As I was prepping for EOL (eBay on Location in Florida) and my speaking engagement there, I started making a list of unusual things that I had sold recently.

I know that this is not a huge score, but the fact that it sold and sold for over $10 is very cool.

See the listing here.

I was thinking about some of the crazier coffee mugs I’ve sold. I remembered a Starbucks travel coffee mug that I had sold for over $20 during the summer of 2006. Who knew? I had originally learned of the non-vintage coffee mug potential during my first eBay Boot Camp that was held in Palm Springs in 2006–Thanks CJ!

Starbucks Bas Relief World Map Travel Coffee Mug

that sold for a little over $20!

And, in More 100 Best Things I’ve Sold on eBay Money Making Madness, I discuss a coffee mug that originally came from my grandmother’s kitchen cabinet. Now, I knew this coffee mug had potential because it was vintage and jadeite. Here is that excerpt from the book with story #49.

The Story

I have never had a cup of coffee in my life. OK, I take that back. I had one cup of coffee in Paris in 1985, and it was laced with brandy. It was snowing, I was freezing, and my friends Juliette and Vicki said it would warm me up. It did warm me up, but I still can’t stand the taste of coffee. Instead, I drink about six Diet Cokes every day to get my dose of caffeine.

It’s funny, but I didn’t realize where I learned NOT to drink coffee until I was writing this story. This jadeite green coffee mug was in my grandmother’s kitchen cupboard for years and years. It finally dawned on me that my grandmother NEVER drank coffee. No wonder I had no desire to try it or like it. I was following the lead of my favorite role model.

Anyway, I inherited it in one of my boxes. I thought one coffee mug was never going to sell for very much, but decided to do some research anyway. I knew it was jadeite by Fire King. Fire King was a group of ovenproof lines launched by Anchor Hocking in the early 1940s. Jadeite was named for its green color, which resembled jade; it became a signature item of the Fire King line. When I got on eBay, I found that these are super collectible. Three of the jadeite coffee mugs together had recently sold for $100! Each mug’s handle curve is named for different letters of the alphabet–there are “c” and “d” curves. I guessed that mine was a “c” handle.

I put it on eBay with all of that information in the title. I started the bidding at $9.99 (my usual) and couldn’t believe it when it got ten bids and sold for $36. It was shipped to Japan and the buyer paid $14 more for airmail shipping. My grandmother would have laughed and laughed over this one. She would have gotten such a kick out of it!

Another thing that she would have gotten a big kick out of was that she and I were appearing in an article in the Antique Trader that very same week. I had interviewed Sharon Korbeck, the editor of the Antique Trader, for my McGraw Hill book, and she thought that my grandmother and I would make a great story. It was written in the spring of 2004 and published at the end of July.

The Antique Trader was my grandmother’s favorite magazine; she read it faithfully cover to cover every week. She would have been thrilled to pieces to be featured in this publication. I now include this wonderful article in each box that I ship out to my eBay buyers. I have heard such nice comments from my customers. Things like, “The article adds such a personal touch,” and, “I feel like I know you and your grandma!” I’ll bet they don’t know that neither of us ever drank coffee!

If you liked that story, you will love all of my 100 Best Things I’ve Sold Books. Click here to learn more.

Another type of coffee mug that I have had successes with is anything Disney. Check out this Large Cheshire Cat Coffee Mug that I bought for $1.50 at my favorite thrift store and sold for nearly $15.00

When you are shopping your thrift stores and garage sales, do not overlook the coffee mug sections. I think there are a lot of sleepers to be found in this arena. (By the way, a sleeper is what my grandmother used to call a bargain-–just waiting to be found!)

I have always told you to be wary of cups and saucers (they just don’t sell as well anymore) and the trend is just what this article is about–coffee mugs are the collectible item replacing the teacup and saucer collectibles of yesteryear.

As I was doing my research (last two weeks completed auctions on eBay), here are some more types to be watching for…

• A Bazooka Bubble Gum Fire King mug sold for $129.05!
• A Snoopy Red Baron Fire King mug sold for $99.00!
• A Burger King Fire King mug sold for $91.00!
• A Google Coffee mug featuring Dilbert for $41.72!

