02 03 The Recycle-ista...Adventures in Vintage: It Pays to Look in those Bags 04 05 15 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 31 32 33

It Pays to Look in those Bags

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I've had a couple good selling stories recently so I think today I'll share the shorter one. I really need to be listing before Baby #2 comes along.

My local Value Village has lots of items in baggies, hung along the walls. They still overprice them..like pretty much everything else in the store, but I love looking through them. I have found some good things in those bags! Plus half price days help too. Not to mention the recent stamp card promotion. I had some 30% coupons to use.

Well, I think I've mentioned before that I love selling flatware. Correction: I love buying flatware, researching flatware and selling flatware. Listing flatware....not so much. Hence, I have numerous 'stashes' of flatware around my house. Bins, vintage suitcases, small boxes on my desk.

I can't stop buying it. Because it actually does sell pretty well.

My Value Village thrift store recently stopped dumping all their flatware into 1 big bin and has started baggie-ing them up. Very frustrating, since they split up patterns between several bags (along with junky flatware) forcing you to buy several. The bags run from 2.99 to 5.99 each.

I'm really trying to be selective and have been listing these recent finds fairly quickly. Here are some of the recent successes:


Okay, this is something you might not find everyday. It's flatware by Reed & Barton. It was spread out over several bags, fortunately not mixed with other things. It's a complete service for 12 and it was NEW!!
It sold for $150 pretty quickly.


Same day I found 3 boxes of this Oneida flatware. Also new. Long story short, I've sold them once and they came back because the pattern the buyer was trying to match was not 'Satin'. Umm, not sure how you missed that in the listing, but whatever. I have them relisted now. The point is, the original buyer bought all 3 and was willing to pay $105.


More new flatware. 6 Dessert/Salad forks by Lauffer Holland. Sold overnight for $59.99.

Finding new in the package flatware is pretty rare. But profit can still made on used. I recently found several pieces of this Oneida flatware the baggies too. Some is still listed, but I sold 4 forks recently for $32.99.


Oh, and the knife shown up top? Was one of those 'extra' pieces I had to buy to get something else in the bag. It's engraved "F.E.C.Ry" and on the blade it said "Mexican Silver 67". Did my research and discovered the initials stood for "Florida East Coast Railway" and that the Mexican Silver mark was one used by Holmes and Edwards in the late 1800s. It was a new type of metal...long-lasting. Not silverplate and not stainless.
The knife recently sold for $69.99! One knife! (gotta love those railroad collectors!)

So much for a shorter post. I love flatware. I could go on and on.

I'm still working on improving my photos...some days the light works better than others...and avoiding reflections is a pain in the patootie.

Brands I look for: (not an in-depth list...I'll try to have other posts later with more details, if anyone is interested)

and one more I'll add:
So, I've been working on my flatware stash...and will continue to work on it after the appearance of Baby #2. I've put away a lot of inventory to mentally make room for Baby and Gear...and I know I'll only have short snippets of time once he's born...if any at first. I can pull a few pieces of flatware, photograph and list...without making a big mess. This is the plan anyway. :) I'll let you know how it goes!

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