She Thrifts

Thrift. Flip. Repeat.

BOLO ~ Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

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Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit

My family got back from California a few days ago, where we spent a week playing at Disneyland, Legoland, and Universal Studios.  Our boys are 10 and 7 years old, which is such an awesome age.  They both love all of the thrill rides, and we played hard the whole time.  But now we’re back in the real world, and I am REALLY struggling to get back in the work groove.  Before we left I was getting my listings up consistently, day after day.  Now – I’m just not.  I really need to get back in the swing of things … starting tomorrow?  Ugh.  Motivation, discipline, come back!

Anyway, when we were at Disneyland a few people had Oswald ears (instead of Mickey ears).  I only had a fuzzy recollection of Oswald, so I did some research.  Oswald was actually the first Disney animated cartoon character to feature in their own series.  What followed was a messy series of events in which for many years (1928-2006), Universal Studios actually had the rights to Oswald.  But he has since returned to Disney.  Of course I found all of this very interesting, and took my curiosity to eBay.  Check out Oswald completed listings HERE!

eBay encounter

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My family is on a little vacation in California, and yesterday we ran into the State family at Disneyland.  (Which is actually kinda funny because although we had never met before, in real life we actually only live an hour apart.)  It’s a small world after all!  ♪ ♫ ♩

If you are not familiar with Nicole State, she has a popular eBay reselling Youtube channel called State’s Place.  Her main focus is women’s clothing.  I sometimes watch her haul videos while listing.  I’ve picked up a number of BOLO brands from the videos, as well as some great descriptor key words.  We operate our businesses pretty differently, but I appreciate her positivity.  And she and Joe were very nice in real life too!

Getting out of vacation mode

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Lorelai and Rory’s house!!!!
(Any Gilmore Girls fans out there?)

So, just after writing a post about my goals in 2018, what do I do?  Take off on a kinda impromptu vacation, of course!  My husband and I both celebrate our birthdays in January, and this year is a BIG one for me, so I used it as an excuse for us to slip away for a few days.  We hopped a plane and headed to sunny … Burbank.  Yup, Burbank.  This is actually a vacation I have been wanting to do for awhile, and we finally did it.  (I pulled it all together in less than a month.)  The highlights include attending a taping of the CBS show MOM, going on a Warner Bros Backstage tour and getting to see most of Star’s Hollow (seriously, I was freaking out!! – I was (kinda) inside Lorelai and Rory’s house!)  We got sorted by the sorting hat (I am Ravenclaw, my husband is Gryffindor), we sat on the couch at “Central Perk”.  We also got to see the actual sets of the Big Bang Theory and Ellen.  We spent a day and a half at Universal and enjoyed the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and the back lot tour (Wisteria Lane actually exists!) and all of the more grown up rides and attractions we wouldn’t have been able to do with our boys (like the Walking Dead).  We attended a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live and got to see Gerard Butler and Supergirl Melissa Benoist up close and personal.  And we topped it off by heading back to Warner Bros to attend a live taping of The Big Bang Theory.  So much fun packed into just a few days.

I feel incredibly lucky that we got to go on this trip, that our boys have grandparents who enjoy having them around which made us leaving for a few days possible, and that after 15 years of marriage I still love hanging out with my husband.

But. Now it’s time to kick vacation mode to the curb and GET! TO! WORK!

My trip to a “boot sale”!

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And I’m not talking about footwear.

We are currently visiting my brother’s family in the UK.  Knowing my love of yard sales, my brother decided to treat me to their version!  Basically, sellers all come to the same predetermined field and sell their goods next to their cars.  Of course I loved it.

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It was an interesting experience.  Other than the fact that they were all in the same place (which is awesome), it wasn’t that different than yard saling in the states.  An interesting mix of kids items, baby gear, tools, housewares, books, tons of DVDs, etc.  I noticed a couple different people selling new in package items, one selling vegetables, but the majority seemed very yard sale-y.  Most stuff wasn’t priced, which was kind of frustrating, but the things that were priced seemed super cheap.

If we didn’t have to worry about getting things home on the plane there were more than a few things I would have been interested in buying.  (We pack super light, even with the kiddos – carry on only!)  But even at that I couldn’t pass up this canvas at only 50 pence.  (The seller said she was moving to Egypt, and was practically giving things away.)  I can’t wait to hang it on our wall, but getting it home is going to be a pain.

All summer my oldest has been collecting the books in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.  He now owns all but #2 and #10.  He asked me to keep an eye out for them.  I thought it was a long shot, but whaddya know:

A fun morning spent!

January Sales

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Didn’t the new year just start?  The first month is already almost gone.  Things have been very busy here.  Last week both my husband and I celebrated our birthdays.  My (super duper awesome!) parents came up and stayed with our boys for the week, and my husband and I took a short vacation.  We flew down to LAX (from Oregon, so not a long journey, and yet it somehow included a missed connection and lost luggage because one of our pilots was 30+ minutes late arriving to the airport!)  But, we made it eventually, and enjoyed an evening wandering around the Hollywood Walk of Fame and eating at the Hard Rock (a favorite of my husband).  The next day we boarded a cruise ship and headed south, eventually stopping at both Catalina Island and in Ensenada before heading north again.  We even ventured into a Starbucks in Ensenada in search of the sought-after Starbucks City Mugs, but alas, they did not have any.  Overall, it was a very relaxing vacation – lots of eating, reading, and napping, with a dash of sight-seeing.

