I’ve taken a bit of an auction break, and by bit I mean I haven’t been in probably 10 months! But I’ve been thinking about stepping back into the game. I know several of you liked seeing what sold and for how much so I thought until I start back up again, I would help you by showing you some things to be on the look out for.

Today, it’s all about teacups! I love selling teacups. They are small and easy to ship. Usually they are labeled with the maker and sometimes even the pattern – which makes it super easy to list. And surprisingly, some of those little cups can be worth BIG bucks!

At one auction I purchased a whole lot of teacups and saucers for about $20. There were about 20 cups in the lot so I only paid about $1 each. It was a steal. I figured that I would be able sell some of them for $5-10 each. This was one of the first cups I pulled out and it sold for $94.20! A few more out of that box sold for $50, a couple for $35 and most of the others for $5-10. I did very well.

This is a brand to keep your eye out for! It’s made by Shelley and this particular pattern is Dainty Green. The person may have gotten a deal on it – I’ve seen some sell for as much as $250. For one cup and saucer! It depends on supply/demand, condition and also for this pattern if it is an earlier print. The Dainty pattern comes in lots of colors – all of which do well, but if you can find the black, they have been selling for $525 – $750 for one set!

I spotted this teacup thrown in a box with several broken cups and mismatched saucers. I had to have it. Sometimes at auctions they do what is called choice. That means you bid on the chance to choose. You never know what box people are going to take. Sometimes you wait and your item or box gets selected. Sometimes you pay a little more to make sure you get the one you want. For me, I paid a little more than I wanted to ($25 for the box). This cup (Royal Albert in the Old English Rose pattern) sold for $52. What made it worth more than the other Old English Rose pattern tea cups? The fact that this one is a matte black.

[Tweet “Out thrifting? Keep an eye out for these tea cups. They could bring in several hundreds of dollars!”]

When you are looking for teacups and saucers either at the thrift store or at an auction, look for things that make it unique. The Shelley cups were so thin it was incredible. For the Royal Albert cup, it is a matte black color. Collectors love intricate designs, unique designs, artist signatures, vintage/antique pieces, and limited editions all can raise the value. Gold gilding is popular with collectors! And as with everything, condition is vital! You want your teacups and saucers to be free of chips, cracks and hair lines. But if you find an ultra rare teacup like a Shelley Dainty Black and it has a small chip in it, be sure to pick it up. Just know that it is going to effect the value.

Be sure to check out these top sellers that have happened lately on Ebay. Write them down, take a mental note, or keep a list in your phone so just in case you see one you know to pick it up!

This teacup and saucer is gorgeous. It’s an example that you can get lucky sometimes. The person selling this couldn’t read the makers mark, but knew it was just pretty. Well, it sold. For $885!

Haviland has long been a beautiful and desirable china maker. This particular teacup sold for $633!

This is a great example of unique cups being a selling point. The colors are beautiful and the handle of this cup is definitely unique. It’s made by a company called Aynsley and this one sold for $598!

This is another cup by Aynsley. Many of their cups are beautiful and vibrant colors making them appealing to collectors! Would you guess this cup brought in $324?

And one more Aynsley tea cup. This one is signed by the artist on both the cup and the saucer. It brought in a great $280!

Tips For Selling Teacups

Teacups are all about beautiful colors and condition. Show it off! When selling teacups on Ebay, be sure to take a great photo on a clean and clear backdrop.

To make it easy, one of these easy backdrops is easy to set up and makes for nice professional looking photos. You can use a free photo editing software like Picmonkey to make your photos look their best. Clear photos will attract more bidders and higher prices! If you plan on selling lots of teacups you may also want to pick up a teacup stand. They are inexpensive and will look great in your photos!

The teacup really should have it’s matching saucer. Once I found a teacup that would sell for $50 for only about $1 but it was missing its’ saucer. Without it the price would drop down to $10-15! A quick check on Ebay and I found the saucer for only about $10 shipped. It was worth the purchase in this case!

Bubble wrap is your friend when it comes to shipping.

Find a great teacup? Sell one for a great price! Let us know!

Don’t forget to pin!

This post contains affiliate links.

Last week’s auction I felt like could be a good one for me. I didn’t get a ton of items, but I got some and they were the right price. I had spent $165 last week at the auction and I had a good chunk of it all listed. There are still a few things that I am listing and sorting, but most of it is all online.

Here are a few of the things that sold last week:

This teapot and sugar were in a box I paid $10 for. I wasn’t sure about these since one was marked Limoges and the other was Venetian and while they were painted the same they were obviously two different pieces. I had a few questions and 13 watchers on them. I was a little surprised with that many people watching that they didn’t go up more, but I’m happy with what they sold for. Especially since the teapot has a couple chips!

