The week for shoes!

I took my Monday morning trip to Goodwill and God must have a sense of humor because my first stop was shoes and an employee was putting new ones out... there, in his cart? A pair of Dansko shoes. Yes, please! Now I know to grab those. I listed them later than night and added a BIN to the auction, and they sold the next day! Maybe I should have made my BIN higher, but I'm thrilled at a $35 profit. I also saw a pair of Ariat cowboy boots, but could not find a size, so I didn't get those. I have no idea how I would have figured that out!

The shoe trend continued at the thrift store where I found a like new pair of Gymboree toddler clogs and 2 pair of wide Stride Rite sneakers. I'm keeping one for my son - one of those instances where kids have enlightened me on great items for resale. Wide shoes are hard to find and extra wide are only made by Stride Rite, which are often expensive, and I, of course, have a son who needs wide shoes, so I looked for them on Ebay and saw these are great sellers. Now, it's an item I look for. In fact, I listed the pair I found, and it, too, sold at a BIN within a couple days.

9/5 Update: Those Gymbo shoes sold at a BIN, too!! Wahoo! 3 pairs of shoes bought and sold within a week for a total profit of over $60!

Weekly update

(I'm trying to catch up and posting several posts at once and backdating them... just in case you got confused!)

Early in the week I hit my favorite thrift store and Goodwill to find these treasures.
Another FP birdbath (missing one piece, but it was $1.50), a Little Einstein talking doll, a Gymboree jumper, a Blue's Clues green pup, a pair of Barney slippers and some elbow/knee pads - they were in a bag of toys for $.75. I spent less than $7 on everything. I've been trying to make my thrift store trips on Mondays since everything is 25% off. The Barney slippers already sold, but I'm still waiting for payment.

Yard sales were good last week, too.

I picked up some Little People (in the 25 cent box) and this set of blue glass Ball jars ($5). They're for decorative use only, not for canning, but they're a nice set and I think can earn me a little profit - only one other like this set is listed on Ebay and it's at a BIN of $60. I'd be happy with half that!

I picked up a Thomas carrying case and lots of books (which have mostly been claimed by my kids), another small bag of Little People (25 cents for all of them) and a brand new LPS toy for 25 cents (this will probably be for the gift closet). The Thomas case was marked with $3, but the lady running the sale saw me pick it up and said she'd let me have it for $1 - YAY! I know I could sell it at a consignment sale if it isn't a big Ebay item.

I found a couple costumes, including a Children's Place butterfly and a Monster's Inc. Sulley costume - probably my best find of the day! I happened to pass by a sale getting set up (no signs, so I don't know if they were officially "open," but I caught sight of lots of toys and quickly turned around to go check it out. Laying out was a full-size Sulley costume. I had a feeling it could be a great buy and I asked how much (no prices on anything). She told me to make an offer, and I said $3 and she took it. Looks like they're going for up to $60!

Saturday, I ran out to a couple sales close to home and found these guys for a quarter each. They looked old, but I had no idea if they were worth anything. Came home and searched for "Del Monte plush" and saw several of them with decent sold prices. I still wasn't sure I felt like going back for them, but my husband told me to go for it.


As an aside, I am blessed with a husband who is encouraging me in this little enterprise. He does not understand AT ALL how I could enjoy digging through other people's "junk," but he tries to be excited when I find what I think is a great deal. Plus, he tells me he loves how excited I get over the process. He is TRULY a treasure.

Inventory galore!

Last week, I had some great scores at the thrift store, Goodwill and a garage sale! I have to keep reminding myself that I'll have good weeks and bad, so I'm not too disappointed when I walk away empty-handed.

Goodwill

When I was just shopping for my family, I never looked at pre-owned stuffed animals. I guess I knew what ours had been through and didn't want someone else's! But, I'm also thinking of the ones my kids play with - they certainly have some that don't get used. Plus, Goodwill sanitizes them, so that makes me feel better. Anyway, I've started looking at stuffed animals and have found some success. Hit GW Monday morning and saw a variety of interesting items - a talking Care Bear, a baby Gund frog lovey, a Curious George dressed as a firefighter and a really soft, pretty unicorn. Wrote down all I saw and went home to research. The unicorn is a Douglas cuddle toy, which I'd never heard of, but they do sell on Ebay. Curious George looked to have good potential as did the Care Bear. Some other things didn't seem to be good sellers, but when I searched for George, a Kohl's Cares for Kids Hippo came up in the results and I'd seen him at the store, too! When I went back the next day, George was gone, but I found another frog (both in mint condition) and grabbed up what's in the picture.

