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"?

DOES THE 5 SEC RULE APPLY?

In the cleaning frenzy on Wednesday before the arrival of everyone on Thursday I found this.

In case you can't tell what this is its a Junior Mint.
Now, it has been quite a while since we have had Junior Mints in the house, but it is undamaged and cat hair free. It was "stored" under the desk where my printer is.

Well, since it was JUST one and you can NEVER eat just one, I reluctantly tossed it in the trash.

Hey, I have my standards.

Sometimes I'm just weak when it comes to chocolate.

Note to Self: Add Junior Mints to the shopping list

CAN'T WE POSTPONE THANKSGIVING?

Why didn't someone tell me tomorrow was Thanksgiving?
I'm so not ready.
Everybody is coming to my house for dinner.
But I've got stuff to do.....

I've got to take photos...I've got to list...I've got to sort stuff out
SEE
I've got piles of clothes

I've got piles of toys

I've got piles of stuff

I CAN'T BE BOTHERED.......wait.....I'll give everyone something to do. 
Mother of my Grandchildren can list, Son in law can take pictures, Grandson can carry all the heavy stuff
and the two princess can help sort out stuff.....
Hey everybody....you're gonna work for that turkey tomorrow and as a big reward you can have TWO pieces of pie.
Problem solved!!!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING Y'ALL

HOW NOT TO TAKE A WALK

Can you tell things are boring around here. Just listing and shipping. More listing than shipping. But at least some shipping. Trying to get ready for the sales crunch that we all hope is coming. Now if ebay would just stop turning my lights off and on things would or could be better.

We must have some diversion to help pass the time. Thank you SmartA** for the entertainment this week. SmartA** is my daughter who still is living at home. She has three cats. We have lots of fur in our house.

Fearless (she's not) is a big cat. Her official job is to sleep all day and be at the door when it opens. Every time it opens. She has one goal in life. To escape.

So SmartA** decided to get her a harness and see if she would take a walk. After several days of putting the harness on inside the house and the ensuing laughter, it was time to hit the outdoors.
She crouched and inched forward on her stomach and just rolled around trying to get that thing off.
Had to haul her butt down the stairs because she wouldn't go on her own. Finally, in the yard. Sure hope we don't loose her in all of the leaves.
Camo cat. She finally did take two or three steps in the yard. But not very enthusiastic about the whole thing.
"You don't expect me to step on DIRT, do you. I will get my delicate fur dirty."
So... on to the next cat rip roaring to get outdoors. This is Firefly. And she did a little better.
Her idea was to jump down from the deck to her freedom. The only problem is that the deck is 16' tall, and that pesky harness. "No wings....think I'll take the stairs. She did explore a bit in the yard but wanted to get under everything in sight.
Oh well, maybe next time.

OLD AND WEIRD

It seems like they just find me. The old and weird stuff that is.

Well, I have attracted some weird people in my life, but that is a whole other story.

I didn't get to go thrifting last week because I had an overflow of stuff. A major flood. I needed to get things under control, well what passes as control around here anyway.

So this week, with 50% coupon in hand, off I go to my favorite thrift at 7am. See, the coupon is only good from 8am to 10am so you have to get there early. I was car number 2 in the parking lot on Thursday.

I hit a motherlode of high end mens dress shirts for $2 each and bought a dozen. Some more sweaters and coats and designer this and that. Score!!

I don't take time to look in the bins when I have a deadline of 10am. I check out on time and then go out to the bins. I picked up some nice t shirts for 25c each, wool coats, sweaters, boys jackets and other assorted stuff.

If I sold everything I bought Thursday the total would be about $1500. Not bad for $79. But from experience I know I won't sell everything. Just an educated guess and mostly luck.

