She Thrifts

Thrift. Flip. Repeat.

Yard Sale Finds, August 5-6, 2011

by 4 Comments


 Friday’s Finds:

Thomas, always Thomas.  We found yet another big box of wooden train tracks, trains, and accessories.  My son almost immediately found Spencer in the box, which is what mostly convinced me to buy it all.  He’s been wanting Spencer for ages.  I was looking forward to taking it all home to see what other trains might be in the box.  The lady asked $15 for everything, and I have Spencer on my Amazon wish list and he costs more than $15 all by himself!  I was a little disappointed when I got it home and we went through it though.   Spencer’s freight car was missing.  (Will look for it on eBay.)  There was an Edward (also missing his freight car), a Harold the Helicopter (which he already has), and a passenger car, and that was it for the actual Thomas brand trains.  But, there were a bunch of tracks that I know are Thomas brand, as well as some (maybe newer?) bridges that have built-in supports which will save the 3-year-old a lot of grief.

At a different yard sale I found this Thomas set for $1.  It is a slightly newer version of a set we already have (older set was a hand-me-down from my nephew).  The yard sale set was missing one piece of track and the black balls.  The older set’s Terrence was broken.  Put ’em together and whatta ya get?  A fully functioning set!  The 3-year-old had fun playing with it this afternoon.

My favorite find of the day.  A “love seat” portable/camp chair.  My in-laws have one and I love it!  I’ve literally been looking for one (in stores! would probably have paid retail!) for years.  And this one has the option of putting rockers on the bottom of it.  They had it all set up at the yard sale.  The chair had a tag on it that said $15.  The bag had a tag on it that said $25.  I offered $10, and they accepted.  Hooray!

50 books for 10 cents each!  And almost 40 of them are Clifford books.  I think I will try to sell them on eBay.  Also pictured are a few toys I picked up for a quarter each and a Little Engine That Could board game for fifty cents.

Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head! And . . . Mr. Corn Head? Mr. Carrot Head? And many, many accessories.  $5 for all.  Will add to some I have and sell on eBay eventually.

More books; 25 cents each.

Free box finds. I think some might be Polly Pockets accessories.  I am so clueless when it comes to girl toys.



Sometimes I feel like scoping out yard sales is a little like gambling.  Sometimes you win big.  Sometimes it’s a complete bust.  This weekend a MOPS club had a rummage sale that started with a pre-sale on Friday night at 6 p.m.  From the CL ad it looked like it was going to be huge.  The drawback?  It was in a smaller town, about half an hour away from where I live.  But, this smaller town is also where my husband works, so we decided to have a quick dinner after he got off work, and then he would head home with the kids and I could check out the sale.

I couldn’t help but wonder: would it be worth the drive?  Answer: not really.  
This is what I picked up.  Spent $5 total:
11 books, Nike pants, Curious George, infant Nemo hat, black frame.  One of my favorite tricks is to buy the books (like the Barney one pictured) that have push buttons and make noise.  We’re not especially a fan of Barney, but I am certainly a fan of getting cheap replacement batteries for our other books and toys.  If you buy them in the store, they are spendy!

Saturday’s spoils:

And then came Saturday morning.  And, wouldn’t you know it, there was a humdinger of a sale listed.  The catch?  It was miles away from my usual area, out in the country.  Do I gamble?  Do I play it safe and stick to the areas I know?  I felt like I had gambled and lost the night before, but decided to roll the dice again.  And it was a bonanza!  I got everything pictured below for a total of $19.90.

Let’s recap.  That was a nice wooden step stool, two under-the-bed totes, a toy lawn mower and vacuum cleaner, a (big, electronic) soccer goal, a bicycle (that needs a new tire), 5 books, a tractor, a notepad, 4 puzzles, 2 lacing toys, and Tigger, Pooh, Piglet, and Eeyore.  For less than $20.  I could barely fit it all in our Jeep.
I should have just gone home after that.  I picked up a few odds and ends at some more sales, but nothing that really made it worth my time.

$2 total for all.
10 cents each.
25 cents each.
Two books and a bunch of craft supplies.  Paid less than $2 for everything pictured.
$1.  I know, ick.  But we needed a new one, and it appeared clean.  Of course I gave it a good scrubbing when we got home.
$1 total. The dog/wolf is super cute and still has its tags.  A possible lovey to sell.

