{Consignment Sale Love}

Please enjoy this super nerdy photo of me being excited to volunteer at my favorite consignment sale this past weekend!

This was the BEST sale I have participated in so far in my last 3 years of sales! I usually do 2 sales each season and still have stuff left over, I sold almost ALL of my inventory at this sale so now I have an excuse to hit up those last garage sales of the season the next few weeks so I can find things to put in the 2nd sale I'm signed up for in October!

I started collecting fall/winter clothes and toys earlier this spring after the spring sales. The nice thing about this is that at garage sales and thrift stores off season clothes are usually priced cheaper because its off season. I spent anywhere between .25-$2 per item and tried to find things in mostly sizes 2T-7 in girls and boys that would be good for fall which means long sleeves, coats, fleece, holdiay dresses, costumes, fleece, jammies and sweats. I also grabbed toys I could find for under $2 that were in working condition.

All that collecting led me to lots of tagging and organizing and general panic when I realized I only had 2 days before drop off to get everything done. I ended up with 136 items, they didn't take 7 at inspection because of a couple stains I had missed and 2 of my toys decided to stop working that day. (boo!) This is my favorite sale because of the fact that they are strict with what they accept, only the best! They are also the most organized sale I participate in, I don't have to put my items out on the floor they have volunteers for it which is very helpful because I usually have my kidlets with me!

If you are local in Washington, I highly recommend the Jack & Jill Sale. Check out their website and come shop the spring sale in early 2013!

I shopped the consignor presale with a friend that night and spent $42 on a bunch of cute new clothes for DD and 2 pairs of shoes for DS, a few toys, a DVD and even a pair of shoes for myself that didn't end up fitting so I sold them on FB yesterday for $10! I was so excited that night after the sales went up and I had already sold over $150 worth of inventory!

This sale ended up fabulously. I decided to volunteer this time to earn 70% instead of 65% and I picked the clean up crew shift which was lots of work and lots of fun. I think I will probably do this shift every time!

Final Tally:
$83 invested in consignor fees, hangers, & inventory
103 items out of 129 sold!
$535.50 in total sales!
I will get a check for 70% of that so probably around $375

If I can make an extra $100 at the October sale I will have had my best season to date!

Have you participated in any sales this year? How'd you do or have they happened yet? Any questions for me about consignment sales? Leave a comment!

You Gotta Friend In Me!

 

 

Remember that yard sale on my very own street that I was so excited about a few weeks back? If not you can re-live my "best yard sale of the season" post HERE!

 

 

Well I finally got my Toy Story original toy, Mr. Mike, listed last week! I listed him high at $109.99 with free shipping OBO. I immediately started getting offers in and they were low, like $50-$70 but I countered at $90 on a couple of them and one person took the bait! He sold for $90 + $20 shipping to Italy! Granted it ended up costing me $28.87 to ship it there because I didn't weigh it beforehand but I'm still very happy with my flip! If he'd have never been opened he'd have been worth about $200+... Now lets hope it gets there in one piece!

 

Toy Story toys are always a "Be on the Lookout" items. I have sold several items from Jessie dolls, Zurg, Potato Heads, Bullseye, etc and they ALWAYS give me a great profit! Mr. Mike is a definite BOLO and the other characters that are not as common in the movies are great because they tend to be more rare and worth substantially more!

I also sold these cuties last night for $9.99 with free shipping! They were in a grab bag of things at the thrift store that I paid $3 for. I have sold everything else in the bag already for a profit so these were all profit for me! Funny thing with these is that I got an email after they had sold from someone who wanted me to sell them to her for 1/2 price because her daughter liked them. I responded very nicely that they had sold already that evening for my full asking price. Some people are so strange!

Back to School!

My sweet little 4 year old started preschool this week! She was jumping out of her shoes with excitement on her first day and she LOVED it! She wanted us to leave right away and even made quick friends with another girl who was a little nervous. I think I was probably just as equally excited for this new milestone because it means 3 days a week with 2 1/2 hours of one on one time with me and the little man! I think to myself, this will be great, I'm going to get so much done!

On day 1 I thought I might take some listing photos and get a little "work" done while big sis was at school... Just one problem, when big sis is gone, someone else gets a little lonely and this is the extent of my listing photos that got taken that morning...

Oh boy I sure do love him though! We have been getting some good errands ran during that time instead and its very easy to meet people off Facebook and Craigslist during that time as well.

eBay was not great this week, only a couple of sales, one of which included a fabulous mid-century modern trivet that I almost kept for myself.

 

It's by Towle and was made of sterling silver. It was a little tarnished and there was only one other one like it up on eBay so I threw it up there and it sold within 2 days for my asking price of $39.99!

 

I picked it up at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago that was all by donation. I also picked up a crib, mattress and bedding for our condo for the baby and asked if they would take $50 for the crib and everything in my arms. They agreed. The crib setup itself is worth probably $100 and they threw in everything else for free which included this, a couple of mugs, some pampered chef goodies and a whole armful of items for the upcoming consignment sale. Since this sold for $40 I only need to make about $10 on all the other stuff to "pay for" the crib which will be very easily done! That was a great sale!

 

Other than that I only sold a pair of shoes and a pair of pants on eBay the rest of the week, bleh. I did however do pretty well on Facebook/Craigslist. Sold the baby's walker which I paid $15 off FB for it a few months back, he used it for a while and I resold it for $20! Gotta love when you can make a profit after having used an item.

 

I also sold this today:

I picked up this adorable child's rocking chair at a local thrift a month or so ago for $4. It is vintage and needed some love so I sanded it down, painted it, distressed it and added the cute detail at the top. I sold it to a very nice lady today for $30. She is throwing her adorable daughter a shabby chic themed 1st birthday and she wanted this for the photo shoot. I did spend quite a bit on supplies for this, but I have also been making signs out of re purposed wood and plan on selling them so while I made a small profit on this, the signs will be 100% profit!

Backpack, Backpack

If you have little ones you'll understand why the title of this post is driving me insane right now all I keep singing in my head is "Backpack, Backpack" (Dora the Explorer, oi!) Hopefully it doesn't drive you nuts the rest of the day as it has now done me.

I sold 2 backpacks this week and not the typical back to school kind but the kind that is A) good for daycare & preschool & B) made me lots of money!

 

If you sell on eBay you probably know by now that Little Einsteins are GOLD, anything LE mostly! This was a Pat Pat Rocket backpack by the Disney Store that I grabbed at my local consignment store for $4. It sold this week for $20.99 - not an insane-o great profit but still nice!

Remember back in July my "Craigslist Rocks" post? (See it HERE) Well Mr. Disneyland Stitch sold yesterday for $64.99 with free shipping! Not as high as my original $75 hopes but I was super happy to see him sell and it shipped very cheap so I made a decent profit after my initial $5 investment + fees! What's funny is that I got an email a few hours after he sold from a different buyer that said she was hoping he didn't actually sell because she was very interested in him. Well sorry, I guess you should have pulled that trigger a little sooner because he's bought and paid for!

Thats all for now, I have to go check on my 4 year old who has been "playing" in the bathroom for the entire time I've been writing this post. Not sure I want to know what she's doing in there but I hear a lot of banging and faucet on/offing. Again, Oi! Have a great day!