Stuff crafters will buy / Etsy Thread

[Sirscrapalot]

That is pretty cool(the botigans heh), an of course I love metal coolers. One day I'll pull the trigger an me the old coke ones. An a pepsi one, that old stuff is cool.



An tins are pretty good also, I know my wife keeps any good ones she finds. As she likes to bake. heh.

Sirscrapalot - i had a quote, but I don't know where it went.

[emeeks]

Not sure if it's been mentioned or not, but the AL rings in hard drives I sell for Steampunk Jewelry.

They actually do pretty well.

[FLimits]

All right, you guys made me go look at Etsy. (I'm seriously 100% not-craftsy. I think I was spooked away from even trying anything like that by an aunt who could out-Martha Ms. Stewart herself. My efforts would have looked so lame and pathetic compared with her spectacular feats of transformation. Anyway...back to the subject...)

So of course when I went to check out Etsy, the first search term I put in was "computer." (groan -- hey, I'm nothing if not predictable) There wasn't much that caught my eye, but I did notice some interesting jewelry made from things like circuit boards and chips. I would figure anything pretty -- some of the old ceramic chips with gold, for example -- could be used by jewelry-makers.

There were also some nice clocks made from hard-drive components, sound cards, CDs, even game cartridges. I don't know if this necessarily means Etsy is a good place to try to sell the raw materials to make these things, but it would be pretty easy to make some of this stuff and sell it there. The seller who has the clocks is called GeekGear. He's selling these clocks, which must take a maximum of 1/2 hour to make, at prices from $15 to $30, and he has 2,629 reviews, so he must be moving a lot of merchandise. It's pretty smart. I kinda even want one of those clocks now. :-P

Last but not least, there's the whole keyboard craze. If you're not up on that whole thing, check out the mechanicalkeyboards subreddit, GeekHack, and Deskthority. There are a lot of keyboard-obsessed people out there, and they put a lot of time and money into building new keyboards, modifying existing ones, etc. So if you find a nice mechanical keyboard, obviously, you want to sell that intact. But these key-hounds are now buying things like old laptops, gaming consoles, terminals, etc. just to cannibalize them for their keycaps. So if you ever have something that's not resaleable (or just not worth much) but it has nice keycaps, you can harvest them and sell them. Just be sure to read up on the types of switches people prefer. Keycaps that fit the most popular switches (Alps, for example) will be the most valuable ones.

[emeeks]

I actually have a customer that comes in from time to time and makes these INCREDIBLY awesome works of art with the scrap I give her. They're so nice, she wouldn't let me take a picture of them. They go on for auction. They're pretty cool though.

All right, you guys made me go look at Etsy. (I'm seriously 100% not-craftsy. I think I was spooked away from even trying anything like that by an aunt who could out-Martha Ms. Stewart herself. My efforts would have looked so lame and pathetic compared with her spectacular feats of transformation. Anyway...back to the subject...)

So of course when I went to check out Etsy, the first search term I put in was "computer." (groan -- hey, I'm nothing if not predictable) There wasn't much that caught my eye, but I did notice some interesting jewelry made from things like circuit boards and chips. I would figure anything pretty -- some of the old ceramic chips with gold, for example -- could be used by jewelry-makers.

There were also some nice clocks made from hard-drive components, sound cards, CDs, even game cartridges. I don't know if this necessarily means Etsy is a good place to try to sell the raw materials to make these things, but it would be pretty easy to make some of this stuff and sell it there. The seller who has the clocks is called GeekGear. He's selling these clocks, which must take a maximum of 1/2 hour to make, at prices from $15 to $30, and he has 2,629 reviews, so he must be moving a lot of merchandise. It's pretty smart. I kinda even want one of those clocks now. :-P

Last but not least, there's the whole keyboard craze. If you're not up on that whole thing, check out the mechanicalkeyboards subreddit, GeekHack, and Deskthority. There are a lot of keyboard-obsessed people out there, and they put a lot of time and money into building new keyboards, modifying existing ones, etc. So if you find a nice mechanical keyboard, obviously, you want to sell that intact. But these key-hounds are now buying things like old laptops, gaming consoles, terminals, etc. just to cannibalize them for their keycaps. So if you ever have something that's not resaleable (or just not worth much) but it has nice keycaps, you can harvest them and sell them. Just be sure to read up on the types of switches people prefer. Keycaps that fit the most popular switches (Alps, for example) will be the most valuable ones.

[cyberdan]

The seller who has the clocks is called GeekGear. He's selling these clocks, which must take a maximum of 1/2 hour to make, at prices from $15 to $30, and he has 2,629 reviews, so he must be moving a lot of merchandise.

I tracked him down on ETSY and saw how simple those were. I could even make those with all the computer scrap I get.

I forgot I even have a listing on etsy I completly forgot about. Never made a sale yet of there. Maybe I should add more items. I guess my store name is cyberdan. Can't find any place that say, like in ebay.

Also, I have another selling site that I have about 20 items listed and sold a couple already. bonanza.com
it is less crowded than feeBay but too artsy/fartsy for me. But free listings and a low commsssion.
One note. they will let you grab all your ebay auctions and post on bonanza. that is great but check how much they set your shipping fees at. When it pulled the ebay info it got several of my shipping fees wrong. (way too low) you just have to go in manually and check.