And a few more shout out scores from the Queen’s Court. Thank you QC!

Here is an email from Mandy,

Hi Lynn

I’ve been on a Swedish kick this week!! ALWAYS BUY SWEDISH anything!

Here is an Eames Era Stainless & Teak mug made in Sweden I found in GW for 1.99 & sold at auction with 3 bids and it ended at…Click here to find out! I started it at 24.95 thinking it was pretty good!

Mandy

Mandicrafts

Here is another email from Mandy,

Hi Lynn,

You specifically asked for Taylor & Ng & I had this one sell in July at auction for $89.88. I’d found it at Re-Use It for .25 cents. Cobalt horse CHEVAL from 1979 (original).

See the listing here.

I know Reta posted a score recently for a Taylor & Ng original too, & a different design.

Mandy

Mandicrafts

Wow! I got so many wonderful emails from other QC members. I couldn’t add them all as I have to speak tomorrow morning at 5 am my time…so watch for more QC scores in the near future.This has been so much fun. OK one more. This one is from Victoria…

This one is pretty cool for it’s history, and for my own personal link to the family

Paid 49 cents, sold for $21.87 to a buyer in Canada.

The Roy Roger’s Victorville museum — near Roy and Dale’s retirement ranch in Apple Valley, CA — was very popular with Roy’s movie fans, but is probably best known for the fact that Roy’s horse, Trigger, was stuffed and displayed there, as was Dale’s horse Buttermilk, and Roy’s German Shepherd, Bullet. Roy’s son Dusty (Roy Jr.) closed the museum in 2003 and relocated it to Branson, Missouri, where it was run by his son Dustin. The museum did poorly there, and was permanently closed in December 2009. The museum’s contents were auctioned by Christies in 2010, and Trigger was purchased by an Omaha TV station for $266,500.

I met Roy & Dale several times in the late 1970s, when I was working with Roy’s daughter Cheryl (and her husband and their 4 children) in Los Angeles. During the 2 years I worked with Cheryl, I attended many family activities, as well as her youngest daughter’s wedding. Roy and Dale were both extremely gracious, and Roy was an absolute hoot to talk with on virtually any subject. I have an old photo of myself standing next to Trigger, but have absolutely no idea where it is after all these years.

You can see this listing here.

-Victoria

Kitchen-Kitsch

Auction Girl Vintage

By the way, the QC came through for this ezine. They went out of their way to help me and I LOVE THEM. I will post more of their scores in upcoming ezine (as long as they approve…thanks QCers).

Bottom line: Try anything in a unique or fun coffee mug. They are usually cheap–25 cents to $1.00–and I don’t think you can miss! And remember, even if it doesn’t sell at auction, move it into your eBay store at $9.99 and I bet it will eventually sell!

When I started writing this article, I realized that these are my favorite art potters, but really this article should have been titled, My Grandmother’s Favorite Art Potters. These are her top three by far! Isn’t it amazing what we learn from our elders? But I never looked at my grandmother as an elder, more like an amazing friend and mentor. I miss her a lot and so does the rest of my family. I hope that I can make that same impact on my kids and hopefully grandkids. Carpe Diem.

So lets get back on track and learn about my grandmother’s three favorite art potters!

Moorcraft

My grandmother always loved Moorcroft pottery. It was not easy to find and she only ever had two pieces. One was this small pitcher or cruet that she had bought in England.

Sometimes on rainy days we would take a break from pricing and she would show me her collections. She was telling me about this Moorcroft piece on one such day and I told her how beautiful I thought it was. She said, “You like it, it’s yours.” “Grandma, you give me far too many things.” “No, I want you to have it,” she said. “Don’t say another word.” She got one of the little scrap cards that were always around and wrote “Property of Lynn Dralle” and taped it to the base. We usually left the things that she gave us in her home in her cupboards so that she could still enjoy them. But we knew that they were now ours.

