She Thrifts

Thrift. Flip. Repeat.

End of an era …

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Today was a bit of a sad day.  For years Value Village has been my favorite thrift, and most Thursday mornings I can be found at their $2 tag sale, looking for clothes to flip.  In fact, Value Village is the only thrift store I visit regularly, and other than a rare yard sale find, the only place I buy clothes to resell.  A couple weeks ago I found out that our local Value Village location is closing.  I was surprised by how sad I felt.  I have literally spent hundreds of hours there.  It’s hard to believe by the end of the weekend it will be no more.

It’s not that it wasn’t making money.  It was.  The issue is the location, which until a couple years ago it shared with a K-Mart.  Since K-Mart went out of business the other part of the building has sat empty.  Word on the street is that our local hospital has bought the location and is going to use it as satellite parking.  So, poof.  Farewell Value Village.  And at this point they aren’t looking at finding a new location, although I have already gone to their website imploring them to do just that.  VV will certainly be missed in our community.

This morning I stopped in for my normal VV Thursday morning shopping.  The entire store is 50% off, but there isn’t much left.  Over half the store is already empty.  What’s left is fairly picked over, and to be honest not that great of a deal anyway, at least for flipping.  I really loved their $2 tag day, and could often fill a cart with NWT items I found throughout the store.

So empty. So sad.

And so it goes.

Speaking of Value Village (and probably Savers too, for those of you that live in Savers territory) – if you are a Swagbucks user, you should think about linking your credit card for local rewards if you haven’t already.  Every week after shopping at VV I would get an e-mail about points I had earned, which equaled 7% of my purchase price.


Each Swagbuck loosely equals a penny, which means I have earned at least $1778.42. (This estimate is actually low because I often redeem gift cards that are on sale, which cost fewer SB.) I have kinda fallen off the Swagbucks bandwagon lately so I haven’t been earning them as quickly, but my husband still regularly earns $50+/mo, which he usually uses as his movie money. (He most often redeems for Regal gift cards.)

If you are not yet on Swagbucks but are thinking about joining, please consider using my referral link HERE. If you use my link when signing up we will both get a bonus 300 SB (roughly equivalent to $3). There are dozens upon dozens of ways to earn SB in addition to shopping at places like Value Village – which I would be doing with or without the SB reward! (My husband got 800 SB a couple days ago for signing us up for Disney+.) Gotta love free money.

Help me name my Etsy store!

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Since this is my year to resell online full-time, I am finally going to dip my toe in the Etsy pool. This is something I have been thinking about doing for years (and years and years). Honestly, Etsy kinda intimidates me. And I am not super into vintage … except when I am. Which is usually vintage plush. I bought a lot of vintage plush from my cousin last summer when she was having a yard sale. Most are currently for sale in my eBay store, and they do sell occasionally. I’ve been thinking maybe I should cross post some of it to Etsy as a little trial run.

Of course when setting up an Etsy store one of the first things you need to know is the name of your store. To which I have given no thought. Something cute or clever or punny? That has to do with vintage, plush, love or loveys?

Gladly taking any name suggestions!! (As well as any Etsy tips you may like to pass along.)

Favorite Flips Friday, 10/11/19

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I have had a pretty decent sales week, but they were mostly bread-and-butter, slow-and-steady sales. Here are a few:

(New old stock) notebook paper. You can tell from the packaging that it is vintage. I wish I knew why they bought it, it’s so random.
They immediately left positive FB.
Paid: $0.50 @ ys, Sold: $14.95
(listed since May, 2019)

Benelton Men’s Wool Sweater Vest
Paid: $2 @ VV, Sold: $39.95 + shipping
(26 days after listed)

Elf on a Shelf loveys. Originally listed together, then someone asked to separate and I created a new listing … that they never purchased. Eventually relisted together, finally sold!
Paid: $3 on FB, Sold: $19.95
(originally listed Oct, 2016)

Princess & the Frog Tsum Tsums
Paid: $1 @ consignment sale,
Sold: $24.95
(11 hours after listed)

This is a vintage Care Bears toddler-size sleeping bag. The buyer was super excited, she said it is the same pattern she had when she was young, and she is going to repurpose it into a baby blanket for a family member.
Paid: $1 @ ys, BO Accepted: $25
(listed since July, 2019)

I have sold a few granny squares blankets, I definitely have the best luck with the black ones.
Paid: $3 @ ys, Sold: $39.95
(10 days after listed)

Did you have any noteworthy sales recently? I would love to hear about them!

Goals to stay on track

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For the last week or so my sales have been steady and in the ballpark of where I want them to be. Which is great! Unfortunately I was sick last week and worked almost not at all for two days, and about half speed the rest of the time. Which is not so great. Any time my listing drops off I fear my visibility and sales will drop off too.

I really need to finish off this month with strong sales. In addition to all of the normal financial obligations I am trying to meet, I also purchased airfare for my husband and FIL to fly to Pittsburgh in a couple months to see a Steelers game. The Steelers are my FIL’s favorite team and he has never seen them before on their home field. This has been a trip my husband has been wanting to take with his dad for years. My husband is turning the big 4-0 in a few months, and I figured that was as good as an excuse as any. So off they will go! And I would like to pay for the trip with eBay-made-money.