Paid: $10 for box

Teapot/sugar sold for: $16.88Other pieces in the box sold for: $28.75

Total Profit: $35.63

This tea cup and saucer was also in a box. I really just wanted the teacup and I probably could have gotten it cheaper if I would have waited (it was in a box with broken teacups and 3 mix matched saucers), but I really wanted it! When they are doing choice you never know when it will be chosen! This is a hard to find set. It’s Royal Albert in the Old English Rose pattern. This pattern does well, but this was the matte black one so it sells really well.

Paid: $25 for box

Teacup and saucer sold: $52.00

Other pieces in box: (Sold 3 saucers for $2.99 each) $8.97

Total profit: $35.97

There was a very pretty full set of dishes at the auction that I have been kicking myself all week for not bidding on. They sold for $50, but they were so pretty. So when these large Limoges dinner plates came up, I made sure to get them!

Paid: $50

Sold: $138.59

Total Profit: $88.59

This auction had a whole case of jewelry, knives, etc. They were selling it out by choice for a long time – things went anywhere from $4-$40 each. After the bidding slowed down they sold the whole case and I was the winning bid at $15. I really didn’t think it would go for that low! When I got home I sorted through it. Some of the pieces I had to pull out because they were broken, knotted really badly, etc. I hate scrapping vintage jewelry, but there really wasn’t anything anyone could do with half of a ring, so I took them to a local shop. It was worth $80 in scrap so I more than paid for my case. I am still listing a few things from the case this week, but here are few things that sold out of the case last week:

This is a Rolls Razor. It is a compact razor for men and everything comes in the box.

Sold: $17.50

This bracelet is called a Forget-Me-Not bracelet. It is from around WWII and people would get a charm for each family member’s name. It was sterling and a neat piece to find.

Sold: $38.90

These took some research to find out what they were. The clips said France on them, but honestly when I bought them I thought they were hair clips! Turns out I was wrong and they are shoe buckles.

Sold: $39.99

There were a few more pieces in the case that sold like brooches, pins, tie tacks, etc.

Here are the totals so far:

Paid: $15.00

Sold for: $197.63

Some things that I listed last week didn’t sell, so they are re-listed this week.

Last week I sold $488.59 worth of items, so the $165 that I spent at the auction was more than paid back. Plus, there is still more to sell from that auction!

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Project Resell update. I have taken a few months off. Summer has been really busy for me. I wish I would have gone to more estate sales and had time to sell, but you can’t win them all right? This past week has been my first week ‘back’. I was really excited; last weekend looked like there were some great auctions! We got up to the first auction and took one look. Everything was gorgeous! In fact, we thought it was a little too nice. We guessed that things would go really expensive so we decided to head over to another one.

We got there and bought a few things. And by few things I mean, just a couple. The auction had a lot of stuff, but not a lot that really interested us. So we were off to the third auction. The description said that there was 150 boxes that were packed by the estate and not seen by the auctioneer. Well, we quickly realized why they weren’t shown before! By this time, the auctions for the day were over. I was bummed that we wasted our day!

Sunday we headed to another auction where I was able to purchase some more items. It feels nice to hear my phone ca-ching again!

This week, I’ve been selling a lot of tintypes! I purchased these as a lot in our second auction. I have never purchased tintypes before nor do I honestly know much about them. I took a chance and bought them. I figured that there were so many that it would hopefully be easier to make my money back on them! I paid $30 for about 44 tintypes.

This photo was etched 1879!

Sold: $15.50

This photo of a boy playing his banjo I had listed with a starting point of $3.00. (I listed all of my tintypes with starting points of 99¢ – $3.99 depending on the condition.) Within minutes I had an email asking if I would call the man because he had a ‘respectable’ offer for me. Call or not to call? Well, curiosity beat me and I called. I was fully prepared for him to offer $20 or maybe $30 and I was going to take my chance at the auction. After all, most of the time when people want to buy it without the auction it is because they think it will go higher than they are willing to pay. But he offered me $95! I said absolutely. Part of me is curious what it could have done, but I made a good profit that I am happy with.

Sold: $95

The two brothers weren’t in the best shape, but I liked their pose and their outfits.

Sold $6.50

I thought this was a cute picture of the Father and Son. It only got one bid though.

Sold: $3.00

This was another one that I thought would do better. Ma & Pa.

Sold: $3.99

I actually had two copies of this photo. One was a little rough though so this is the only one that was listed.

Sold: $5.50

These girls were all dressed up!

Sold: $10.09

The past week I sold 13 tintypes. Only one that I had listed didn’t sell! Could I have gotten more for them? Maybe. Probably. But I am very happy with what I got for them. I am even happier that I paid for them and a week later have made my money back plus some! I would rather sell something for $3 and get rid of it right away than to hold onto it for 3-4 weeks and sell it for $10. Time (and space!) is money! 🙂

This past week I also sold 2 brooches as buy it nows and a Mickey figurine on a Facebook garage sale site.

