I Have Not Fallen Off the Face of the Earth!

The last 5 months have been crazy. My husband got and took an offer for a new job 500 miles away (but close to where I grew up). We spent the few weeks he had before having to move getting the house ready to go on the market, and then I was crazy busy getting items listed, sold and shipped so as not to have to move them.

The plan was for me to stay with the house and our 3 kids until Christmas at which point we'd all move in with my parents while we waited for our house to sell (my husband was already staying with them during the week and then driving to be with us each weekend). The morning we were packing up our van and a small trailer to move to my parent's, we got an offer on our house and while on the 500-mile-drive, we finally came to terms we could live with and accepted the offer. We closed a few weeks ago and are now searching for a new place in a new state. I decided that trying to continue selling items while living with Mom & Dad (in their small home) wasn't going to be my brightest idea, so all the inventory I wasn't able to list or sell before the move is in storage.

We're thrilled to be close to my family, but the east coast is a bit different than the midwest - I have yet to find any good thrift stores (or any at all) close by and Goodwill was a pretty big letdown (used jeans for $7.50?? Give me a break! Although, I did find a Star Wars Lego set for $1). I had at least 4 nice Goodwill stores and 2 awesome thrift stores within 20 minutes of our midwest home. So, I'm hoping I can still find some sources for inventory here! And I'm really hoping we can find a house with some storage, too. Another big difference is the home prices here - ouch. I keep reminding myself that God has provided so far and even if I'm not able to continue my Ebay selling like I was, it will be okay... even if I DID get an email from Ebay in January saying I'd achieved Top-Rated Seller Status!

Thrift Finds: 9/19 Edition

I got a late start on Monday and wasted time driving around to find a Goodwill that didn't exist (except on the area GW website), so I only got to one Goodwill instead of my usual 2. I found a pair of Gymbo shoes, which I'll hold on to until spring, and a Webkinz with a sealed code.

At thrift store #1, I scored a couple Groovy Girls (one's actually a guy) and a GG horse. The stuffed bear is Janie & Jack - a great example of picking up something that looks interesting! I assumed it was a Boyd's Bear, but checked the tag to be sure, and almost gasped when I saw it was J&J. Nothing like it on Ebay, but some other plush listed anywhere from around $20-$50! At $2, a great buy. I also grabbed a pair of girl's Born shoes and a set of hot rollers. Oh, and a Hello Kitty watch from McD's. I have 2 others that I've ended up with from bags of toys I've bought at another thrift store. I'll probably sell the ones I have as a lot... or maybe see if I can get a full set.

I was checking out costumes (my Sulley and my Blue's Clues costumes both sold recently!), but didn't find anything interesting. The store did me a great favor, however, in having both all the costumes together and all the holiday sweaters! I usually have to look through all the sweaters for these, but I found 3 wonderfully ugly Christmas sweaters all nicely organized for me. You would not believe the amount of decoration and sequins on these sweaters!

The second thrift store held a stuffed Dory (Finding Nemo), another Groovy Girl (if this keeps up, I'll have a huge lot soon!), a stuffed Baby Bop NWT, a couple bottles (7 cents each), an Office mug with Michael Scott, a take-along Thomas covered bridge, some vintage puzzles, and 3 bags of toys (one had a smurfette, one had a Barney figure and a FP couch, and one had a Woody (Toy Story) Mega Bloks figure). The bags of toys are generally $.79 each, plush is usually $.99 for larger ones and $.69 or less for smaller. Plus, I get an additional 25% off on Mondays.

I did see both a Barbie camper/RV and airplane and called my husband to see if he'd look them up on Ebay. They were asking $30 for each, and I wasn't sure they were worth the investment. Turns out they weren't, but when I went back to look at them and check the dates, I noticed a Handy Manny doll - of course without the tools that come with it. I'd looked it up recently because my son has one and I was curious. Completed listings are all over the place, but I'm thinking maybe closer to Christmas?? Anyway, I almost passed him up since it was just the doll, but I knew he hadn't been there when I was just looking a few minutes earlier, so I did a quick glance around and right there above him were hanging his toolbox and tools all in a bag - doll & accessories were less than a dollar altogether.

I'm determined to get all my items listed. Hubby took the kids out for 3 hours yesterday and I got a lot of things organized and photographed. We have company coming this weekend or I'd list like a maniac tonight, but next week, I have got to get things up - otherwise they can't make me any money. I've been motivated because I've been consistently making sales this week and I'm hoping it keeps up.

