u/comethosimati

I help coach a rec soccer team and last spring we needed 12 trophies. The cheapest new ones I found were around $20 each before engraving.

A week later I saw a cardboard box full of old bowling and softball trophies at an estate sale for $20. I bought them mostly as a joke.

Turns out the figures on top unscrew. I removed the old nameplates, swapped a few toppers around, cleaned everything and had a local engraving shop make new plates for $3 each. The trophies looked slightly ridiculous, but the kids and parents loved the retro look.

Another coach asked me to make some for his team. Then a bar wanted six for its trivia nights. Now I pick up unwanted trophies from estate sales, thrift stores and Facebook Marketplace, rebuild them and sell them locally.

Last month I sold 29 trophies across six orders. I brought in $648 and spent $234 on the trophies, engraving, replacement parts, glue, felt and gas. That left me with $414 for around 11 hours of work.

Most of those hours were spent scraping ancient foam tape off the bases while watching TV. I also ruined three trophies early on because rubbing alcohol removed the fake gold finish.

My favorite order was from a dentist’s office. They paid $42 for one that said “Least Complaints During Inventory Week” and specifically requested that it look like it had been won in 1987.

I refuse to ship the tall ones because packing a three-foot plastic trophy sounds miserable. Everything is pickup only.

My garage shelf currently looks like I robbed an entire little league season.

Does anyone know where to buy replacement toppers that don’t look brand new? That’s the one part I still haven’t figured out.