Road Trip Goodies - Batch #5

Phew. I'm still plowing through this stuff. I'm quite proud of the progress I've made. Usually I bring this stuff home and it just sits there for months. But I've gotten a LOT of it listed!

This batch is all shoes, so bear with me. I'll keep it brief :-)

 Clarks. Boring. This is a bread and butter brand for me. Steady sellers but absolutely nothing to write home about.

 I don't find Ariats too often, but when I do, they sell well. The insoles of these show a good bit of wear, but the leather polished up nicely and they are holding their shape well. Besides, they were the half-price color. I should be able to get $35ish for these.

 I have a firm rule about Clarks. I refuse to buy any that are older than 4 years old. Did you know that the manufacture date is stamped inside Clarks? You'll see a 5-digit style number, followed by a xx/xx number. That's the month and year of manufacture. I have had to send out too many refunds for broken and dry-rotted shoes, so I stick with the newer ones. These were a year or two outside my rule.  But they look like they've hardly been worn, so I took a chance on them.

These are Birkenstock Footprints mary janes. I've sold a few Birks in the past, but I've kind of quit buying them unless they are in great condition. I have never seen Birkenstock MJ's, and these are in like-new condition. The soles look as if they have never touched the ground. I am optimistic about these.

More Clarks. At least these are a little more interesting-looking...

These are Clarks too. But they are absolutely darling, so I bought them. Oh, and did I mention they are my size? ;-)

SAS sandals. I've mentioned SAS shoes often. Always buy them, if they're in good condition.

BOC (a division of Born) wedge sandals. These are a size 6. I try to avoid size 6, because I can't seem to sell that size for the life of me. But these are cute and look as if they have never been worn, so I got them. We'll see...

Vegan Danskos! Who knew such a thing even existed? Not me. The whites on these cleaned up very nicely with Goo Gone. I haven't researched them, but I expect them to do very well. They're in really great condition, and a little different than your typical Danskos.

Another cute-ish pair of Clarks. These feel buttery-soft, almost like nubuck, but not quite. I should maybe have listed them last week for back to school? I dunno. Do girls wear gold flowered flats to school these days?

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.

Road Trip!!!

Heading east for my twice-yearly thrifting road trip tomorrow! Usually I do 3 days, but I've extended it to 4 days! Woot! That gives me plenty of time to find lots of goodies. Of course, I will report back with my treasures when I get home :)

Wave if you see me - I'll be wearing my finest pj's :)

**this is NOT me, but I hope this is
what my cart will look like at every store I find!

Greetings from the Black Hole

Helloooooooo! Can you hear me out there??

I know I've really complained a lot about this week's slow sales. It's been a real bummer. I didn't even make it HALF WAY to my sales goal. A slow day or two here and there is nothing unusual, but it has officially been a full week of really crappy sales. It's really hard to stay positive and optimistic after day 7. This whole week's sales added up to what I made in 2 1/2 DAYS last week. Ugh.

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I just got a bunch of new listings up, so maybe that will help stir up some activity. I came home from my road trip with 12 denim skirts. After that last batch sold so quickly, I'm optimistic that these will sell well. I got a good variety, and I finished listing them all this evening.

Here's my "favorite":

How hideous wild is that? My sister thought I was out of my mind for buying this, but look what I found when I was researching it yesterday:

Yep, that's right. $41 bucks for that ugly thing! Mine's a size 2, so it will take longer to sell, no doubt, but I have it listed for $39.99 + shipping. I'm willing to wait for just the right buyer.

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Speaking of my road trip ... here's the vehicle I wanted to take:

Here's the vehicle I could have gotten away with:

I didn't come home with nearly as much as I was hoping. I had optimistically budgeted a very large amount of money for this trip. And remember I said I wasn't going to buy clothes? Well, I had to resort to clothes. I was just not finding anything worthy of my time, money, or effort. Besides shoes and clothes, I found 3 turntables, 2 sets of hot rollers, 3 pieces of vintage Tupperware, 2 handheld video games, and a knick knack that was a stupid impulse buy. I think I was just so desperate for non-textile stuff that I bought it, even though I knew better. Bah.

Two trips in a row now Harrisburg has let me down. I'll be heading to Philly next time. My sister-in-law lives out there, so I stay with her for a long weekend. They are 3-day trips, and I come home with tons and tons of goodies. So for now, I'll just focus on finishing up what I've already got laying around, as well as my small weekly trips to my one Goodwill. I'll save up some cash and head out her way in May.

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Not much else to write about, since I haven't been selling anything. I am VERY on the ball with my shipping these days. I have my packages (all 5 of them - sigh) all ready to go out in the mail tomorrow, but there is no mail tomorrow. So I'm a day ahead! Wow!