5 Collectibles You Can Flip for a Profit
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Brooke Barley
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Zuri Anderson
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Inspired by the high profits collectors make on “Antiques Roadshow?” Buying antiques and restoring them to sell at a higher price can yield quite a bit of money. The trick is knowing what items to focus on.
GOBankingRates spoke with experts on which are the best antiques for those looking to find and flip. Here’s what they had to say.
Mugs
Nora Curl is an appraisals expert with JustAnswer, and said some easy places to start your search for valuable vintage goods are donation thrift stores, garage sales and flea markets.
Old coffee mugs are very common in these places and can be worth a lot of money if you know what you’re looking for. She pointed out that an Iwo Jima theme mug released by Starbucks in 2002 sold for $18,995 in 2022. Curl recommended hunting for mugs with:
- Classic cars
- Cartoons from Boynton, Hallmark Shoebox Greetings or “The New Yorker”
- Special edition Starbucks designs
- Art by Frank Lloyd Wright, Keith Haring, Andy Warhol or Edward Gorey, especially in collaboration with Wedgwood
- Disney characters
Though profits aren’t always this high, she said buyers can still make decent money off collectible mugs.
“The average purchase cost is [25 cents] to $1,” Curl noted. “Online resale purchases usually start at $10 and go up from there. A $1 cost converted into a $10 flip is 900%, or nine times what you spent.”
Earrings
Lee Cox is an auctioneer and valuer in the antiques industry, in addition to the founder of Ellibelle Jewellery. Cox said picking up earrings when you’re at an estate sale or flea market could turn into a big pay day.
“Earrings can be thoroughly cleaned to be hygienic and sterile, or even the stones used to be set within rings and pendants,” Cox noted.
The auctioneer said to look for earrings that are:
- Art deco or Victorian style
- Marked 14k, 15k or 18k gold
- Made with a manufacturer’s mark
- Signed costume pieces
- Made with decorative features like diamonds and deep red garnet, jet, turquoise, tortoiseshell, seed pearls and coral
- Made with screw backs or hook backs
Cox said that collectable earrings can be bought for as little as $10 to $50 and sold for more than $500 once they’re cleaned and authenticated.
Any Vintage Gold Jewelry
Gold earrings aren’t the only hot sellers, according to Reyne Hirsch, the owner of Dallas Auction Gallery.
“Remember the days of wearing gold rope chairs and gold nugget bracelets? That fad is gone but that heavy gold is in demand,” she said.
Hirsch attributed this to gold hitting over $3,300 an ounce.
“The gold jewelry you have had in the bottom of your jewelry box since college is bringing in more than you originally paid for it,” she added.
Vintage Pyrex
Vintage Pyrex is a brand of dishware made from glass ceramic. The company started in 1915, and some dishes from the brand are worth a lot of money. Hirsch said that, even though you can find vintage Pyrex pretty easily, not all it holds value.
“These types of items turn up at Goodwill and garage sales every day. But you need to know the patterns to look for,” Hirsch explained. “There are numerous online Pyrex collectors clubs that can help you learn what’s hot, and what’s not.”
Sterling Flatware
Since the cost of silver has also increased, Hirsch said some vintage silverware might sell for a good price. She said to look for silver that is:
- Monogrammed
- Not manufactured by a major silver maker
- Sterling silver (not silver plated)
“You don’t need to find a full set to make money,” Hirsch said. “Simply begin buying single pieces if that’s all that’s available and sell them online in bundles.”
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