Part of the reason anyone writes a book is ego. I can sugar coat it, but everyone wants to leave their mark, or their legacy. But, the biggest reason I wrote a book is because I had things to tell, things that I learned about my passion; collecting. 
Last February I had my book published on Amazon. Personally, one more "dundat" on my bucket list. Why did I write it? Meeting all the people I do from film and from collecting, I often got asked, "How do you do that" and "Can I make any money"?

It's easier to collect your thoughts, organize your questions and answers and write a "how to" once rather than answer everyone individually. I made a lot of mistakes, spent money where I shouldn't have and bought the wrong product at the wrong price more than once. But eventually, I learned to make money at what I love. A little while ago I posted a screen shot from my eBay account showing my earnings in the last 60 days. Just over $3600. It may not be much to you, but it was a huge bonus for me. Since then, I have done this several times. 

Do I make any money from my book? Not much. I'm an unknown writing in a hobby that is limited. I wrote this book to help you. Don't make my mistakes. Buy right, sell right and market properly. Learn to learn.

My book is FREE today through Friday. Here is the link. Enjoy and please write a review. 
Collect this!
Dave

http://www.amazon.ca/Cashing-Collectibles-business-Everything-collectibles-ebook/dp/B00HVP5PM0

If you are reading this, you have at least a passing interest in collecting. Good. And thank you. Obviously, so do I. But what happens when your hobby becomes an obsession? 

There are literally millions of collectors and hundreds of thousands of collectable items. Most spring from some form of childhood memories associated to happiness, better times, fun and being able to relate to some thing. You may start by saving your hockey cards from when you were growing up. Most people refine their collections over time. What started off as collecting every hockey card you could eventually morphs to your favourite team, or player or every card from the year you were born or whatever other criterion you decide is important. It is simply impossible to collect everything.

Then there are the extreme collectors. Example: Syd Bolton of Ontario. In his own words " I am a complete tech freak". Syd turned his love of all things computer into Canada's largest collection of computer and video games. His hobby has actually become a museum. Syd has over 45 active computers from over 1000 in his museum, from the 1st ever personal computer to Atari, Coleco, and pretty well every variant between. He has over 25,000 video or computer related items.  
All this in his house. Every room is dedicated to computers, video games, consoles, and all things geek. Syd's collection is valued at over $1,000,000. Your collection may not go to this extreme, but you have to admire the dedication...and yes, he has a girlfriend.

Ya well, I do. And if you're like most of us, you are on a budget. It may differ from mine, you may be able to collect Cadillacs, I can afford to collect Cadillac ads. 

Advertising is probably one of the largest collectable areas in the world. There are 22 sub headings under advertising on eBay and each of those can have an additional sub-heading. One of the most affordable forms of advertising is old magazine advertisements. If you can't afford $75,000 for a 60 Cadillac, you probably can afford $10-$20 for a full color version of the same vehicle from Life magazine. These beauties look awesome framed and matted on your man-cave wall. Now you can afford to have any car you want. What a great way to relive your youth. Why not one of every car you ever owned. Though you may want to put the 1984 K-Car somewhere slightly less obvious; like a closet. No one wants to admit they ever had one. 

There are many people who do the same with key products. Watches, pens, farm equipment, household products we grew up with like Crest, Tide etc. Kitchen items are huge.

I will be posting several hundred of these full page and full 2 page ads of all your favourite cars from the 30's through the 70's shortly. If you're looking for anything in particular, let me know before they go to market.  

Just wanted to say hello and thank you to all my new followers. The concept is pretty simple. Two, 3, sometimes 5 times a week I start my hunt and peck and blog something to do with collecting. This blog has been going on for about 3 years now, check through the archives, lots of bits and pieces of info you may find valuable. 

As a thank you, I will be giving away my book "Cashing in on Collectibles" next Wednesday and Thursday. I will give everyone the link to Amazon, and you will have 2 days to download it for FREE. Please feel free to give a review. I need to know what you like and what you don't if I release another one soon.

Also, if there is a subject or a question you would like addressed, let me know, I will make my answer public for everyone. 

I'm going to put my money where my mouth is. I am often asked "How can I get started. Can you make any money"? I'm not going to promise that you'll make a million dollars (you might if you find that one great thing) but you can make decent money.
The picture above is a screen shot off my ebay page. If you look to the left hand side you will see that I made $3600 in the previous 60 days. Now remember, this was part time, before I started to do this in a retail environment. And, it was only 1 platform. This doesn't include Craigslist, Kijiji or the myriad of other sales sights I use for different items. For a lot of people, $3600 is the difference between getting by and living. 
If you're interested in doing what I do, my book "Cashing in on Collectibles" a detailed, how to, step by step guide is available on Amazon for $4.49. ($5.50 in Canada)
Here's the link:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/khu8xsv

Feel free to email, pm me or facebook me. I'm happy to answer any questions. 

