Crickets....

Thank God for craigslist and Facebook this month because my sales have been the slowest in 4 months on ebay; hence the crickets title - its quiet out there! I have seen around the blogosphere that most people are pretty slow right now so I guess I won't complain too much!

I have sold quite a few items on craigslist & FB this month, my chair trend continued with a couple of bar stools that I picked up at a church rummage sale 2 Fridays ago for $10 each. I spent $30 total at that sale including the $20 bar stools, some clothes, a backpack, couple mugs and a few toys; oh and a cookie! I flipped the bar stools less than a week later for 80 big ones so everything else that gets sold from that sale will be icing on that beautiful cake!

There have been 2 really great weekends for garage sales already and I was giddy going out on Friday morning! I got to go to a few on Friday this week and a bunch on Saturday at a great annual neighborhood sale but it was kind of cold and windy so I bet it could've been even better if the weather had been nicer. This past weekend I found a few great mid century modern items at an estate sale, a bunch of clothes & toys for the fall consignment sale, some vintage Breyer horses, a Little Einsteins figure that already sold that the lady gave me for free, a few clothing items for myself and a super nice Lululemon jacket.

Here are some of my recent sales just so I have some pics to show you!

Disney Store Jock from Lady & The Tramp - Sold to AUS for $30 + Shipping!

Disney Store Exclusive Giant Lady Plush

I was really hoping Lady would sell for more, the completeds showed that she'd sold for around $75 before but she was so big that after a couple of months on the market I finally sold her for a disappointing $35 + Shipping. I paid about $15 for her originally and my daughter fell in serious love with her so the amount of tears for the small profit weren't hardly worth it. I just don't have the desire to keep around such a large stuffed animal so away she went and my girl gave her a big hug before she left us.

 

I found this little Copper dog on my recent road trip to Idaho at an animal shelter thrift for 50 cents. He sold within the 1st month for $15.99 with free shipping.

 

I am totally on the Lovie band wagon now, every one of the security blankets that I've listed have sold pretty quickly. I got this Carters one at the last consignment sale for under $1 on the 1/2 price day and he sold for $15 with free shipping! Some lovies can go for a whole lot more so I've been picking them up whenever I find them since they are small and cheap to ship.

I've also sold a couple mugs and 2 more vintage Strawberry Shortcake dolls so not bad overall but way slower than usual!

Strawberry Shortcake

Anyone remember the Strawberry Shortcake dolls & pets from the 80's that smelled like strawberries? I was a little girl of the 80's and had a lot of these dolls, I wish I'd have saved them but over the years they probably go garage saled away and they are worth a pretty penny these days!

I almost passed up this "risk" at Value Village a few weeks back. I happened upon some one's entire Strawberry Shortcake doll collection that was about to be put out on the toy shelves one Friday morning. I actually walked away from them thinking, nah, no good, but I went back and grabbed them anyway. Without much research I shelled out over $50 on the dolls that were individually bagged at $3 each and then a few misc bags had all the pets and some accessories. I was nervous about this venture and didn't even want to tell my husband how much I spent. $50 is a big investment for me especially on a whim but I was feeling nostalgic.

By the time I had a chance to get home and start researching the names of the dolls and which pet went with which I started getting excited! It looked like at least one of my dolls would make my investment back plus some so the nerves went out the window and in came the excitement!

Most of them sold within a week. I listed them as auctions with high BIN prices and all but 1 sold at the BIN price! I still have 4 or 5 dolls left to sell plus a misc lot and I'm right now sitting at $220 profit after fees and investment! Like I said, I am SO glad I was feeling nostalgic that day! Just smelling those dolls brings back many childhood memories and I have had a fun few weeks selling them all!

I wish I'd taken a big group shot of all of them but I forgot to before I started listing so here are a bunch of photos of the various dolls & pets!

Ironically there was not one Strawberry Shortcake herself in the bunch! These were all sold with free shipping, some sold internationally but most were within the US but only cost about $2-3 to ship because they are small & lightweight!

Huckleberry Pie - Sold for $15.99

Plum Puddin - Sold for $55 at auction after 7 bids!

Cafe Ole & her pet donkey Burrito! Sold for $15.99 + International Shipping

Crepe Suzette & Eclair the poodle - Sold for $29.99!