When my grandmother started in the antiques business in the 1940s, there weren’t a lot of written materials available to help dealers learn about their wares. Antiques reference guides were few and far between. One of the ways my grandmother acquired some of her knowledge was by reading antiques magazines like Hobbies and Antiques Dealer. One of her favorites in later years was the Antique Trader. We bought and sold many things through this great publication. She would cut out any pertinent advertisements or articles and place them inside the items they referred to. This Moorcroft pitcher had one of those little scraps of paper tucked inside. It was a clipping from the Antique Trader in 1990 which listed a Moorcroft vase for sale for $1,010, so we knew the pitcher was a good piece.

Moorcroft was originally founded in 1897 in England as a studio within a larger company, Macintyre Potteries. The designer was 24-yearold William Moorcroft, who soon began to sign or initial each piece of pottery he produced. This did little for the Macintyre company, and in 1912 William Moorcroft went out on his own. He began making his most popular “Pomegranate” ware around 1914. Queen Mary collected his pottery, and in 1928 he was named “Potter to the Queen.” He passed away in 1945 and control of the company went to his son, Walter. The company is still in business and their pottery is fabulous.

I decided to sell this piece and found that it had the script signature of the actual William Moorcroft! The other piece my grandmother had was just signed with a stamped signature. I knew this made it a great piece and I put it on with a $499 reserve. It sold for $1,092 and went back to Great Britain. We got more than she had thought it was worth in 1990. She would have been happy!

Mideke

Several years ago I sold a Mideke coffee mug that I found at a Goodwill in Cathedral City for almost $50, When My mom saw that, she decided to sell some of her Mideke pieces. Here is one of those pieces. A lovely bowl that I remember being in our house when I was growing up.

This sold for a lot of money.

I really hope my sister’s pieces of Mideke sell for a small fortune. Here is a link to what she has for sale on eBay today.

Rookwood

I have had some incredible sourcing successes lately and I wanted to share my five top tips for following your instincts when out in the field.

1.     A flashback to a Childhood memory

When I pick up something at an estate sale or garage sale and it reminds me of my childhood and it is cheap. I buy it!

My grandmother taught me that we are all trying to rebuy our childhoods. We all want to relive those idyllic days, don’t we? Today as I sit in the dugout (because it is pouring rain during the Colorado tournament) writing this, I am amazed at how much fun the boys are having. I am also amazed that the coaches are letting us sit here. This will probably never happen again!

But back to the boys, someday, these boys will want to rebuy these golden days. Now that we are in the 2010s, the baby boomers have money and are trying to rebuy their childhoods. So think about those toys that were popular 20, 30 and 40 years ago.

Here is an example of an item I bought for 50 cents a while ago that totally reminded me of my childhood. It’s a Wham-O Magic Window. It sold for a lot of money! Over 100 times what I paid for it. You can read about it in story number 59 in The 3rd 100 Best, Ka-Ching!

2.     You recall that people collect these items

My friends Lori and Lou (Indy’s best friend Paige’s parents) collect a lot of things! Their house is decorated amazingly well with antiques and collectibles. When you are in their house you don’t feel like it is overrun with their collections. It is very tastefully done. My grandmother always taught me that if you were going to collect and invest in antiques, you should enjoy your collections and display them.

So, as I was turning that pink and white paperweight over at the estate sale to check it out more closely, my mind went to the collection of paperweights that Lou and Lori display on an antique organ in one of their hallways.

And I also remembered that my Grandmother loved loved loved paperweights and also collected them. FYI paperweights were made to hold down the paper items on your desk to keep them from flying away in the breeze. It is amazing to me that over the years this utilitarian item has become a work of art–but only in certain cases–like mine!

Also, pink was my grandmother’s favorite color. How could I pass up a rare pink and white paperweight? Funny thing was, I didn’t realize it was rare until much later. Once again, I was following my gut instinct.

Most millefiore (it means thousands of flowers) paperweights are colorful–often in primary colors. It didn’t dawn on me until the emails starting coming in that there was something very rare about a pink and white paperweight.

Here is another photo of the paperweight. My original title was Vintage Paperweight Venetian Millefiore Italy RARE Art Glass. As you can tell, I really knew nothing about it. It didn’t even turn out to be Italian!

Here is the first question I received about an hour after listing the paperweight.

