However, it is still possible to make a good profit from old typewriters as their keys are used by some jewellery makers and other crafters.

You don’t need to have huge lots of them to make a useful profit, the keys from just one machine can fetch a good price, as you can see from the images below.

Old typewriters can be found at estate sales, garage sales and flea markets, or on Craigslist, eBay or in the local newspaper. The type to look out for are those with metal-rimmed keys.

Although I found lots of examples of typewriter keys selling for good prices on ebay.com, I found none at all when I checked on the eBay UK site, and all those that came up on eBay.au and eBay.ca were from sellers in the United States. This suggests that if you are outside the United States and selling vintage typewriter keys is something that appeals to you, you may well achieve the best results by listing them on eBay.com rather than your own country’s site.

Well, according to a recent survey for the National Retail Federation, Americans plan to spend $688.87 on holiday-related shopping, only slightly up from last year’s $682.83.

But whatever the state of the economy, we can be sure that children will always come first. Even if it means cutting the budget elsewhere, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles will find a way to buy toys and gifts for the children in their lives.

No matter what, parents will find a way to buy toys for their children. And if they can’t afford to get the newest toys for this year, they will buy used.

One of the best strategies toy sellers can implement this holiday season is to offer both used and new toys to their customers. Even though new toys traditionally skyrocket during the holidays – which means sellers can buy them at full retail price and see them double or triple on eBay if demand outstrips supply – there can be a much higher profit margin when selling used toys. You can pick up gently used toys at yard sales, charity shops and flea markets for pennies on the dollar and turn them around for 100-200% profit on eBay!

But it all comes down to knowing what sells…

Jenni Hunt has consistently doubled her profits every year since starting her eBay business in 2003, and she spends hours every week researching trends to find what children’s items are selling well. Her popular Holiday Toy Guide has been published annually since 2004 and was created to help you know what is selling (and what isn’t!). In an unpredictable economy this is must have information.

Jenni is giving away 3 free reports which she’s designed to help you sell toys this holiday season. You’ll learn what the toy trends are for 2010, top listing tips and how to find out what is selling on eBay this year.

We found that it is not only vintage ornaments that sell for good prices,  many modern pieces are also very collectible. Swarovski is the most prominent brand and it was one of their pieces that had achieved the highest price on the day we looked. The 1991 Christmas ornament sold for $1000 in spite of the only photograph in the listing focusing on the box rather than the ornament. Maybe if the seller had used multiple (and better) images and removed their ‘no returns’ policy, it would have received more than one bid and fetched an even higher price.

Although that was the only 4-figure sale, many other Swarovski pieces sold for 3-figure sums.

Of course, not all Swarovski Christmas ornaments sell for high prices. Indeed a large percentage of the listings ended without any bids. As with most collectibles, the best selling items are those that come complete with the original box, and a Certificate of Authenticity where applicable.

Antique Dresden Ornaments attract a lot of interest but due to their age they will be harder to find than more modern pieces. The frog was the highest priced at $799.

Some antique spun cotton animal ornaments such as the dog in the screenshot near the top of this page, and the donkey and the horse shown below all attracted several bids, as did a miscellany of other interesting ornaments.

Although we always check  eBay UK as well as the USA site, we haven’t shown any examples from the UK in this article, the reason being that there currently appears to be less enthusiasm for Christmas ornaments here than on the other side of the Atlantic. The three highest prices achieved on eBay UK were all Swarovski ornaments, the highest priced of which were two 1992 Snowflake ornaments which sold for £200.50 and £195, and a 1999 Star which sold for £185. Apart from a set of 23 Grolier Disney Tree Ornaments which fetched £140, no other Christmas ornaments sold for more than £100 on eBay UK. If you are a UK seller and have Christmas ornaments to sell, maybe listing them on the USA site would bring you the highest price.

If you are visiting any garage sales or flea markets in the near future you may want to be on the look out for attractive Christmas Ornaments. As always, however, don’t risk paying a lot for items unless you have done your research and are as sure as you can be that you will get a worthwhile return on your investment.

Homeschoolers are also looking for used curriculum courses online and the relatively high prices they can sell for gives the potential for  higher profits than some of those made on single textbooks.

The books will need to be in good, clean condition and in most cases will need to be a recent edition. Some pencil markings within the book are usually acceptable but avoid buying books that have extensive highlighting or ink markings in them.

We searched both the US and UK eBay sites for completed items that had attracted 20 or more bids. This brought up 33 items from eBay.com and 15 items from eBay.co.uk. Here is a screenshot of some of the results on the US site.

For some inexplicable reason, the selling prices haven’t shown up as they should have done in many of the listings so we had to click on the links to see how much they sold for. I have contacted creator Dave Guindon’s  support desk on several occasions regarding this problem but unfortunately have so far had no response. Not good!