Peach Blush sold within a few hours for $65!

Lemon Meringue & her pet frog sold for $25 + International Shipping!

The Villains Sour Grapes & the Purple Pie Maker sold for $20.99!

Mint Tulip & her pet Duck - Sold for $15

Cherry Cuddler & her goose sold for $13.99

Apple Dumplin sold at auction for $10.49

Raspberry Tart sold for $15.99

Twin babies Lem N Ada & their puppy sold for $29.99 + International Shipping!



Lime Chiffon - Sold for $15.99

Too bad I didn't find a Banana Twirl in the bunch, she is worth $200-$300 on her own! I will always pick up these dolls if I see them in the future that's for sure!

Chairs!

As you all know by now, I have a very hard time paying retail for pretty much anything. Most everything in our home including furniture comes from thrifts, garage sales, Craigslist, the list goes on! We do occasionally pay retail for items after we've saved and planned for them though, and if I have a coupon!

Recently we bought a new sectional couch to replace our old couch that we'd had for 6+ years and had been well worn through. That couch we had seen at Costco, wanted it but couldn't pull the trigger and then happened to find the same exact couch on Craigslist because the people bought it and it didn't fit their space so we got it for $50 less than the Costco price plus no tax! We ended up selling the couch all these years later for $175 within hours of listing it, an excellent price for our WELL used couch! And that helped pay for the retail couch we purchased to replace it.

Anyways, the point I'm trying to make is that the nice thing about buying used is that the cost is so low if I get sick of something and need a change it's easy to re-sell and make space or find a new fun replacement! Recently that item seems to be chairs.

Last week while out on a family thrift night we came across a very nice wing back chair that had a price tag of $24.99. I wasn't too happy about it but my husband liked it and said we could re-sell it if we didn't like it in the room. It was a very well made chair with quality fabric and nice wood legs but there was a couple of small stains on it so we almost left it behind until we realized it was the 1/2 price color for the day so we picked it up for only $12.50. It took some interesting maneuvers but we got it in the back of our vehicle and brought it home!



Naomi liked it!

I knew right away after bringing it home that while I liked it, it wasn't our style at all. We were about to head out of town for the weekend but I threw up a couple of pics on craigslist for a high price of $75 just to see if anyone would bite over the weekend. I thought with the stains that the best we'd get would be $50. Well, I was wrong because Monday morning I got an email with an offer to pay full price if we'd deliver it to her in Seattle. My husband made the trip over and we made a nice profit on that flip!

Then today while I was out with my son at the same Value Village less than a week later I came across this:

Please ignore the consignment sale prep mess in the background!

Its a leather Luna chair and while we were out shopping at the pricey furniture store a few months back I remember sitting in this exact chair and thinking that it was so comfy but then looked at the price tag and got right up! These chairs retail for $450+ and they are super popular right now because they look mid century and all those collectors of mid century furniture just gotta have one. In fact, I had 3 different people try to buy the chair out from under me at the store before I even left!

I only paid $8 for this awesome, super comfortable, very trendy chair today and I think we are going to keep it a while, at least a couple of weeks and see if it fits in well with us. Best part is, I am pretty sure I can make $200+ on this little cutie if we decide we don't want it!

For those of you who don't ebay but want to get into reselling, craigslist and local Facebook groups are your best bet to get started! Start by selling items from around your home that you just don't want anymore or something you find super cheap that you know will sell. I always try to price things a little higher than my happy price because people on these sites are looking for great deals. Say you have 2 barstools that you want $20 for; try listing them up there for $30. You may get lucky and get a buyer for $30 or you may end up getting your "happy with" price! Always meet in a public place unless it's a large piece of furniture too; safety first folks!

Slooooowwww....

Well I know it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted but there really haven't been many post-worthy things happening! I feel like I'm in an eBay slump big time. Whats funny is that I have more listings up than I have ever had but NO ONE wants my stuff! I'm not hardly even getting views!

Here's a little of what we've been up to lately!

