Road Trip Goodies, Batch #3

I've had a super-busy week this week, and I am really tired, but I forced myself to get another box of goodies ready to list this week. Here's what we've got:

My Little Sandbox Play Set (Big Builder)

 When I bought this, I couldn't decide whether I wanted to sell it or keep it for my 4 year old. And then I pictured him playing with sand in his bedroom and decided to sell it. The sand and rocks are still sealed in the original bags. One of the rocks had a hole broken in it, so I'll have to sell it as New (Other) if that is an option in this category. Doesn't look like I'll get much for it, but I can hopefully double my investment. I paid $4.90 and will try for $14.99.

Beach Party Funshine Care Bear

 This was actually a Facebook purchase, not a road trip purchase. It looked bigger in the photo, but it's just one of the little 7-8" ones. The only other Beach Party Care Bear that is currently listed or in completeds is a Bedtime Bear.  It is also not showing up on Terapeak. I just googled it and found it on Amazon for $49.99! So I just quickly listed mine on Amazon, but I will also list it on eBay this week - probably higher than that with Best Offer.

Big Screen Poker

One of the stores I went to had several baskets full of handheld electronic games. I pulled a bunch that looked interesting and looked them all up. This one is a good seller! Hopefully it's also a fast seller. I'll probably be listing it for $69.99OBO.

Camping Journal

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this. This was given to me as a gift. We enjoy camping, but we don't get to go nearly often enough to warrant an entire journal about it. I'll have to research it, but I'll probably aim for around $10.

Littlest Pet Shop Igloo

I wouldn't have bothered buying this, but it was half-off, and I remembered that Becky recently sold one for decent money. I only paid $2.25 for it. If it ends up not selling, my 5 year old likes LPS stuff, so I'll just give it to her. I don't think those are the animals that originally came with the set, but that doesn't really seem to matter. I'll try for $15-20.

Clairol Kindness 24 Hot Rollers

As you may know, I am a big fan of selling hot rollers. I have sold several different styles of Clairol Kindness rollers. These are old and in a cool case, so I got them. Actually, I recently sold this same set for my hairdresser. I combined it with another similar set and sold both as a lot, because she only had one power cord between the two of them. I'm hoping for $50ish, but that might be optimistic.

Little People Noah's Ark

I recently sold a LP Noah's Ark set that belonged to my kids. It only went for $9.99 + shipping, but I was okay with that because it was just laying around the house. It sold pretty quickly, so I suspect I could have gotten more for it. I wouldn't have bothered picking this one up, but I noticed that it had all different animals than the other one I sold. AND the animals have cool hair. So for $1.90, I took a chance. I'll be aiming higher on this one though. Will probably price it somewhere around $35-40.

Vintage Lincoln Logs

I'm never sure about these. I sold an incomplete set once before for $17.50 + shipping. They also went quickly. I guess I will price these a little higher - maybe $20.

Mauve Chuck Taylor Converse High-Tops - men's size 13

Okay. Seriously. It takes a very confident man to wear these. No idea how I'm going to price them. I think they are hideous, which COULD make them go pretty high. I'll have to sleep on this one...

Kids' size 12 Converse

I actually bought 2 pairs of these at a thrift store (donated by twins, I guess?). One pair has loose eyelets and mis-matched laces. I'll price them at just $15. The other pair I'll do $20.

Bloch jazz tap shoes

I haven't found any tap shoes for awhile. Now that summer is winding down, all these extra-curricular activities are probably starting to pick back up again. I'll put $25 on these for awhile and see how they do. They are size 8, which is a pretty common size, so they should sell fairly quickly.

Sunflower Sun Tea Jar

This wasn't a road trip find. This was in the back of my cupboard. We had a yard sale this weekend, so I pulled this out to sell for $3. But then I vaguely recalled some discussion on these on eBay Underground, so I looked it up. Geez Louise, I'm glad I did. I scraped my $3 price sticker off of it and put it in my eBay room. Have you looked these things up?? I fully intend to get $35 + shipping on this.

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.

Unveiling My New Look!

So exciting! This is a day of new beginnings for me:

• Changed my store name from Ellie's Shoes 'n' More to Ellie's Alcove, because Ellie's Closet was already taken :(
• Changed my store logo to match my new store name

• Changed my Facebook fan page logo and name
• Registered a new domain name (for my eBay store AND my blog) on godaddy.com (*affiliate link)
• Changed the URL forwarding information on all my godaddy domain names
• Changed my eBay Underground forum signatures
• Ordered new business cards with my new store name and logo

I'm very excited about this change. It was time for the old logo and colors to go. I got 1500 of these business cards for only $25, including shipping!

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I've had hardly any sales today. In a way, I'm glad for that, because I was able to get all of these little things taken care of. I have several other things to finish up today too, like, ahem, editing my pictures. I know, I know. I promised. I'm almost done with them. In fact, I think I'll just pause this post and go do that so I can show you some of my favorite Goodwill finds from Tuesday.

