Thrift Shop Treasure September 2015

Selling Cassette Tapes on Amazon

Let’s talk about the most profitable thrift shop treasure that we sold on Amazon during September 2015.

We provide these examples of profits from our Amazon store to help other thrift store and yard sale re-sellers locate the best items from thrift stores to sell on Amazon and also to sell on Amazon FBA.  Most of these items were located less than one month before they sold.   We specialize in locating free and low-priced items that can be sold for very high profit margins.  The key to this system is “Low Risk, High Reward”.  For more on the Almost Free Money approach, check out the Top 10 Amazon Kindle books Thrift Wars and Passive Income for Life.

September did not have as many high-profit single sales as August or July, but overall sales were only down a tick.  We sold a lot of .10-cost items in the $10-15 range, but we did not have as many $35-50 sales as in prior months.

At the end of September, we listed a tote-full of our boys’ old Halloween costumes on eBay.  In the first week, we sold a used werewolf costume for $13 and a used Captain Jack Sparrow trench coat for $15.  We still have about 12 more eBay fixed price listings that should sell when it gets closer to Halloween.  Selling Halloween used costumes can be very profitable, especially 2-3 weeks before Halloween.

If you have been following our Cassette Lot posts, you know that we have been posting the progress of sending in several large cassette lots to Amazon FBA.  As a matter of fact, we got the last shipment sent out on September 29.  For cassette sales, in August we passed the break-even point for out lots and even came close to doubling the purchase cost in profits.  During September, we earned a bit less (there were two $35 sales and one $50 sale in August).  We banked over $128 in September, with only about 2/3 of the lot available on Amazon!

I found a great cassette lot on eBay that consisted of 80 rare import tapes from India and Japan.  I was able to win the auction with one bid at $1.25, due to the seller’s terrible title and listing it in the wrong category.  With shipping, the lot only costed me $13.00.  I had to throw out a couple of tapes, but the rest were 90% listings of over $20 on Amazon, including several over $50.  These tapes may move slowly, but after I sell my first tape, I am in the black with that lot!  Here is a cassette from Hungary that I made a listing for on Amazon for $35:

Selling Cassette Tapes on Amazon

My wife also picked up several boxes of cassettes for a relatively small donation at a benefit garage sale.  Those tapes were listed on Amazon for over $1620 in potential sales.

Early in the month, we hit a jackpot at a local thrift store.  We found 3 full boxes of LP records sitting at the front of the store with a FREE sign on them!  What?!  I asked the owner how many I could take for free and she said please take them all.  We need the room.  Awesome!  There were quite a few records with large library attachments and mismatched records and jackets, but I still listed about 80 records, including some high-profit records listed for up to $200 each.  Several sold almost instantly, as you will see in the list below.

Here are some of our top thrift store and yard sale items sold on Amazon during September 2015:

Item                                                                     Bought For:           Location:            Price Sold:               Profit %

  • Disco Duck Dance Party LP Record            4c                   eBay Lot               $17.50                      43650%
  • Zip the Weed Whip Motorized Toy             Free                Home                   $19.50                      Inf.
  • Learning Basic Skills Cassette Palmer         7c                   eBay Lot              $15.95                      22685%
  • Gabriel Hi-Q Board Game 1980s Used       25c                 Thrift Store         $19.50                      7770%
  • St Claire H.S. Band LP Record                     Free                Thrift Store         $35                          Inf.
  • Yale Poets Reading LP Records                    Free               Thrift Shop         $27                           Inf.
  • Autobio of Ben Franklin 1907 Book            10c                  Thrift Shop          $20                        19900%
  • Merry Christmas, Country Style LP             7c                    eBay Lot              $19.95                    28400%
  • Led Zeppelin II Cassette – Like New            7c                    eBay Lot              $15.95                    22685%
  • West of Hawaii – Speedy West LP               Free                 Thrift Store         $24.95                    Inf.
  • Lawrence of Arabia Soundtrack LP             4c                    eBay Lot               $14.95                    37275%
  • Hershey’s Chocolate Kiss Maker Toy          $2                    Thrift Store         $34.95                    1647%
  • Ravel: Bolero LP Record                                Free                 Thrift Store         $19.95                    Inf.
  • CL60 Nylon Cassette Case                             Free                 eBay (part lot)    $15.95                    Inf.
  • Ambiance Vintage PC Telephone                 10c                   Thrift Store         $35                         34900%

Here are several of our prior month treasure lists for July 2015 and August 2015.

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