[Jillyenator]

I read this elsewhere: Stove parts, along with knobs, switches, burners and timers. There's apparently a guy on ebay who only lists used stove parts.

FLimits, that is actually quite interesting on the mechanical keyboards. I went and read about it and learned a few things about the history of how the key situation evolved.

I know I always pop off the keys on ANY keyboard for my MIL's crafting - she likes to spell things out with the keys, and also presses stuff like that into mosaics.

[happyscraper]

Three chears for Jilly for starting this thread, very intresting. I'm going to start finding crafters and see if I can start saving some of this stuff. I wonder how much money I've thrown away over the years. I have about 3 or 4 big boxes of cookie tins that I use to put screws and small metal items in and tape the tops on and put them in the shred pile. Maybe I can try to sell some of the nicer ones. i get them for free from the thrift store that I pick up from. My sister uses old blue geans to make braded rugs. How about the split key rings, I get them some times from the thrift store too. Now if I could find some crafters that would buy my ABS plastic I would have it made.

[Jillyenator]

How about the split key rings, I get them some times from the thrift store too

Yes. They sell packets of 50 of them for ten dollars new online, so I imagine if you have enough of them, people will buy them.

[Drno13]

ABS is fairly sought after from crafters because it can be heat formed into artsy things and costumes and such.

[Sirscrapalot]

If the tins are clean an nice looking, look for folks who bake also. I save the ones my wife doesn't keep, that are still in good condition for the Senior activity center here on my sandbar. I give them to the ladies who run the bake sales table. They love'm. I keep the others for things like you said Happy. Usually only the rusted an not good for anything else. The good ones I do keep for myself I reuse. I like the Thomas Kinkade ( I think thats how you spell his last name) winter themed ones..an will reuse them over an over for things in the shop. Yea..I'm weird, you all know this though.

An yes I love this thread to, perfect for those of us who not just recycle but like to see items reused an given a new lease on life.

Sirscrapalot - Now I'm starting to jog. But every time I do jog I have 9-1 pressed into my phone, with the next '1' ready to be launched in case I drop. - Kevin James

[Jillyenator]

I wanted to add a few things to the running list:

- Sheet music. Any of it; even ripped pages are in demand by crafters for decoupage. Old dictionaries, encyclopedia pages, maps - same thing.

- Vintage office supplies, like metal those metal staplers, rubber business stamps with wooden handles, the metal business stamp stands, old hole punchers, postage meters, scales, anything industrial looking.

- Old photos in black and white. Old letters, etc. Old postcards from anywhere in the world, used or unused. Vintage holiday cards. Paper is big with collectors and crafters, as Sir mentioned above. The keyword to use for sales is "Ephemera".

- Pretty liquor bottles, like many of the ones better vodka or tequila comes in. Top shelf stuff.

- Glass water bottles - the cool modern looking ones, like Voss Water, in either still or sparkling. I know people who buy Voss water, just for the bottles.

[Jillyenator]

Just to make things easy to navigate, here is the link about cleaning soda can tabs, since we've discussed the pop tops here:

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/more-...bs-resale.html

[Jillyenator]

And keys. Old ones, new ones, whatever. Crafters make cool rain chains with keys, and wind chimes, jewelry, and other things i can't imagine without googling for it.

Okay, after googling:
CRAFTS - Recycle Keys on Pinterest

Of course, any older keys - separate those out - they are worth money individually to collectors and Steampunk people.

Charge a premium for brass ones, of course.

[Jillyenator]

Another: weathered wood. Barn wood, anything with worn features or that gray look from being out in the sun. The pieces can be in really cruddy shape, too.

My husband saves old icky looking wood pieces whenever he finds them, and turns them into really pretty shelves, frames, bookcases, end tables.

[Jillyenator]

Seems people on ebay are buying christmas light bulbs that aren't burned out. Here is a whole thread about what to do with christmas lights:

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...#ixzz2xfGLe3jf

It's good timing for me, as I found a string of orange lights that someone used on halloween, and most of them work. I bet off-holiday bulbs have a premium market somewhere. The hard-core Halloween people go nuts these days with the decorating.

They can have the usable bulbs and i can scrap the wire.

[Jillyenator]

Globes. I said maps earlier, but globes are also in demand by the decorating crowd, and some people even decoupage stuff over them. So don't just rip off the metal stands - sell them whole, even in shabby shape.

[Jillyenator]

Was at an antique shop in NC today and saw some outdoor faucet handles for sale at $10 each.

And here's one on Etsy for ten - that seems to be the resale price for the vintage ones -
1 vintage faucet handle blue vintage valve by anythinggoeshere

3 for $20 - 3 vintage faucet handles old valve handles by anythinggoeshere

...seems like the rustier the better, although clearly they all sell.

[Mick]

I about choked on the Pepsi I was drinking. I've got several of those old faucets sitting on my work bench. Been there more than two years waiting for me to get around to them. I know what I'll be doing tomorrow.

[KzScrapper]

Selling 6-7ft lengths of old corrugated metal for $10 a pop.

[beardo]

I don't know if it has been said yet but gauges for anything, like broken oxy/gas ones.

That faucet knob thing is crazy. I understand vintage hand pumps but those are just silly. Between the garden, yard and barn I could retire. lol