Merry Christmas!

Just a little note to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! This has truely been a wonderful year for us with many wonderful memories and times together.

I myself am holding both of my babies a lot tighter this Christmas and I feel so incredibly blessed to have them in my life. I tear up every time I think about what the families of those 20 little children are having to go through this year, and will continue to have to go through the rest of their lives, it breaks my heart. Make sure to tell everyone you love that you love them even if you feel you can't or don't know how, its so important.

I'm taking a selling break for the rest of the year and will start listing again in 2013! I was so happy to unload some old inventory the last 2 months; things that have been sitting around forever! I sold approximately 10+ mugs; lots of plush & toys and I even went through and auctioned off a bunch of items that didn't seem to want to sell and it worked out great! Hope your Christmas rush was beneficial as well!

Christmas Crazies!

What is it about Christmas that makes parents go out of their minds and pay insane amounts of money for toys for their kids? Not that I'm complaining or anything I guess I just don't get it!

A few weeks ago we took my oldest to the Disney Store so she could look around and see if there was anything she wanted to ask Santa for this year. She had just seen the new movie Brave the night before so naturally she gravitated toward those toys and had 3 things that she's been talking about asking Santa for ever since, one of which was an archery set just like Merida's.

Well how would I know that we should have bought it that day and snuck it home because after Thanksgiving those archery sets were hard to come by! They were sold out online and in the stores and of course, on ebay they were going for twice as much as they were worth! Me being the natural cheapskate I am, did not panic and spend more than I should have on a cheap plastic bow and arrow, nor did I cheap out and buy the $6 competition on Amazon. I was patient and calm and kept checking the site to see if they would come back into stock.

Lucky for me, last night we went to the Disney Store again and the clerk told us they were still sold out but that they may or may not be coming in the next day. Well I hoped on the interwebs last night and voila, the archery set was back in stock on the site for the $19.50 price! I bought it and used the free shipping code the store clerk gave me and its on the way, NOT for double the price!

Here's a 2nd scenario for you; one that paid for that archery set + more!

I bought the above used Woody & Jessie dolls about a month ago for $12 off my Facebook group. Had to jump on it too because there were 3 other buyers behind me! I waited til last week to list them because now is the time for Character toys; Christmas!

I checked the completeds on Woody & Jessie together and they were pretty great so I decided to auction them starting at $19.99 knowing the cheap price would attract more watchers. I immediately started getting bids and by day 3 there were over 20 watchers and the bid was at $26!

Side note: These are the Disney Store brand Woody & Jessie. In the store right now you can purchase these dolls for $20 each. At Toys R Us and other stores the Toy Story dolls cost twice that and they say and do a little more but they are pretty similar overall.

Well, I was shocked when the auction ended yesterday at SIXTY-SIX DOLLARS! I was offering free Priority shipping which wasn't too much at $7.49. I can't believe these guys sold for more than they are worth at the store brand new and these ones are used! This is why Christmas is such a great time for toys (and mugs apparently, I have sold a bunch of mugs lately too) so I'm glad I held onto these instead of listing them right away. They paid for all of my daughter's gifts from Santa this year, literally too because I paid with Paypal on the Disney site, so I'm very happy!

Collaboration

Sometimes two really great and desireable companies will come together on a project to create a product for a limited time and it helps both of their businesses - remember the Target & Missoni sensation last year? When that happens its not only great for those businesses, its great for resellers in the long run. Finding these items used can be money in the bank!

Check out this great & in my opinion kinda ugly surf jacket that was made as a collaboration from Hurley & Pendleton a while back!

I found this little gem at the tiny thrift store in my hometown a while back for $7.00. I love that little thrift shop because not a lot of people go there, its very small so I can get through everything pretty quickly when I go and its very reasonably priced. Plus it supports locals in my community that need help with food.

I knew right away that I had something good because it had a Hurley label and a Pendleton label on it! Both of those brands are well known to be good resellers online so I grabbed it. Its pretty heavy duty too. Pendleton wool is the best of its kind and this jacket was very well made & in perfect condition.

I brougt it home and listed it up on eBay the next day for $75.00. I think I could have held onto it and listed it this month and maybe got $100 but I was looking for a quick sale at the time and I even lowered the price to $69.99 the next day in hopes that someone might snatch it. They did and off it went to, I believe, Kentucky! Some skater guy is going to be happy and warm this winter and I was very pleased with my very quick $63!

Moral of this story: Always be on the look out for collaboration projects by big brands or designers!

Aloha!

Well Hello There! Long time no blog... we've been home for just over a week now and I have had a hard time adjusting back to normal life. Mainly because we've had some busy days and I just really didn't want to come home to the cold wind and rain of Seattle from the beautiful island weather we had on Kaua'i every day so I have had little motivation to get stuff done! I haven't even gone thrifting since we've been home, crazy!

Here are a couple of pics of our family from Kaua'i!

 

The infamous self portraits haha - this was taken in the spot on Anini Beach that my husband and I said "I Do" six years ago. It was wonderful to return back to the beach with our two children and show them the place we got married!

 

Here's a pretty good one of all of us at the Spouting Horn blow hole lookout. We did SO much on this trip! I was really hoping to do a lot of relaxing and not so much of the driving but we did everything from waterfalls to long drives to body surfing, lots of snorkeling, sand castles and of course shopping! Sadly I did not set foot in a single thrift store :( I was a little sad about that but no one else on the trip is much of a fan of thrifting and I didn't have any time on my own so alas, I missed out! BUT I did purchase a couple of Hawaii Starbucks mugs to hold onto for a while. You can only get the Hawaii mugs in Hawaii or on eBay and some of the older ones can go for a lot so we bought some to use and hold onto for a couple of years to see if our $10 mugs can turn into much more. Plus they were super cute and my morning coffee has been a little brighter lately!

 

Well now that vacation is over its time to get down to business! I didn't have any sales while we were gone, in fact I ended most of my listings so I have my work cut out for me the next couple of weeks trying to get all this stuff listed. Now is the time for your Christmas items!!!

 

Here is a BOLO to watch out for:

This is a vintage "knee-hugger elf" that I picked up at a my "Perfect Storm" yard sale this summer. I remember these from my Grandma's house when I was little. I picked up two of these cuties for a quarter each and re-sold them on Etsy for $9 and $6 plus shipping within days. Some of these in big lots can go for hundreds on eBay, just depends on what ones you find.

But a word to the wise - do NOT use "Elf on the Shelf" terminology in your listings as these are not the trademarked elves. I had a very nice cease and desist email waiting for me on the morning of my birthday letting me know that was not ok so I quickly changed my listings and they still had no problem selling.

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!

{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!