But then I hit the free bins. Sometimes they are empty and sometimes they look like the city dump. Thursday they held just enough to be interesting. Mainly toys and kitchen stuff and lots of really nasty pillows. Bring out the gloves!! Picked up a big bag of stuff. Mostly transformer, power rangers, bionicles stuff. Boys toys. But some pieces were interesting. Only one bionicle but lots of morphing power rangers that will bring a little something in a lot. And this sad looking leopard kitty that SweetiePie laughed at.
This is really old. Probably from the early 50's. An old original Gund. Hey, wait a minute I'm from the early 50's, so it really isn't THAT old

Then I just HAD to go by GW when I went out yesterday to get my hair cut. It is right down the block and I shouldn't waste gas.

I found this wooden dog. From the early 50's.Made of teak. Made in Denmark. Original Kay Bojesen.Score. Check out one just like it here

At least they found each other!!
If you have ever seen these and know something
about them, let me know.

I had seen these sad looking characters at the TS near where we go for breakfast and couldn't find anything on them when I researched them. Today I just bit the bullet and spent 50c for them. They are not in the best of shape. Dirty, missing a hand and pulled thread in the genuine polyester fabric. But they are my kind of weird. Copyright 1979 Hopeless Concept, named Hopeless People. They do look that way.


Let's face it.

It is just my JOB to save the weird.

CHRISTMAS OR NOT .... UGLY IS UGLY

As a former wearer of Ugly Christmas Sweaters I hesitate to call them ugly. Tastefully overdone? Everything but the kitchen sink?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or so it's supposed to be.

I have seen some really unusual sweaters with all sorts of bling on them. Some are sold that way and some are "gussied up" to be really ugly. Imagine my surprise when on my weekly thrifting expedition I found this little 3X gem.

 Now, I realize that this is not a Christmas sweater but I think that it ranks right up there on the ugly list because of .... tassels!!

See the tassels? I can imagine the designer saying, "oh my we have yarn left over, let's add tassels to strategic areas of the sweater. One right under each monster shoulder pad would be good. How about another one right here between the boobies. And one on the biceps to highlight those muscles" Oh yes, much better.

Actually, you could take them off.

But who would notice?

 

JUST PLAIN STRANGE TO CREEPY

Been busy this week with lots of listings. I have been trying to get 6 new listings scheduled every day. So far so good and  I have been able to keep up the pace. Some days it takes me 3 hours to get the listings done and some days it takes ALL DAY to get the same amount done. I need some serious motivation some days.

But with the increased listings I am getting consistent sales and they are gradually creeping up in numbers and dollar amounts. My goal is a minimum of $100 daily. Since I have been selling full time for just 14 months I feel like this is a reasonable goal. Some days are more than that and some days are a lot less. But the good thing is I have only had one day in the last three weeks with zero sales.

I have been visiting my favorite TS store weekly, except for last week, to keep fresh inventory even though I have a bunch of stuff to list. I am always amazed at the number of great things I find.

I haven't been to an estate sale in a long time and there was one in the next town, 7 miles away. So I just had to go. I should have gone on Friday, but I couldn't drag my lazy butt out of bed early enough to get there. So we went on Saturday. Slim Pickings!!!

I did get some craft things. A couple of patterns, a tatting shuttle, a Beistle turkey, and a handful of knitting patterns along with a couple of knitting books. This one is really weird. No, not the designs, the models showing the different designs. Take a look and I think you'll see why. The photography was done in Switzerland and is from the 60's or early 70's.

Superman ?(No, just constipated)

I wear my fantastic sweater to aerobics!

Hey babe, what's your sign?

I'm hiding out here....with my ascot and sweater and no shoes!!

Holy Crap...double your pleasure....

Hi, my name is Hairy uhhh I mean Harry...tennis anyone?

tickle tickle under the chin.....

See I told you so.  Well, at least the design are classic and look fairly easy so I hope I won't have a problem selling.

SOMETHING LURKING IN THERE ... BOO!!

After a beautiful Saturday with temps in the 70's it has been just plain yucky for the last two days. Rainy and in the 50's.

I was doing my usual thing, listing my ebay stuff when I decided I needed a cup of hot tea to get the chill out. I found this lurking in my vanilla sugar bowl.

A white Fozzie bear? or a polar bear?

