Shaking in the Aisles at Goodwill

Periodically when I am in a thrift store, or more often than not, at a Goodwill store, I come across an item so amazing in terms of eBay profits, that I feel a bit dizzy and start to get a little shaky. Some of you who may not be eBay sellers may think I am crazy. But those of you who search thrift stores, Goodwill stores and yard sales for buried treasure know exactly what I am talking about.

A few of the items are worthy of sharing with you so here goes:

I was looking through a bin at a Goodwill not too far from me a few weeks ago. I was disappointed because I hadn't found anything worthy of the trip at first glance. So I found myself looking a bit harder in areas of that Goodwill store that I would normally not pay much attention to. One of these areas was the stuffed animal section. I know that there are some people that do really well selling plush on eBay. Ordinarily, I was not one of those people. But after the find below, which is a stuffed Marmot by the Steiff company, made in West Germany, I have changed my tune. I always look through the stuffed animal section now.

When I first saw this guy I didn't think much of him. But I am learning to read tags and when I noted a metal tag in his ear, I actually had a little bit of a chill run through my body! LOL...I'm not kidding! I peered at it through my glasses but couldn't read it at first. I think my brain was just not computing that I had found a Steiff stuffed animal in a bin at the Goodwill store! But when I brought it over to the light and read the name,"Steiff" on the tag, I nearly jumped for joy, and began, just a tiny bit, to shake with excitement. I asked a clerk what the cost of stuffed animals was and he said unless they are otherwise marked, it was $1.01. I have gotten into the habit of ONLY allowing myself to go to Goodwill stores on Sundays, the first day items with a certain color tag are marked down 50%, and Tuesdays, when as a senior (55 and over) EVERYTHING in the store is 25% off. That day was a Tuesday, and so with my 25% discount, I scored a Steiff stuffed animal for 76 cents! It hasn't sold yet but prices on the internet for this exact animal run $19 o $25 so I just have to be patient and wait for the right buyer.

By the way, if you, like me when I discovered this little guy, have no idea what a marmot is, it's similar to a ground hog/woodchuck. Silly me, I thought it was a beaver and couldn't find any for sale on eBay when I originally looked him up.

Next was this absolutely gorgeous men's Pendleton red plaid shirt. There it was, just sitting in front of me on the rack at Goodwill. It was beautiful; as beautiful a specimen of a classic men's red plaid shirt made by Pendleton can be. I knew whoever bought it would be VERY happy with it, so I snapped it up for $5.75 and of course it was on a Tuesday so I only paid $4.35 for it. It sold for $24.95 within 24 hours of my listing it and I made a clear profit of $12.70.

I was at another Goodwill store and had recently read that Dansko shoes/sandals are good sellers on eBay. I was soooo excited to see a pair of women's Dansko shoes in a Mary Jane style on a shelf at Goodwill. I grabbed them for a closer look and my mind was racing a mile a minute. I actually looked around to see if anyone else in the aisle had spied my treasure. I was all alone in that shoe aisle, quivering with excitement!(Okay, I will admit it doesn't take much to get me excited!) I took them home and listed them for $34.95. I was happy when they sold within a week. But alas, they didn't fit comfortably on the woman who bought them on eBay so she sent them back for a refund. I decided since they had sold so quickly, I would experiment with the price a bit and listed them $5.00 higher at $39.95, and they sold in 24 hours! Wow, that was thrilling! I ended up having to ship them to California, which costs more from where I live than shipping to the east coast. But I still made a profit of $17.00 and was quite happy with that. AND to top it off this second customer gave me fantastic feedback and said they were even better than I had described them. I love a happy customer!

Although I would like to find things that sell for this much of a profit and more on a regular basis, I still need to have items that are lower in value to sell things regularly and keep the money coming in each week. But I will always be on the lookout for treasures that I can sell on eBay and make a higher profit. My average sale earns about $12 in profit. I am finding that sometimes what I consider an eBay treasure may not actually bring me a huge profit, but is something I know is very good quality and will sell well on eBay fairly quickly.

How about you? Have you found any treasures that brought in some good money on eBay lately? What is the average profit you make on your eBay items?