Flipping Dragoncon (Day 25)

Dragoncon is less than a month to go and things are moving nicely. I figure I've got about 2 weeks left to sell stuff and then the game is over because I won't be able to ship anything the week before Labor Day weekend. We're still in garage sale season in Colorado however the community sales have been over for at least a month now. I'm having to drive up to Boulder on Saturday mornings now because that's where the good stuff is typically hiding.

Do you remember the Pampers from last month? I found those for $3 and sold them this past week for $290!!! Come on people... what the hell are you doing with old pampers? Actually I don't think I really want to know the answer.

Remember Softporn Adventure from my last update on day 39? I got that with a stack of other old Atari games for $13? I ended up selling 3 of the lesser valued games for $55 and then sold Softporn Adventure for $450! Woohoo! The pampers and the games paid for 3 nights of Dragoncon all on their own. I will do an update on everything sold since my last post and my current inventory at the end of this post.

Now on to the new stuff.

Flipping Dragoncon (39 days)

39 days left and I'm making good progress. I feel like I'm taking 15 packages or more to the post office each week and the cash grand total is slowly increasing. I would normally make a list of the solds since the last update but that list would be pretty long so I'll put it at the very end. Instead I'll get right into the awesome nerd stuff I've found over the past 2-3 weeks.

Flipping Dragoncon: The Atari House

This is a picture of my original Atari 2600 and isn't it sweet! It's got the nice orange outline and the puffy E.T. Phone Home sticker. Apparently I was one of the few kids that loved the E.T. game because now it's hated as one of the worst games of all time.

Around 3 weeks ago I was in Boulder, CO on a Saturday morning attending something called a "neighborhood garage sale" but there was nothing really neighberhoodish about it. It was around 8:00AM when their Craigslist post said they were starting but there were only 2 houses selling stuff and I can't even remember what all it was. I think I remember getting 3 hexbugs for $1 and then saying the hell with it and driving off. On the very next block was a woman and her teenaged son bringing board game looking stuff outside which is a cue for me to stop and look.

Flipping Dragoncon (60 days)

It's been a month since my last update on the Flipping Dragoncon challenge and I obviously suck at updating status. My excuse is that real life has been kicking my butt for the last month and I've simply not had the time to blog. I've still been hitting up the local garage sales though and have an occasional trip to the thrift store. This will be a massive blog post with many updates on the awesome stuff I've found and the miserable failures.

Sold
Broken Powerglove - $71 (Why would a broken power glove sell for more than a working glove?)
Ring Raiders Air Carrier - $30
Python Stun - 12.50
Motor Cycle Book - $12
Disc golf frisbees - $15
Acquire - $20.50
Radica poker - $12
Last american girl - $40
Tigger watch #2 - $65
Trapper Keeper Folders - $25
Vampire Board Game - $13

Flipping Dragoncon (92 days)

Holy shit! Only 92 days left and I've been slacking off on selling and buying stuff. My real life is busy as hell so finding time for the Dragoncon flip is difficult.

Sold

Rollerblade Wheels - $15
American Girl Doll 1 - $60
American Girl Doll 2 - $50
Tigger Watch - $65
Star Wars Evolutions Troopers -  $52.50
Star Wars Clone Army - $161.50
Star Wars Risk - $35
Flinstones - $15
Crossbows & Catapults - $45
Dimensions Cross Stitch - $30.50
Sony Mini Disk Recorder - $45

That's $574 cash to add to the $135 left over from day 101 making it a total of $709 cash to work with going forward. I think I'm on a good pace.

This past weekend was more neighborhood garage sales which I love and I managed to pickup a few decent things.

I don't run into many NES's very often. This one was at a country club neighborhood (rich old people) and the lady wanted $45 for it. That's way outside my comfort zone for buying old video game stuff unless it's extra special however there was something extra special.

Flipping Dragoncon (101 days)

Only 101 days to go and I sold 3 items so far since my last update:

Sold

Land Before Time Puppets - $30.55
Maxell Metal Capsule Tapes - $25
Sigma UZ Zoom Lens - $10

That makes it around $58 profit earned from those 3 items. $58 + the cash left over from last week is $165 cash and the remaining inventory of stuff that you can see at the end of this post.

My schedule has been crazy over the last week so I don't have many updates today. I had friends come into town over the weekend so I didn't attend Saturday garage sales. I did manage to pick up a few items over the past week at thrift stores though.

