My Fashion HQ: A New Auction Site

There are a lot of websites out there besides eBay which use the auction format for buying and selling items. I recently learned about a group of sites known as the Treasure Auctions Network. The sites were started by two established gemstone experts who took their business online several years ago. Over the years, they have expanded into different specialty sites, mostly focusing on gems and collectibles but now branching out into new areas, too.

As an example of this branching out, the newest of the sites in this network is My Fashion HQ. This site features a variety of subcategories of items, including accessories, handbags, scarves, and watches. The front page of the site showcases "last chance ending soon" items; when I clicked over to the site, there was a pair of opal earrings available for a bid of $2. I think there are some good deals to be had on this site as a buyer, and I think that over time, more and more buyers will want to sell here.

The Treasure Auctions Network has a system for approving verified sellers. It can take months before a seller is approved even as an interim seller, and the network's owners promise a safe and trustworthy online shopping experience because of their verified seller approval process.

I'm intrigued by the idea of specialty auction sites both as a buyer and a seller. You get a more focused shopping experience. Sometimes when I shop, I want a little of everything, but more often than not, I'm looking for something very specific. Sites like My Fashion HQ are a nice way to get more specific as a buyer--and as a seller, it's another opportunity to work on specializing in a particular niche.

Ideas On Choosing What To Buy

Recently I scanned the Internet for ideas about what are the most profitable items to purchase and resell. Most of what I learned were concepts and not actual items. My co-writer Mandy has mentioned some specific ideas about t-shirts in her last couple of blogs. This one is about concepts, with one specific. My understanding is if you come across anything that is older Starbucks, buy it. It should make a profit for you.

Back to concepts, the first idea I learned is that it can be profitable to buy items that are no longer produced. As I was thinking of things I could buy that are no longer produced I came up with the idea to buy many old style light bulbs. They will soon no longer be made anywhere in the U.S. They fit some people's lights and lamps better than the new ones, and even though the cost more you can just throw them out. There is no need to recycle as you must do with the new ones. Light bulbs break easy. Fragile is a great collection factor because that means the number of items that exist get lower practically every week. Finally they are light weight to send in the mail. Weight is a factor in buying any item you want to sell on eBay.

The second thing I learned is to research your new ideas. It turned out that my idea to buy up some of the last of the regular light bulbs was not original. Since the transition has been going on, hundreds of thousands of people have stocked up on them. This means that they will not be rare for many years. And there is no predicting if they will be a sought out item. So I decided against buying them. My next idea did not need to be researched but thought through throughly.

Thinking through your idea is important as well, the third thing I learned. When I heard stamps were going up from $.47 to $.50 I thought about investing in the Forever Stamps. Since there are 20 stamps in a pack that would mean that I would be making $.60 off a pack put probably could charge a little more and make a $1. In order to make enough money to make it worth the time I would need to buy at least 25 books of stamps and sell them all. They are very light weight also and could be mailed in a small envelope. I was thinking this was becoming a good idea. Then I thought of the future of stamps and remembered something else I had learned. Knowing the demand for an item is a huge part of the buying.

The demand for stamps is quickly dying out. I talked to a 22 year old who used a stamp maybe twice in her life. As technology grows stamps will keep growing less necessary. It might be difficult for me to sell even one full book of stamps today. I decided not to take the risk on something that might only earn $25.

Finally I decided to just keep up on reading the posts and blogs and learning about selling on eBay. Personally I find if you look at many you will find at least one article in each that help you out a bit. So, I am going to stick with items I know to be rare or that I see are selling. I shall be looking for vintage coffee cups and ViewMaster Reels at garage sales for now.

The Pleasures of Vintage Toys

If you want to find some neat vintage toys to sell on eBay, you might want to look at toys that were popular in the 1990s. It's my recent experience that women who are in their 20s and early 30s are eager to buy some of the toys they enjoyed as kids, such as vintage Polly Pockets and the original Littlest Pet Shop toys.

It's interesting to consider these two lines of toys in particular because both are still available--but the current toys are a lot different than the originals! The new Polly Pockets are much bigger than their old-school counterparts; I'm sure there must have been some kind of choking issue with the teeny tiny dolls from the early sets. There really is a charm to the older toys as the cases are like little compacts.

Meanwhile, the new Littlest Pet Shop dolls look a lot different than the 1990s ones. The new ones seem to have been influenced by Japanese animation and have large head and large eyes in proportion to their bodies. On the other hand, the old-school LPS are more realistic looking in their depiction of animals, mostly household pets like dogs, cats, bunnies, turtles, and so on.

What prompted this post is that we just sold a vintage Lewis Galoob Pretty Castle set of toys which also date from the 1990s. The dolls are very similar to the Polly Pocket dolls--little tiny figures that you can place into little pieces in the floors of the different rooms of the castle. It really is a cool playset. Below are a couple of pics.

What are your favorite vintage toys (I use "vintage" a bit loosely!)?

Continuing to Be Patient

Do you ever list something for sale and think it will sell quickly, only to find it languishing in your sales listings, month after month? I imagine this happens to all of us, and probably more often than we'd like. I know I posted recently about thrifting and waiting; the Zildjian tee I mentioned in that post still hasn't sold, unfortunately.

It's always a thrill when one of those lingering items finally does sell. That happened for me this week when I sold this Billabong hoodie that I bought at the Goodwill Outlet over the summer. I'd thought with the skull design and the thick, comfy fabric, it would sell right away. Oh well. It sold over the weekend; I had listed it multiple times at auction and as a buy it now with different prices. It finally sold for just over $13, plus shipping. I probably paid a a dollar or two for it, since it was part of a "by-the-pound" purchase.

I see a lot of Billabong stuff selling on eBay, but it hasn't been too lucky for me so far. I have another Billabong t-shirt that's been hanging around since October. I think it will sell eventually, too. I bought it for a dollar at a rummage sale, so no worries.

T-shirts don't take up much space, so it doesn't bother me too much to wait for them to sell. I do have a couple that I might just need to accept as ones that aren't going to sell, but then again, you never know...