We flew back Friday night, and my brother’s family flew in from Japan Saturday morning.  They will be here for the next month.  So, we have an extra busy, extra fun-filled house going on right now.  Not sure how much eBaying I will get in, but I am going to focus on enjoying the family time while we’ve got it.

I kept my store open while on vacation.  I paid $29 for 45(!) minutes of Wifi so that I could check in briefly every day.  Sales were lower than usual, but I still had 14 netting me several hundred dollars, so I think it was worth it.  

For fun, here are a few of my favorite sales from this month:


Mickey Mouse XS Kids Deluxe Disney Store Costume
Paid $12 @ consignment sale, accepted $65 Best Offer
Biederlack Disney Throw
Paid $1ish(?) @ yard sale, sold $39.95
Rudolph PVC lot
Paid $1 @ yard sale, sold $24.95
Bandonopoly Board Game
Paid $1.49 @ Value Village, accepted $30 Best Offer
Karate Mickey Mouse Plus
Paid retail (purchased years ago as gift that was never given), Sold $29.95
Paris, France purse + wallet
Paid $2ish @ rummage sale, sold $39.95
Shrek Jumbo 30″ Plush
Paid $3ish @ Value Village?, Sold $29.95
Rock Star Baby Blanket
Paid $??, Sold $19.95
Sesame Street Pop-Up Toy
Paid $1 @ yard sale, Sold $27.95

Michael Kors Jeans
Paid $??, Sold $24.95
Mary’s Angels ~ Bluebell Ornament
Paid $1 @ rummage sale, Sold $59.95

Exciting, overwhelming, even though eBay is slow

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Summer is off and running!  I’ve been trying to keep things low-key, but I still feel like our schedule has been busy.  In part, imposed by me.  I set myself a big goal of getting 200 new items listed this month, and I am doing pretty well at staying on track to meet that goal.





Sales have been slow.  I’m ignoring that fact.  Honestly, I feel like I am already gearing up for fall and the Christmas season.  I got all of my Halloween items that had been hanging around listed last week.  One has already sold.  So, summer may be slow, but once the fall hits I will be ready.  Bring on the shoppers!

My brother’s family was supposed to be visiting from Japan for the entire month of July, but their visit has now been postponed until January.  Which (is a big bummer because I miss my niece and nephew like crazy!) means our summer should probably be less hectic.  Except.

We still live in a small-ish house that my husband and I bought before we had kids.  We’ve been talking about buying a bigger home for YEARS.  This last weekend was the start of the Tour of Homes where we live, so I started looking at houses online.  Long story short, four days later we’ve got our mortgage preapproval all worked out and have been to look at a bunch of houses.  We are in serious house-hunting mode.  In fact, this afternoon I may have found a listing for the perfect house!  I *LOVE* the layout.  The catch?  It hasn’t been built yet. Sigh.

And, to add even more excitement to the mix, my mom called this afternoon to say her schedule is clear in October when my husband and I want to make our one year belated anniversary trip to New York.  My parents will be able to stay here with the boys, so we should start planning our trip!

I am feeling overwhelmed.

But.

Yay!

A Week Off

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My family took the last week off and headed to the coast.  

It was nice, low-key hang out time.  There was sunshine.  
We did touristy things and played on the beach every day.  


This weekend both my parents and in-laws joined us and we had a belated birthday party for our youngest.  

It was a nice, eBay-free week.  I had my store on vacation, and I did no listing and zero thrifting.  

I did have my store set up so people could still shop, so I had 10 items that needed shipping when we got home today.  Not as much as a normal week, but better than nothing.  Now it’s back to real life.  I got 46 new listings up during the first few days of April, and it’s time to get busy again!  I’ve got my store back up over 500 items listed for the first time since Christmas, and I am hoping to keep it that way.

P.S. Happy tax day!  So glad that’s over.  Our refund isn’t as big as it usually is, but we don’t owe any money, so it’s all good.

Well, nevermind.

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I put my eBay store on vacation mode last night.  My boys and I went to music class today, making up a class a day early, and then went grocery shopping, picked up books from the library, and spent the afternoon packing our suitcases.  I was feeling pretty good about how prepared we were.  It seems every time we leave for vacation I am scrambling for every last minute.

What did my husband say?

“Should have been a sign.”

We are supposed to be leaving for Canada (Victoria, B.C.) first thing tomorrow morning.  I pulled out our passports this evening.  We got one for our littlest guy a couple months ago.  I looked at them all briefly, and then stopped.  My husband’s passport expired on September 25th of this year.  Exactly two weeks ago.  Noooooooooo.

