items that you would overpay for

[jason4kstate]

I would bundle them with a console. I passed on a $45 atari wood console system with all of the games. I later found out it was worth over $150. The main problem with the Atari system is that its difficult if not impossible to hook it up with a digital TV. Whenever a little effort is involved people tend to shy away from things.

 

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[randazzo1]

This is just a theory, but it seems to me like you have to follow the disposable income on all the game / toy type stuff. Someone plays with something when they are 10-13 and loves it. Then forgets it about it. Then they get a first good paying job in their early 20's but don't yet have a family to support and can go back and buy these things with disposable income. There are still a lot of them around but they demand a premium. Next, the generation has kids and houses and cars and what not and the items kind of stagnate in terms of value. Then the generation hits its peak earning years in the 30's-40's at the same time that the number of items has decreased. And -- voila -- they are worth their weight in gold. Look at teenage mutant ninja turtles stuff --- kids who were 12 in 1986 are now entering their peak earning years (37 or so) and these turtles are demanding huge premiums. For my generation it will be Legend of Zelda, Playstation Games, Super Soakers etc. Also -- probably Sega Genesis Systems-- shorter lived and less popular than the competitors.

Think about what happened to Lionel Trains -- as the firstborns from that generation died off, the craze went with it. Same thing for old BB Guns. A lot of kids grew up without ever owning one. I'm sure there are other examples.

 

[clovis97]

Think about what happened to Lionel Trains -- as the firstborns from that generation died off, the craze went with it.

I agree somewhat with this.

A few other factors have affected the Lionel market tremendously.

1. Once upon a time, O gauge guys were limited to two names: Lionel or Marx. Now, you have MTH, and a ton of other players. Just open a copy of Classic Toy Trains, and it seems like everyone and their brother is pimping O scale. I had never heard of Mike's Train House until 1993. The market also saw an explosion in other scales too. Many baby boomers dumped their collections and went to another scale, like G.

I know tons of baby boomers that only run and collect MTH. At our local train show, there is an O gauge club that I dubbed "The Lionel Hate Club".

2. Lionel has flooded the market so bad with repops that it has depressed prices. If you follow postwar Lionel on ebay, you can tell when Lionel has released an exact repop of something because the postwar version will plummet in price. And now that they've been repopping in exact colors, with original looking boxes, it kind of ticks me off....but I understand the guys who pay $200 for a new one versus $175 for a junk postwar version.

3. Now that the great home equity loan and credit card era is gone, you don't see nearly as many 10 cent millionaires bragging their heads off about how great they are because they own everything Lionel ever made at train shows.

4. Many of the boomers are now entering retirement, and have less cash to blow

 

[inspectorgadget]

I would slightly overpay for the right coins & for certain vaseline, jadeite, custard & green depression glass pieces (all those are known as uranium glass). From the Victorian era, the art nouveau era, the depression era, the art deco era & even some of the better mid century art glass pieces. But by over pay I mean at local auctions I'd possibly pay almost as much as what the stuff sells for on eBay minus the shipping price.

My experience is guys often want some things they couldn't or didn't have (but some of their friends maybe did have) back when they were kids. Or things they did have as kids & now they want to have it back once again. The big & best target area for me so far is the 35 to 45 year old crowd. So the mid 70's to mid 80's stuff does great for me! The list gets bigger all the time but so far...

Quality late 70's to early 80's BMX race bikes & quality mid 80's BMX Freestyle bikes do great both selling as whole bikes or parting them out. Usually parting them out is your best bet unless the bike is still 100% original & in excellent condition or if it's an extremely rare bike. 80's skateboards & parts do great. Early to mid 80's higher dollar ghetto blasters / boomboxes do very very well. Some game systems & games do well. The old 70's spinning (from the heat of the bulb) motion psychedelic lamps do well. Original old 70's blacklight posters can do well, 70's swag lamps do well, late 70's to mid 80's string art lamps do well. Toys, stuffed animals & games from a huge range of dates do well.

