Road Trip Goodies, Batch #1

Ok, I've got all of my stuff unpacked and stashed in bins and baskets so that it is all out of the middle of the living room. I will just fill a box each day or so and get them listed. As I get the photos ready to go, I will blog here about what was in that day's pile.

Here is what I'm listing tonight:

New in shrink wrap Nightmare III VHS game

I don't know anything at all about this game, but I looked it up because it was new in the wrapper. I paid $3 for it. There was a "very good condition" one that recently sold for $29.99. Because mine is still in the wrapper, I'll aim for $39.99

Full set of 10 Roswell books + trivia book

Something else I know nothing about, but the full set was on the shelf altogether, so I looked them up. The set of 10 recently sold for $59.95 + shipping. Because I have the extra trivia book, I'll probably price at $69.99 + shipping and see what happens. If it doesn't sell after a month, I'll add a Best Offer option.

Vintage Peter Pan Colorforms set - complete

Colorforms are hit or miss. I recently picked up a whole stack of them at a yard sale for 50 cents each. They've done ok. Not through the roof sales, but $14.99 on a 50 cent purchase isn't too bad. I bought this without looking it up. One set recently sold for $18.49 + shipping. There is currently only one other set listed. It is at auction with several bids. I will get this listed tonight so that the underbidder on that auction will be able to buy it as soon as that auction ends, if they want it.

Lot of 10 Cam Jansen books

I've been working on this set for a couple months. I buy them for around 25 cents apiece. I don't find them too often. I finally got 10 and have decided to go ahead and list them. Not sure how they'll do, but I'd like to aim for a minimum of $1 per book to quadruple my investment.

Lot of 8 vintage wooden puzzles

I read somewhere that these do well, so when I found a huge stack of them yesterday, I went through them and pulled all the half-price ones. I paid $1 each for these and hope to sell them in a lot for about $4 per puzzle, so $32ish for the lot.

25th Anniversary Love-a-Lot Care Bear

This wasn't from my road trip, but it somehow ended up in tonight's box. I got it off my Facebook group for $4. I'll try to get $20-25 for it, but I'm not holding my breath.

Golden Book - Old Friends, New Friends

There is a gal on my Facebook group who recently bought a few Golden books from me. She says she wants to collect the whole set (??) for her son, so if I find anymore, to let her know. I kept that in the back of my mind during my trip. The ones she bought from me last week, she paid 50 cents each for, so I didn't want to spend more than a quarter each. Most of the stores had them priced at LEAST 50 cents, many had them for $1 each. This store had a whole shelf of them priced at 50 cents apiece, so I went through and pulled all the half-price ones. I paid a quarter each for them, intending to sell them to her for 50 cents each. Quick double. But I decided to look them all up individually first. I was surprised to see that this one recently sold for $39.95. I think it was a fluke, so I'll just list it for a month and see what happens.

Golden Book - The Three Bears

This was another surprise. This one recently sold for $19.88 + shipping, for a copy in much worse condition than mine. I'll try for $20 on mine.

Set of 19 Joy Berry Survival Series for Kids

This set was altogether on the shelf, and it was the half-price sticker, so I decided to look them up. A set of 27 recently sold for $50 + shipping. I will probably price mine at $59.99 or best offer.

Set of 24 flower shower curtain rods

It wasn't until about an hour ago that I realized these are Walmart. But nice pictures (and no mention of Walmart) should help me get a decent price for these. 23 of them match. There's an oddball to the far right. I decided to leave it in. I'll probably aim for $20-25 on these.

LeapPad lot

I've had the unit laying around for quite some time now, but I haven't had any books/cartridges. Any time I find any, they are priced too high for resale. I couldn't believe my eyes when I found 13 books and cartridges in a bag at Goodwill for only $2.97!! I scarfed them up after quickly flipping through them. At first glance, it looked like all the cartridges and books matched, and for only $2.97, I decided it was worth the risk. There did end up being one double, which I will hang on to until I luck into another lot like this. I have sold 2 similar-sized lots in the past, one for around $60, the other for around $100. The $100 one had a case to go with it. I'll probably go for $80 on these. Might even price at $99.99 or best offer.


So there you have it. Box #1.  I won't be able to do a full box each night, but as I get pics ready, I'll post about them here.

Ketchup

I know, I know. I've gone from faithful daily blogger to ... this patheticness. I've been spending most of my evenings listing, listing, listing. And the evenings that I'm not listing, it's usually because I'm doing something else. So either way - no time to blog.