So, no Canada for us.  We were going to celebrate our 10 year anniversary.  Now I have no idea what we will be doing.

I just took my store off vacation mode.  Sigh.

Whoops

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I am back from vacation.  We had a wonderful time in Florida.  It was the perfect balance of relaxation and playing in the parks.  AND – zero sunburns!  Success!
I only had a couple sales while I was away.  Yup, I decided to go ahead and leave my store active.  I’m not sure if the lack of sales was because my store showed that I was away, or because I had no new items being listed, or ?  Maybe a combination of reasons. 
Apparently, it has also been the time for me to make goofy mistakes.
Issue #1:
I had a Victoria’s Secret plush dog.  It was a pinkish-orangeish color.  I used the word “salmon” in my description.  I didn’t have it as OBO, but my buyer e-mailed me and asked if I would take less money for the dog.  This was just before I ran my sale, so I countered her offer with the price the dog would be when I started the sale.  She happily accepted that price.  Great.  A few days later I got an e-mail from her stating that the dog was orange.  She already had an orange dog and wanted the “salmon-colored” dog.  Did I have a different one?  Nope.  I responded that it looked more pink to me, which was why I used the word salmon, that I didn’t usually take returns but I would be willing to make an exception in this case if that was her preference.  She declined the return, and promptly left me positive feedback.  
Issue #2:
The last item I mailed before leaving for vacation was a Darth (Vader) Tater Potato Head.  I got an e-mail while in FL that she had received the package, but it was missing the face mask piece.  I immediately knew that she was right.  I had packaged and repackaged it several times to get it just under 13 oz so I could mail it first class, and I knew it wasn’t in the box.  I quickly e-mailed her, let her know I was on vaca and that I would mail the missing piece out first thing when I returned.  She e-mailed back saying that was fine.  Both of her e-mails seemed nice and calm.  Hers was the first item I prepped to mail when I got home yesterday.  I’m hopeful she will continue to be nice and won’t ding me on the feedback.  We shall see.
Issue #3:
I had an e-mail from a potential Canadian buyer while on vaca.  He asked a couple questions about a tie-dye Eeyore that I have.  I answered his questions with my best guess, explained that I was on vacation, told him if he was still interested I would double check and confirm the answers to his questions when I returned home.  He was also very understanding, wished me a happy vacation and asked me to e-mail him upon my return.  Which I sat down to do yesterday evening.  And when I looked at the Eeyore listing I realized ALL of the information was wrong!  I must have done a “list as similar” and either did not update the info or (more likely) my computer may have kicked me offline, and when I got  back on it probably had reverted back to the previous info and I did not notice.  We got a new router recently that seems to drop the internet connection in the evening, so this has happened to me a number of times in the last month.  Now I’m worrying that I have other incorrect listings out there.  I e-mailed the potential buyer letting him know that I had updated the listing with the correct info, blah-de-blah.  Haven’t heard back from him.  Don’t really expect to now.  Sigh.

I went to a couple yard sales yesterday, and a few more this morning.  After the flurry of unpacking I am not sure where my camera ended up, so I haven’t taken any pictures yet.  

I finally spent some time listing this evening, for the first time in about two weeks.  Best get back to it, while I’m still awake.  I think I’m still on East Coast time.  <yawn>

Even at Disney World . . .

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I’m looking for a deal.  And inventory.  I can’t help myself.  
This afternoon we spent several hours and several hundred dollars at Downtown Disney.   This was one of our last stops:
When we walked in we were greeted with numerous Potato Head displays.  There were even tables set up where the kids could put them together and play with them.  While my oldest busied himself at one of the tables, a “cast member” explained that the parts were a little over $2 per piece, or you could buy as many as you could stuff into a smallish box for $25, or as many as you could stuff into a bigish Potato Head container for $50. 
One of the first things I saw when looking around was Mickey Mouse hat ears.  

I picked one of these up at a yard sale a few months back, and sold it for around $10.  Immediately my mind was doing the math.  I would only have to re-sell around 5 of them and I would make my $50 back!  And I could cram a lot more stuff into that Potato Head!
I decided to think on it a little more.  We went to dinner (T-REX, like Rainforest Cafe but dino themed, the first time I had ever seen one) and I spent a little time looking up Potato Head accessories.  Some sell, some don’t.  Other than the enormous lots, I couldn’t find a real rhyme or reason to it all.  
Should I risk it?  
Well, sure!
I let my oldest pick out what he wanted first.  Of course they were mostly the big pieces.  Then I got to work picking out a bunch of other pieces, some to sell individually, some in small lots.  We set out all the pieces and I got busy trying to puzzle piece them all into my big Potato Head container to maximize space.

How many did I get in there?  I’m not entirely sure, and I won’t know until I get home.  There is no way I am going to start pulling them out, because there is no way I will be able to get them all back in!  But, I feel fairly confident that I have enough fun pieces to sell that I will at least cover the entire cost of the Potato Head purchase.  Which means whatever I keep for my son will, theoretically, be free!