PREMIUM PRICES

 I mentioned a few days ago that my Goodwill loves to price some items they think are "better than the average bear" at premium prices.

Take this Victorinox across the shoulder bag. All purses at my GW are priced with a sign at $1.99 and then they take the premium purses and price them individually.

Perfect condition, barely used

Nice little over the shoulder bag or you could sling it on your back.
They must have thought it was premium, so they pulled it and marked it up. How much do they think this is worth?

$2.00 I guess they thought is was almost premium.

That $2 is after two attempts with alcohol to remove the sharpie. Still there. It's never coming out. Lucky I am keeping this for thrifting and yard sale-ing.

WHY BOTH SHOES?

If you purchase shoes to resell, as I do, you probably pick them up from lots of places.

Most yard sales or estate sales will price shoes at one price, either with a sign or just let you know when you ask the price.

My good ole' Goodwill loves to select the "premium" shoes and price them at "premium prices". Which means that they have checked what is listed on ebay and decided that they have a gold mine and are going to give you the shaft. 

My local GW loves sharpie markers. Loves them with a passion. Sometimes I will find a "premium" something that has two or three prices on the label. They can't decide what is high enough. You get the item for free! Just mark it up to a fair price and move it out of inventory. Hopefully, into my inventory but someone will want to purchase it if you price it fair for both parties.  Geesh...decide already.

If they mark the soles of the shoes that is fine, unless they are leather or the rubber Dr Martens. Sharpie is NOT coming off of leather or the rubber. At least I have not found a method of removing sharpie that doesn't leave a worse mark on the leather or rubber. And of course they have to mark both shoes and sometime they mark the insole. I purchased a pair of Mephisto sandals (not retail cheap) recently and both soles were marked in silver sharpie and one insole was marked in black sharpie. Grrrrrrr. But these were my size and I planned to keep them for myself anyway. But if I had wanted to resell them I would have had to leave them behind.

I think I have found a solution

Why the price on both shoes? I don't see any shoppers
in GW that are looking for just one shoe.

On the soles of men's shoes that I can't safely remove the sharpie I just draw a box around the price and move on. On the soles of women's and girls shoes I draw a heart around the price and move on. So far no problems and the box or heart look better than sending out a pair of shoes with the thrift price on them.

Let me know if anyone has a better solution.

THANK YOU, BRUCE

I live in a very small town. We have two stoplights on main street. But there is a street off of  Main Street that runs parallel and cuts out the two stoplights. It's a short street, only two blocks long but very busy, because lots of people want to cut out those pesky stop lights.

Last week I spotted a bright pink sign in front of a nice little house on Winston, the by-pass street. I just had to stop and see what it said. I'm that kinda gal. It was a little late for yard sales so I wondered what it was.

Magic words: Estate Sale

Magic words scribbled in magic marker, with the dates wrong and no time. So I stopped and asked, very nicely, what time on Saturday the sale started. The nice gentleman said around 8am. Yipee!!!

My daughter, SmartA**, is in the process of purchasing a house. Set to close on Dec 27th. Hey, she needs furniture, therefore, we NEED to go to the estate sale. NEED to go, did you hear that SweetiePie?

So, I set the alarm and got up early. Had to wake SmartA** up because she forgot. She thanked me later.

Why would I thank Bruce for holding an estate sale? Because I don't think Bruce gets out much. He had things priced ridiculously low. Vtg dark oak bedroom set, twin bed(with clean mattress)$50, dresser $50, chest $50. Two vtg hooked rugs, one 8x10 and a small 3x5 for $25. A MCM blond wood bedroom set for
$125, bed, mattress, dresser, chest, two nightstands. Handmade wooden tables, $5 each. And on and on.

Perfection in primary colors. Very light use, no chips!!!!

Now this is the most sparse estate sale that I have ever seen. There were two long metal folding tables on the front porch with kitchen items displayed. And not a single person in sight. Yep, I got there at 8:10 and there was not a single person there. OK, my kinda sale.  Lets see......I'll take that complete set of primary colors Pyrex mixing bowls($5), set of 4 Kromex spun aluminum canisters, copper color tops($4), vtg Philbe blue Fire King pie plate(50c), Pyrex pie plate(50c), tiny Satsuma vase(33c), 5 aluminum tumblers(50c) and assorted tupperware and aluminum  kitchen gadgets(3 for$1).

I had the scale already, but the other stuff I purchased for
a grand total of $16. Oh, a plaid thermos in the back and
an old red, metal Thermos cooler, forgot to get a pic

But wait, it gets better. Outside under the carport were some wooden things against the wall. My daughter spotted a treadle sewing machine in a cabinet and asked how much. "Oh, I'm giving all that stuff away" SOLD (National Two Spool), Late 1800's ladies oak writing desk, SOLD. Now, mind you the writing desk had come unglued and the sewing machine top needed repair, but we are a family of fixers and she guarded everything kept Bruce company while I ran home to get the van. All of the pieces were there and I am a woodworker so I have all the stuff needed to fix the furniture. New stuff for the new house.

National Two spool, circa 1920. It even had all
of the accessories in the drawers, thimbles, thread
and just junk. My grandmother had one just like
this that  I learned to sew on.The little table
will become an end table, an old  child's table,
heart pine!!
 

The leg had come unglued. We took the front fold down piece off
to start cleaning. All of the pieces are there but need gluing and
clamping up.  

See the drawer on the bench behind the desk. Very ornate
knobs. Got the drawer for the inside too and a shelf that
fits under between the legs

So, thank you Bruce. And if you ever feel the urge to have another estate sale, please call me.

TIS THE SEASON TO BE BUSY

I hope everyone survived Turkey Day. We had just the immediate family, 8 total. Just enough so we could all sit together at the same table and enjoy the family, turkey and PIE.

In a never ending quest to supplement the disability income that the gov't so "graciously" gives you each  month I have been working ebay like a mad person. I haven't been thrifting because I have bunches and bunches of stuff already. See my previous post if you doubt me.

I have grown my ebay store to almost 900 items. It is still growing and I am amazed every day at what sells. Not that I sell junk or just high priced stuff. I just sell stuff that I think will make a profit. For example, in the last week I have sold a variety of things. From t shirts, fabric, toys, dress shirts, sweaters, mugs, Christmas ornaments, sax reeds, to shoes and a bunch more that I can't remember. When you have 10-15 packages a day to get out, things get blurry.

I am so grateful to have a good inspection team here at the humble abode. Every time I bring in something new I have a dedicated inspection team that checks everything out very thoroughly. See...
I picked this up at GW for my 2 little Princess to play with, not for a present but to keep at Grandma's House.
This is Simon, he is NOT a princess. He is chief inspector.

So, if I'm not on here much until after the holiday you can blame....me. I tend to go overboard when it comes to shopping and listing. After all, I have coupons good for December at my favorite that give me 50% off of EVERYTHING.  Gasp....be still my heart. And we all know that December (and January) are prime picking months at thrift stores. Lots of people are cleaning out the "old stuff" in anticipation of buying or receiving "new stuff". And as we all know, a coupon makes it even better.

Does the world revolve around "stuff"?