Weird how it works out. I can go months and not find a good vintage rock and roll t-shirt and then I get a day like yesterday.
Quick trip to my favourite place to find retro and what do I find? Not 1 but 4 retro concert shirts. 1982 Pink Floyd..dark side of the moon, as well as this new 1994/95 Stones shirt. Add in Meatloaf, AC/DC and it was a good pick.
These shirts continue to sell well in the store. Sold 2 to a fellow last week including my last Rolling Stones shirt. Until yesterday. Yay!

Not going to get all deep and philosophical here, but like many things in life, sometimes it just doesn't make sense. Learn to cut your losses and walk away. 
Because I live in a small town, many people know what I do for a living. I get people everyday come into the store and tell me that they have just inherited the coolest most rare (fill in the blank) that anyone has ever seen and it's mine for only $35,000. Pass. But.. it's rare! Pass. Tell you what I'll do..it's yours for only $5000. Pass. You don't know what you're missing out on. Pass. 
People have a tendency to take this personally. It's not. It's business. Case in point. I had a fellow come in yesterday with the back of his van loaded. He asked me to come out "cuz have I got a deal for you"! 50,000 hockey cards! I asked him one question. " Are any of them pre-1990?" No, they're all newer. "No thanks, not interested" But you didn't even ask how much? I tried to explain to him that they have almost no value at all. Quantity over quality never rules out. The cards were all in boxes from an auction, and I explained that what someone has done is buy cases of cards, taken out the chase cards and dumped the rest back at an auction to try and recoup some of there money. Who needs 50,000 commons? 
Long story short, I walked away while hopefully educating a potential future customer. He wasn't happy. He was sure he would be able to retire. He may, but not on my dollar. 

Always love Mondays. Not only is it a chance to spend time with wifey, but we get to venture out to re-stock the shelves. Not just food, that's pretty mundane and boring, but I get to hunt for collectables. Yesterday we headed east instead of our traditional drive to the Okanagan. Off to Castlegar and Nelson. Beautiful country and new picks. I never know what I'm going to find, sometimes nothing, sometimes a trailer full. Not a lot yesterday, but I did restock the vintage concert T-shirt wall with original Eagles, Bon Jovi, Kiss and that lovem or leavem Canadian band Nickleback. Also found a very rare Kelowna milk bottle circa 1930 with a football player on it, that is being listed right away for $149. Hardly wait to head south next week. 

I have many people tell me they don't collect. "Can't be bothered" . Ya? What if I told you that you may have thousands of dollars sitting in your cupboards right now?
When I first started on eBay in 1998, the second item I put on was an egg beater. That's right, an egg beater. My first item was a Pflueger fishing reel I found in our new to us house and the second was recovered from a drawer that came from my Gramma's house when she passed away. I listed it basically to prove to my wife that it had no value. "Put it on, it'll sell" 
"Nope, who wants an old egg beater?". So on it went. $65 later, I apologized for being wrong. Who knew?
Nostalgia sells. Many people's fondest memories came from the time they spent in the kitchen. they want to recreate that feeling by surrounding themselves with things they remember. 
Take the black striped bowl in the picture. My gramma had the same one, filled with jellied candies for Christmas. I remember the bowl from the time I was 5 years old. 
These bowls are made by Cathrineholm (yes. one word, no e). The set above sells for about $300.
Griswold cast iron is another name to be on the watch for. Some of their frying pans sell upwards of $1000. Pyrex, Fire King, even the ubiquitous Tupperware. They all have a certain stayng power. There are literally thousands of highly collectable kitchen items. Here is a link to this weeks' top eBay kitchen items.

 http://www.collectorsweekly.com/kitchen/overview

Personally, I would not spend 10k on an easter egg. 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BIGGEST-14cm-size-Russian-museum-Imperial-glass-XB-Easter-egg-miniature-painting-/161661170516?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25a3c1b354


My bet is it doesn't get sold, but why is it that Christmas and Halloween are such huge collectable categories while Easter seems to be the ugly cousin. A quick search on eBay shows over 2,ooo,ooo results for Christmas, 640,000 for Easter and only 291,000 for Easter. How Come? Like Christmas, Easter is a religious holiday, gifts are given and you get a day off. What's up? Like Halloween, Easter has candy, costumes and totally revolves around kids. I think Easter's getting a bum rap. 

It's time, find your old Easter egg baskets, old bunnies and get them on eBay. There's a market out there people!