We spent a week at the beach for an early spring break! The timing was right so we decided on a last minute-week long treck to Seaside, Oregon. LOVE it there, we've been almost every year for a few days here and there but never spent a whole week so we had lots of fun! The weather was typical pacific northwest rain for most of those days but we still enjoyed the pool, the little aquarium, day trips and yes, lots of antiquing and thrifting!

While out for the day in Tillamook we stopped at the cheese factory for some "squeeky cheese" delicious-ness and on our way back we stopped at a little vintage shop so I could run in and check it out "real quick". Here was the one thing I bought at that shop:

 It's a brand new Pendleton stadium blanket! Has the original tag attached and everything, the only thing this baby is missing is the stadium pad for your booty. I listed it high in my Etsy shop with the hopes that someone will be looking for just this and scoop it up. I paid $28 (tax free Oregon!) for the blanket which is high since it was an antique shop but worth it and I will be able to more than double my money on it... hopefully...

When we got home last weekend there was a JBF sale happening! I usually sell at this particular sale but I just wasn't prepared this spring so I'm only signed up for one sale later next month. I still had to hit up the 1/2 price tag day at last weekend's sale and I'm really glad I did!

We ended up with an entire garbage bag full of loot for $53! I got at least 8 outfits and swim suits for both kids and then 9+ items to re-sell.

One of those items has already sold and made me 1/2 my investment back!

Kipper the dog has always been on my BOLO list but I've never found one; he's pretty rare. This guy was one of the small ones (the large ones, wow, to the bank!) at about 12 inches tall and he is SUPER soft. He doesn't do anything except it says Kipper on his tush tag. Just a plush... I paid an expensive $5 for him but I knew right away that he would sell for more than that.

He sold less than 30 min after listing him for $39.99 - shipping! This was definitely a "Doh!" moment because I proably could have gotten $50 for him... oh well... still happy with this sale because everything else has been SLOW this month.

I also picked up a few other great items recently, I'm hoping they sell quickly and I will blog about 'em! Today I took a big risk at Value Village on someone's entire collection of vintage Strawberry Shortcake dolls and pets. I ended up with about 16 dolls in all plus accessories and I'm hoping to make a good chunk of change on them... then again my re-sell radar has been pretty off lately so who knows what will happen! I'll be sure to keep you all posted. Have a great weekend!

A Plush Rush

Much like my mug obsession and collecting problem, I also do the same thing with plush. Mostly I hoard characters and others that I know do well and I have done great with plush in the past but lately I felt that I was still buying but none was selling. Last month was the mug month and I guess this month has been plush month. I complained to my husband last week that I was not buying any more plush until some of the ones I had got sold; over the course of the last week I've sold 5, not bad!

I love plush because they are cheap to buy, have a great sell through rate if you get the right ones and they ship pretty cheaply because they are lightweight. However, they take up a lot of storage space! I still have a whole lotta plush to unload but I can't complain about my sales at all!

Classic Pooh items tend to do well. This one still had the tags on it but had a small stain on the bee's wing otherwise he'd have sold for more. Bought him for $.99 at Value Village, sold for $12.99 with free 1st class shipping.

This is a vintage Simon plush from the early 80's, I got him and Alvin for $.50 each at the S.A. a few weeks ago. Alvin is in a bit worse condition so I haven't gotten around to listing him yet. Sold for $11 with free 1st class shipping.

 

I bought this cool Dory on the same day at the S.A. for $.50 also. It was a "Manager's Out to Lunch Sale" and the whole store was 50% off for 2 hours, love happening upon those kinds of sales! Paid 50 cents, sold for $26.99 + Shipping to Canada!

 

Some Nemo characters do much better than others and I almost never pass up Disney Store Exclusive items because they only run for a limited time and then you can't get them anymore.

 

Carters Musical Giraffe - plays music and bobs head - I haven't really jumped on the baby lovey band wagon until now. This guy sold for $25 with free shipping, I'll probably look them up at the store before I buy them to make sure but any super soft "Lovie" blankets and baby stuffed animals do really well.  I was looking up my son's favorite bunny the other day just to see if I could find one incase he ever looses him - the only one listed is for $30! Not going to buy him but I'll keep an eye out for others that's for sure!

