Tassie Tip Shops

Collector or seller - don't miss out on visiting Tasmania's Recycling Centres on your next holiday south.

• Resource Collectables - the cream

Ther Resource Collectables shop is where the best collectables can be found. You will find the shop in Hobart city, on Elizabeth Street, just 1 block from the mall.

Excellent for old wares like bakelite, depression glass and outdated gagets. Well priced for the collector.

• Glenorchy Tip Shop

You will find this Recycling Centre just 10 mins from Hobart on Chapel Street in Glenorchy.

They have an excellent selection of vintage and deco furniture, a whole room of vintage, good quality kitchenware, barware and lighting. Also a small but good collection of vintage clothing.

Excellent selection and great prices for the mid-century collector and some bargains for resellers.

• Margate Tip Shop & South Hobart Tip Shop

Margate is about 25 mins south of Hobart on the Channel Hwy. Head to Kingston and take the road to Margate.

South Hobart Recycling Centre is off Macquarie St, 1 km from the Cascade Brewery.

These 2 tip shops have the best prices for collectors and sellers. You will find kitchenware, clothes, lighting, appliances, tools, furniture and more.

Great for a bargain and you never know what you might find.

Finds from the Margate and South Hobart Tip Shops.

Sure Sellers

Trends come and go but here are some things that (generally) always sell on eBay...

Tupperware Shape-o: $10 - $15

Gumby: $7 - $20

Light Fittings

Light fittings can make you a bit of money – but I can’t explain why!

Here are some of the light fittings we have sold for more than we expected:

Planet Lamp. Elliott has one in ET. These are quite popular at around $50 - $70.

Pair of brass hanging fitting: $90

Retro standing lamp: $50

For more Vintage Lamps visit "Lamp of the Week"!

Our Beginnings

Back in the beginning, we had a look through our old stuff, and some newer stuff, and thought we’d have a go at selling on eBay. Here are some of the things that we though people might be interested in…. and were!

Old inflateable Coke bottle from a Easter Show Bag. Sold:$16

Metallica sunglasses, never worn: $20



Then we started looking at garage sales and found these gems early on.

Retro drink bottles: $3

Heineken clapping bats: bought 20c, sold $5

It's not huge money but % wise - it was big and it was early days!

The Baths

It is even possible to make a profit out of buying things on eBay and selling them again on eBay!
We were renovating our bathroom and I was looking for a bargain bath. While browsing through the Home -> Bathroom category I came across a lot of 7 baths. They were new, but some had been scratched in transport. I took a punt and ended up winning the auction and buying myself 7 fibreglass baths for $200.
I kept the best for myself and started to sell the rest. One by one they sold. The ones in basically new condition went for up to $120. And the most scratched went for around $10 to someone who wanted a bath for a holiday house - and was absolutely stocked with the bargain!.
So we now have a lovely big new bath in the bathroom that wasn’t just a bargain – it made us $100!!

Retro and Vintage Aluminium

Keep an eye out for aluminium canisters, biscuit tins, cake tins, etc. We have had great success with these types of items. If you manage to find a set of canisters in good condition, you’ve hit the jackpot!
Brands / Makers: Waratah, Raco, Jason

What do you do with the items that don't sell?

Relist the item immediately on eBay (reducing the price if possible) to take advantage of eBay's free relisting policy and also catching any potential buyers that were watching the item. We have often found that by relisting at a lower starting price gets more buyers interested, and results in a higher final sale price.

Hold off for a whilebefore relisting the item. It may have been the wrong time for your item for any number of reasons (too many similar items listed, etc, etc). If you relist on eBay within xx days of the original auction ending, it is still free to do so.

If you have accumulated many similar items that haven't sold you could relist them as a bulk lot. We have done this with McDonalds promo toys and Tazos. Paying another listing fee on a single item may not be worthwhile, but spread over 10+ items might make it an option worth considering.

Taking this concept a step further, we set up a market stall, of our own, at a local car boot sale. It was nothing fancy in terms of set-up or what we were selling, nor did we make much money, but it was an enjoyable day and effective in clearing out items that hadn't gone as well on eBay as we'd initially hoped. What it also means, is that you can take more risks on buying items to sell on ebay, knowing that you've got a back up of selling them at your market stall. We now even buy items purely to improve the range of our next market stall, knowing that we'll never list them on eBay.