Happy Halloween!

 

Hope everyone has a HAPPY HALLOWEEN and a fabulous first week of November! We leave Saturday to soak up the rays in Kauai, do you think there's a Goodwill on the island?! I am such an addict!

 

And in the spirit of the Thrifty-ness of my blog; here's this years Halloween breakdown!

 

Miss Dorothy Gail from Kansas

Dress = Value Village for $2.99

Toto Candy Basket = Value Village same day $3.99

Ruby Slippers = Full Price at Target, Ouch $17.99!

They may be getting returned though because almost all the glitter is already off the toes and they've only been worn 1 day, not cool.

Hey we found Nemo!

Disney Store Nemo Costume = Craigslist find for $10!

Of course I'll be hanging on to these costumes after today and saving them for next season to re-sell. Nemo alone should bring in about $60 profit and if I sell the dress and basket together I should get between $15-25.

Beastly!

This has been my best sales month to date in my history of selling on eBay! I am so grateful for the items I have found this past couple of months that helped this happen. Some things were items I'd found this summer out garaging also but never took the time to list, earlier this month I put myself on a thrifting fast until I got some of the stuff listed and it worked! The majority of my sales have netted me at least $20 profit after fees and a lot have been substantially more, we are going to have a very nice vacation next week!

So. Onto the point of my title! I was surfing Craigslist last week and came across a listing for an adult sized Beast costume from the Disney Store for $35. I checked the completeds for it and was shocked to find out that the one I was pursuing had been selling for between $100-$175! I emailed the lady and offered her $25 for the costume and asked if she'd be in my area anytime soon (because she lived more than 20 miles away from me) and that I'd be a for sure sale.

She luckily accepted my offer and told me she was going to be at a restaurant 10 min from my house for lunch yesterday so I loaded up my kiddos and met her there to buy the costume and got my husband to model it for me last night. It fit him perfectly and I almost decided to go a whole new route for our Halloween but the money was calling to me and the fact that I didn't want to have to store the gigantic costume for a year til next season!

Since it is SO close to Halloween I listed it on a 1 day auction starting at $120 with a BIN option for $159.99 and offered free Priority shipping or the option for Express shipping which would have cost $43 because this thing is gigantic and heavy!

I got an email this morning from a very nice fellow asking if I would accept his offer of the $120 and get it out in the mail today to give it one extra day to arrive in time for next week. I went back in forth in my head about whether or not I should hold out for more but he was very nice and going to use it for his daughter's 1st Halloween and I gave in and accepted! It was too large for a flat rate box, believe me I TRIED to stuff it in there but in the end it cost about $20 to ship Priority mail in a diaper box!

It's going to a good home and after my investment, shipping and all the fees (oh the FEES!) I'm netting about a $60 profit. I could have saved it for next year but I also would have risked this costume not being as popular next season and getting even less for it! I'm happy with my one last Halloween sale and my fingers are crossed that the costume will arrive in time for this guy to have a great, memorable 1st Halloween with his little girl.

My husband is going to KILL me for this pic but I had to :) Love you Hunny!

 

Hope you all have a wonderful Halloween!

Etsy is not only a great place to shop for handmade treasures, its also a treasure trove of good ideas and vintage heaven!

I used to sell candles and knitted things a few years ago but the market is so saturated with those types of things I stopped making and selling them. In the last couple of months I started listing some of my vintage items here and there. Supplies do really well as well as kitschy little things but one thing I've noticed is that your photos are everything. Eye catching photos will sell your items for you on there.

The reason I like selling on there is not only because it's substantially cheaper, but the listings last for 6 months! I can list for $.20 and that gives me 6 months, or I can "renew" whenever I want for another $.20 which bumps my listing up in the browsing categories. This is great for items that I have not invested a lot in and that might not sell for that much compared to eBay where I want to get the top dollar out of my items because the fees are so ridiculous. When I make a sale on Etsy I don't have to take 1/3rd of my profits out for fees which is very nice!

Here are a couple of things I've sold lately!

A cute metal brooch I found in a box of free stuff at a garage sale earlier this summer. It took about 6 weeks to sell but sell it did. $4 + $1 shipping, not a huge sale but for something I pulled out of the free box it was great! And because the fees are so minimal I only had to pay about $1 between the listing fee, selling fee and Paypal fee. If this had sold on eBay - I probably would've only made $1.

This is also proof that the photos are everything on Etsy. I'm pretty sure this would have never sold if I'd have used my normal solid white backdrop, or it would've taken longer to sell. The cool rustic look to the photo really helped my item pop.