Linking up to Yard Sale Mommy! 

eBay “success”?

by Leave a Comment

I tried my hand at selling a few things on eBay this week.  And . . . they all sold!  Success?  Well, kind of.  All of my auctions that have ended have sold.  Mostly for the initial asking price.  Which wasn’t much.  Did I get rich?  No.  Did I get practice?  Yes.  And really, that was what I was mostly after this week.

This is what I sold:
Vintage Smurfs puzzle, brand new.  
Minimum bid $4.99, sold for $4.99 (+ shipping).
(Paid $1 for it at a yard sale last month.)

Vintage Raggedy Ann & Andy puzzle, used.
Minimum bid $4.99, sold for $4.99 (+ shipping).
(Paid 25 cents for it at a yard sale last month.)

8 like-new Dora/Diego Ready To Read Books
Minimum bid $4.99, sold for $5.50 (+ shipping).
(Paid $2 for all at a yard sale last month.)

And what I am most excited about, which just took a couple days to sell:
Captain Underpants set #1-8
Minimum bid $13.99 or BIN $15.99, sold for $15.99 (BIN – free shipping).
(Paid $1.75 total for all 8 books last weekend.)

So, yes.  I need to sell things worth a little more money to make it worth my time.  Right now I’m having fun figuring it all out, though.  And, other than the Smurfs puzzle, these were all items I purchased specifically for reselling.  Inspired by YSM.  ♥♥ Love it.

Paperback Swap

by Leave a Comment

So this is a “deal” I haven’t decided if I am entirely sold on.  The gist of the Paperback Swap is to list any books that you own and want to get rid of (but is not actually limited to paperbacks – you can list hardbacks, audio books, etc.)  Each time someone requests one of your books you mail it to them (you pay the shipping costs – but since it’s a book it can be sent media mail, which is generally cheaper that regular mail, depending on the weight of the book).  Once the person who requested the book marks it as received you then get a credit and are able to request that a book be sent to you free of charge.  When you sign up I think you get a free credit or two to try it out.  In any case, I have had three credits to spend (and have only mailed one book out thus far).  I am luke warm on the whole concept.

I have received two books in excellent condition:

We LOVE the Piggie & Elephant and Llama Llama books.  I actually haven’t even shown the above books to my son yet.  They are in such good condition I am thinking about holding on to them and giving them to him for his birthday or Christmas.

Yesterday we received the following book:

Not such good condition.  In fact, many of the pages are loose, and the middle page has come out completely.  A bummer.  I double checked and books with loose pages are not allowed per PBS rules.  I felt kind of mean, but when I marked it received I also marked that there was a problem with it (and described the loose/detached pages) but did not go so far as to request my book credit be returned.

PBS has a wish list feature that I really like.  If a book that you want is not currently available you can put it on your wishlist and when it becomes available you receive an e-mail.  This is how I ended up getting the Piggie and Elephant book.  Unfortunately, most of the books I am interested in (pretty much all kids books) are not currently available on PBS.  And the books I have that I’m willing to part with, there are many, many copies already listed on PBS so who knows if and when one of mine will actually be requested.  (I’m not actually sure how they decide which copy of a book will be requested.  First in, first out, maybe?)

But my biggest problem with PBS?  Even if I only list books that are very light and can be sent in a regular mailer, the postage is still $1.88.  And I am so cheap that this is actually more than I am willing to pay for most books, making me question whether or not it is worth it for me to pay to send the books to someone else.

Anybody else use PBS?  Pros and cons?

Let me be your personal shopper!

by Leave a Comment

I picked up the above sandals at a yard sale last weekend because a friend had told me a few weeks before that she had been regularly checking Craigslist in hopes of finding some Keen sandals for her son.  When I found these at a yard sale (in her own neighborhood no less – but she was in Mexico at the time) I decided I might as well pick them up.  They still looked new, and I figured if she didn’t want or need them anymore I could sell them on Craigslist or eBay.  But she did want them!  I sold them to her for what I paid for them:  ($10).  She seemed thrilled, and stopped by and picked them up this afternoon.

I love having things on my mental list to look for, whether for myself or someone else.  The mental list currently includes a slide for my parents’ house, Max & Ruby books for my cousin’s kids, and Spiderman/Superman/Batman toys for a friend’s son.  And I am always happy to have more things to look for.  Because I love the hunt!

It’s a Small World After All! (Craigslist sales)

by Leave a Comment

I haven’t done much with Craigslist in the last couple months.  I have a number of listings that I have pretty much been ignoring (as has everyone who looks at CL).  A couple months ago I set up a separate e-mail address for my CL account because I was having a hard time keeping track of CL e-mails amongst everything else, and I could not always remember what I had or had not responded to.  So, when I checked my CL e-mail account on Tuesday for the first time in several days, I was surprised to have several e-mails waiting for my attention.