I showed it to my SweetiePie and he said, "you have a vivid imagination".
Why, yes I do.
Thank you very much.

Halloween must be on the way. There are monsters lurking everywhere!!

I COULD HANDLE THIS JOB

Life is frustrating. You have a job that you love and are good at. You lose that job because the economy sucks and you work at a car dealership that sells high end cars that people aren't buying. You go to school and learn a new job. You can't get a job in that field because you are....too old.
I have some jobs that I think, being an OLD person, that I could handle.

Window Guard

This is Fearless (she's not) doing her job. She is a 25 lb+ Norwegian Forest Cat. My guess is that she is guarding the wood that is in the window.
I could do that.
This is her part time job. Her real job is shedding, which she is very, very good at.

Guarding the Charging Station

This is Simon. He is recharging on the cardboard that is in the middle of the floor. Why? Who knows. But all the cats take turns laying on the piece of cardboard. We should just take it up but it has become a joke. It is their recharging station. Sometimes all three cats will be laying around it and touching it.
What makes it special? Who knows.

So, where do I go to apply for these jobs?

HOMEMADE "SHOUT" STAIN TREATMENT

I'm a big fan of homemade cleaning supplies.Our grandparents didn't have individually packaged dish washing detergent or two grocery shelves of laundry stuff just to prepare their laundry to be washed. Or fabric softener to make their laundry smell good. They had just the basics cleaning supplies and fresh air.

I have a basic list of cleaning supplies that I use and I haven't bought laundry soap in 3 or 4 years now. I don't use fabric softener and balk at paying the high prices for cleaning supplies.

So, on my internet search I found a homemade recipe for a laundry stain remover, similar to Shout.
The recipe is very simple with only 3 ingredients, plus water. I made some several weeks ago and have been using it on soiled collars, spots and just dirty areas. Works great and now I am ready to share. I don't like to pass out recipes without testing first.

Here is what you will need:

HOMEMADE STAIN TREATMENT
2 cups hot water
6 Tbs baking soda
2/3 cup Dawn dish detergent
2/3 cup household ammonia

That's all. Here is what I did.
Heat your water to very hot. Add the baking soda.
Not really boiling, but it helps the baking soda dissolve better. 
Stir
Add 2/3 cup Dawn and 2/3 cup ammonia.
Stir
Done, well except for the shaking once you get it in the bottle.
This recipe makes about 24 ozs., just enough to fill an empty Dawn bottle!

I keep a small brush on the washer, next to the bottle of treatment and squirt it on and then rub it in with the little brush. This is what I made today.

The original recipe calls for a spray bottle, but I found that it's too thick to spray well. The baking soda doesn't dissolve very well and I put mine in a recycled Dawn bottle so that I could shake it and keep it mixed. Every time I do a load of clothes I give the bottle a shake. That little shake keeps the baking soda from clumping too much in the bottom.
What? You don't do laundry every day? Just shake when you do.

If you just want to try this recipe do what I did and cut the recipe in half. Dawn is expensive but the grease cutting stuff in it helps with the stain.

One more weapon in my battle with store bought stuff we don't need when we can make our own.

ANOTHER PILE OF STUFF

I have lots of stuff.

I don't need more stuff.

And yet, here I have another pile of stuff.

I have been really good about listing my stuff this past week. Over on ebug we have had a challenge to Strive for Five. List five things every day. I have been able to do that and several days I listed more than five. I had boots, shoes and Halloween stuff that needed to be listed and those days I listed more than 5. It hasn't really helped with sales for the most part. (One day I sold a pair of Sanita clog boots and now I get an email that they are too big and she wants to return. Have you ever worn clogs before? They are supposed to be loose.)

With that being said, I went shopping again on Thursday.

I have found that Thursday is the day that my favorite thrift cleans out the racks. Last week was a bust. Not much new stuff. Everything was picked over and some plain junk. I only managed to spend about $5 in the 4/$1 bins. That's like nothing for me. It could have been because they are opening another store across town.

