She Thrifts – Page 3 – Thrift. Flip. Repeat.

Nickel & Diming ~ Postcards

March 29, 2018 by Kari @ She Thrifts 2 Comments

Here’s another item I’ve been nickel and diming into a profit. Last summer I bought a couple bags of postcards at a thrift for a total of $5.58. It was one of those purchases I knew in my brain I should pass up … but on the other hand, it kinda looked like fun. I ended up divvying them up into about 30 different lots to list. So far I have sold those shown above (as well as a lot of Howard Stern postcards that sold immediately that I no longer have a photo of). I hadn’t realized before starting this post that almost all of the postcard lots that have already sold have been of musicians. Interesting. So far my profit has been around $70, and I still have 20+ active postcard listings. Slow nickels, not ideal, and yet I did have fun sorting and listing them. So I’ll still call it a win.

Lowest tape price I have seen!

March 26, 2018 by Kari @ She Thrifts 1 Comment

I think this is the lowest price I have ever seen!
I just ordered 6 rolls of Sparco Tape for $8.80. Score!!

BOLO – Campaign For North Africa (Game)

March 25, 2018 by Kari @ She Thrifts 1 Comment

I am guessing this game just hit the radar of a bunch of eBayers because it was recently mentioned on an episode of The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon refers to it as the longest board game ever (as in, it can take a couple months to play) AND that he purchased his copy on eBay. So of course I had to look it up. And yes, it’s a thing! A rare one at that. Check out completeds HERE.

Favorite Flips Friday, 3/23/18

March 23, 2018 by Kari @ She Thrifts 3 Comments

Here are some of my faster or better flips from the past week.

Apparently people are already starting to think swim suits. I have sold several recently.

Swim 365 2-Pc Suit, Size 24
Paid: $2 @ VV, Sold: $22.95 (16 days after listed)

I will buy pretty much any sweater that is 100% cashmere if it is in good condition, regardless of the brand. They always seem to sell fairly quickly for $20+.

Lark & Ro Purple Cashmere Sweater
Paid: $2 @ VV, Sold on sale: $21.21 (27 days after listed)

I have kind of a love/hate relationship with David’s Bridal dresses. I love buying them, they can be so pretty! I hate that they are rarely a fast flip.

David’s Bridal Dress
Paid: $2 @ VV, Sold on sale: $32.15 (listed since June, 2017)

Circo Blue Whale Blanket
Paid: $2.39 @ VV, Sold: $25.95 (12 hours after listed)

VTG Francesca Le Mutt Plush Dog
Paid: $2 @ rummage sale, Sold on sale: $39.51 (11 days after listed)

Robots Game
Paid: $3.99 @ GW, BO Accepted: $30.15 (listed since February, 2016)

I have the best postal carrier!

March 22, 2018 by Kari @ She Thrifts 2 Comments

My regular postal carrier is the best. She always comes to my door with a smile on her face, never complains about my pile of packages, and scans them all for me immediately. On Wednesdays I volunteer in my 6yo’s classroom, and after I hurry home to make it back in time before my postal carrier arrives. Yesterday I returned home to find a post-it note on my door letting me know I had missed her. Darn it! Not the end of the world, but disappointing. I have a PO that is only a couple miles away, but because of where it is situated it takes at least 20 minutes to get there, drop off, and get back home. Between a conference at my boys’ school in the afternoon and theater tickets in the evening (I got to see Hamilton! So good!!) and a dozen other things I wanted to cross off my to do list, I felt like I was running really short on time. I toyed with the idea of waiting to drop off my packages when I drove by the PO later in the day on the way to pick up my friend for the play. But, I wouldn’t be driving by the PO until about 45 minutes after the last pick-up time of the day, meaning my packages would be delayed a day. So, I loaded all of my packages into a big tote and was heading out the door to pick up my boys from school and make our way to the PO when my postal carrier arrived. She came back!!! She finished her route and doubled back to pick up my packages. SO. Darn. Nice. I thanked her at least a half dozen times. She is the best.

I always buy her gift cards at Christmastime, but lately I have been wanting to do more, and this was the cherry on top. Do you do any random nice things for your postal carrier(s)? What do you do? Please share!

Love Lovey Love

March 21, 2018 by Kari @ She Thrifts 6 Comments

Soooo. I used to send an e-mail to every buyer the day I shipped their item to let them know it was on the way. Most of the time I would get no response or just a quick “thanks”. But occasionally I would get a note back about why the buyer had purchased the item, like these below:

Thank you so much!!! We are moving from Alaska to Colorado and our 7 year old has had that blanket since he was born and the movers packed it and stuff won t arrive until mid June so your saving us

This is my sons night night blanket and when I sent him with his father this Christmas break daddy didn’t give it back and refuses to mail it. You’re a life saver!

