The weekend had been a bust. After a Saturday of overpriced tables and a flea market they called the worst in the universe, the resellers behind The Dumont Boys sat down to biscuits and gravy at a diner and figured the haul was over. Then two members of the crew spotted a random garage sale on the way home, and that stop paid for the whole trip.
At that sale they paid $3 for an empty Pokemon box. It has already sold for $400. In their words, it is the find of the haul, even though at the moment it looked like just a box.
A Rough Weekend Before The Payoff
The haul began on a Thursday morning at the Goodwill bins, where one of the partners pulled an Olympus Stylus camera that was basically free at the bins. Despite cosmetic issues it worked, and they have already sold it for $150. A stack of nearly new hats added to what they call a trunk-filling first stop, and everything in the trunk cost a total of $7.92.
The rest of the trip was uneven. At one estate sale they waited about 30 minutes in the heat, only to learn that just 10 people would be let in at a time, so they bailed. At another, a Toshiba TV and VCR combo with a remote and instruction manual turned up on the top shelf of a garage. It worked, and they listed it at $350. The seller wanted $30 for the TV alone, and one partner negotiated $40 for the TV plus a pile of other items.
They also picked up a Phase 10 dice game for a dollar, a sealed Baby Alive doll they expect to fetch around $70, an Echo Dot in an open box and a Penn-brand fishing reel that checked out against sold listings. Other stops produced nothing. They passed on a vintage lamp because $25 was too much, and they left several estate sales empty-handed.
The Worst Flea Market In The Universe
On Saturday morning they tried a new flea market, hoping for the best. Instead they found tables of opened Amazon returns at retail prices, a Sony CD player with dried-up bugs inside, a table where everything was priced at $80, and piles of $1 items that were overpriced even at a dollar. They did find a few bright spots, including two baseball gloves at $5 each, with one a McGregor they called a flea market banger.
After checking every box on their list of complaints, they declared it the worst flea market in the universe and crossed it off for good. Then they went to Black Bear Diner and ordered some of the largest servings of biscuits and gravy they had seen.
The Garage Sale On The Way Home
The weekend haul was supposed to end at the diner. But after they were already off the clock, one partner and his girlfriend stumbled upon a random garage sale on their way home. When the other partner arrived, the first had already pulled out some of the good stuff.
There was a Poochi from the makers of Furby, and a new LeBron James Little Tikes basketball hoop that the seller wanted just $13 for. Only used ones had sold for them before, which makes the new one rare, so they listed it at $300. They also took a chance on a bin of graphic novels for $40, a Super Bowl football, Power Ranger figures at $6 apiece, a box of VHS tapes including a sealed original Ninja Turtles movie, and a pair of N64 Pokemon games.
At the bottom of the box of tapes, near the N64 games, was the item they say nobody expected: an empty Pokemon box. They thought it would have some value but had no idea how much. They paid $3 for it, and it has already sold for $400.
What Counts As A Banger
The Dumont Boys have a rule for their biggest wins. A bonafide banger is a sourced item worth at least 100 times its cost, with a minimum value of $100. The empty box qualifies easily, and they say it is only their second real-life banger on camera.
The same garage sale also led to a smaller lesson. The $40 bin of graphic novels did not turn up any bangers, only a high volume of mediocre books, so they tried a different selling platform. They put the slow-moving, lower-value comics on Vinted, where there were no seller fees at the time. So far they have collected $143 from sales off that $40 investment, and still have more listed.
What The Haul Added Up To
The partners summed the weekend up as a wildly diverse collection of resellable goods, from bins of cowboy hats to little LeBron James basketball hoops. They found it all across Goodwill bins, thrift stores, estate sales, garage sales and the worst flea market in the universe. They call it a very respectable weekend haul despite some challenges along the way.
Whether you resell or just clean out your own garage, the trip carries a few good lessons for the rest of us. Check sold listings before you decide an item is junk. Do not skip the box at the bottom of the pile, and do not assume that missing contents mean missing value. Ask for a price, make an offer, and be willing to walk away from a bad sale. And know that some days are lost until the last stop on the way home turns them around.
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