This week was much better. You could tell that the bins had new stuff laying on top. Bingo!! So of course I went crazy and spent $14!! Five of that was for a bag of FP Little People Castle figures and furniture. That was a good deal!  I'll get my money back for my entire shopping trip from that little $5 bag.

Well, here is my pile before I sorted to get the laundry going.
In there are about 5 wool sweaters, 6 new t shirts, cotton pj's, a vintage sheet, several women's silk blouses and men's shirts.

Also went to an area church run thrift that is really big. They have a lot of different churches involved in this thrift and it is always really clean and well organized. I usually find stitchery kits or charts but today they didn't have any complete kits. Just a bunch of bags of odds and ends. But in the fabrics they did have these:
Those are Daisy Kingdom fabric panels of Raggedy Ann and Andy and also fabric panels of clothes for the dolls. These have a great sell thru rate. They only had one panel of the dolls but several of the clothing panels, $1 each. Also had a few other seasonal applique panels that I picked up(50 & 75c). Picked up two cashmere sweaters, $3 each and 3 good skirts(one suede) for $3 each. Their prices are just a bit above 25c, but the quality is really good and almost all of their things are inspected and are really clean.

Also found this in the toys. Like I need more toys. It is from 1992, so not vintage, but all the pieces are there($1). The 7 and the Princess. And you get the thrill of setting up a 3D game.(yeah?)

So, hope your thrifting was good this week.
Now forward to laundry, photos, editing and listing.
The fun stuff is over. Now down to work, Ugh!!

I PROMISED MYSELF ... NO MORE MUGS

I knew I shouldn't have promised myself.

It never turns out pretty.

Yesterday was inventory acquisition day and I passed by the mugs twice without stopping and then I saw this...

 How could I pass up this much Cattitude? Two pink mugs and two green mugs, why that is a set of mugs. And it made it much better that the original sticker was still on the mugs. Of course the zealous TS clerk made sure to put the price right on top of the bar code. Huesnbrews is the name of the mugs and they are kinda pricy. The teapot goes from $25-40 and the tea for one goes for $20+. An ivory mug recently sold on Bonanza for $18, one gently used mug.

I hope I can forgive myself for my transgression.

I also got a Dilbert and a Sandra Boynton mug for free at my favorite thrift. Nothing wrong with them so I haven't a clue why they were in the free box. But they are mine all mine.....

See the tea cup on the front left. It is Pillivuyt French porcelain and new. That was acquired on my recent Atlanta trip. The thing on the left of the cup is an infusion basket and lid for the cup so you can use tea leaves or herbs. I haven't found one online yet so I don't know what it will go for. I sold some luncheon plates in a similar patter of Pillivuyt this year for $25 each so I know I can get a good price.

Well so much for my resolution to not buy any mugs.

I think I shall kick myself all the way to the bank, hopefully.

THE REJECT PILE

I have one and I'm sure you do also.

If you are an ebay or bonanza or etsy seller or a seller at any other online site I bet you have a reject pile.
You know, the stuff that looked good in the thrift store but when you got it home it looked less than perfect.

I try not to let my pile get too big but sometimes I'm just not paying attention and pick up something that I really shouldn't. 

I thought about saving all of my stuff for a yard sale. But it is more fun to GO to a yard sale than HAVE one. So I had that thought for about 3.5 seconds. I usually end up taking the stuff back to the thrift store. I don't always take it back to the same thrift store I purchased from, just to make it interesting. This latest batch is from my thrifting trip to Atlanta and on the way home.

This really isn't all of the stuff that I have rejected once I got it home, just the latest. I currently have in the back of my van about 3 boxes and 2 bags of stuff and also a very rusty trunk that needs to go to some where else.  I have an excuse for buying everything, really.