I did hit a few yard sales this morning - not much, but one item I paid $1 for that could be worth $50! More on that later. Now, though, I must get cleaning.

Sales over the Weekend!

I have a bunch of items listed as BIN - for the whole 30-day time period. That's how I listed all the Stampin' Up! sets I bought last weekend and the costumes I've been accumulating. Many have had a number of views and almost everything has at least one watcher, but I'd only sold one stamp set until this weekend!

I guess people are starting to seriously shop for costumes because I had several questions about my Blue's Clues costume and it sold for my asking price (even though I had the Best Offer option available)! Profit of about $20 on that one. I also sold my second stamp set for a profit of around $3. I'm just glad I made a profit!

I've been toying with opening a store, but I'm afraid that come winter (and no yard sales), I won't have the inventory to make it worthwhile. I'll have to keep thinking on that one!

Yard Sale Loot - September 15 Edition

I've been trying to keep my shopping from taking up an entire morning, so I've gotten strategic about planning and mapping out my stops, with my goal to be back by 10:30am. Since Mondays are generally Goodwill/thrift store days, Thursdays are now yard sale days. I may go to one or two on Friday or Saturday, but I don't want to be out every morning. My husband leaves for work at noon, so I'm blessed to be able to get out without kids any morning, but I don't want to completely neglect my family! I had 9 stops planned yesterday, but 5 of those were part of one community sale. Unfortunately, only 2 of advertised sales were open!

The first sale was just down the road and I got there as they were setting up since it had been raining. I bought a bunch of Happy Meal toys that I regretted soon after, but at least it was only a few dollars. I thought Lego ones would sell well and my son loves Cars, so if they don't, I'd let him have those, but it looks like the Cars one are the better sellers. Oh, well! I also got a brand new pair of girl's cowboy boots and a bunch of clothes for $.50 each.

Next stop was the community sale where only 2 out of the 5 advertised were open (grr), but the 2 that were open... good stuff! The first had several pairs of Stride Rite WIDE shoes. They had both sneakers and dress shoes in the size I needed for my son - woo hoo! (I'd already put these in my son's room and he was in bed when I took the picture.) The other shoes were not in the best condition, so I only got an additional pair of sandals. The 2nd of the 2 was an interesting mix - jewelry and shoes and new in package Pixar Cars. (This was when I was regretting buying those Happy Meal Cars toys!). She was asking $1 a car and a set of 3 was $2.

Stop #4, I bought a bag of cookie cutters for $1. They didn't make it to the picture.

Stop #5, two older ladies with an eclectic mix - some toys, some Christmas decor, a few kitchen gadgets, and some romance novels. Oh, and some CDs... I saw 2 that I wanted ($.50 each), but both were missing the discs - glad I checked! While I was looking at CDs, I heard a lady tell the women running the sale that they'd priced their bottles way too low (of course, my ears pricked!). As I slyly glanced around, I saw there were some larger Avent bottles marked with $.10 each. I grabbed those and also picked up a coffee grinder for us to keep for $2 - it didn't look like it had ever been used. I'm officially addicted to Trader Joe's Smooth and Mellow coffee and now we won't have to grind it at the store!

Stop #6 was an impromptu sale on the way to my next scheduled stop. It was a fund raising sale, so a wide variety, but nothing great. Kids clothes were a quarter, but I wasn't in the mood to dig, so I only grabbed an Old Navy fleece, which will probably go in the consignment bin.

Stop #7 didn't have a whole lot, but was where I found my treasure for the week! A My Twinn doll with My Twinn clothes and shoes for $2! I'd seen one at the thrift store before but didn't know anything about them. That always leads to research which led me to know if I ever saw another one cheap, buy it! Although, I have to admit, I find them very creepy-looking. That's probably why I got her listed last night as an auction - so I can get her out of my house as quickly as possible! No bids, yet, but she has a ton of watchers, so I'm taking that as a good sign!

Oh, and I made it back by 10:30am, too.

I am going to a consignment sale tomorrow morning, but my expectations are low :). We'll see if I find any treasure!

Happy Halloween!