Total spent at auctions last week: $230

Total amount sold last week: $230.89

Total Profit on just the tintypes (so far!): $161.82

Which means everything else that I have from the auctions will be profit! The tintypes will mostly all be sold in the next few days and I have quite a few things that need to be listed including some advertising tins, art, collectibles, lamps, glassware, etc. The next few days will be busy, but it’s pretty motivating when you know that it’s all profit! 🙂

I don’t want to jinx anything, but spring is almost here. Which means garage sales and estate sales! I’m pretty excited! My mom and I love going to auctions and estate sales. Our new adventure is to bring items home and resell them. It’s a fun hobby to have! We learn tons of things (I think we are becoming quite the Useless Trivia Queens!) Plus, it’s a great way to earn extra money!!

Here are a few of the things from the past week that I sold:

Majolica Lion PitcherBought: $85

Sold: $150.00

Profit: $65

Sold in 1 week

Cobalt Blue Salt Glaze CrockI loved this crock! I was really tempted to keep it for myself. I think I should have kept it!

Bought: $50

Sold: $79.99 (See, I think I should have kept it!)

Profit: $30

Sold in 2 week

I got pretty lucky. I paid $20 for about 20 different tea cups. I purchased them kind of blind and didn’t know what kind of cups were in there. I figured I would be able to sell 8-10 of them for $10 each. Surprise! After some research there were some pretty good ones!

Crown Devon Fieldings Tea Cup & Saucer

Bought: $1.00

Sold: $50.00

Profit: $49.00

Sold in 1 week

Shelley Dainty Green Tea Cup & Saucer

This was another cup in my lucky box! I will be on the look out for more of these for sure!

Bought: $1.00

Sold: $94.20

Profit: $93.20

Sold in 1 week

Jadeite Water Cooler (Missing the Lid)

Bought: $50

Sold: $72.50

Profit: $22.50

Sold in 1 week



I wasn’t sure how this would play out since it was missing the lid. I over paid for it, but it was worth the gamble to me. (If you find one with a lid they sell for $100ish)

It was a pretty good week! So far I’ve sold 6 tea cups (the 2 above and 4 more) for $184. Not bad for my $20! Plus, I have 14 more! 🙂

Last week I told you how my mom and I like to go to auctions, yard sales and estate sales together and then list our treasures on Ebay. Well, last week was kind of a slow week! But here are some of what sold and what didn’t.

This cute kitty winds up and it chases the butterfly. Plus, the key and original box came with it! I know when you find something fun and cute at an auction it’s exciting! Make sure you check to see if all of the parts are included!

Bought for: $9.00

Sold for: $42.50

Sold in 1 week

Handy Andy Tool Set (we were missing the hammer) but otherwise this was in excellent condition! I honesty don’t think it was ever used!

Bought for: $6.25

Sold for: $30.99

Sold in 1 week!

This super cute vintage toy didn’t sell. But we have it relisted this week! Sometimes you have to wait a little while for that perfect buyer!

How cool is this no smoking sign? He is such a fun piece! Unfortunately, he didn’t sell last week so he is relisted as well.

Vintage Badminton set

Bought for: $5.00

Sold for: $19.50

Sold in 1 week

Hot Air Balloon Decoration

Bought for $20.00

Sold for: $48.77

Sold in 2 weeks

My mom and I sold $296 worth of cool vintage finds last week.

Those items cost us $115! Not bad for making extra money at home!

I know lots of people are looking for ways they can make money at home or in their spare time. One thing that we (my Mom and I!) do to make extra money at home is Ebay! So I thought I would show you a few things we have purchased with the intent on reselling on Ebay and show you how much we either made or lost. Hopefully, we don’t lose anything! 🙂

Here are some of the items we have purchased and sold in the past week:

Vintage Musical and Dancing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Bought for: $9.00

Sold for: $42.02

Made: $33.02

Sold in 1 week

Vintage Decorative Small Bowl from China

Bought for: $3.50

Sold for: $7.99

Made $4.00

Sold in 2 weeks

The Howdy Doody Book

Bought for: $5.00

Sold for: $5.00

Sold in 2 weeks

Made: $0 (Boo! But it happens!)

That Donkey Book

Bought for $8.00

Sold for: $23.50

Made: $15.50

Sold in 2 weeks

These 4 items were in a box. The planer is made by Marx and the 2 gun figurines are made by Marx as well. My mom was going to throw the tickets away but she decided to go ahead and try listing them. It’s a good thing she tried!

Planer sold for $7.88

2 Marx gun figurines: $9.99

Tickets sold for $15.00 each ($30.00 total)

Items were bought as a lot for: $11.00

Total Made: $36.87

Cast Iron Sharecropper Penny Bank

Bought for $30.00

Sold for $86.00

Made: $66.00

Sold in 2 weeks

Total made: $155.39

(This is before Paypal fees and Ebay fees are taken out)

Not bad! What about you? Have you ever sold anything on Ebay? Or better yet, bought something with the intention to resell it?