Betting on Clark Griswold - A Taz Mug Find

“Shitter's full!” Say this phrase and many people will know what you are referring to. Show them a glass shaped like a moose head with antlers for the handles and many people will know what you are referring to. Drink out of a Tazmanian Devil mug and many people will…. what? Read on & learn.

A few months ago while perusing The Danni App Facebook page (“Like” the page now! Well, wait until you are done reading this post first!) I came across a BOLO – Be On the Look Out – for a Taz mug. I thought what could be the big deal about this mug since it was just a ceramic face of the Looney Toon character, who never was one of my favorites. The big deal was the winning auction price at a whopping $127! For a Taz mug! I was intrigued and began reading everyone’s comments about the mug.

While I love National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and have watched it many, many times, the scene where Clark Griswold is drinking out of a Taz mug at the office was never one of the main scenes that stuck out in my head. While I may have forgotten about it, others definitely have not. Apparently having this mug is a big deal, a big deal that brings in bring money on EBay.

I stumbled upon my very own Taz mug one day when I was visiting an antique store by my house, one that I have been to many times. I’m sure this Taz mug had been sitting at this certain booth for quite some time, but I just never noticed it with “eBay vision”. It was sitting next to a Miss Piggy mug, which my eyes quickly bypassed as my pupils grew wide with seeing this Tasmanian devil. It felt like I had found the holy grail of Christmas mugs! I turned the little white tag over to find the selling price of $20. $20?!? I couldn’t believe it. This price seemed too steep for my blood, but knowing that they are popular on eBay, I took out my phone and did a quick search while I nonchalantly looked through the rest of the booth. 

There were a few mugs that were up for auction, with bids ranging in the $50-$70 mark. A buy it now option of $149.99 made me chuckle as I switched to looking at the sold listings. Every mug that had been listed had sold.. and not just for mere pennies. Most auctions ended with bids between $90 and $120 and even higher priced buy it now options had been purchased. Obviously this was a no-brainer in regards to purchasing, but I left the store and left the Taz mug behind because I couldn't justify spending $20 on it.

This decision haunted me for the rest of that night and into the next morning, when after looking a little bit more on eBay, I decided that leaving this mug at the store was a bad decision. A profit was pretty much guaranteed and I would more than get my money back. Off to the antique store I went, where the mug was still sitting in its' spot, ready and waiting. Lucky for me, that weekend the store was having a special holiday event with most booths having sales. The mug's price was dropped down to $16 and I left the store eager to get listing!

It was a slow go with the auction, getting plenty of views and watchers, but no bidders. I had an offer of $70 with free shipping, which I immediately passed on. I had started the auction at $49.95, following in the footsteps of other sold mugs, and knew to wait it out. As the days went by and no bids, I began to wonder if maybe my purchase was a mistake. I added the option of a buy it now for around $90 something, lowering it down to $85.95 with two days left in the auction. There were a few other Taz mugs listed at the same time, all with bids. I was sweating!

Finally, within the last day or so, the bidding started. Dollar by dollar, the bids increased until the winning bidder won at $106.67! I ended up walking away with around $75 profit, after fees which isn't too bad for spending $16. Would I do it again? I'm not sure. Knowing that the mug would sell, I knew that spending the $16 wasn't going to be too big of a risk. Making a $75 profit was good, but that profit would have been even better if I would have paid much less for the mug (say around $1 to $5). 

Lesson: One can't be afraid to spend money to make money in the eBay reselling world. However, you need to make sure that whatever money you spend, you can clearly make a profit on, especially if you are spending larger amounts of cash. While spending $16 might not seem like much to some people, if you can only make double that in profit, it really isn't worth your time or effort. Buy low, sell high!

Christmas Sales & Ebay

It's that time of year again when everyone packs up the car and heads out to their favorite shopping mall in order to score the best deals on toys, home goods, clothes, and everything in between. November through January are high volume times on eBay, due to people searching for the perfect gift and then after the holidays buying what they really wanted. Due to this, my eBay sales should have been soaring through the roof. Everything that I listed should have sold. I should be feeling like Santa, delivering gifts all over the country. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I've hit a slump - a major one. For whatever reason the reselling gods see fit, my sales this month have been zilch. Yes, I know it is still early in the month but that doesn't account for having listed almost twenty items for the end of November and not having one of them sell. Bah humbug. 

So what is the problem? I've gone the Christmas route and have listed vintage/retro Christmas items... I've offered free shipping... I've lowered my prices and yet nothing. When times like these happen, I always tell myself that I've had enough and that it is time to hang up the eBay hat for awhile. Maybe I've lost my touch, maybe my "eye" for things has grown cold, or maybe there is just a dry spell at my local thrift stores and estate sales. I still consider myself a newbie at this reselling business, so I am constantly learning. Having dry spells is one of the processes of learning, albeit an unhappy one.

So what can us resellers do when the sales run dry? First, take a look at your inventory. What are you buying and how much are you paying for it? Spending money to make money is always a risky business. For me, spending $5 on one item is a huge bargain but to others this $5 could be chump change. I always think of it as "If I buy one item for $5, how much profit can I expect to make? Is this profit more than if I bought five items for $1 a piece?"

Second, don't buy everything in sight. It is super tempting to load up a shopping basket or cart at Goodwill in the hopes of flipping for a profit. There is that adrenaline rush when you think of all of the bids that could start over an item. Do your research by taking your items to a non busy part of the store and look up each piece as best as you can. You must remember though that mobile eBay does not show all of the solds/completeds. This needs to be kept in mind when you are searching for something and nothing is coming up... chances are that if you bring up the same search on a desktop, you will get some hits. Again, compare the asking price to what your selling price will be.

Third, have a good attitude. This one I am constantly reminding myself of. If you don't a great item in one store, who knows what could be waiting for you at the next thrift shop you walk into. There is good stuff out there, sometimes sitting on the shelves for months and other times it is that item that has just been put on display that morning. Positivity goes a long way - think that you are going to find that $100 profit item and you just might!