Diary of a Victorian Teenager

The item that we consider to be the most interesting was not the one with the most bids, nor did it sell for the highest price, fetching just $130.25. It was an 1869 diary written by a 17-year-old girl, along with an original family photograph.  The insight into this young lady’s life and thoughts must have made incredibly fascinating reading.

The Hottest Hot Item

The item that sold for the highest price and attracted 78 bids (almost double the number of its nearest rival)  was the original Lucasfilm “Cease and Desist” letter sent to Wicked Lasers in response to their 1W Arctic 445nm Laser.  It sold for $3,850.00. Although this is a unique, one of a kind item, there is always a chance (albeit a slim chance) that something equally rare and sought after could be hiding in a box of assorted movie memorabilia in your local saleroom.

Victorian Scraps

A Victorian scrap album that was listed on both the US and UK eBay sites attracted 23 bids and sold for $1,412.39 (£908.00).

This type of item could quite possibly be found at an estate sale or offline auction and with the revived interest in scrapbooking, vintage scraps are always worth looking out for.

1950s Pin-Ups

There were several vintage pin-up calendars amongst the eBay hot items, two of which featured Marilyn Monroe. One was a 1955 calendar –  with envelope – which got 34 bids and sold for $102.60, and the other, which pre-dated her first appearance in Playboy Magazine was a 1953 advertising calendar which attracted 21 bids and reached $204.16.

The other pin-up calendars were a 1954 Esquire Magazine calendar (25 bids, $288.00/£184.37), a 1952 calendar entitled “Bill Randall’s Date Book (22 bids, $152.00/£96.02) and a 1948 pin-up girl risque artist drawn colour printed advertising calendar (23 bids, $45.00).

Those results suggest that 1950s pin-up calendars are worth looking out for, and as they were a common feature in many male dominated workplaces back in those days when political correctness was unheard of, it’s likely that there are still a good many of them around.

Collectible Playing Cards

Playing cards were another product that was well represented in this hot items report with a combined total of nine auctions from the two eBay sites. The highest priced was a sealed, limited edition deck of Ellusionist Arcane Playing Cards which was listed on both sites and sold for $318.88/£205.00 with 29 bids. Next highest was 2 sets of c1930s Art Deco playing cards designed by artist Einar Nerman and listed on the eBay UK site, which attracted 25 bids and sold for £141.27 (approx $220.55).

A deck of USPCC Bicycle playing cards c1917 in a snap-sealed red box (plus an empty damaged blue box) sold for $200.00 with 26 bids and a Thomas de la Rue double pack of whist playing cards c1865 got 22 bids and sold for $162.36/£104.00.

In the lower price range were a mixed lot of over 120 partial decks of cards from 1930s to 1970s which sold for $96.00/£61.46 with 21 bids, a set of 6 new, sealed Red Dead Redemption playing cards (20 bids, $49.00), a sealed double deck of Giordano Cats cards (23 bids, $42.60), 2 Decks of brown Bee playing cards from WYNN casino (30 bids $41.00), and Lady Gaga Poker Face brand new promotional  playing cards (21 bids $18.50).

Those results indicate that playing cards are a popular collectors’ item, and the Red Dead Redemption and Lady Gaga cards show that it is not just vintage packs that are in demand.

All the Proof You Need that One Man’s (or Kid’s) Junk is Another Man’s Treasure!

Although the Hot Item Finder search brought up many other interesting products, this post would drag on too long if we looked at them all so maybe we’ll come back to it at a later date. In the meantime, we’ll end with a question for any baby boomers who may be reading. What did you do with your old sweet/candy wrappers when you were a teenager?

Who knew?! But now that you do know, you can teach your grandchildren not to make the same mistakes that you made

Although vinyl is no longer the format of choice for most buyers of contemporary music, deleted or ‘out of print’ (OOP) vinyl is still very collectible, and it is relatively easy to obtain. Many people replace their old records with CD or MP3 then dispose of their vinyl collection without realising how much it may be worth.

It’s not unusual for a search of completed listings on eBay to bring up several LPs that have sold for upwards of £1000 (US$1500).

However, although it may be worthwhile making a note of these high value items (because you never know your luck!), your time would be better spent concentrating on more realistically priced records which are less rare and therefore are more likely to turn up at flea markets, car boot sales, charity shops and garage sales, etc.

And it’s not just LPs that are in demand, 7″ and 12″ singles also change hands for good prices.

Again, although it’s always possible that you could hit the jackpot, the collectible records you are likely to come across are the ones that sell for a more realistic price.

As with used books, there are many genres to choose from within the category of music and it is a good idea to specialise in a niche that interests you. Whether it’s country music or prog rock, heavy metal or folk, or maybe a specific record label, by concentrating on one niche you can quickly become an expert and know what to look for when out scouting for merchandise.

As well as checking completed auctions on eBay to discover which records are currently fetching high prices, an archive of past vinyl auctions that reached US$30 or more can be found at www.popsike.com. You might also want to keep an eye on the ‘Want It Now’ posts on eBay, although these are usually for obscurities that would be difficult to find.