Boobs = interest = sale = $

Firstly, let me say a sincere thank you to those lovely readers who gave me suggestions to get me out of my book-rut.


Carol, yes prices of books are plummeting.    Great as a buyer, but not as a seller.   Fishpond is like a very basic version of Amazon.  I can't sell on Amazon as they won't make payments to Australian bank accounts (the last time I looked).


Maggie, I like your idea of keeping your store stocked with lots of different items.   Then I can open my shop to a new range of customers.  At the moment, I hardly even get a sale on Fridays/Saturdays.  I'd like to change it - and have my store selling 7 days a week.  After all, it is open 7 days a week!


Yvette, thanks, the idea of just starting with exercise outfits / accessories is also excellent one.    Being allergic to exercise should not harm me there.  *I* will not be the intended victim.  And as you say, they are very easy to wrap and post.   I'm already with Ebay Underground (the BEST place ever), and will also join Thrifting with the Boys that you mentioned.


Miss Maggie, your idea of asking the op-shops to keep videos aside for me and paying them money, if they no longer wanted to stock them, is a fantastic idea.  And one I will try out this week.   One of my op-shops that cleared out the videos are now re-stocking them.  I think they must have just wanted to clean out those that had been sitting there.    (Ms Maggie I must reply to your kind offer on Ebug).


I'm going to try looking at clothes tomorrow.  So I'll show you what weird things I pick up.


No shoes though, I have a thing about touching other people's used shoes.


OK, so I went shopping for stock last week.  I told myself that I would no longer buy piles of crime/romance books because they are only 20 cents each, and I have this magical idea that they will sell in bulk lots.   No more, none of that.   I decided to only look out for unusual / sure sellers.

I found boobs were popping up a lot this week in my ebay world.    And I don't mean I was staring in the mirror, poking my own naughty pillows and giggling like a mad thing.   Oh, I did come across an arse too - I hope I've still got the photo.   ;-)

It's a good thing I'm easily amused.

I poked around at my local op-shop and came across a couple of interesting books.

This one was my favourite, I almost squealed with delight when I looked at it.  I thought it might have been a vintage cookbook - but it was even better than that.

The title is hard to read - it is "The Fabulous Feminique Program For Developing a Beautiful Bust."

Printed in 1969 - it's a rip-snorter.  Loookeee - one of the exercises is lifting a raw chicken in a tray.  So the next time you're making a roast - be sure to do a few lifts and you'll be looking perkier in no time.

I also found this one:

This was printed in 1979.  It's huge with over 320 pages of photos of model farm toys and their value then.  A truck collecting nerd will love this.  It's a US-based book, so I'll be sure to include international postage, but it's going to cost a fortune to post overseas.

Then I hit my local junk/$2 shop to get a birthday card and was confronted with this item.  I took a photo with my phone, but I was laughing too much and it was blurry.  Fortunately I found a photo of one on the internet:


What do you think this might be?

It's a breast massager.  

I kid you not.  For a whole $5.   Between this and lifting my roast chicken in and out of the oven, I could have norgs so perky I could rest my head on them.


Then on to my mid-week op-shops, my eyes beheld these.  

Lovely shorts.  And only $2.   These stayed on the rack when I left, but came home on my new mobile phone!  This was the first photo I took with my new phone.  How long can I uphold this high standard of living?


I visited one of my op shops that had thrown out all their videos.  They had 2 cardboard boxes full of recently-donated videos sitting outside.  A lot of them were TV shows that had been recorded onto blank videos.  I trawled through them and got some video gold according to my "Golden Rules of Videos."


Evidence # 1 - Crappy B-grade horror movies - mostly rated R.  Even though one had a rental sticker describing it as "Art House", I was not fooled.   Nobody in their right mind would distribute these on DVD.  Check.

Let's turn them over and do a quick tittie check.

Bingo.  One comes up trumps here.