Monday, I did my runs to Goodwill and the thrift store. I found a couple dresses for my oldest at the first GW and nothing at the second. Well, I saw some costumes, but I didn't buy them... wanted to do a little research first. The thrift store came through again - guess they want to prove me wrong after saying they never include the pieces to sets. I found a vintage little people school with ALL the pieces. Well, almost all. The magnetic letter set is missing the "Y." I am pretty sure it got lost when packaged because all the letters were in the bag with the other pieces & people except for the "Z." I got lucky that one somehow stayed in the tray, but the "Y" is gone. It was 25% off Monday, so I scored it for $8.24! I'm pretty sure we either had that set when I was a kid or I played with it somewhere else because I was having flashbacks as I put all the letters in the tray.

I also picked up yet another pair of shoes (I can't help it! It's an obsession! I can't justify buying myself shoes anymore since we're on a tight budget, so maybe this is my way of getting my shoe fix.) - Gymboree patent navy clogs which looked barely worn. And, now it seems I can't resist Groovy Girls when I see them cheap. I've been seeing them here and there for a while, so I decided I'd start buying them and sell them as a lot as I get enough.

I checked the costumes I'd found on Ebay and immediately made a plan to load up the kids after naps to go back and get the ones I'd seen earlier at GW. When I went to check out, the cashier told me I'd have to wait a minute while he called back for a pen. There should be one in my purse, right, so I dig around and find one. Only, it won't write. As I scribble to get it started, I notice my 5 year old pushing the cart toward the door. No big deal - she's pretty careful. 4 year old son walks with her (2 year old is in the cart). Next thing I know I hear a crash and look over to see the 4 year old has run into an older lady's cart... and then the yelling started. Oh, my, the yelling! "WHERE is your MOTHER!!??" Her tone was vicious. VICIOUS! And she went on and on as she made her way out the door... making sure everyone in the store knew I was the worst of the unfit mothers. My poor son ran to me and hid behind me! The cashier and everyone else just stopped and stared. And then they told me not to worry about her. Still, I'm sure I turned 20 shades of red - this is why I don't take my kids on my shopping adventures! Pardon the rotten picture. It was an afterthought after I'd taken a bunch of pictures to go along with listings and I apparently no longer cared.

All three were in excellent condition - there's a Cookie Monster, a Blue's Clues, and a purple dragon from Old Navy. Cookie was $4 and the other 2 were $5.

I came across this handy calculator. If you know you want to make a certain amount on an item, you can plug in all the details and it will figure out your profit after calculating Ebay & Paypal fees. Love it!

Okay, I'm determined to get busy listing items - this is what always takes me the longest to do! Taking the pictures, editing them, weighing, calculating shipping costs, writing the descriptions - needs to be done, but it's not nearly as much fun as shopping! However, if I want to bring more stuff home, I HAVE to get some of the stuff here moved out... not to mention needing to replenish the funds so I actually have money to shop.

Oh, and I may have run to Target on Tuesday after I heard all the hubbub about the Missoni line. I bought a few things and already made one sale. I left PLENTY of product there, but I figure if I can help a few people who couldn't get something at their local stores, that's a good thing, right?? Right? I still feel a little guilty...

Consignment sale!

The fall season for consignment sales has begun. I used to big-time HEART consignment sales. For several years a friend and I would get up before the sun and head out together, waiting in line, sharing our lists, making our plans of attack and catching up while we anticipated all the great deals that awaited us. I always found things I needed and great prices.

Lately, though, my heart's growing colder toward the sales. My friend no longer goes with me, so I know that's part of my attitude change - I always had fun sharing the experience and getting away for a morning. Now that I regularly yard sale and visit Goodwill & another thrift store, the consignment sale experience holds little appeal. I have to get up really early, I have to stand in line for a half hour (or an hour at the bigger ones), there's usually $1 entrance fee, and (most importantly), I rarely find much of interest or need that is in my acceptable price range. If you want Ebay prices for your items, then sell them on Ebay! If you're going to print out and attach a recently ended auction so I know how much it might cost on Ebay, then maybe you should sell it there! Is that harsh? I don't mean to sound harsh, but I am finding that the bigger these sales grow and the more that start up, the higher people are pricing their items.

I did find a few things. I picked up some dollhouse furniture for $1 and a bag that had a Groovy Girl, a stuffed Dora doll and a Strawberry Shortcake doll for $.50. I haven't fully explored the Groovy Girl market, but took a chance at that price that it might be a good one. Of course, it took me a while to figure out which one I had and there are no current or completed listings - don't know if that's a good sign or a bad one!