I have to laugh, because literally 15 seconds after typing that I've hardly had any sales, I sold 2 pairs of shoes!

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I got my 1099 from Paypal today finally. Yikes. I've never been as grateful for deductions as I am today. I'm going to be scouring my record books for every last little penny that I can possibly deduct. It is SO important to keep track of every penny, because they all add up. The thought of having to pay taxes on that amount is enough to make me sick to my stomach. I think I can reduce that amount by about two-thirds, so that will help. Fortunately, we always get back a pretty sizeable refund every year, so I don't think we'll end up owing any taxes this year. At least I hope not, because I didn't set aside any money for that. That's something I'll definitely need to do differently this year, just in case.

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Finally got my pictures edited. Here's just a few of my favorites.

This Ralph Lauren knit top should sell pretty quickly.

I bought 4 long denim skirts last week and have sold 3 of them already. I picked this one up the other day, hoping it will sell just as quickly as the other 3 did.

This is a great candidate for an Ugly Christmas Sweater contest. It has a hole in the armpit, but it's a size 3X. I'm hoping the size will make the hole irrelevant.

And these were actually from a couple weeks ago, but they've finally made it into my basket to get listed this weekend. They match one of my mom's Pyrex patterns. I offered them to her, but she declined. I have never actually found any refrigerator dishes before. They're very cute. I think they're only a half-pint. I haven't really researched yet to see how they do...

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I should get to bed. I almost missed the mail lady again today. I need to start going to bed earlier so I can get up in time to get my packages ready. Or I could just plan ahead and get my sales packaged up the night before, but that would be too easy...

What a Day!

I got a letter in the mail today that I've been chosen for jury duty selection. Bah. The last time I had to do that was 12 or 13 years ago. I was young, single, no kids, part-time job. The ideal candidate for jury duty. I am now a self-employed, stay-at-home homeschooling mother of 4 young kids. I can't go off for who knows how long to sit on a jury for a criminal trial! Ugh.

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I bit off more than I could chew at Goodwill yesterday. One of my goals for 2012 is to get all new purchases listed within a week of bringing them home. I really bought a LOT of stuff yesterday. I got almost all the clothing pictures taken today, but I also got several pairs of shoes, a bunch of books, and some odds and ends. I even found my first set of Pyrex fridgies! I've never seen them in real life before. They're darling! And they match one of my mom's Pyrex sets, so I gave her first dibs.

This is my first Fresh Produce garment. I've heard that they sell well. I'm glad it's a spring top, so I shouldn't have to wait too long to find out if that's true. It's NWT, and the retail price is $34. For a knit top! I'm so cheap. I only buy myself tops at Goodwill when they're half off.

Also got this men's cycling shirt from Cannondale. I grew up about 5 miles from a Cannondale plant, and even now, I'm only about 20 minutes away from it. But this is only the second Cannondale garment I've ever come across. I haven't really researched it yet, but it should do well.

Doesn't get much more "spring" than this, does it?? This is a Liz Claiborne Golf skort. The tag says $50. Current and completed listings don't look too promising, but those are mostly basic solid colors. I'm going to be optimistic because of the colors in this one. I'll price it high with a best offer and see what happens. With spring around the corner, I'm hoping for a quick flip.

I've been eyeing up this Lacoste shirt every trip to Goodwill for the last couple weeks. I couldn't remember how to tell if it was real or not. I finally remembered, just in time for it to be the half off color! I've only ever had 3 Lacoste shirts before this one, and all three sold in a matter of a couple weeks (if even that long). Two of them sold for $24.99, and the third (a little faded) sold for $18. This one is long-sleeved, so maybe I'll aim for $29.99.

Let's talk about Lacoste for a minute. There are fakes out there. Here is a great forum that outlines the indicators of whether it's real or fake. And here is a great (much shorter!) page that shows side-by-side pictures of real vs. fake. Your buyers will want to see close-up images of the front of the crocodile logo, the back of it, and the neck tag. If you don't include those pictures in your listing, someone WILL ask you for them.

Time to wrap up, but first ... my most horrifically awesome find yesterday:

This vintage polyester shirt is SO polyester that I can't even fold it. It just kinda rolls softly - no creasing, which I guess is great if you're packing it in a suitcase. I expect great things to come from this purchase. I haven't decided how to market it yet - probably to musicians. I'm sure there is some college-aged musician kid out there somewhere who's into the whole retro/vintage vibe.

Those are just the highlights from my Goodwill excursion yesterday. I got SO much more! I hope to get most of the clothes listed tomorrow evening, so I can get started on the little miscellaneous stuff I bought. But we've got germs flying around this house. I follow them around with the Lysol can, but something tells me that's not going to be good enough. Fingers crossed that they stay away from me!