Evidence # 2 - Not Rated R - but quirky titles are a plus - how could I pass up "Blacula!" and "Stuff Stephanie In the Incinerator."   These make me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Evidence # 3 - The idea of even looking at these movies makes me want to eat my own head.

Check.   Check.

Well, I'm off to put a roast chicken in the oven multiple times.

Welcome Autumn !!!

Welcome awesome autumn!!  I love you!   Moderate sunny days, foggy cold mornings.    Lots of excuses for me to sit around in my jim jams and drink tea and eat hot crumpets, and start to hide myself inside layers of clothing and read lots of books.  Then on to welcome wonderful winter.     
Goodbye sucky summer - I hate you with a vengeance. 


Last week was GREAT for sales - I ended up making over $500 - which was my initial goal to make each week to actually survive on my eBay shop.


Remember, the two exciting radio books I mentioned in my last blog, that I had up for auction?  I had crazy men circling me making offers of $30.   I sensed something must be special so I fobbed them off with my special "crazy-old-farts-bat" and waited it out.    It was 1 minute to go, and one book was at $9.99, and the other at $30.99.   I was disappointed and then whammo, the price jumped up to $91 on one of them at the last second.   I was very happy with that.   $100 for the 2 books is pretty good (even sharing half with my friend Sue who found them).


The thing that tipped my sales, is the bulk lots of children clothing that I am now putting up.    They are saving my bacon, and I was actually able to pay all my bills for this month because of these.


I sold a couple of bulk lots of girls clothes - size 000.   One lot sat there for about 2 months and I was getting bored with them when a lady jumped in and bought them.  It turned out that she had been expecting a boy, and when the baby popped out, well the plumbing was all wrong :-).  She'd prepared for baby boy, so she was desperate for those girl's clothes !!     These sold for $49.99


I put another lot of Size 000 up and they sold within an hour.  There was lots of pretty dresses in this lot so I probably should have upped the price.   These sold for $49.99.


Then these two lots sold on the same day.  I nearly swallowed my tongue.


This lot of Size 2 Girls Clothing:

Then one hour later, this lot of Size 5 Girls Clothing sold:

I probably should have asked more for these.  I'm still testing the waters as to what price each Size will go for.   I'll be nudging the prices up for the bigger sizes.   At the moment I'm just happy to have the money to pay bills.


I eyeballed my games yesterday, and decided that I would get rid of the ones that are incomplete.   They make me feel down and overwhelmed when I look at them so they have to go.   It felt good to clear some space.


I sold a few board games this week:


~ A set of 4 wooden Scrabble tile holders -  $15  (I paid $2 for the game. There are tiles too, but they are incomplete.  I got my money back just on the tile-holders)


~ The Game of Life  - $16.    I bought this from the usual over-priced Salvos for $5.  I *thought* it was worth a lot more, but when I got home.  Bah!   Glad to get rid of it.


~ Glenn Baker's Rock Academy - $17.   I was SO glad to see this game go.  I've had it for a year.   Goodbye !!!


~  Witch : Nightmare 3 video board game  ~ $19.99.   I paid about $2 for this.   I LOVE the Nightmare games they are good cash-earners.


~ Zombie : Nightmare 2 video board game ~ $18.   I think I paid $1 for this one.


~ Media Magnate Board Game - $7.50.   This was one of 3 games I'd had for more than a year.  I wanted them to go, so I put them at auction with a starting price of $7.50.  This was the only one that sold.


Videos:
This is my new secret seller.  I saw them at my local junk shop (Asian $2 store) for $2.95 and bought it for myself.  Then I got home and looked them up on eBay.  Someone was selling them for $11.99.
Should I try it?   I did.

It's not a great profit, but there is one other seller out there that has it at this price too.  I have now sold 10 of these @ $11.99 for a total of $119.90.  They costed me $29.50 - so a total profit of $90.40 is not to be sneered at.   My problem now, is that I have cleaned out my local junk shop of these, and need to go on the hunt for some more.