I bought a couple pairs of shoes for my 2-year old or possibly to resell. (I neglected to inventory her shoes ahead of time) I paid $2 for a pair of wide Stride Rites and $4 for some adorable like new Stride Rites. Finally, I picked up a bunch of Thomas trains. They were 2 to a bag for $4-$5. I thought it was a good price (another sale I went to over the summer had individual trains marked at $7!), but looking at completed listings, we may just keep them and add to our collection. Maybe closer to Christmas would be better. First I'll need to see if the James I got is part of the recall - who knows? Maybe I'll get a brand new train out of the deal!

I'm thinking from now on I may only shop the consignment sales where I'm a seller and otherwise stick to yard sales and thrift stores!

I heart yard sales!

Some pretty good finds this week! I found 2 sales that started at 8am yesterday (most start at 9, including a community sale right by my house, so I didn't want to go too far away!). One was a little farther away, so even though I was more interested in the closer one, it made sense route-wise to hit the other first. MISTAKE! I seriously spent 90 seconds there and wondered why I'd written down the address at all. I'm wondering if she didn't have all her stuff out yet (it was raining, so maybe she didn't have room?), but kids clothes and toys were advertised and there was nary an item intended for a child.

Got to sale #2 and immediately wished I'd skipped #1 altogether! Especially when, as I'm parking, a lady backs her van into the driveway and starts loading up bag after bag! There were several tables of clothes and quite a few toys... all cheap.

I decided (after kicking myself a few weeks ago for not doing this) that if I find larger sizes of kids clothes for a quarter each, I'd load up. At consignment sales, I notice these sizes are always the smallest sections and if I could find good ones cheap, I'd have a good chance of selling them for a profit. So load up I did (clothes are in the bags)! The board game, Care Bear and Strawberry Shortcake toy were a quarter or fifty cents each. There were several large toys I would have loved to grab, but space is at a premium at my house, so I passed on those. The shoes were $1 each and barely looked worn.

Whoever was running sale #3 must have changed his mind as nothing was out when I passed by, but I was on a mission to sale #4. They were just getting things out because of the rain and everything was "make an offer." I'm not a fan of those sales - I never know what to offer especially if I know something will make me a good profit elsewhere and I'm not buying it for me!


I picked up an oversized Scooby, 4 wood toddler puzzles and a Melissa & Doug word puzzle and offered $5. Sold! (Should I have offered less?) I knew the word puzzle would easily sell at a consignment sale for $5 alone and the other puzzles could go for at least $1. At home I checked the Scooby and a similar one sold for $28! I should be able to see the M & D puzzle for around $10, so not bad!

Next was the community sale - not many houses were participating, probably because of the rain, but I still found some goodies.

I found this Mickey car in a fifty cent bin and was pretty sure it would go along with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse set I found at the thrift store the day before (and I was right! Yahoo!). Unfortunately, I also grabbed a Thomas & Friends Annie electric train car that I didn't realize was broken until I got home. Reminder - always check things!! There may actually be a reason it's in the $.50 bin.

I also found this mint condition Caboodles make-up organizer. I had one of these when I was a teen and recently read someone (maybe a blog somewhere?) that these can sell well. For $2, I'll list it and if it doesn't sell, we'll just keep it and put it to good use.

This morning, I only hit 2 sales - both close-by. First one yielded 2 costumes for my son ($2 each), a floor puzzle, a Discovery Toys shape game ($.50 each), 8 DVDs ($.50 each), and some clothes ($.25 each). Again, there were no prices on the movies, clothes or costumes, but the husband was running the sale and sometimes that means CHEAP prices! The second sale was a bunch of Stampin' Up! demonstrators selling off retired sets. They do it every year and the prices aren't great, but I picked up a few sets I hope will do well as well as a few for my own use. I won't bore you with the pictures!


My son was thrilled with his new costumes as was his little sister... pictures do not do justice to how adorable she was walking around with the spidey legs trailing behind and the arms hanging way past hers! And, I may have been accompanied by Spiderman himself when we ran to Lowes & Target this afternoon. He didn't want to take it off and some battles aren't worth fighting. :)

She was NOT into having her picture taken, but so many things about this picture make me laugh. From the muscles on my little girl to my son holding a baby doll by the leg. Never a dull moment!