Thank you! This exact blanket is my 4 year old’s special lovey. She lost it a few weeks ago…we have searched everywhere. She will be so happy to have it! 🙂

I just wanted to thank you so much for selling us this blanket and at such a reasonable price. My daughter is almost 5 and has autism. She’s had her sisters hand me down twiddliwinks (monkey/giraffes) that is now almost 10 years old. It had holes and was no longer soft or even pink/purple mostly just purple, but it was her favorite. This blanket made her smile so big. Thank you again!

Received the monkey yesterday. Bought one for my five year old granddaughter when she was 3 months old and it goes everywhere with her. Now her three year old sister tries to take it from her and I have had to sew it up multiple times so I decided to get her one, and almost gave up looking before I found yours for sale. A very big thanks

Awww so sweet. Can not wait. We lost this in a fire…I was browsing ebay when I found it. My 4 year old can not wait 😉

Thank you for accepting my offer. I am a proud Mom to 9 stray & feral cats & kittens. This mug is purr-fect!

Thank you so much. Years ago I donated my two girls “junk” toys and now I feel so guilty as these simple toys really were their favorite. I am trying so hard to find replacements as a surprise to my now grown daughters for their kids (kids in a few years).

But here is the e-mail that I get a couple times a year or so that makes me cringe. When a cute, loveable plush is about to get destroyed I would rather not know.

This is the 3rd Dewie that I have purchased for my Yorkie! He is infatuated with (her) and plays with it until it falls apart! He is only 2 1/2 years old, so I am afraid there will be many, many more Dewie’s in our future! LOL! Thanks!

Ugh!! Poor Dewie!

You may have noticed that I wrote that I “used to” e-mail the buyers when an item was shipped. Somewhere around the holidays I just got so busy that sending the e-mails dropped off my priority list and it stopped happening. And I never got back to doing it. But when I was looking back through my draft posts I found this one where I had been compiling the lovey love. It almost makes me want to prioritize sending the e-mails again … maybe.

I got a promotional offer!

March 20, 2018 by Kari @ She Thrifts 5 Comments

For the first time in forever, I actually got a promotional offer. Through the end of the week I can list up to 100 items with a 5¢ insertion fee. So, if I use them all (which I plan to) I will save a whopping $5. But hey, better than nothing. This is the first promotional offer of any kind I have gotten in a l-o-n-g time. When I first started eBaying it seemed like I got one offer after another after another for free listings. But that was years ago – it has probably been AT LEAST a couple years since I’ve gotten an offer that included free listings. Which made me curious. Does anyone else still get promotional offers? And what they are? Do share!

Nickel and Diming ~ Build A Bear Clothes

March 19, 2018 by Kari @ She Thrifts 1 Comment

The clothes above are those that have have already sold – for over $100.

Another item that falls into the “nickel and diming” category for me is Build A Bear clothing. I have bought a few lots at yard sales in the past, and have separated them out to sell in various smaller lots. A couple days before Christmas someone listed a lot of BABW clothes on a kids FB group for $25. From what I could see in the photos there appeared to be a decent variety, and it looked to be in good condition. But, it was located a-l-l the way across town. I normally wouldn’t have been motivated to drive all that way to buy it, but both of my boys actually have Build a Bear plush, and it is a tradition that each one gets a new outfit for Christmas. And just the day before I had realized that I was an outfit short. I decided it would be worth it to trek over and buy the lot, choose an outfit to give as a Christmas gift, maybe set aside a few more good ones for future year(s), and then sell the rest to make my money back. When I went to pick up the bag of clothes I was pleasantly surprised. The bag was MUCH bigger than I expected, and very full. I looked through a few to make sure they were in good condition, gave them a sniff to make sure they didn’t smell like cigarette smoke, then stuck the $25 under the mat and took my treasures home.

Photographing and listing them didn’t take long. I ended up listing around 30 lots of clothing, in addition to those I kept to gift to my boys. It really will be like nickel and diming – no individual lot will bring in much money, but as the sales trickle in the nickels and dimes will *eventually* end up netting me a couple hundred dollars or so. Plus, they are so darn easy to list/store/ship. Sometimes (IMO) just having an easy, brainless day of listing is worth it.

Brand BOLO – Vince

March 18, 2018 by Kari @ She Thrifts 1 Comment

Vince long-sleeve striped shirt
Paid: $2 @ VV, Sold on sale: $21.11 (11 days after listed)

I tend to be really picky with the clothing I will buy to resell, and probably stick with NWT items about 75% of the time. Vince, however, is a brand for which I will make an exception. I picked up this very basic looking Vince shirt a couple weeks ago. It shows normal wear from past wash, but still sold pretty quickly for a decent price.