I sold this video a couple of days ago.  It was one of those *trashy* videos that was being thrown out at my local Op Shop (mentioned in an earlier blog).  It needs a mention, all on it's own.

This piece of cinema gold is going to a delighted man in Germany, who is paying $21 for Airmail postage.  Thank you !!!


Not many video sales this week:


~ Little Mermaid 1 & 2  -  $11.99
~  An Evening with Max Boyce - $9.99


Books I will talk about in my next blog.  I have some new BOLOs that I have found.


Oh, also the upcoming changes to eBay Australia that are coming in March.   They are updating eBay Australia?   Really, that old dinosaur?   It's about bloody time !!!!


How will the changes affect me?  Am I weeing myself with glee over the huge savings I will make with the changes, am I angry over yet another load of crap forced on the little eBay shop owner, or am I wondering what all the fuss is about.   (hint:  only 2 of the above).

Some Sales For the Week + More on Videos

I had a mish-mash of sales this week from every category, which was nice.


I sold this bulk lot of Girls Size 1 clothing (30 items) for $49.99.  The buyer paid straight away, and it costed them $20 in postage to get it there.   Yay, some more space in my wardrobe to fill with more kiddies clothing:

 <<<<<< WARNING : Whine of the Week >>>>>>>>>


Then there was this second lot of clothing - Girls Size 6 Clothes (29 Items) - this actually sold on the 31st of January for $49.99.    I was very happy with this sale in an otherwise terrible sales week.

 The buyer contacted me one minute after buying it and said "Can I pay on pickup - I only live in (somewhere less than 10 minutes from me).   I replied yes, and told her I'd be home that day until 5pm.  

Nothing.   Then on the 3rd, she phoned and said "Can I pick it up on Wednesday 9th?  I'll be there at 9am."  I thought that was a bit long to wait, but I agreed.


Waited home on Wednesday.  Nothing - no email, no phone call, no twit customer.    On Thursday I sent a "Where were you, if you no longer want these please let me know so I can cancel it."   
It's now Sunday morning and still nothing.  I HATE that I have to wait 5 days until I can relist these.  I hate that the seller gets punished for having a twit customer.  I hate that if she does ever get back to me, it will be with some sob story about her grandfather dying or her husband getting assassinated by a ninja.  


I got rid of the pickup option on all my items except the clothing , but I will be removing it them as well, as the inter-state customers pay quickly and are no trouble at all. 


<<<<<<<  Hic!  That was a nice glassfull ! >>>>>.


I have a friend from years ago when I had a bookshop - she would trawl garage sales and op shops for books during the week, and I would buy them off her.   It worked well for both of us.


Fast forward six years or so, and she still visits me every couple of months at home to bring me more things to sell - we have branched out from books with other things as well.   We go halvies on these items.   These three books sold within a day of me putting them up.


Military History always sells well.   I try to buy any military history books I see - especially ones that are related to a  certain platoon/unit/etc.     This book was signed by the author and a couple of members of the AWWC.  I got $25 for this one.    

I nearly kept this one just to identify the contents of my back garden.   I got $45 for this book on Weeds.  Who would have thought?

I always laugh at this book, because it was the one I used when I was forced delighted to do the Home Economics class in high school.  Everybody wants this book (except me).  It's a nice quick buck or two.   I got $25 for this one.   The older editions can go for up to $80.

And now on to videos.   Do you remember my blog from last week about the video haul I got?


I've already sold 3 videos from this lot.   These only costed me 10 cents each.


Gary Busey and his teeth score!   $10.00 for this trashy beauty!

This one was in pretty bad nick and was an ex-rental.  It played well, and I debated whether to list it and put it up for $8.   I forgot about the allure of a fugly man on the front cover!   Yes!  He sold within a couple of days.  I must remember that fugly sells (as my friend Tina always says.  ;-)    So remember to add Fugly to your Video BOLO list.   Fugly + Rated R = Irresistible.

