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!