“Will you please end this listing and accept my offer of $150?”

I replied that, “No, I can’t end this auction early as I have had too much interest and don’t want to upset my customers. Thanks. Lynn”

Then this email came in the next morning from a different eBayer. (There are some real nice people on eBay, aren’t there?)

“I just want to let you know that this is a rare paperweight and people are going to ask you to shut down the auction early and accept offers. I recommend that you don’t do this.”

I asked that eBayer why it might be rare and here is their response.

Dear thequeenofauctions,

I think it may have been made by the Gillinder Glass Company in Pennsylvania around the 1860s or 1870s.

Wow! With that info I was able to change both my title and description since there were no bids. If you can believe it, I started this auction at only $24.99!

New title and description:

OLD Glass Millefiori Paperweight RARE Pink Gillinder

Vintage Art Glass Millefiori Paperweight. This piece has some damage as can be seen in the photos and described below. We have been told that this is most likely an American Art Glass Paperweight by Gillinder Pennsyvlania and done in the 1860’s to 1870’s. 2 1/2″ by 2 5/8″ tall.  6 BRUISES and nicks to inside of glass. Could be popped bubbles on the inside.  CHIP on base.  Pink and white with clear glass.    Neat piece.  Shelf WS.

With my gut instinct to always buy what people collect, all that great info from eBayers, and my ability to change the listing, my $12 investment turned into over $400 with just 6 bids. Amazing!

3.     Less than $50–but use your own judgment and have your own floor limit

OK folks, yes I have upped my floor limit. I don’t do $5 anymore, I don’t even do $10 nor $20. I will spend up to $50 on a whim WITHOUT research. You will have to decide on your own your limit of how much you will spend, but for me, I have raised mine to $50.

Here is an item that I invested $25.00 in to buy quite a few months ago. They were new-in-box Harley Davidson boots. Why not? I had to hold them for a while in my eBay store but they just sold this week for a nice return.

You can see this listing here.

4.     Unique

When I see something that is so unusual that I have never seen anything like it before and the price is right, I will buy it quickly.

Unique, unusual, or strange is always worth buying and usually sells well on eBay. I saw a set of three plush stuffed animal trophy heads at a garage sale this past December. They wanted $15 for the three. I thought that was a lot for them but I had never seen anything like these before. If you don’t think used plush sells on eBay you should really check out my teleseminars with Debbie Ybarra. Actually, I need to invite her back for an update.

Instant download Volume I, $19.95
Order here.

Instant download Volume II, $19.95
Order here.

In any event, used plush sells incredibly well and I just sold two of these trophy heads for $30 each (I paid $5 each) and this one sold a few days ago at a different price point. Seriously amazing!

See this listing here.

Let’s go back to that amazing estate sale where I got the paperweight on a Sunday. On that same Sunday, I saw a set of 21 perfumes that had been marked $295.00. The man running the sale said that I could have them for $75.00.

Well, I love buying in bulk, I also know that perfumes are highly collectible and at an average of less than $4 per piece, this was a no brainer.

Here is the perfume collection that I got for $75.

Here is one of those 21 perfumes that sold already. With getting ready to go out of town and finish my move, I only listed one out of the entire set . Oh well, it sold for over $50. Almost paid for my entire purchase. Yay!

And while sitting in the dugout during the rain in Denver, I got a couple more perfumes listed while writing the newsletter.

See this listing here.

I had to share this really wonderful view from the dugout. I will probably never be allowed to do this again. That is Houston #22 leaning against the fence and I love the rainbow behind them to the right.

Love the rainbow behind the boys!

Remember, if you follow my five top tips for following your instincts when out sourcing, you will be successful selling on eBay. And also remember, my grandmother taught me you make your money in the buying. If you buy right, you can hold your item and wait for the right final purchase price. Don’t be afraid to hold onto a wonderful item and get the highest price you can!

She also taught me that you can ALWAYS lower your price, but it is very difficult to raise it. I hope you find lots of rainbows after the rain and lots of great items to sell on eBay. I can’t wait to hit the four thrift stores I saw while driving around today. Wish me luck!