 

The other plush sale I had was for a Build a Bear rabbit for $15 with free shipping that I've had for about a year; he sold the 1st day! I bought him with a big lot of BABW items at a yard sale last year for $2 - that $2 has turned into about $60+ profit, this was the last item from the lot! Cha Ching! I chose now to list him because Easter is coming SOON, if you have Easter items list them NOW!

 

Hope some more plush items sell this week, would be nice to clean out that area a little before the $.25 yard sale plush items start to get collected this spring! Garage sale season is starting up SOON! I went to 2 last week and got a couple items but I can't wait for warmer weather so I can hit some sales!!

Identity Help!

I need your help!

Does anyone out there know who this guy is???

He has a tush tag that says 1995 Ace Novelty on it but no character family. I've looked at the Anamaniacs, Hanna Barbera, Looney Tunes and I cannot for the life of me figure out who his character is!

ANY help, seriously would be so wonderful! I just need a name!

The Way I Like It!

So far I've been doing pretty good on my "List Within a Week of Buying" goal. There are a couple of items that aren't posted yet but I was crazy busy with life this past week. I did get 6 new listings done yesterday.

This is how I like my resell flips to be:
Yesterday was a preschool day for my daughter which means a good time for my son and I to go thrifting. I was highly disappointed with my Value Village trip and was about to walk out of the store empty handed when one of the new housewares inventory carts got wheeled out! Those are my favorite, its like first dibs on the new loot! I always hang around the store long enough to go through one or two of these, hehe!

I happened to see the ever popular Risk Lord of the Rings edition game on the bottom of the cart under some other games. I took a quick peek inside, saw that it had "The One Ring to Rule Them All" and I quickly bought it for $4 and headed out the door!

 

When I got home I did a quick inventory of the cards and pieces, took pics and since it was my listing day I put it right up on eBay and thought I was pricing it high at $45 with free shipping. Well it sold within 2 hours of listing it for the full price so its another one of those, maybe I should have asked $50 but oh well moments! I was happy with my ROI on this one and I didn't have to find a place to store it until it sold.

 

I packaged it up right after it sold since it was still out on my kitchen table from being listed and I dropped it off at the post office this morning! Love me some quick flips!

 

Thanks to that free listing offer I had last week I have more listings up for sale now than I ever have, I wish more were selling but I'm pretty happy with my sales so far this month. I did a huge re-org of my ebay junk this last week and managed to get it all put away somewhere in my little corner. I'm hoping sales will be steady of these old items and I'll have a lot of storage room when garage sale season rolls back around. What would be even nicer would be another free listing week sometime soon!



Texas Ware Find!

I am just starting to get into mid-century vintage. Maybe I'm a little behind the boat because I think most of the thrifts caught onto the vintage craze a while ago and charge astronomical rates for anything that looks like it was made in the 50's & 60's.

I bought these vintage melmac dishes today at a little thrift that is directly across from my Value Village. I like that store but they are notorious for printing up ebay listings and taping them to the items that have any value, they do their research.

These are TexasWare and are a bright turquoise blue with cute white dandelions printed on them. I LOVE them! The shape of the cups are so cute too!

I cannot seem to find this pattern ANYWHERE online. At least not in my brief Etsy & eBay research that is! I got compliments from 3 people before I even left the store on what a great find it was so maybe I have something good.

I paid $20 for the 12 pieces: 3 dinner plates, 3 salad plates and 3 cup & saucer sets. Most Texas Ware doesn't sell for a whole lot online but I am thinking that with the popular color and the fact that this dandelion style is super popular right now that I may list them quite high and see how it goes. I am just wondering if I should list it all as one set or split it up. I probably would prefer to list it in one big lot so I don't sell one or 2 pieces and have the rest for ages, although I love the design and I'm sure I could find use for them at home!

{Have any of my vintage loving friends seen this pattern before and know it's name? Any info would be wonderful and I'll keep you all posted if it turns out to be a good find!}

Free Listings!

YAY! I got another offer from eBay for up to 5,000 listings for free from now until the 3rd; this includes Buy It Now which I use most of the time anyway. Needless to say I am going to be a listing maniac the next couple of days.