My wife and I have a sizable board game collection which physically takes more space than we actually have room. That never stops me from buying cool looking games when I bump into them. I picked up Original Trilogy Star Wars Risk, Dungeon Twister, Vampire by Ravensburger games, and a vintage bookshelf game called Acquire.

This Star Wars Risk game is missing 1 Hutt piece but is otherwise complete. Not a bad pickup for $3.

Flipping Dragoncon (107 days)

This was a successful week in selling some of the junk from last week. Here's a run down of the stuff sold last week and update on where I am with inventory.

Sold

Royal PKnifes - $92

Garmin GPS watch - $51

Sony micro cassette recorder - $35

Broken JVC walkman - $60

Optimal Optimus - $25

Zip Zaps junk - $16.50

Sony Walkman Radio - $13

This gave me $292.50 to work with this past weekend. You might think thats a good sum of money to work with but things get much more difficult now. If you have more cash then you tend to be less choosy in buying more stuff. It also gets harder to find good stuff and you'll get overburdened with a bunch of junk. Then your house will start to look like a hoarders paradise which doesn't please the wife. It's time to get serious!

Community Garage Sales

I hit up another couple community garage sales this weekend and found some pretty good stuff. Here's a run down of what I got:

Do you know much about American Girl dolls? I don't know much other than they're pretty expensive and people either collect them or buy them for their kids. I picked up three dolls, a bunch of clothes, and wardrobe suitcase thing for $70. I'm always interested in learning about new things so this might be a $70 lesson on what not to buy or it could turn out well.

Flipping Dragoncon Inventory Report

I've got a fair amount of inventory right now based on my initial $20 investment. Here's a brief summary of what I currently have:

NakNak Action Figures
Canon Speedlite Flash 199A
Sigma UC Zoom Lens
8 Land Before Time puppets
4 Eureeka's Castle puppets
Colorado Rockies Starter
Sony Micro cassette recorder
Sony AM/FM Walkman
Motor Cycle book
Disc golf frisebees
Garmin GPS watch
Rollerblade wheels
Maxell metal capsule tapes
Polar watches
Trapper keeper folders
JVC Walkman
TDK cassette tapes
Optimal Optimus!
Fiestaware
Zip Zaps junk :(
Royal Prestige knives

Flipping Dragoncon (115 days)

Where has the time gone?!? I only have 115 days left and so far I've got around $50 in sales total. This is a slower start than I was hoping but I still think it's possible to reach the Dragoncon goal. Here's a summary of what's been sold so far:

Stethescope - $25

Video Slots - $10

Tokina AT-X Lens - $20

I had to go shopping to get some more junk with that $50.

Thrift Store Stuff

Who would give up Land Before Time hand puppets to the thrift store for 6 bucks? Not me! I picked up this set of 5 along with 4 duplicates and a set of 3 Eureeka's Castle puppets. They sold these at Pizza Hut back in the late 80's / early nineties.

Flipping Dragoncon (127 days)

It's not even been a week since I've started this challenge and I fear I've already lost my footing. I might need to revise the rules to allow more than 2 weeks to turn stuff around. It's only been 4 days since I posted my junk for sale and so far nobody is interested. I'm doomed!!

Flipping Dragoncon (132 days)

Only 132 days left to go? I think I've already bitten off more than I can chew. I did go to a couple thrift stores today after work so let's see what I got for the starting $20.

Arc Thrift gave me the following stuff:

Flipping Dragoncon (133 days to go)

I'm starting a personal challenge to flip my way to Dragoncon this year. What does that mean exactly? I plan to buy junk from thrift stores, garage sales, estate sales, or craigslist and then sell it or trade it for better stuff which will ultimately get me to Dragoncon. I've seen other blogs or message board threads of doing something similar to flip up to a sweet Transformer, electronic gadget, or special sports card of some kind. I plan to do the same thing but I'm aiming higher than most. My plan is to buy/sell/trade for me and my wife's air fare and hotel room at Dragoncon 2015.

I've been thinking of trying this challenge for quite some time but I've never gotten around to documenting my progress. Truth be told, I'm a hoarder of epic proportions and so the bigger challenge might not be to raise the money but to find the space in my house for the horde.

133 days is not a lot of time to get this done and so I'm starting tomorrow. I'm giving myself $20 to spend on random junk. I don't want to keep anything for more than 2 weeks since the pile of stuff will accumulate fairly quickly. If I don't sell or trade something within 2 weeks then I plan to donate it back to the junk store. There will be exceptions to the rule in the event that I run into a big collection of good stuff. In that case I'll milk it for all it's worth before my wife tells me to get it out of the garage :)