Thursday, August 19, 2010

Vintage Sewing Patterns - eBay Success Story

Kristi sent in her success story:

While browsing at my local Goodwill, I noticed a HUGE bin of vintage sewing patterns. I had no idea whether they would sell or not, so I choose only a handful that were Vogue brand and looked like classic, timeless patterns. They were used patterns, fully cut and the bags were not in the best condition (but all pieces appeared to be present along with the printed pattern guide book). They were only .25 each, so a great deal even if they didn't sell for much. To my surprise, they did remarkably well. Here are three ending auctions:


Vintage Christian Dior Pattern - sold for $21.39


Vintage Vogue Pattern - sold for $22.50


Vintage Vogue Pattern - sold for $33

Kristi's investment = 75 cents
Selling price on eBay = $76.89
Profit before fees = $76.14

This is amazing! And these items were easy to list and ship. You could just lay the pattern envelopes on your scanner, scan the image, and not even have to take photos. Imagine a $76 profit on a few pieces of paper!

Visit Kristi's eBay store here, and check out her blog at Spend Less & Save More.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have wondered about patterns, i will have to go back to the thrift store were I saw a lot of them. I even saw one with Tiffany Thiessen once!

Serena said...

Great ROI! I can see why these were so popular, as they are very classic styles of vintage clothing, which is big on eBay. I have sold patterns for traditional costumes of other countries individually and patterns from the 70's and 80's in bulk. My only concern has been the completeness of the patterns. I'm not a sewer myself, so have hesitated from purchasing more. I'll try them if they're cheap enough.