These Playskool letters sold within 3 days of listing them on Etsy. I picked them up at Value Village for $3, loved them instantly because the box was still there and they are great quality. Its very true, things back then were made to last, the letters for the fridge today are cheap plastic that have such weak magnets they don't hold anything up. They sold for $18 + $5 shipping and are headed to CA!

I really want to start my own booth at an antique shop. I think I could be good at it but I haven't bit the bullet yet because I can't find an affordable place to rent out that's close by and also has good traffic for continual sales. My fear is that I would invest a bunch in booth space and inventory but then not sell anything and loose more money than I'm making! I have a small collection of things that will go in my booth someday, I just don't have a place to store big items or transport them! For now, Etsy will work for those smaller things...

I've Got the Spirit, Yes I Do!

Well I don't want to jinx anything by posting about a couple of my best flips ever. I don't consider a transaction complete until feedback has been received and I haven't gotten those feedbacks yet but I'm just so excited over them I couldn't resist posting about them!

Side Note - when I post about these awesome flips I do it so that other resellers like myself know to be on the lookout for them at the thrifts and yard sales, not soley to brag or anything like that, I want to help you guys out! Both of these things almost didn't get purchased because I didn't know that they were valuable!

 

These are Spirit - The Stallion of the Cimmeron playsets. I got a kid-free shopping day back a month ago or so and was at Goodwill browsing around the toys when I saw these. I actually almost didn't buy them because I am cheap and at $2.99 each for a "gamble" (couldn't find anything about them on eBay on my iPhone at the store) I just wasn't sure so at one point I even took them out of my little rolly cart and put them back. The more I thought about it the more I was sure they'd be worth a few bucks at least and I could always bring them back within 7 days.

 

Well, I am incredibly glad I picked up those playsets. They sold a couple of weeks ago as a Best Offer for $185 + shipping! SHOCK! I actually listed them separately because one set was missing 2 pieces, they sold to the same buyer in Canada via Best Offer and I combined the shipping. Now lets just pray they aren't held up in Customs and get to my buyer safe and sound!

 

By the way, in doing my research aobut Spirit - If you ever find a Breyer Spirit horse new in the box - you have struck gold!

Meet Balto. He is a character from the 1995 cartoon movie, Balto. I recognized him right away sitting on the table at a local church rummage sale last weekend. My daughter LOVED him right away too so we brought him home along with a whole other large pile of items destined for next week's consignment sale for only $4 and much to my surprise, Balto, is a plush stitched with gold haha!

He sold within less than a week for my full asking price of $149.99 and this one is heading to OK so he went via free Priority Mail shipping this morning! (Has anyone else noticed a serious increase in International sales lately? Over 3/4 of my sales have been international this month!)

My daughter, bless her heart, got seriously attached to Balto in this past week so it's been a hard day for her but that is how things work in this house, she knew when we brought him home that he was destined for eBay and that she could play with him til he sold but I think she thought it would take a little longer than a week, so did I! Luckily I have calmed her tears with a trip to Value Village and found her a new Rex dino from Toy Story today. She's such a good kid putting up with her mom selling everything!

These are 2 of my best re-sale flips to date and I've been doing this for several years now. I am so grateful and blessed that I have found this niche/hobby. I have been saving all of my eBay sales money for the last couple of months and I am so happy to say that we have saved enough to pay for Christmas already this year as well as really enjoy ourselves in Hawaii next month. Who knew that toys and stuffed animals would fund my Christmas budget this year?! I would have never believed it a couple of years ago!

Yay for Costumes!

I have got to get out tomorrow to a few places and find some more costumes, they are HOT right now! Every single one I had listed has sold and within a matter of days and for pretty good money!

 

This is a Disney Store Bullseye costume, I found one of these last season and didn't buy it at the time because I didn't know just how hot Disney Store costumes were and by the time I went back for him he was gone. Luckily I was able to find another one this season and he sold within 3 days for $64.99! Always look out for the less-popular characters from Disney movies, they tend to be more rare and sell for more cash. For example, if only I could find a Boo costume from Monsters, Inc. Big Bucks!! 

Also don't be afraid to pick up bits and pieces of costumes you find, people are often looking to complete a costume they've pieced together as well. I bought this Lilo top over the summer for $.99 and it sold last week for $12.99!

Keeping my fingers crossed that our thrifting adventures find us some more costumes tomorrow!