I am not sure how its possible but I just keep finding old items that I never bothered to list! I guess I am doing my spring cleaning early because I've been on an organizing kick and pulling out a bunch of old items that I was thinking of just re-donating but then when I got this offer I thought, eh, why not give it 30 days and see if I can at least make my initial investment back.

Yesterday was photo day, I spent quite a bit of time taking pics and then editing them so all I have to do now is research and list the next few days. It had been about 4 days since my last sale so I was excited this morning to find 2 things that I almost sent packing had sold and made me a profit!

 

More Starbucks mugs! These I didn't think were even going to go for $10 but I ended up getting a best offer for $18 with free shipping this morning, so I took it and shipped it off within an hour.

 

I think I finally got all of my mug stockpile that I mentioned in my last post listed. I have 2 more to do today and then I just get to kick back and see what happens! So far this month I've sold 10 mugs, that is a nice dent in the collection but there are lots more to see go!

I bought these Richard Caruso rollers back last June! I actually bought the whole hairsetter but it was broken so for the $4 I spent on it I figured I'd list the rollers as extra pieces to add to someone's set. They sold overnight for $14.99 with free shipping and off they went this morning as well!

My goal is to list as much as possible the next few days and hopefully I'll have a lot to ship out, the more you list the more you sell right?! I've never sold more than 5 items in 1 day, would be so nice to break that record sometime soon!

{The Pic Free Post}

I don't understand why Blogger has decided to hate me but I can't seem to upload any photos to my posts from my computer! Is there some sort of update I missed or thing I need to do? Why do you hate me Blogger?!

Anyway, I have had a STELLAR month so far sales wise, shocking actually! Its not so much the high profit just the high number of sales. Most of the things I've been selling have been sitting around in my storage room/Mason's bedroom for months just because I didn't feel like getting around to listing them because they weren't high dollar items. Well since I haven't been finding a lot of high-dollar treasures lately, those low-dollar storage items have been selling like hot cakes!

{MUGS}
I have a mug buying problem. I buy any and every Starbucks mug I find and other mugs I find to be cute or possibly worth something. Most of the time I don't even look them up before I buy them anymore which has led to quite the stockpile of mugs. So this month I made it a goal to list every single mug in the room and see what happens. So far I've sold 6 mugs, have 8 currently listed and about 10 more to get listed before the end of the month. Maybe I can make a big dent in that collection. Plus, I've kind of started to be picky again and actually look up completeds before I buy... sometimes... :)

Also a tip that probably everyone is aware of but somehow I tend to overlook it: Really examine mugs before buying them. I can't believe how many times I've come home with a chipped or cracked mug because I didn't run my fingers along the tops & bottoms or notice that a handle was cracked. If it's dirty or stained that can sometimes be fixed. The ceramic portion on the bottom of mugs that usually doesn't have glaze can easily be cleaned up with a magic eraser. I can often make an old dingy mug look almost new again with that little trick.

{TOYS}
I haven't found a lot of excellent toys lately but have had a few things I was holding onto because I didn't think they would sell well. I was wrong, toys are still hot and worth the effort! I had found one of the infamous Pat Pat Rockets a while back for $3 but it was missing the lid that folds down and didn't have any figures with it so I just gave it to my kids. They loved it and played with it a lot but when I happened to come across a June and Annie figure at VV earlier this week (and when Annie sold overnight for $11) I decided that I might as well give it a shot and see what happens. So I included June with the rocket and was shocked when it sold within 30 min for my full asking price of $39.99! I certainly never pass up any Little Einsteins toys even when they are in terrible shape they have always been a consistant and quick dollar for me.

{RANDOMS}
Some other things I've sold this month have been a few vintage goodies on Etsy, some flatware and other little toys; all things that have been in my storage room for months and I never bothered to list them because something else more exciting came along and got listed first! I am still going through my back stock of inventory trying to list everything, it's not going to sell itself afterall, but I'm also still out hunting - I can't stop! Yesterday I had a very exciting trip to Value Village and spent too much but hopefully I'll double or triple what I did spend.

You never know what you are going to find and it's the thrill of the hunt that keeps me going in these cold winter months with no garage sales, so as long as I can keep up my goal of listing within a week hopefully I can keep everything organized and we'll have an excellent year!

How have your sales been this month? Find anything super exciting out there hunting??