Thrift Store

I was downright giddy about my thrift store finds! A beautiful mini Boden girl's coat for $4, all four Little Einsteins plush for $1-$2 each, Crocs for $1, and a Care Bear cousins monkey for under $1 (can't remember the exact price - I took a chance because it was cheap, but they don't seem to be that hot on Ebay). Oh, what? That other item in the first picture? That would be an American Girl doll - Kit. She was $2!!

We had company coming in for the weekend, so with preparing for them, I limited myself to 2 yard sales on Thursday (ours run Thurs-Sat around here). I spent every last cent at the first one and had to stop by the ATM on the way to the second! Granted I only had $25.40, but I'm still not used to spending that much at one sale. I'm slowly becoming convinced that paying $10-15 for a toy that will sell for $30-$50 is better than paying $.50 for a top that will go for $2. I only got some clothes for my son at the second sale, but at the first, I kind of wish I'd had more $$!

Garage Sale

The toys include a FP Birdbath toy, the Little People preschool & school bus and some dress-up dresses (the dresses were for my girls and one had already been claimed when I took the picture). The clothes were stuff a bag for $5. Most of the items are Gymbo, including a holiday dress and a spring dress with matching sweater and 2 capelets (these happen to be in my daughter's sizes, so I'm thinking we may get early holiday pictures and then sell them!) as well as some other tops & bottoms and a Land's End coat. I also scored a brand new pair of Stride Rite boots for $.50! The lady at the sale even said if they didn't work for my daughter, Once Upon a Child would probably give me a few bucks for them! Gotta love someone who just wants to get rid of stuff even though she knows she could make more elsewhere.

All in all, a great week treasure hunting. I now need to get a system down for tracking my purchases. I can't keep the toys I'm buying in plain site or my kids want to play with them, so I have them stashed here and there and don't want to forget what I have!

Note to Self...

... If you're at Goodwill and see a pair of shoes that look interesting, pick them up!

Since I don't have a smart phone, I sometimes write down interesting things I see, then go home to research before returning to buy. This morning, on a return trip to get some stuffed animals I'd seen yesterday, I saw a pair of women's Dansko shoes. They looked like they might be some sort of expensive shoe, but I wasn't familiar with them, so I went home to research and found I could probably make $15-$20 profit easy. After naps, I gathered up the kids to go back and get them, and they were gone. Boo!

I haven't wanted to get into the habit of having to make a lot of returns at Goodwill, but my local store DOES take returns, so next time I see something interesting, I'll pick it up. Meanwhile, if I see a pair of Dansko shoes anywhere, I'll definitely be grabbing them!

Last week's finds!

I didn't get pictures of all my spoils, but had some great finds last week hitting Goodwill, a local thrift store and several yard sales.

The thrift store typically will bag up smaller like items and sell them together (one day I'll share about my McDonald's Happy Meal toys score). I started looking through some bags around the book section when I noticed some Barney videos in one, and I'd read that Barney videos can sell well. For under $.50 for 3 movies, I decided it was worth a shot. I did notice several bags with 3-4 board books that looked to be in good condition. Unfortunately, you can't open the bags in store, but again, these were listed at around $.50-$.70 cents for each bag, so I grabbed several and was happy when I opened them at home to find they were all in pristine condition! I'll probably keep some, but hope to sell the rest. My best find in the book section were these 3:
They're Chunky Playskool Playbooks and I was floored when I opened the first one and recognized it from my own childhood (note to self - ask Mom if she still has it!). Not many are listed on Ebay right now, but one's at $25 and another around $10. If nothing else, I got a kick out of them! I also picked up an ugly Christmas sweater at the thrift store - I try to take a quick look through the sweaters for these, but this is the first time I've actually found one. At under $1, I should be able to make a few dollars at least.


Goodwill supplied me with several (SEVERAL!) Hanna Andersson dresses and a Gymboree dress and jeans, both from recent lines. I also picked up some puzzles for my kids at GW - one was still sealed.

I hit yard sales on Thursday and did okay. Went out of my way for a couple and wished I hadn't (I never feel like looking around at a sale when the first item I see has a print-out of a recent Ebay auction with the final price. I doubt I'll find any steals there!), but then drove by an unadvertised sale and picked up a pristine Playmobil set for $7 - it even had the instructions and another Gymbo dress for $.50. I also picked up some Look & Find books for a quarter each. My kids love these and I've had success selling these at consignment sales in the past.

I need to get busy listing all the fall/winter clothes I accumulated over the summer! Trying to decide if I should do auctions or BIN. I need to start moving some of this stuff out of the house before my dear husband is not quite so understanding about my attempt to help out our budget!