I sell vintage action figures and die-cast cars part-time. The last six months have been brutal. Thrift stores that used to sell me a box of mixed toys for $10 are now pricing individual items. One Goodwill near me has a 'collectibles' case with common Star Wars figures at $15 each. Flea market vendors have caught on too. I'm barely making a profit after shipping and fees. Anyone else dealing with this? How are you adapting?
Collectibles
Collectibles sourcing is getting expensive
Yes. Even estate sales are picked over by the time I get there. I've started focusing on lots that look like junk but have one good piece buried in them.
I don't sell toys but records are the same. Every thrift store now has a 'rare vinyl' section with scratched up Barbra Streisand records for $20. I've basically stopped sourcing from thrifts entirely. Now I mostly buy collections off Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist when someone is clearing out a house. You have to be fast, though.
Same here. I used to hit 5-6 thrifts a week. Now I'm lucky to find one thing worth flipping. The gas money alone makes it not worth it.
Yeah the gas is a killer. I've started mapping routes, so I'm not driving all over creation.
Honestly, the whole 'collectibles' label has ruined thrift stores. As soon as a manager sees 'collectible' on a shelf tag, the price triples regardless of actual sold comps. I used to find 90s toys for $2-3. Now they want $20 because it's 'retro'. I've pivoted to buying larger lots at auction, and breaking them down. It's more work but the per-unit cost is lower
I feel this. I sell vintage buttons and sewing notions. Not exactly high-dollar, but even those have gone up. People on Etsy want $15 for a card of 6 buttons that I used to get for a quarter. I've started buying mixed lots from estate sales and sorting them myself. Takes forever.
It's not just thrifts. Flea market vendors are pricing off eBay sold listings now. I saw a guy with a beat-up He-Man figure asking $40 because 'that's what they go for online.' Never mind the one online was mint in box.
The eBay sold comps thing drives me nuts. They never account for condition or shipping.
I've also started going to storage unit auctions. It's a gamble but sometimes you get a whole unit of stuff for a few hundred bucks and there's enough to flip. You have to be careful about junk disposal costs though.
Storage auctions are too rich for my blood. I tried once and got outbid by a guy who clearly knew something I didn't.
Has anyone tried building relationships with the smaller thrift stores? The ones run by churches or local charities sometimes have better prices and will hold stuff for you if they know you.
I've had some luck with that. One church thrift near me knows I buy sewing stuff and they'll set aside a box for me. But it's small scale.
The problem is that there are too many people doing this now. When I started five years ago, I was the only one at my local Goodwill at 9am on a Tuesday. Now there's a line.
I've thought about estate sales but they always seem to have a line before they open. Does anyone use a scanner or price guide app to check comps on the fly? I've been using eBay's sold filter but it's slow.
I use an app called WorthPoint but it's not free. I think it's $20 a month. It's helpful for older toys but not always accurate for obscure stuff.
I just use Discogs for records. It's free and the sales history is pretty good. For toys, eBay sold is still the best but you have to filter by 'sold' and then look at the actual dates.