Comments on: Most surprising eBay sale?

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:24:14 +0000

I live in Missouri and I went with my Mom to a Flea Market in MN. A lady had a whole wall of old disposable diapers from the 1970’s. I hadn’t even started to sell on eBay yet but I bought a few oxes at $2.00 a box to put in a yard sale. Thankfully, I only sold one box. I listed a box on eBay at midnight and by 8:00 a.m. I had my first question about the box. He asked if it really said Kimbies on the box. (I didn’t even have a picture of it.) He said he would easily give me $40 for it and it ended at $56 without a picture. I was floored as I didn’t think anyone would want old diapers. After I got pictures with my listings some of the Pampers sold for over $100 a box. When I saw that this was a big seller I got ahold of the lady back in MN. She said she had alot of these diapers left and she wanted to get rid of them. So…I drove over 725 miles back to MN and met this lady to get the diapers. She said if I would take them all she would sell them to me for $1.00 a box! When we were done I had the back of my truck full of boxes of diapers. I think I got at least 100 boxes. About 8 years later I still have some of those boxes of diapers to sell. Once I saw a box of old diapers sell for over $900 on eBay. I wish that one had been one of mine.

By: Gene Herod

Gene Herod — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:45:27 +0000

Terry, it was fun to look thru the replies you have rec’d. I once bought an unusual looking cigarette lighter for 50 cents. It said “True Blue Beer” on it. I couldn’t find any info on the brand and I put it in a drawer. A year or two later, I looked on the internet again and found that it was a small brewery in New England. I listed it and the bidding went up to around $8.00 and I was happy. I became happier in the last few minutes of the auction when the bidding went up to the final selling price of $165.00. I shipped it to the winning bidder in the same town where the brewery was located.

By: Ann

Ann — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 04:03:21 +0000

I’ve sold pharmaceutical sales rep items, known as “drug rep pens” for upwards of $20. These are the kinds of pens you pick up at the doctor’s office to fill out all those forms with the drug’s name on them. Drug reps (salesmen) give these free to the doctor’s office to get them to prescribe their medication over the competition’s.

Looking forward to reading the book. Thanks.

By: Jack

Jack — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 09:49:02 +0000

I sold over $18,000 worth of AOL floppy’s and disc on eBay, the original floppy’s go from $20 to $50, the 1.0 from $9 to $20, I sold one that was a 9.0 in a wooden case for $122. I have also sold promo credit cards, the ones you get in the mail. What next?????

By: Nathan Popham

Nathan Popham — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:26:54 +0000

I found a box of old computer games that was about to be thrown out. (In this case, old was King’s Quest era, or 80s and 90s, back when they had 5.25″ disks, 3.5″ disks, or both.) I put a couple up on eBay, and one sold for $91! The average I’ve been getting is about $30 per game, and I’m not even through the box yet.

By: jennifer fulwiler

jennifer fulwiler — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:23:49 +0000

i have sold many packs of creative memories(scrapbooking items) stickers, paper, die cutseven scrapbooks all there products are pretty pricey but i usually only got about a 1/4th of their retail until i broke up the packs and started selling a few of each pieces into small lots and selling but doubling sometimes tripling my money, Most of the lots i make over retail price for/

By: Jeff Sweden

Jeff Sweden — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 08:43:26 +0000

Weirdest sale of an item I bought walking out of a huge Flea Market on a table filled with stuff: My eye caught a nice pair of cuff-links with the Swedish 3 Crowns, made by well known Sporrong Company, and, as always, I asked the price, and was surprised to hear 5 bucks! So, I invested my last 5 dollars of the day, and went home to put these up for auction. They came in the original presentation case, so that helped my sale. But when they sold for 95 US Dollars I was quite surprised and HAPPY! Since then, I have seen these same Swedish Sporrong cuff-links sell for 12 USD to 40 USD. So, the original price of 5 USD was worth it, even if they sold for 12 USD!

By: Judith Matthew

Judith Matthew — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:01:31 +0000

I had a fun surprise this spring with a paperback book I got at a thrift store for $.50–It was a book of science experiments you can do with stuff you have at home with your kids. When I researched it on Half.com, there were very few copies of it available, especially in new condition as this one was. I listed it on Half and it sold in about 2 weeks for $35.00! I suppose either a homeschooler bought it, or a parent wanting to have some summer activity ideas for their kids.

By: Jean DeCastro

Jean DeCastro — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:34:57 +0000

One item that stands out in my mind is a dress I purchased at a thrift store for $5.00 sold on eBay for $55.00. A great $50.. dollar profit. Another time I listed a bathroom rug set for about $15.00 and it didn’t sell. So I listed it for $20.00 and it sold for $27.00. Sometimes the price makes a difference. I have no clue.

Thank you Terry, reading all the great stories about what others can do on eBay is great. I have really enjoyed this blog.

By: Heather

Heather — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:04:59 +0000

Back in 1999, I bought two bars of soap at Goodwill for 5 cents each. They were the littel soaps that hotels gave out in the 60’s. They both had the old Howard Johnson’s “lamplighter” logo on them. One Hojo advertising collector guy bought both bars for $50 each!! I made $100 for my 10 cent cost!