And this one links to my next Video BOLOs :


Ah, Denise Austin.  I remember trying to do these videos years ago, my parrots watching me from their perches with something bordering on disgust.    Yes I "squeezed my buttocks" with the best of them.  Lovely Denise never mentioned that it would make my butt bigger.    What's the deal with that???


This is a very early one - probably the first she ever made.  It's so old, it should be a silent movie and I wish it was.  As I tested the movie, I winced listening to her perky voice rabbiting on about hips, thigggghsssssss & buttocks!!!!!    I got $10 for this one.

Exercise Videos - although they make me break into a sweat before I've even taken the video out of the cover, they are big sellers where I am.  Of course only certain ones sell.


You can get anything from $10 to $20 for these.    My BOLO List for Videos are:


~ Any Denise Austin
~ Any Jane Fonda
~ Any Cher   *bwwwwwahahahahahhahaaa*  sorry, I nearly choked then.
~ Any Richard Simmons
~ Any super-model workout (eg. Rachel Hunter, Elle MacPherson)
~ Any ex-actress/singer workout  (eg. Jennie Garth, etc ...)
~ I also pick up any Aussie Fit series


~ Any Billy Blanks / Tae Bo videos - I did these for a while.  They're fun because you pretend you can kick someone's butt.   However I kept getting distracted by the very dishy Mr. Blanks lovely *ahem* package.   Sometimes lycra is a *good thing*.   

  Sometimes it isn't.  :-(    (hint:  Richard Simmons)


Have you had any success with selling exercise videos?  Do you have any others you can add to the BOLO list?

Old VHS Videos - Trash or Treasure?

Old VHS Videos - Trash or Treasure?

For those of us *ahem* old enough to remember the old VCRs - ah, what joy they brought.   Wiggly lines on the screen - rented videos you got that hadn't been rewound properly.   Shoving the darn thing in and hitting rewind and listening to that whirring sound that seemed to go on forever.   Surely the tape couldn't be that long???

Those days are long gone - or are they?    Videos are making a return to the wanted list.  People are hunting them down for those movies that never made it to DVD.    They are buying kids videos in bulk for their little darlings to sit hypnotised in front of and gain some precious quiet time.    

Videos are getting hard to find.  Op shops are beginning to re-think stocking them.     I went to my local St Vinnies the other day and saw a sign on the window ~ "We are no longer accepting video tapes."    Well no wonder - they had them priced at $1 to $3 a tape - that's why they never sold them.    Some op shops virtually give them away - they know few people have VCRs now.   Others are overpricing them and wondering why their shelves are filled with dusty video tapes - this makes them want to trash them entirely from their stock - this is NOT a good thing.

I visited my local op-shop the other day and found a nice haul of videos.  They only charge 10 cents here - they've moved into a smaller premises and no longer have the space to store towering piles of videos - they are pricing them to get rid of them.    I like!!!     I got these 20 videos for a total cost of $2.   

As I was walking out with my haul, one of the ladies who worked there said "You're a regular, and nobody else seems to want videos - why don't you look in this box, there's a pile of videos I'm throwing into the bin.   Have a look through and take what you want."


Woohoo!  How could I say no - I scrabbled through that box and saved these precious gems from the jaws of death:

Another 11 videos in all.  That's a total of 31 videos for $2.  Sweet!  


 Videos are hard work - because you don't know if they work properly when you buy them.  That's why I only buy them dirt cheap.   If I buy a video and it doesn't work - I recycle the paper cover insert, and keep the plastic container (if its clean and intact) as part of my replacement stock.  The tape gets binned.  I don't want someone else buying a tape that doesn't work, and I don't want to end up picking it up and buying it again myself.