I even have done well selling those cheap 80's Takara Rock-N-Flowers "they bop till the music stops". $30 to $50 is typical for one on eBay. I found one recently that I haven't ever seen on eBay (but I don't look for them much) & it's a poinsettia with a yellow smiley face, red petals, no sunglasses, a bell & holly w/berries instead of the normal daisy with sunglasses & a guitar type I've always seen. Guess it was possibly a limited Christmas edition that might be pretty rare? Anyway the list goes on & on... I say the 40 year old rang is a great target area simply because they start having real money by that age even if they have a family & especially if their single + their young enough to still really enjoy those old memory lane things.

 

[Ursus]

Usually I just buy to resell - I know that if I start to buy for other reasons, my area at home would get more and more cluttered. However, I have searched and bought for stuff from my home town and things that bring up old memories. I bought a post card on eBay of a Christmas event that no longer exists ..... but brings up good memories of myself with my parents. I also bought a matchbook from an old diner that was a favorite of my dad. Those things, even though they weren't very much moneywise, were still overpriced if I was to resell. Underpriced to me whenever I look at them and it triggers fond memories!

But I am afraid that I am going to stop reselling old electronics and start to keep some of them for my future man cave. I plan on being the only one of my friends with a working Commodore 64 setup, Atari and Intellivision, and maybe a pinball machine that I loved when I was a teen.

Final word on this post by me (and it works for reselling) - NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF NOSTALGIA!

 

[diggummup]

inspectorgadget seems to like glass as much as I do, lol. I would never overpay for anything intentionally. But I will and have paid good money on certain pieces of old glass, whether depression, vaseline or carnival and American Art Pottery which I also have an affinity for.
For instance I paid $50 for these two latest acquisitions-



Retail is probably about $75, maybe a little more. So, for me personally, that is "overpaying".
First is a berry bowl by Northwood in the Alaska pattern. The second is a signed French piece made by Portieux Vallerysthal, unsure of the pattern though.

 

[inspectorgadget]

inspectorgadget seems to like glass as much as I do, lol. I would never overpay for anything intentionally. But I will and have paid good money on certain pieces of old glass, whether depression, vaseline or carnival and American Art Pottery which I also have an affinity for.
For instance I paid $50 for these two latest acquisitions-

View attachment 897228

Retail is probably about $75, maybe a little more. So, for me personally, that is "overpaying".
First is a berry bowl by Northwood in the Alaska pattern. The second is a signed French piece made by Portieux Vallerysthal, unsure of the pattern though.

Nice pieces!

Recognized the Alaska pattern berry bowl right away, that pattern + style is unique & easy to spot! A complete set of those with the master berry bowl isn't cheap. Now I really like the Portieux Vallerysthal piece, it should be top quality French vaseline glass, not very many of their pieces (of the clear type vaseline) are on the market most pieces are Opaque or Argonaut vaseline glass. Id say you could get about $75 out of that piece alone if not more! The only pieces I have that were made by them are a pair of the dolphin candlestick holders in clear glass that I picked up for $10.

I really like the 60's Fostoria heirloom opalescent vaseline (topaz) pieces, the glow (under UV light) that they produce is 2nd to none & the shapes of their pieces are very cool + they made a lot of large pieces.

I try to stay away from Boyd & Summit pieces (especially their remakes of older pieces) tho I do own several pieces from both of them, hard to pass up when you can sometimes get 5 pieces for $10. Mostly I have some animal figurines & the like.

 

[diggummup]

Nice pieces!

Recognized the Alaska pattern berry bowl right away, that pattern + style is unique & easy to spot! A complete set of those with the master berry bowl isn't cheap. Now I really like the Portieux Vallerysthal piece, it should be top quality French vaseline glass, not very many of their pieces (of the clear type vaseline) are on the market most pieces are Opaque or Argonaut vaseline glass. Id say you could get about $75 out of that piece alone if not more! The only pieces I have that were made by them are a pair of the dolphin candlestick holders in clear glass that I picked up for $10.

I really like the 60's Fostoria heirloom opalescent vaseline (topaz) pieces, the glow (under UV light) that they produce is 2nd to none & the shapes of their pieces are very cool + they made a lot of large pieces.

I try to stay away from Boyd & Summit pieces (especially their remakes of older pieces) tho I do own several pieces from both of them, hard to pass up when you can sometimes get 5 pieces for $10. Mostly I have some animal figurines & the like.

