In case you missed it, I have a new side hustle.

Last weekend I attended my first estate sale with the mission of purchasing some cool vintage stuff to resell on eBay. Since that sale was so much fun (and productive) I decided to start going to estate sales around my area every weekend.

So today, my husband and I took a drive across the North Carolina border to check out a sale in Johnson City, Tennessee. The trip was about 45 minutes each way, which does not seem overly far to us, since we live at least 20 minutes from pretty much anything. When we pulled up to the address, we discovered that this estate sale was for not just one, but two houses that had belonged to the same family and were situated side by side.

It was a lower income neighborhood, and so I knew what not to expect--expensive jewelry, art, etc. But that's not the kind of thing I'm looking for, anyway. No matter how much money someone makes over the course of their lifetime, the chances are good that they've accumulated a few treasures along the way. This estate sale did not disappoint.

I noticed a lot of vintage kitchenware that someone would probably snap up, and I considered buying it myself, but I still haven't gotten around to doing that research I mentioned needing to do in my previous post. I want to know a little bit more about the prices this type of stuff is going for--and the profit margins I can expect--before I dive in.

Other than that, I did find a lot of cool stuff. In fact, I saw so many things that I thought would sell profitably on eBay that I couldn't buy it all. I hadn't brought along enough money!

Here are the items we did end up purchasing:

Super cool glass kitchen canister from the 60s or 70s

I remember my grandma and all of my aunts had things like this in their kitchens when I was a kid. Teapots, mixing bowls, casserole dishes, etc. decorated with pictures of tomatoes and onions and bell peppers. It's a bit nostalgic. I haven't checked on eBay to see how much something like this goes for, but I only paid $2 for it, so I'm sure I'll be able to profit.

Some nice silverplate stuff

I've had another antique silverplate item up on eBay for almost three months with no bites. I bought these ($4 for the pair) thinking that maybe if I listed all three as a lot, I'd get more interest.

Brother Label Maker

Remember these? These sell for around $165 new from the factory. Unopened ones on eBay go for between $60-100. I paid $7 for the label maker and the refill tapes combined!

This pirate dude

This is another thing I remember seeing in people's homes when I was a kid. And for whatever reason--nostalgia, probably--they are going for around $50 on eBay. I paid $2.

Puzzle Game

Here's a game of the same phylum as that one where you move the plastic pins around on the wooden, triangular board. Back before the internet, games like this one were all you and your cousins had to entertain yourself for long hours at Grandma's house. Yes, people still play these!

And a manual pencil sharpener.

This pencil sharpener was mounted to the wall in the pantry of one of the homes, and I had to ask the estate sale manager if it was even available to buy. But yes, at an estate sale, everything is for sale. (In this case, even the houses themselves were being advertised--at crazy low prices.) He fished out a screwdriver and removed it from the wall for me, and I paid him $3 for it. These vintage pencil sharpeners are super sturdy and long-lived, and people like them for that reason. They sell for between $15-25.

That's my haul for today!

Tomorrow I'll be checking out another estate sale. This one is much closer; less than a 15 minute drive from my house. If I get anything good (which I'm sure I will) I'll write a post about it!

Hi, I'm Starr!

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