Finding Products to Sell

Where do you find vintage products to sell?

Estate Sales

My best source for products is by far estate sales. The main reason you can find good deals is that the estate liquidation company has a limited amount of time, usually two to three days, to get everything out of the house.

Sadly, someone has passed away and the heirs of the estate can’t, or don’t want to, take all of what is in the house. The later it gets, the lower the prices, with the final hours being free or close to it.

Finding estate sales is easy. In your browser enter “Estate Sales Near Me”, which will produce a list of hosting websites that liquidation companies use to advertise their sales.

I use Estatesales.net They give date, time, location, and numerous photos of what is being offered.

Go to the site, enter you city/town/state, and the distance range you are willing to travel. I have automatic notifications sent to my email.

Most days I check to see the current or upcoming sales so I can plan which ones to attend. You can choose from “going on now”, “tomorrow”, or a custom number days. When you are away from home you can enter a new search based on your location.

I prefer to not go on weekends. It is often too crowded and picked over. Many sales start on weekdays and continue into the weekend.

That being said, I don’t rule out the weekends, especially if it is close to home. If you live near a large city, such as I do (outside of Los Angeles), it is impossible to go to all of them.

EstateSales.net uploads pictures of a sampling of what they are selling so you can get an idea of whether you will find merchandise you like (although sometimes there is so much beyond what are in their pictures).

The estate sale companies in your area vary in how they operate. Some have everything priced, well organized, and charge premium prices. Some estate sales have hardly anything staged or with a price tag, with a lot of it still in boxes or cupboards.

I call this type a “Digger” sale and you have to dig to get to stuff. It can be quite dirty and unpleasant for some. I personally prefer these sales because it is usually an indication that the estate company is not overly concerned with getting top dollar.

Most sales have a hold table for you to make a pile while you are still shopping. They will verbally price from here when you are done shopping.

I went to a “digger” style sale recently and they hadn’t even opened up the kitchen cabinets. So, when I went to the kitchen I noticed there was hardly anything out for sale.

I opened up a cabinet and found a roasting pan. I was familiar with the brand and knew it was very valuable (Wagner Magnalite). The cashier said “How about $10?”. I sold it for $375!

So, you see this kind of sale can be quite a thrill.

Negotiating is key to getting good deals. The first rule is to be polite and respectful. Develop a good rapport with them and be friendly. Sometimes that goes a long way when you are getting your items priced.

Here is an example of a negotiation I did yesterday: It was the first day of the three day sale so negotiating is usually harder in this case. I found 11 Longaberger baskets, all with price tags. They weren’t priced too high, with a range of $8-$45, but a bit higher than I was willing to spend to keep my profit margin high.

I piled them onto the hold table and asked if the prices were negotiable if I bought the whole lot. He said yes and offered $160 for all of them, which came out to about $14.50 per basket.

I accepted, and went back in to shop more. Now that I knew he was somewhat flexible I felt incentivized to get more. I added five more items to my pile plus two very valuable copper pots.

I asked if he would accept $200 for everything except the pots, because the pots were a very good deal already, and he accepted. I just listed one of the baskets for $160. I looked it up on Etsy and a similar one sold already for $160.

Also, most estate sales are 2-3 days. If you go on the last day it is often 50% off and sometime free or close to it.

A few days ago I went to a sale in the last half hour. They were begging me to take stuff. I bought a decent sized pile for $20. One of the items was a hammered copper fondue pot from Switzerland which I just finished listing for $120.

Clearance Centers

An equally good source of vintage inventory for me is the Angel View Clearance Center located in Desert Hot Springs, CA, close to Palm Springs.

Angel View is a chain of thrift stores in that area, which is home to a lot of wealthy retirees. The clearance center is a large warehouse where unsold merchandise lands, some of which never made it into a store due to a glut of inventory.

It is an unconventional way of finding product but I must say it can be very thrilling. Pricing is by the pound. Clothing and what are called soft goods, being anything made out of fabric is $2 per pound and anything that is a hard good is $1 per pound.

Books, DVDs, CDs and anything media is 25cents each. Large tables are rolled out intermittently with customers lining up to sort through the new inventory.

When the new tables are open everyone feverishly digs through to find valuables or whatever it is they need/want. It gets pushy and is not for everyone because you have to be somewhat competitive in your reach. I personally love it.

I have found some great stuff there like a Gucci scarf I sold for $325, which cost about 5 cents. I get a lot of cookbooks, vintage clothing, and I am open to try new product with the prices being so low.

The chances are you don’t live near Palm Springs so it isn’t feasible to go to the previously mentioned outlet.

I know Goodwill has similar clearance centers around the country. You are going to have to do some research to find your own best sources.

Perhaps you will take road trips or weekends away from home to fill up your car. I am about two hours away from the clearance center so I get a hotel in Palm Springs for a few nights about once a month.

The hotel and meals may be a tax deduction, and I will visit this topic later. After a few hours of digging I head to the pool, enjoy the sunset and head out to dinner.

One of the greatest thrills is getting a “Cha Ching” (which is a cash register sound) indicating I made a sale, while relaxing by the pool.

Offer up

Offer-Up is an on on-line mobile marketplace that focuses on buying in-person. I occasionally buy things here if they are valuable enough to make it worth the drive to buy one item.

I have search alerts for a few items, such as Magnalite roasting pans like the one I mentioned earlier that sells for around $300 dollars.

So, these are my top picks for finding inventory. I go to thrift stores sometimes also but the profit margins aren’t as good. Pricing has gotten higher and more competitive in the past decade because vintage is popular and stores are savvier about what is valuable.