 

The first e-mail was from a guy want to buy the Janet Evanovich books above.  I had them listed at $5 total for all 5 – they were kind of beat up, but still readable.  Not only did he want to buy them, but if I was willing to hold them for him for 24 hours he would pay me not $5 but $10!  Easy decision, since he was the only one offering me any money for them.  (Interestingly, this was not the first, or even second, but the THIRD time I have been offered more money than what I was asking for an item posted on CL.)  And to sweeten the deal?  I picked these books up last month at a yard sale on a rainy Saturday afternoon. The day had been rainy enough that I hadn’t even bothered to head out in search of yard sales that morning.  But, when out running errands later that day I saw a sign for a neighborhood sale I had noticed on CL the night before (and had been planning to go to that morning before being rained out).  Since the sign was up, the rain had let up, and they were supposed to be Saturday-only sales, I decided to check it out.  And, yes.  There were several sales still going on.  At the sale with these books the people were obviously ready to be done.  I was told that everything under the canopy was free.  So, I grabbed these 5 books, the newest hardback in the same series (which I have already sold on half.com), a book from the Twilight series, and a pair of maternity pants.  Freebies = free money, yay!  (In fact, now I wish I would have taken even more of the books – she also had a bunch of Sue Grafton novels – but, since they were free, I didn’t want to seem greedy.)

 And, it is a small world.  Because I just sold the above games via a CL ad to someone I went to high school with!  A year or two ago one of my mommy friends from my son’s playgroup posted an ad for a jogging stroller and one of the other mommies in the same playgroup answered it.  It was kind of odd and kind of funny.  We all laughed about it.  But it is weird when it happens to you.  (And just to add up the random facts: we live in a town of about 150,000 people, around 4 hours away from where we grew up.  She now lives about a mile away from me.  And we actually just got our kiddos together for a play date for the first time ever last month.)  Love the random.  Anyway, I had bought a bunch of these games when I was able to get them inexpensively a year or two ago.  She was happy to buy them and will use them with some kids she works with.  Win/win.

Yard Sale Finds, July 29-30, 2011

by 3 Comments

Week two of documenting my yard sale finds – and as my friend 
who went yard sale-ing with me said: It was blogtastic!

Friday’s finds:

Found at the very first yard sale: Buzz Lightyear suitcase for $5.00 
(used by my oldest this weekend for a trip to grandma and grandpa’s house)

Around $5 worth of clothes for a quarter each.
On the left are for my oldest son, on the right are to consign at an upcoming sale.

Birthday supplies.  I’ve started picking up napkins, plates, signs etc., when I can find them brand new, in unopened packages for a quarter each.  I also picked up the train cake pans for $1.

Costumes! $2 each.  Unfortunately, I seem to have already lost the fireman’s hat.  I remember setting the outfit down when I dug my money out, and I am guessing I must have left the hat behind.  And I have no idea where the yard sale was, so I can’t go back for it.  Bummer.

Boy’s Keen sandals:  $10.  They looked brand new.  I picked these up because I have a friend who told me she has been looking on Craigslist for this exact item.  (The sale was even in her neighborhood!)  She is out of the country right now, so I went ahead and picked them up.  If she no longer needs them I figure I can sell them for at least as much as I paid for them.

Puzzle was 50 cents.  Game was $1, and looked brand new. 

Misc toys my son picked out, mostly a quarter each.  50 cents total for all the sand toys.

Veggie Tales toys.  $2 total.  I can’t find a piano on eBay (open or closed listings) so I may put it up and see how it does.

Dinosaurs that roar. $1 each.

We’ve been wanting a new book shelf (or DVD shelf) for my son.  And, I couldn’t pass up the cute pre-schooler-sized bench.  $20 total for both.

The highlight of my son’s morning:  Bullseye.  I found it at the bottom of a tub of stuffed animals when considering some “loveys”.  It was brand new and still had its tags on it from Disneyland.  I thought about trying to sell it, but of course my son was in love.  He’s worth the quarter.  🙂
My husband occasionally asks me when I return from yard sale-ing, “What did you buy me?” The answer is almost always nothing.  So when I saw these huge hulk gloves, I thought they would make a great joke-gift for him.  50 cents.

Free!  Goodies from a free box.  Tracks for my son’s hot wheels tracks, and a magnetic Dora car.