I like the PV piece too. It's a bit of a mystery though. I've never seen a piece signed this way-



Have you?

I like all vaseline glass. I try to stay away from the modern stuff but it's usually too good to pass up when I do find it. I even bought an MMA dolphin candlestick once not too long ago. Wasn't even a pair, lol. I have a piece i've been trying to ID for a while, maybe you can shed some light on it- http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/g...piece-depression-glass-i-know-s-longshot.html

Sorry for hijacking your thread Ben.

 

[Lost&Found]

Diggummup, Funny I just got a pair of the MMA yellow and a pair of cobalt blue for 125 last month. The only reason I did it was that I had a summer job in their gift warehouse in 1978 and jokingly think that I processed the original order. I paid more than I wanted to. But I became sentimental.

 

[diggummup]

Diggummup, Funny I just got a pair of the MMA yellow and a pair of cobalt blue for 125 last month. The only reason I did it was that I had a summer job in their gift warehouse in 1978 and jokingly think that I processed the original order. I paid more than I wanted to. But I became sentimental.

Kind of fits this thread too, lol.

 

[inspectorgadget]

I like the PV piece too. It's a bit of a mystery though. I've never seen a piece signed this way-

View attachment 897655

Have you?

I like all vaseline glass. I try to stay away from the modern stuff but it's usually too good to pass up when I do find it. I even bought an MMA dolphin candlestick once not too long ago. Wasn't even a pair, lol. I have a piece i've been trying to ID for a while, maybe you can shed some light on it- http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/g...piece-depression-glass-i-know-s-longshot.html

Sorry for hijacking your thread Ben.

My first thought when seeing it was Westmoreland, but the more I look the more I'm not at all sure! Sowerby could be correct, I'm gonna research it! Many early Westmoreland pieces were unmarked such as this large heavy pink depression dolphin holding a shell bowl that I didn't buy for $30 cause I was unsure of age & maker (I knew Westmoreland made that bowl in milk glass but never saw it in pink depression before). Turned out it was an early unmarked Westmoreland piece from like 1921 & a pretty rare one (in that size & that color). Kicked myself in the butt when I researched it as it was worth a good $200 or more.

I replied on your old thread link to that piece so we can move this conversation over there & quit hijacking Ben's thread!

 

[dejapooh]

What a random item to covet. What is so special about it to make you want one so badly? Just curious.

I was a BIG TIME collector Olympic stuff. My 1984 collection of dated team pins (those pins only given to members of the team) was one of the best. This was one if 2 or so i was missing. I still deal with Olympic stuff. I have about 100,000 pins. Some torches, medals, and so on. I found a 1936 bronze winners medal 2 years ago. I have about 7 torches. I've gone to 13 Olympics and I an getting ready to go to Russia.

 

[inspectorgadget]

I was a BIG TIME collector Olympic stuff. My 1984 collection of dated team pins (those pins only given to members of the team) was one of the best. This was one if 2 or so i was missing. I still deal with Olympic stuff. I have about 100,000 pins. Some torches, medals, and so on. I found a 1936 bronze winners medal 2 years ago. I have about 7 torches. I've gone to 13 Olympics and I an getting ready to go to Russia.

Wow! Interesting! Right on! Soshe doesn't care if you go to Russia huh? Or are you single? Yes the pun was intended & I know its really (Sochi).

 

[jerseyben]

I was a BIG TIME collector Olympic stuff. My 1984 collection of dated team pins (those pins only given to members of the team) was one of the best. This was one if 2 or so i was missing. I still deal with Olympic stuff. I have about 100,000 pins. Some torches, medals, and so on. I found a 1936 bronze winners medal 2 years ago. I have about 7 torches. I've gone to 13 Olympics and I an getting ready to go to Russia.

Good lord... 100k pins? Amazing.

 

[dejapooh]

Wow! Interesting! Right on! Soshe doesn't care if you go to Russia huh? Or are you single? Yes the pun was intended & I know its really (Sochi).

I made enough in nagano to make a down payment for a house. I don't think she minds too much.

 

[inspectorgadget]

I made enough in nagano to make a down payment for a house. I don't think she minds too much.

Good answer! Hopefully you will make enough in Sochi to pay off that house!