The purse I picked up because I liked it. I didn't see that it said Kate Spade on the tag. Kate Spade would not have made it to the bargain center or have been overlooked by the two "ladies" who grabbed all of the purses that even appeared to be good. Bad move. The beige shoes were picked up in the bargain center as well for two reasons. They were a size 10 and I didn't recognize the brand. When it came time to sort through everything I was tired and just let them go on the scale. When I hauled them home I found they were vinyl, not leather, and not in good shape. Bad move. The cute little rain boots I did examine. They were fine, just dirty so they came home with me. They got squished in the bag with all of the tennis shoes and ended up in the hot car for two days before being unloaded. When I was getting ready to clean them I noticed that they were cracked on the front, not one but both of them. Bad move. The little cup was so cute that I picked it up at a thrift in Atlanta. It was $2 and I did check the sales before I paid. Sell through was around $10-12 so I picked it up on the reasoning that it was cute, different and I liked it. Bad move. When I was getting ready to wash it I found two small chips on the handle that I KNOW were not there when I purchased. I must have damaged them myself in the trip home. I wrapped it up and put it in with soft stuff, but I guess I didn't handle it carefully enough. Bad move.

The rusty trunk in my van wasn't a reject because of the rusty trunk. I purchased it several years ago at an auction for $5 and it was filled with 60's and 70's vintage fabric, trim and buttons. I have already made my money back on it 10X and have only sold the trim, buttons and a couple pieces of fabric. I still have a big tote full of fabric from the trunk that should bring in another $100 in the long run. Not a quick return, but a big one in the end.

So next time I think instead of buying junk that I will just throw $4 out the window and let someone else benefit from my mistakes.

So, what is in your reject pile?

ROAD TRIP...THRIFTING IN ATLANTA

 I made it back all in one piece. No mis-adventures, none that I am willing to talk about. In this case if it happened in Atlanta, it stays in Atlanta.

My daughter and I took a little road trip to Atlanta Labor Day weekend and the week after. Smarta** went to DragonCon in downtown Atlanta and I took the opportunity to thrift in a different town. She was originally going to drive by herself but she does not like (absolutely hates) interstate travel and that was all there was to get to Atlanta and around town. So we worked out an arrangement for the driving. I drove and she slept.

Downtown  Atlanta Freeway

I dropped her off every day at the convention and then I took off thrifting in a different direction. I must say it was an adventure and very interesting. I don't get to go to Value Village very often. The nearest one is in Charlotte, 4 hours away, and we don't have any St.Vinnie's either. My favorite at VV is the little bags with a hodge podge of stuff. It seems like they aren't as good as they used to be. All I found this time was tiny stuffed animals, Beanie Babies and broken stuff and bags of puzzle pieces. I did find two vtg MLP in one bag for 60c. The stuff in the bags really makes no sense at all. In the MLP bag were the two ponies, a 1/3 c measuring cup, a golf ball and a magnetic clothes pin from Publix. I guess they just grab stuff to fill the bags and you get the luck of the draw.

Here in Eastern NC we don't have colored tags at Goodwill and there is no sale days or senior discount. Heck, they don't even have a bathroom that customers can use. So it was good to go to Goodwill and look for the color of the week and  get a senior discount. 

On the way home we avoided Charlotte because of the Democratic convention. We came back through Savannah and Charleston. And of course we got to thrift in each of those towns. Savannah, not so much, but we did get to go to the Outlet Store in N. Charleston where everything is sold by the pound.

We got to the outlet store before it opened and got in line. There were two "ladies" who knew each other and they took command of the purse bin. No one else even got a whiff of a decent purse because they got them all first. They must have missed the padded guitar gig bag and the Camelbak, complete with bladder.I did get about 20 pair of shoes and some other assorted stuff.

The back room at this place was the worst place I have ever seen. Rows of bins filled with trash. I mean TRASH. Broken glass, broken toys, odd pieces of stuff and just plain junk. Piled high on the table were boxes and plastic totes of stuff. It would have been much easier if they had just removed the boxes and totes so you could actually look through the stuff.
I did get command of the shoe bin for a few minutes and managed to get a few good pair.

This was at VV. So stinking cute that we had to set it up in the hotel room just to ooh and ahh. Alas, it is too small for us to use for a sleepover!!

