I am always on the look out for interesting coffee mugs, whether it be at a
thrift store, garage sale, or antique shop. Often times, church/non-profit
thrift & charity shops have a plethora of mugs and so price them at the low
cost of anywhere from 25cents to $1.
One of the most prized mugs for reselling is anything that is Fire King /
Anchor Hocking, particularly the coveted Snoopy mug and Jadeite mugs. Fire King mugs have a
following among collectors and so when scouring the racks, it's always
important to be on the lookout for these types of mugs. I have sold one Anchor Hocking mug previously, a white milk glass with red
roses. Paying only 10cents for the mug, I figured that I would start the
bidding low in the hopes that it would sky rocket.
Wrong. I ended up selling
the mug for a sad price of $5.95. What was worse is that I underestimated the shipping
costs and ended up having to pay more out of pocket to ship the item. I ended
up making a whopping 92cents on the mug and learned a valuable lesson. Like anything that sells on eBay, once has to know what is hot and what
isn't. Fire King is a picky collectible, with some mugs bringing in the big
bucks and others not having any value at all. Research, research, research -
and always have your eyes open and looking.
I did just this when I ventured to a new antique store in south Jersey.
This store, well, it is actually a barn, is now my new favorite place to find
scores. I scored with a Fire King mug purchase a few weeks ago and hopefully
will have many more scores in the future.
Going to this barn for the first time, it is a bit overwhelming making sure
that you look at everything. So many nooks and crannies in not only the main
building, but in the outside buildings/trailers as well. I love shops like this
because often the abundance of nooks and crannies means there are overlooked
items just waiting to be purchased and flipped for profit. Looking at one booth in the main barn, this was one of the overstocked
booths - filled to the brim with everything and anything. Glasses,
knick-knacks, books, textiles - anything you could name. As I was perusing the
shelves, my eye was drawn to a milk glass mug. It had only one word printed on the outside - Nabisco. I picked up the glass, took a look at the outside and
inside of it, and then flipped the glass over to find a maker's mark. Sure
enough, it was marked Fire King. The little sticker price tag was marked with the low price of $3.
Not one to make it obvious when I bring up eBay on my
phone, I ventured to the next booth over, walking and entering a few key
phrases in an eBay search. Searching for Nabisco Fire King mug brought up only 2 auctions, one
which occurred two months prior and another one month
prior. Both had sold in the $60 range and both had a good number of views. Pulling
up current listings, there was nothing. This was a sure bet. So I nonchalantly
made my way back to the booth and picked up the Nabisco mug. This beauty was
going home with me.
The mug was in nice condition with no chips or cracks and the graphic still
had good color. I decided that I would start the auction off at $25.95, with
free shipping. It wasn't super low and high enough that if I received only one
bid I would still make a profit. Within one day, I already had a bid at my starting price. The number of watchers and the number of views climbed steadily each day. I never had an item that had received so many views before and it was exciting! On the last day of the auction, as I expected, the bids grew. The bid hopped up to $48.50, then another bidder entered with $49.50, followed by a bid of $63.00, and then ending with the winning bid at $64.00.
I was more than happy with this purchase! I bought the mug for $3 and after my costs plus shipping, I walked away with $46.29 profit. Sure, I probably could have charged for shipping & came away with a $50ish profit, but I was satisfied with the profit I had made. Going back into eBay to check out the bids, the first bidder had set up automatic bidding from his/her first bid - the high bid of $64 had been chosen from Day 2 of the auction.
When this buyer had placed the first bid, I took a look at their feedback score and that is when I noticed that many, if not all, of their previous purchases were Nabisco related items. This put me at ease, knowing that 1. This buyer was going to pay and 2. This buyer was going to fight to the end to get this mug. Perhaps this was what they needed to complete their collection or cross off of their "must have" list. Whatever it was, they were willing to bid and that is nothing but good news for me.
~ Flea Fact ~
Fire King mugs are eBay worthy. Not all will bring in a big profit, but don't let an odd graphic or an unknown name deter you from doing a little research and consider buying the item to resell. You never know if you don't look!
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