Before I continue, I should clarify what I mean by "unique." In this context, I mean items that haven't been mass-produced in the last few decades and you can't easily find on eBay. If an item is uncommon enough to be considered unique, you will probably never see it at a garage sale again. This is a good example of a unique item:
Yes, that is Gandhi. Yes, I did get him at a garage sale. I love the stripes.
Note that my idea of unique changes as I go to more sales. For example, last September I saw a second production run copy of Scrabble (the first run was done by hand under the name of Criss-Crosswords and was limited to a few hundred copies, I believe). Having never seen one before, I assumed it was rare but I knew there was no market so I didn't buy it. Since then, I've seen an identical copy every weekend I've gone saling.
I suggest you don't buy unique items with intent to resell them. For one thing, you have no idea if the items are sought by collectors. Even if collectors want them, you have no idea if the items are worth anything. Just because people on eBay collect them; it doesn't mean they are worth anything. Many collectible items on eBay sell for $10 or less. Even if the item is "worth" something, you have no idea how easy it is to find a buyer. If the market consists of all of twenty people in the United States, it's pretty hard to track down one of these twenty people and negotiate a deal. Remember, an item is worthless no matter its supposed value if you cannot find a buyer.
Well, I meant to start discussing bargaining for uncommon items in this post, but it's actually pretty long already. I guess I will start with that next week.
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