Of course a bag of plush and a doll or two

This and more was packed very carefully in the car.

So far, this is all I have cleaned.

I asked Smarta** if she would go back next year and she will try to get the holiday week off. Her boss doesn't like to give employees the same holiday off too many times in a row, so she may not be able to get off. If she can, we plan to go back next year.

It was fun. Now to get all of this crap store inventory cleaned, photographed and listed.

VACATION HERE WE COME....

Wow, it has been so long since I have had a vacation. Of any kind.

My daughter, SmartA** has tickets for Dragon Con in Atlanta this week end. She was going alone until I convinced her that it would be nice to have someone to help drive and navigate Atlanta. She absolutely hates to drive on the interstate. Panic time. Me? I could care less.

So off we go on today. Her boss won't let her have off but half a day today, even though she has the time to use. Some dumb personal rule about not taking the day before and the day after a holiday off. But there are so many things that she wants to do today at the convention. Some of the things last until 4 AM!

I hope we make it in time for her to do something today.

I am going THRIFTING while she is at the convention.
Three glorious days of shopping for stuff.
Old stuff, new stuff, good stuff. Hopefully no bad stuff.
I've done my homework.
I've got my lists, my phone, hopefully enough dough.
I just hope my feet and back can hold out for all the fun.

NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!!

Do you ever get tired of it all?
Shopping
Cleaning
Photographing
Listing
Packing
Mailing

I bet you are just as tired as I am. Of course the rewards are pretty good.

Until you get that jackass that you sold something to and they expected something that was fresh off the shelf of their local museum. And no amount of anything will comfort them, short of refunding everything and maybe kicking in another $10 so they leave great feedback.You know the one. We all have them. Sometimes more than one...on the same day or week or lifetime.

Well sometimes there are the ones who make it worthwhile. I recently picked this at my favorite thrift. The opposing side is a gray blue color.
 To tell you how much I know about chess sets, I had to call my daughter to ask how many pieces are in a chess set. That's how much I know.

It sells in 3 days. I mail it and this is the email I received today.
 
Wasn't enough room in the feedback box to express my thanks.
Just wanted to convey my gratitude for a noteworthy transaction.
I collect chess sets and I buy and sell over 100 chess sets a year on Ebay and I've never seen one quite like this one. It is unique, attractive and exceptional.
You did a nice job on your listing but if I had known how sharp this little set was gonna be I would have bid even higher than I did.
Also, this set looks like it could have easily gotten damaged in shipping if you hadn't gone out of your way to properly pack and package it. It made it 100% intact without so much as a scratch to a single piece. After seeing how neat it is I would have been devastated if it had shown up damaged like many do.
Again, thanks for a wonderful and noteworthy transaction.
I would buy from you again and would highly recommend you to others as well.

Well, I have had to deflate my head after that. And just one thing, it was a buy it now, not auction.

I'm thinking that I probably under priced the set ($25 + shipping)since it sold so quickly and the guy said he would be willing to pay more. But I was happy. If I had priced it at $99 it would have probably sat until forever.

Emails like this one make it all worthwhile.

WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND DOES STUFF LIKE THIS?

Am I in my right mind? As, am I sane? Well the answer is NO.

I am busy trying to get my s*** together to go on vacation/thrifting and I go to the thrift store and purchase 55 items of clothing? (but they were only 20c and 80c each who could pass that up?)

Now I have to deal with those plus all of the crap sitting in totes all over the place before I leave for vacation.

It's a good thing there is booze in the house. I may need an IV of booze to keep me going. (not really, but a pleasant thought)

I'm trying to get things together and get a bunch of things scheduled for listing while I am away and for a few days after I get back so I can keep my listings on view on ebay. It seems like if you miss listing for a few days that you disappear and sales drop.

And for a nice relaxing change of pace I think I'll go make laundry detergent. Seems like someone has use up all of my detergent and my emergency stash. How dare me!!

No soap+extra loads of thrifted clothes=disaster!!

Every blog needs a picture. This is Sweetie Pie, the famous "cat hater"