So my goals for the upcoming week are as follows:

  • List 12 new items/day on eBay.
  • Try to have the 12 new listings completed before 8 p.m.
  • Cross post 5 listings onto PM.
  • Spend 1 hour/day (5 of the 7 days) organizing my storage room.

It doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but two days next week are inservice days from school for my boys, so it will feel like I only have a 3 day workweek. Ah well. And so it goes, we soldier on.

What are your current goals? I would love to hear about them!

Favorite Flips Friday, 10/4/19

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My sales have actually been pretty strong this last week, but the items I’ve sold haven’t been particularly noteworthy.

My favorite thrift has been taken over by Halloween, which means there are fewer racks of clothes to look through. The past couple weeks I’ve been stretching myself by perusing some of the men’s items too.

NWT Saddlebred Sweater Vest 3XLT
Paid: $2 @ VV, Sold: $19.95 (4 days after listed)

This chevron print dress was so pretty.
The pictures don’t do it justice.

Cache Dress Size 0
Paid: $2 @ VV, Sold: $24.95
(listed since Aug, 2019)

Evan Picone Green Suit Size 12
Paid: $2 @ VV, Sold: $34.95
(listed since July, 2019)

Tis the season to sell coats.
I have sold several recently.

Forecaster of Boston Wool Coat, Size 14
Paid: $2 @ VV, Sold: $34.95
(listed since June, 2019)

I picked these up for a quarter each at a yard sale this summer, and they started getting watchers immediately after listing.

Paid: $0.75 @ ys, Sold: $19.95
(18 days after listed)

Paid: $3 @ ys, BO accepted: $29.99
(listed since July, 2019)

NWT Baby Gear Sports Blanket
Paid: $2.39 @ FM, Sold: $32.95
Listed since Nov, 2018

Paid: $2 @ ys, Sold: $49.95 + shipping
(listed since June, 2017)

This is a niche I would really like to explore more. It was a nice flip but it took a really long time to sell. The Recycleista blog did a series on selling flatware a few years back that I need to revisit.

How were your sales this week? And do you have any experience selling flatware? I would love to hear about it!

Celebrating a small success

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As I previously mentioned, I spent most of the last school year working 5 days per week and thus spent a lot less time on my eBay business. Today is the first day in many MANY months that I have seen my “compared to same period a year ago” percentage in the green! At times I was in the red as much as 50% below last year. I know it’s a small thing, but it feels like a solid step in the right direction. Yay!

Poshmark Progress, 10/2/19

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So, I have officially been on Poshmark over a year now. It was really, really slow going, but I am finally starting to feel like I am getting a bit of traction.

I will say though that I don’t have a particularly curated closet. I pretty much throw anything and everything up on PM, whether or not it’s super trendy. I have even started using the Home category, and have listed some baby blankets and plush.

It is my goal to list at least 5 items per day. I cross list from eBay, so this really doesn’t take very long. I am still working to reach my goal of selling an average of one item per day, but I’ve gotten so much closer!

In July I listed 143 new items on PM, and sold a grand total of 4.
In August I listed 144 new items, and sold 15.
In September I listed 147 new items, and sold 27.

Pretty darn close to my goal! May this month I will reach it.

These were my stats, as of Monday morning.

How is Poshmark going for you?

A new season

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I have moved into a new season of my life, both literally and figuratively.

For the past many years I have kind of had the best of both worlds. When my oldest son was born (now almost 12 years ago) I was able to stay home with him. This was really important to me, especially since we don’t have any family who lives nearby to help out. I know how lucky I was to have the choice to stay home. I was also lucky that I was able to move from my full-time job as a librarian into a substitute position. The great thing about the sub position was that I had total control over when I would work. When my boys were young this limited me to working on days my husband was off, which worked out well. As they have gotten older and are now in school full time I started working more and more, and during the last school year I was usually working 5 days a week.

That was, until the middle of June, when I found out that all sub positions city-wide were being eliminated. There were other departments in the city affected by this, but it hit the library especially hard – 18 people lost their jobs.

I wasn’t entirely sure how to feel. Part of me was sad, for sure. I had worked there for 17(!) years. But there was also a little part of me that has always wondered what I could do if I wasn’t trying to split my time between my work there and my work at home.

So, I enjoyed July and August with my boys being out of school, working from home. During those couple months I was still trying to decide if I needed to try and find another job, or if I should stick with online sales. In fact at the end of August I was in the middle of filling out an application (for a job that only comes open once a year) when I realized that I really, really did not want the job. What I wanted was to give myself the next 9 months to work from home and see what I could do when my time was really my own.

So of course I talked to my husband, and he was on board. The gist of what he said was – as long as we are able to pay our bills at the end of the month, we’re good. Do whatever makes you happy. Yup, he’s awesome. So I didn’t apply for the job, and I’ve given myself nine months (now down to eight) to see what I can do when my time is my own.

So far, this is what I have done. (This was as of 10 minutes ago, as I type.)

I have been working and working and working to get my “compared to same period a year ago” back up to 0. Because I was working so much at the library there were many months that my sales were 50% less than they had been the year before. I am soooo close to that goal! (Of 0%, ha. But we’ve got to start somewhere, right?)

I have many more goals that I am working towards, but that is my life right now in a nutshell.

I would love to hear about how the work-life balance is going for you. Do you have a good routine, or is it ever changing? Please share!