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I dropped off all my stuff at the kids' consignment sale this morning. I had originally signed up for a 3-hour volunteer shift, but then she dangled the "70% of your sales" carrot in front of my nose and I bit. I left there having signed up for a 9-hour shift on Sunday. Eek.

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I just finished filing our taxes. Phew. I don't know why I put it off as long as I did. I was expecting to really owe a lot of money, but we actually ended up getting a pretty decent refund. SUCH a load off my shoulders to have that done.

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I've set an official financial goal for myself, in order to have my storage shed by the end of the summer. I'll need to transfer an average of $500 per week out of my Paypal account into my checking account, while leaving as much in my checking account as possible in the meantime - which is always hard with the kids' extra-curricular activites, etc, but I'll do my best. I will try harder to curb the spending that I CAN control: restaurants, shopping, etc... I seriously need to get my thrift shopping under control. I have enough inventory here to last me a couple more weeks, a month or so if I dig hard enough.

Hopefully, by having a firm weekly goal, I will be better able to keep focused on cutting my spending. It's pretty sickening to look at my sales and see how much I've made, and then look at my scrawny little checkbook balance and realize that it all went to pizza and inconsequential nothings...

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Just a quick sales highlight from the last couple days, because I need to hit the hay:

As usual, I've been selling a lot of homeschool books and denim skirts. I sold 2 denim skirts just yesterday, in fact. I have discovered that my Goodwill seems to accidentally hang their denim skirts in with the jeans. (But that's my secret... don't tell anyone!)  Yesterday, I found the exact same skirt that I was wearing. That was kind of cool. I bought it, because mine has a hole in it and the new one didn't. :-P

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Don't be afraid to list Christmas items year-round. I sold this set to an Australian buyer this evening:

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I bought this vintage Sears buttonholer at Goodwill one day without being able to look it up on my phone. It sold for my full asking price. I seem to be getting a little better at following my instinct when I can't research (well, except that Kodak instant camera I bought yesterday, but we're not going to talk about that...)

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These both sold to the same buyer the other day. That was pretty cool. I never get repeat buyers except for shoe cream. They're both headed to Canada, and for nice prices too! The buyer did kind of push her luck on a third item, offering me $5.99 for something I have listed for $23.99. I was perfectly willing to give her a decent deal, since she was buying multiple items, but that was a little much...

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I also sold another set of books super-fast, which tells me I again underpriced them. I've not got the hang of pricing books yet. This particular set hadn't sold for over $14 recently, so I priced mine at $16.99 and they sold the next morning. That tells me I could have sold them for more, so I'll definitely pick them up when I find them for a quarter or so. Goodness knows they're easy enough to find - I see them everywhere!

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I haven't forgotten about the blog topics that I promised last week. I just haven't had a minute to write them yet. But I will - I promise!

To the Point...

Just saw this on latenight-coffee.com and it made me smile. I couldn't not share.

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I got a lowball offer for this skirt earlier this week.

I counter-offered with a so-so price that I would have been okay with, but not overly excited about. But someone bought it for my full asking price today! I had this one on Pinterest. I wonder if the buyer saw it there?  Anyone know how I can tell?

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Back in December, I bought a New York & Company suit. When I got it home, I realized the jacket and the pants were two different sizes. I split it up into two listings. I sold the jacket last week, and I sold the pants this week. So don't be too discouraged if you find yourself in the same situation. You can still make it work.

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I'm dumping all of my kids' old soccer uniforms at auction this week. They're used, with some light stains, pilling, snags, etc... but I'm hoping someone will want them for practice uniforms. When our kids were in soccer, it drove me crazy trying to make sure their uniform was clean for a Saturday game, after they'd been practicing in it all week. After the first year, it was a relief to have that spare uniform from the previous year. The next year, we had even more spares. So hopefully someone will want them. I honestly couldn't care less how much I get for them. I just don't want to throw them away. We shall see...

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I stopped in at Salvation Army yesterday after my doctor's appointment. I found enough Captain Underpants books to list as a lot. I'm listing those tonight, fixed price. I'm not sure how well they'll do. I only have $2 in them. Surely I can make a decent profit from them. If all else fails, I'm sure my 8 year old BOY would like to have them. Because boys are just like that...

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We let the beautiful weather this week disrupt our schoolwork, so now we're stucking doing a partial day tomorrow. Yuk. But just a partial day. Hopefully we'll be done by lunchtime, because we have a family bike ride planned. The first of the year - hooray!

My listing just keeps getting pushed further and further to the bottom of my to-do list.... But that's ok. This gorgeous weather will be gone soon enough (boo hoo), and I'll get back to the grind then.