My friend found a few things too.  Curtains for $3.  She has been thinking about sewing her own – so she was pretty excited to find these to save herself the time, money and effort.

She also got a scrapbook for $4 (that she already has specific plans for), a workout VHS that was the only one in a series she was missing, a soap dish that matches some decor she already has, and (what I was most excited by) a really nice canvas bag she was given for free when she was buying these items at a yard sale and asked if they had anything she could put it in. 

Saturday’s sneak out:

We spent the weekend with my husband’s family.  When I went out to run an errand on Saturday afternoon I couldn’t help but stop by a couple yard sales on my way home. (Spent a whopping $2.75.)

Five books, ten cents each.  Board game, a quarter. 

Set of 8 Captain Underpants books and Clifford: $2 total. I think I am going to try and sell the books with a fixed price on eBay and see if there are any takers.  (It will be my first shot with a fixed price.  Testing the waters.)

This evening I was out running an errand and decided to stop into a Goodwill that’s about a mile away from my house.  First time I have been in there in years.  Total bust.  Maybe because it was a Sunday evening?  It was so disorganized.  I didn’t find anything that was even tempting.

Linking up with Yard Sale Mommy!

Yard Sale Finds, July 22-23, 2011

by 4 Comments

My brother’s family is on their way back to Japan, my parents are headed back down the coast, my husband and the 3-year-old are at the theater watching Cars 2, and the baby is sleeping.  So what am I doing?  Starting a yard sale blog, of course!
If I haven’t told you about my new obsession with the blog Yard Sale Mommy – well, consider yourself informed.  And forewarned.  I am completely addicted.
This was kind of an odd yard sale-ing weekend for me, because we had six extra people staying with us, and I did not want to miss out on any opportunities to spend time with family I rarely get to see.  But, if everyone is still in bed at 8 a.m., I’m heading out to some yard sales!
Friday’s finds:
I love that my kids are still young enough that I can buy them Christmas presents at yard sales and they neither know nor care.  The book in the top left corner was a favorite library check-out for my older son when it first came out, so I was thrilled to find it for a quarter.  I will be tucking it away to put in a Christmas stocking for my youngest.  The movies and gloves I found at the next yard sale.  I’ve been slowly adding to our Disney Classics DVD collection, when I can find them for $1/each.  And yes, I bought (slightly, barely, gently) used gloves.  Kind of an ick factor, but I have been putting off buying new gloves, and they are the exact same style as my favorites (that now have holes in the fingertips), and they were $1 compared to $15 at the store.  Felt like I couldn’t pass them up.
Clothes!  I found a few things in a free box at the first yard sale (cute camo pants with a hole in the knee, a couple cute shirts with stains that I will try to get out).  If they never get worn, oh well, they were free.  And at a different sale $5.50 worth of clothes (a quarter each), most of which I am hoping to sell at an upcoming consignment sale.
I paid $5 total for everything in this picture – much more than I normally would have, but it was a fundraiser for a church.  Nothing was priced, and they just ask that we “be generous because it is all for the youth group.”  My son LOVES the Little Engine book (we’ve gotten it from the library a couple times).  My husband loves all things Rudolph, and this book lights up, so I figured I couldn’t pass it up.  Didn’t notice until I got home that the Thomas bag has someone’s name written on the outside – bummer, but oh well.
And my steal of the day!  $2 for the entire box of Thomas goodies.  The lady who sold it to me had no idea what it was worth.  Haven’t even cracked it open to see what all is inside.  Waiting to do so until my oldest son isn’t around because I think I am probably going to turn around and sell it.
Saturday’s steals:
(This time my mom snuck out of the house with me, while everyone was still asleep.)
$2.25 for the tote, which seemed kind of pricey to me, but I can always use more storage.  The toys are for my son; a quarter each.
$3 for everything in this picture.  The books on the left are pop-up and play music!  And all of the pop-ups were in excellent condition.  Dinosaur books and some Mr. Potato Head magnets.  All for my son.
Thomas, Thomas, Thomas!!  So glad my oldest was not with me at this sale.  Got all of these Thomas brand wooden track/accessories for $20.  Will be hiding them away for his birthday and Christmas.  (Looked them up online last night, and new all seven pieces would cost at least $200.)
And, at the same yard sale I got this jogging stroller for $20.  Have been wanting one for ages, and this was a price I couldn’t pass up.
Free boxes!  For upcoming shipping.  I found and rescued these from my own recycling bin (my brother’s family did lots-o-shopping while they were here visiting from Japan).
Can’t wait ‘til next weekend!