When I first wrote this post it said 100! in anticipation of having finally gotten 100 items listed.  But, it still hasn’t happened.  I’ve been trying to work up to it for weeks now, but between my auctions ending and things being bought, it’s taken me a lot longer than I expected.

On the other hand, I just looked through my 93! listings and they all seem really blah.  All of my interesting or exciting or potentially profitable stuff has been bought, and my new listings are mostly things that I’ve had around the house that I’d just like to get rid of.  Not expecting a high sales week this time around.

It’s funny how eBay can permeate all parts of your life.  I was walking through the parking lot into the grocery store recently and saw a bubble mailer on the ground.  It was dirty and had probably been rained on, but my first response was excitement.  Oooh, I could mail something in that!  I kinda had to force myself to leave it on the ground and keep walking.

I also find myself looking around my friends’ houses differently.  And occasionally saying things like, “You know, when your kids are tired of the Wiggles, that Big Red Car over there would be worth a lot of money on eBay!”

Yes, and as my husband opened a present from his parents this evening I couldn’t help myself from blurting out, “Can I have that box?!”  What can I say?  It was a really nice box!

Merry Christmas to all!

Where, oh where, did my motivation go?  I did almost no eBaying in the last week, which I know is crazy since it is prime selling time with Christmas just around the corner.  I do most of my listings on freebie Tuesdays, and since this Tuesday was not in fact a freebie, I just took the day off.  I had ten or so auctions that ended on Wednesday and Thursday, one of which sold at the BIN price.  Then . . . nothing.  I had ZERO items listed until last night, when I re-listed a few of my more interesting items.  Two of which have since sold as BIN.

20 Disney Books:  $25.99 – shipping

Mr. Potato Head magnets:  $14.99 – shipping

Lot of 6 puppets:  $29.99 – shipping

your four-year-old son creates a new game.  It’s called “Post Office.”  And it consists of him carrying a basket around your house, collecting things to take to the Post Office to mail, and then leaving the basket by your front door.

So am I taking a month off from thrifting?  I don’t know.  But for today, instead of checking out the GW Outlet across town like I had originally planned to do, I went back home when my son was in preschool and photographed a bunch of items to list on both eBay and Craigslist.  

Baby steps, right?

(Not actually my VV.  I “borrowed” this image.)

I made my weekly trip to Value Village this morning.  VV has switched up their sales in the last couple months.  Mondays used to be $1 tag day (which I LOVED), but they’ve done away with $1 sales completely.  Now on Mondays they have one tag that is 50% off and all other used merchandise is 25% off.

Yes, I am so cheap (er, thrifty) that I generally shop the clearance racks at thrift stores!  But now that the $1 tags are no more, it is encouraging/forcing me to expand my horizons.  Instead of focusing on what is “cheap” I am looking around for more brand names that I might be able to buy at higher prices but make a bigger margin of profit on.  I am not good at this.  Yet. 

I call this “expensive thrifting” because even with the 25% off it still hurts to pay some of their prices.  I usually end up spending around $14 and take home four or five things.  This week was no exception.  Here is what I picked up this morning:

Puss In Boots (pd $2.99)
So, Puss seems to be worth the most out of everything I picked up.  Mine is not NIB but it is in good condition.  Of course, my son has played with it all morning long and even though I told him when we bought it that it would be going away in the mail to someone else, I can tell he’s not going to be happy when (if, mommy guilt) that happens.

Shrek (pd $2.99)
I was kind of iffy on even picking this one up because I figured there would be lots-o-Shreks out there.  Looks like I could make my money back but not much more.  I’m keeping him in the bag for now so that I can return him next week if I decide that’s best.  If I let Hinton hold on to Puss for awhile I may decide to keep Shrek as well and try to sell them together at a later date.  Maybe they would attract more bidders as a pair?

Mr. Incredible (pd $2.99)
I had no hesitation picking this one up.  The Incredibles came out long ago enough that I figured these are hard to find and people would be looking for them.  Wrong.  A few for sale but not a single completed sale.  This one I will take back to VV when I go next week.

vintage Little People sheet (pd $4.49)
And I’m bummed about this one as well.  For some reason VV’s sheets are on the expensive side (regularly $5.99 for one sheet!).  I thought for sure this would be an eBay hit but completeds show otherwise.  But, there aren’t any other LP sheets for sale right now so I think I will hold onto it and list it with a high BIN and see if I get a taker.  Maybe add an OBO which I’ve never done before.

So, the moral of this story is . . . I need to find somewhere else to thrift.  I tried out the GW Outlet a few months back and was not impressed, but I think I need to give it another try.  Maybe Tues or Thurs this week when my oldest is at preschool.  I also need to figure out a way to go to VV kid-free.  It’s open until 9 p.m. Maybe next week I’ll try venturing out after my husband is home from work and see how that goes.  Maybe I’ll actually have a chance to tackle some of the racks of clothes.