If there’s one thing I love more than anything else it is picking up a great bargain and I don’t just mean saving a couple of pounds on an item. Have you ever had that excited feeling when you walk into a charity shop or browse around a car boot sale, spot something out of the corner of your eye and think ‘I can’t believe that is in here’?! You then nervously look at the price on the ticket and your excitement grows further as you realise you have come across a true gem of a bargain?
This happened to me recently when I picked up an item for just £3 and it turned out to be a designer item which is valued into the hundreds. At first I was going to keep the item for myself but when I found out its true value my husband and I decided to sell it on eBay. The sale hasn’t completed just yet though the buyer has paid and the item is in the post, so I’ll fill you in on just how much profit we made on it and what it was once I’ve received positive feedback – just in case the person who bought it reads this blog and then returns it when he finds out how little I paid for it. 🙂 Unlikely, but you never know.
Over the years both my husband and I have picked up lots of undervalued items on car boot’s, charity shops (I think these are called thrift stores in the US?) and antique stores and I would thoroughly recommend taking the time to shop in these places. Some people let their pride get in the way here and wouldn’t even be seen dead buying things from a second hand shop but I just love the excitement of not knowing what bargain you might find. Some of things we’ve bought over the years sit proudly in our home and others have made some nice profits on eBay.
Like I say, I’ll tell you about the most recent sale in another post but here are a few of the things we’ve sold in the past.
Vintage Clothing
A Similar Coat
My mother-in-law has a real eye for a vintage bargain and a while ago she was trawling around a car boot sale when she came across a vintage 60’s Aquascutum ladies coat for just £5. She knew from the quality and the name that it might be worth something but she didn’t realise how much. When my husband was researching the value on eBay he noticed that similar items had sold for £60+ in the past. We listed it on eBay as a buy-it-now or best offer for around £100 if I remember rightly and we accepted an offer of £80 for the coat from a lady in Italy. After fees this worked out to be just under a £70 profit!
Antique & Vintage Furniture
We’ve also made profits on vintage and antique furniture in the past too. My husband picked up a nice arts and crafts sideboard with a green tiled top a few years back for £75 in an antique shop.
Another Sideboard We Sold
We listed it on eBay – again as a buy it now or best offer – and it went for £160. Another time we bought a vintage foldaway table for just £30 from an antique shop and sold it to a lady in London for £100. I can only assume that they are perfect for small flats with little storage space.
Vintage Accessories
A smaller profit that I made once was from a beautiful vintage Japanese style purse (but the size of a clutch bag) it was very detailed and lined in silk. I originally bought it for myself for £10 but after a little while I realised that it was just too special for me to use so I decided to relist it back on eBay. It then sold for around £30 so I was happy with my decision. 🙂 It just goes to show how temperamental auctions can be so it can often work out for the best if you’re able to put it on a ‘buy it now’ and wait for the right buyer to come along.
Just Drop In
These are just a few of the items we’ve managed to make a profit on by shopping in second hand stores. It’s not like I go out deliberately to buy these items to sell but when you see something that you know is really cheap you just have to pick it up, don’t you? The latest buy that I’ll talk about in an upcoming post was picked up in a charity shop and the profit has truly astounded me to be honest.
Even though we’ve only mentioned a few examples they really do show just how many bargains there are to be picked up in places that sell second hand items. Whether you choose to shop for your own home or to sell them on for a profit is up to you but the next time you pass one of these shops it could definitely turn out to be worth your while to pop in for a browse.
Have you ever picked up an amazing second hand bargain? Did you keep it or did you profit from it?
I used to love going to second-hand shops when we lived in the UK. We don’t have Oxfam or anything like that where we’re living now (Spain) but goodness knows they need it.