Salvage 'push-button' style light fixtures from antique victorian house, 25¢.

Restoring old homes to their former glory has become quite popular. Folks are buying up literally everything from old houses that are being demolished. And the stuff isn't cheap! Learn to spot old house hardware and fixtures and you stand to make money!

What we have here are nothing more than a pair of old wall light switches. As opposed to the 'flip' style of switch that's been popular for many years, you turned the light on and off with these by just pressing the button. I'm not sure why anyone would want to bother with anything like these old things, unless they were restoring a particular style of home to as completely original a condition as possible, in which case they'd be must-have pieces , right?

The practice of returning homes built in the 1800s and early 1900s to their 'stock configuration' has become really popular with both restorers and homeowners alike. As a matter of fact, the restoring of old houses has become so popular that there are now old house salvage yards that harvest all they can from old houses that are about to be demolished. These guys collect anything one would need to restore an old house to its original splendor, using only the original components.

As you can imagine, the folks who run these salvage operations can afford to exact quite a penny for their goods. After all, they're not making this old stuff anymore. Sure, you can get brand new reproductions of old home hardware and fixtures. But why go through all of the work and expense of a restoration, and then cut corners on the most important areas?

You should know that wherever there's strong interest in any type of hard-to-get item, deal seekers will be vigorously scouring eBay for it. That's why I'm always on the lookout for anything 'old house' related, which I feel someone would be searching eBay for.

As for the condition of these particular items, well, they are what they are. I'll simply explain to my bidders that since I'm not particularly electrically inclined, I'd rather leave the testing to the buyer, and they can bid accordingly. But I'll also tell prospective bidders that they do appear to be in good cosmetic condition.

I'm not even going to clean these pieces up. After all, if you were a knowledgeable and passionate buyer of old house hardware, would you prefer your purchase to arrive to you in 'as found' condition, or would you prefer them worked over by someone just trying to pretty them up to sell them?

No huge windfall here, but I'll spend one quarter any day to make 400 quarters (that's $40!) in profit!