items and my listing time will decrease immensely.

Paperweights
Pigs
Blue Onion
Majolica
Wood items
Toys
Clothing
Single Cup and Saucers
Colored Glass
Clear Glass
Coffee Mugs
Stemware
Bottles
Linens
Covered Boxes
Bells
Christmas
Halloween
Animals
Salt & Peppers
Flatware
Books
Brass
Silverplate
Lamps
Lamp Parts
Collector's plates
Jewelry
Kitchen Utensils
Harley Davidson Items

Here is a photo of what the new shelves look like. I told Mo and my mom that it was just like Christmas--seeing all the neat things that I have been buying this year. It was also starting to look like my Grandmother's antique store!

So my advice to you all is this:

1. If you have merchandise still in the boxes and bags from thrift stores and garage sales--Unpack it.
2. If you are just grabbing a box from here and a box from there (like I used to do) you are not getting economies of scale--start sorting now!
3. If you are sorting on a table--consider replacing it with shelves.
4. If you don't think you have enough wall space for shelves--consider setting up these baker's racks back to back in the center of the room. We had been doing this in the office but didn't consider it for the garage until Melanie suggested it.
5. By doing this I was able to find all the Halloween items. I am listing them this week.
6. I am also able to find all my Christmas items and I will start listing them immediately. The season will be over before you can blink.
7. If you don't have the space in your home or garage, consider getting a small storage unit close to your home. Put up a ton of shelves and take your garage sale purchases directly there to sort and then take home what you will be listing that week. This is what Mo did recently.
8. If you don't want to rent a storage unit close to your home, consider getting one of those 12 by 12' sheds for your back yard. My brother has one and they hold a ton of merchandise.

Getting organized by unpacking all of these things has been very liberating for me. I don't feel as overwhelmed when I go out to the garage to pick the items to list each week. Also, now when I come home after garage saling or thrift store shopping--I can unpack the items into the correct section. It has been awesome!

Finally, when we were sorting, Mo found a box of Villeroy & Boch china that I had bought ages ago. I had forgotten about it in my mess but she immediately brought it inside for me to list. She said, "Villeroy and Boch sells like crazy."  I said, "I knew that, but I thought these were from their restaurant ware line and won't sell for much and I had only paid 50 cents to $1 for each plate." She got on replacements.com and found out that a dinner plate sold for $65.99 and they had none in stock! And I had 8 of them. You can better believe that I got that set listed that evening.

Click here to see the price that I started this dinner plate at. They go for so much on Replacements and I am happy to wait for the right buyer if it doesn't sell at auction.

I typically cherry-pick my items each week when I get home from garage saling and tend to just focus on what I just bought to list that week. This week taught me that I have some incredible items that I forgot about. In fact, I had bought the entire contents of an estate for about $4,000 earlier this year. Most of it has never seen the light of day. Check out these amazing pieces that we uncovered that I can't wait to get listed.

I uncovered this stash of paperweights.

I hope you all see the power of unpacking and sorting for profit

Happy eBaying!

Lynn

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Happy eBaying!!

Lynn

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Lynn is an experienced eBay Power Seller, author and teacher. If you want to know the eBay tips, tricks and tools that Lynn uses for buying and selling at online auction click here.

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