I have piles of videos around the house waiting to go up on Ebay.  I bought a Video player from an op-shop for $5 - and during the day, if I remember, I put a pile of videos in front of the unit, and hit the play button.  I let the video run a while (about 10-20 minutes) and peek in every now and then.  If the video is running smoothly without any wiggly lines and the sound is good - I put a little coloured sticker on the cover to show that I've tested it and then it goes up onto Ebay.


What kind of videos do I look for?   I've learnt the hard way - hit and miss.   I researched the videos that were selling.  I looked at the two largest video sellers on Ebay, and checked out what was selling.   I learnt the ones that can go for surprising amounts, and the ones that are a sure-fire seller.  I still have so much to learn.


Here are some choice videos from my purchased lot.  Why did I choose these in particular?   These videos fit in with part of my Hit List for videos:


Trashy Action Videos - Rated R a Plus!   Look at these beauties.  Aren't you just dying to see the fantastic acting, hear the awesome dialogue,  and enjoy the well-rounded characters in these?    Look, they are both Rated R.  These are so trashy, there's a great chance they didn't make it onto video.   There are people that collect these crappy action-filled movies!   I get them even if the cover is a little shoddy, or they are ex-rental.  It's worth the risk.   Both these babies were in the to-be-trashed box.  Can't imagine why.  (*snigger*)

Appalling 1970s/80's Science Fiction :   These two were also saved from the jaws of death.  Hands up who thinks these movies are probably so awesome - people were screaming for them to be put onto DVD.   Uh-huh.  Thought so.

Any Trashy Horror - Rated R a Big Bonus +  :   Lookee at these.  I'm pretty sure Toxic Avenger is on DVD, but I got it anyway as it's a Director's Cut edition.  My ex forced me to look at that frickin' movie many times.   Believe me, it's pure projectile-vomit material.   In any movie like these - you can be sure a woman or two or three will be getting their titties out for no apparent reason.  They are awesomely craptastic.

Any Music Videos - especially 80s/90s/heavy metal/punk  :   For those of you lucky enough not to have heard John Farnham in the 80s/90s - himself and his mullet "serenaded" us for many years in Australia.   There are FANS still out there - they want to revisit the music of their youth, no matter how atrocious it really is.   

Sports of any kind - especially older matches.    Our football season doesn't start for a couple of months yet.   All the meat-heads   yobbos   sports-loving-men are itching to watch men chase balls around - They live for it.  Yes, it's exciting and if the one wearing the right coloured jumper kicks a goal - tiny minds are easy to please.    This works with soccer and rugby as well.  We have a lot of English ex-patriots here and they want to look at men chasing different shaped balls into different shaped goal-posts.  Go with what works for your country / state / customer IQ.

Crappy adventure movies - from 80s/90s.   A couple more saved from the jaws of death.  What do we have here - a Chuck Norris movie.  Chuck is awesome - he's a legend, he's a symbol - what can't he do?  (hint:  act).    And here we have Gary Busey and his teeth in a wonderful Rated R video.   I'm getting all warm and fuzzy just thinking about what's inside these ones.

Other trashy videos :  these are ones I've gotten from personal experience, or gut instinct, or just because I'm a bit pervy.   Traps is a HTF Aussie movie - I've sold a copy before, I think I got $15 for it.    Tale of a Vampire - it's got vampires, it's got JULIAN SANDS.  Anything he's in is bad and sleazy (except Warlock, one of my all-time favourite films).   

Julian Sands is naughty and gorgeous and he's just dishy as a bad man, and his lovely English accent .....   Oh, am I still gushing .....??   Pardon my drool.






Well, that was my reasoning behind these videos.  I hope you learnt something from my choices - even if it's just that I'm crazy. 


 Keep an eye out on the video piles and grab anything that makes you think "Eeeeek!" or "Who the hell would want to look at that?"   It's a sure-fire thing!  There's a lot of weirdos on this planet, and we all know a great percentage of them shop on Ebay.   ;-)