Lose the fear as you listen to my 90-minute call with Lisa Suttora from last Tuesday.

Lisa and Amazon are a Dynamic Duo!

Click here to purchase now.

With a 46% year over year growth, there’s no doubt that Amazon is one of THE hottest online marketplaces. With its stellar growth outpacing eBay AND Ecommerce, there is tremendous opportunity there. Amazon offers automated shipping, customer service and some of the world’s best customers… Just a few reasons that integrating Amazon into your online business model is something EVERY online seller should consider.

This amazingly positive phone call was all about adding Amazon sales to your current eBay business model. It makes a lot of sense and I can’t wait to tailor it to my OOAK (one of a kind) business, add a few commodity items and generate some extra income. It is a really exciting time for ecommerce and no one knows more about the ins and outs of this expansive market than my friend Lisa Suttora.

Lisa and me at LOL 2011

Lisa explained how anyone can use Amazon to increase their online sales! Lisa is just back from speaking at the 2011 Amazon Sellers Conference, and brought with her the latest exciting news about online selling opportunities on Amazon! We were so lucky to have Lisa as our special guest.

If you missed the live call you may still purchase the instant download here and learn her insider secrets for adding Amazon to your business model!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Stamps.com is now integrated with Amazon. It used to be a ROYAL PAIN to ship using Amazon but with Stamps.com as an option shipping is a breeze.

You can easily import data on Amazon with one click and Stamps.com will also post-back the tracking number to Amazon just like they do with eBay.

You must have the paid Stamps.com account to do this. The paid account is $15.99 per month and if you are selling on eBay and Amazon, I highly encourage you to sign up for this option. Learn more here.

If you are a Queen’s Court member, the Lisa Suttora Amazon call is your gift for July.

Happy Garage Selling & eBaying!
Lynn
www.thequeenofauctions.com

Three Top Tips for eBay Selling
&
Three Top Tips for Garage Sales

Once again I got to do a fun field study of garage sale vs. eBay selling. We worked like dogs for 3 1⁄2 days to do the garage sale. We also worked about 15 hours to list 100 things on eBay during that same 3 1⁄2 day period. The results will be posted at the end of this article. What is your guess as to the winner?

You know that I am NOT a big proponent of garage sales. However, there are some times in your life when a garage sale makes sense. Not a lot of times, but some times. For my sister, a garage sale on July 2nd made sense. We will also be holding garage (actually yard sales) on August 6th and August 20th on King Street in Bellingham, Washington. We will have many more items, furniture and as you know what I always say, “No one can know everything.” So you can pick up some great deals and make money selling on-line.

And in my experience, yard sales are a blast when you get family and friends involved! Here are me, my brother, my sister and our really good friends Susan and Teresa Thornberg who lived across the street from us while growing up.

When you go through your items and decide what to sell at a garage sale or on-line, I have some tips for you. After you have figured out what should be garage sale vs. eBay, I have some great garage sale tips for you.

My Three Top Tips for eBay Selling

1. Name brand research

If you have something that is in great condition, all the pieces are there, and it is a name brand, I highly suggest doing your research. My favorite tools are Terapeak, eBay, PriceMiner and WorthPoint.

Here is an example of a brand new item with tags that I researched on Terapeak and decided it would be much more advantageous to list on eBay than put out at a garage sale, hoping to get $5 or $10. As you can see from the sales results, we did much better with it on eBay than at a yard sale.

2. Gut Feeling

When I was sorting items, this picture frame seemed to speak to me. Don’t really know what that means other than I had a gut feeling about it. It felt heavy, very much a quality item and it was signed from 1995. I am so glad I chose to put it on eBay instead of selling it at a garage sale for $1 to $2. Sometimes you have to trust your instincts. Actually, most of the time you need to trust your instincts!

3. The Smaller the Better for eBay

One of the items that I had to decide whether to sell at online auction or at the garage sale was this extremely intricate racecar set. It was in impeccable condition and was super cool! I did my research and realized it was a $230 item when sold brand new on the Internet.

However, I knew that it would probably take me 1-2 hours to pack it safely for shipment. I decided to put it out at the garage sale for $75 with a make offer sign. Well, it didn’t sell at the sale. Darn it! I listed it on eBay and it sold for more than that (we even added a video to the listing) so please check it out.

However, it did take me an hour to pack it. In retrospect, I should have put it out at the garage sale for $50 and also added the Or Best Offer to the price tag. It would have saved me an hour (at least) of heartache and listing time .

My Three Top Tips for Garage Sales

1. Tables, Tables, Tables and Clothing Racks

For my sister’s sale we borrowed tables from everyone we knew. Thank you to Jen & Jeff, my dad, my mom, Kay, John & Audrey, and numerous other friends. The more tables you have, the better your items look. No one wants to be digging on the ground at a garage sale for items. Especially as it rains almost every other day in Bellingham. You should also use a clothing rolling rack if you have one or can borrow one. Your items must be presented professionally.

Please also note that our items were placed by category. We had a table of collectors’ plates, a table of clothing, a table of lamp parts, a table of books, a clothing area etc. etc.

2. Everything MUST be priced–although Zach loves “Make Offer”

My nephew Zach (Kiki’s 5 year old) is so darn smart. He actually freaks me out. He can read better than I can! In any event, he was helping me price and he loved the “make offer” tags. My mom had bought about 10 of those pre-priced sticker sets (great tip here as they save a lot of time).

Here is a photo of my pricing table taken when my 5-year-old nephew Zach absconded with my camera. Notice the pre-priced stickers, the diet coke can and the Beanie Baby (that isn’t worth anything )

We did put a price tag on every single item, but did make a sign for our blanket pricing of clothing, books etc. This saves time also. Please read below about our price sign and twirlers.

However, we did put two “Make offer” stickers on two pieces of expensive furniture. It really helped us in the long run. It is almost like throwing an item on eBay and waiting to see what the market will bear or will bid it up to.

My sister had three expensive display cabinets she wanted to sell. We knew that her lawyer’s bookcase was worth about $750 so we put that price on it. The other two display cabinets we weren’t sure. I thought they were also worth about $750 each. I was wrong. Really, does that ever happen? Apparently it does!

Well, with the “make offer” stickers we didn’t make fools out of ourselves (a good thing). Three local antique dealers looked at the two cabinets and all three said that each cabinet was worth about $250. So, we finally put a price of $300 on each one. We actually were able to sell one of them to a former customer of Leaf’s antiques for $250 and my sister and I were so happy it was going to a great home.

3. Signage, Twirlers, Craigslist & Local Newspaper Ads

Signs were posted all over my sister’s sale with these blanket prices (saved us from pricing every single item individually):
Here is a photo of the backside of one of the big signs.

• Hardback books $1.00 each
• Paperback books 50 cents each
• Lamp shades $5.00 each
• Collector’s plates $3.00 each
• Shoes $1.00 a pair
• Sweaters, dresses and jackets $2.00 each
• All other clothing $1.00 each
• Socks 50 cents a pair
• Videos $1.00 each

Then please make sure that you post a great ad on craisglist (it is free), also post a short newspaper ad in your local paper with a “Please see craisglist ad for more info” (this does cost money) and post signs all over your neighborhood with arrows pointing in the right direction.

Finally, twirlers are an awesome idea! We found that around noon time our traffic stopped. We got all the kids (age 11 and older) that were there helping to make more signs and go to the busiest closest intersections and twirl their signs. Cracked me up but really drove traffic!

Here is a photo of our twirlers.

Happy Garage Selling & eBaying!
Lynn
www.thequeenofauctions.com

I was going to be TRS (Top Rated Seller) by July 6th (my birthday) and I didn’t make it. I want you all to know that it is a difficult distinction to achieve and don’t EVER give up. Also, a huge congratulation to those of you who do have the honor of being Top Rated Sellers!

I spoke about this at the eBay Radio party as I felt that it was very important for the powers that be to hear how hard we work at it and that as sellers we do take it very seriously. But sometimes, we need a little extra help from eBay corporate.

If you can believe this, my DSR (Detailed Seller Ratings) have improved in every category except…Item As Described. How did that happen? Those DSRs actually got worse.