Bought IT and found IT

I go to the post office every day. I know that there are things I could do to not have to do this. But I need to get my SweetiePie on the move. He would sit and think about being sick all the time if we didn't get out of the house. So....we go to the post office every day. Some days we come straight home but most days we go on and do other things. Anything to keep him moving and his mind going on other thoughts.

Of course my favorite thing to do is to go shopping, sourcing, scavenging or what ever you want to call it. Busy work?

BOUGHT IT...

Yesterday we went to a local rescue mission store. They have a huge store full of goodies. I have picked up everything from vintage to new in the box.

We were in men's shoes and I spotted a pair I wanted to buy. I flipped them over and SweetiePie was standing next to me and said, "don't buy those they are too worn".

 My response was, "but they are shell cordovan" See
They are vintage Nettleton and the uppers are in excellent condition, while the soles need some work. On the way home I was telling him why I picked up these shoes, explaining about shell cordovan. Then we checked the listed prices and the sold prices. I think he got the idea. Oh, and all shoes at the rescue mission are only $3. Also found a pair of Birkenstocks....Not bad

On Sunday I had to run to the town down the road that just happens to have a GW near where I needed to go. Oh....better swing by and see what's there.

As it turns out, not much on Sunday afternoon. But I did spot this on the top shelf of the knick knack shelves.
A mountain biking helmet. See the tag peeking out from under the bottom? I have picked up bicycle helmets before but the best I could find were Bell helmets for kids. Not bad but this is sooooo much better. A Giro Ionos cycling helmet. They think very highly of them in the UK. But still it should put some good change in my pocket.

FOUND IT....

Don't you just hate it when you sell something and can't find it...anywhere in your one room dedicated to storage for ebay inventory?

I sold this only a few days after listing it for $10.
It is only 2" x 3" and faded somewhat and the needle and threader are long gone.(I found this in an old treadle sewing machine drawer that I got for free at a yard sale. Bruce at the yard sale thought the treadle machine was trash!! My daughter took the actual machine, a National Two Spool, just like the one my grandmother had that I learned to sew on when I was a wee lass....)

 I remember there was a man where we went to shop on Saturday when I was little that would stand outside of the Roses 5&10c store and pass these out for money to support his family. Sometimes my mom would give him money but sometimes we didn't have any to spare. But I remember his smile when someone gave him money.

Anyway, I sold this and could not find it anywhere. I have a drawer for ephemera packets and I remember thinking that it was so small I should put it in an envelope and label it. I looked everywhere in that drawer twice and everywhere else. Finally I went back to see what else I had listed about that time and check them to see if the card was stuck to them or folded inside them or just anything. In the swimsuit, in the book, in the calculator, in the mug....BINGO.!!! I remembered slipping the card inside of a mug so it wouldn't get bent or torn. And there it was.

I was never so happy to see a piece of paper in my life.  I shipped it out a day late...but dang it I did ship it out.

So like Jim Valvano said..."don't give up, don't ever give up". I don't think he meant looking for little pieces of paper, but ebay sellers understand.

Colorful yard sale

 I always start my yard sale search on Friday. I look in my town, the one down the road, the one up the road. Sometimes there are more than I could possibly catch and sometime there are only one or two. I always look for the clean out the house yard sales. People will get rid of some gooooood stuff and never blink an eye at $1.

I had a very limited amount of time . We were doing our Father's Day thing on Saturday because my son in law had family with graduation parties and his own day on Sunday.

There was one sale in my town last Saturday that advertised itself as a clean out the house by noon and everything that is left is one price. Perfect!! I knew the address because it was just down the road from the post office, I knew it was a small house and I knew a man lived there. I would often see him on the handicap ramp smoking. I thought that he smoked out there because his wife couldn't tolerate the smoke.

What I found out on Saturday was that she had passed many years ago and he was 93 and had died in his yard. How sad and how wonderful all at the same time. To be able to make it to 93 and then just go quickly.

Someone had purchased the house and wanted to clean out everything to get it ready to rent. Great someone with no attachment to anything in the house. My kind of sale.

I got there at 8am even though the ad said 8:30. I was the second person there. They were still hauling stuff out. I started looking through this couple's life. No high end cookware, no fancy doo dads. Just basic stuff from a long life. Some things still in boxes and lots of junk that the house buyer just wanted to get rid of.

There were 5-6 people bringing stuff out as fast as they could and lining it up on the front yard. Aluminum pots and pans, sewing and craft supplies, vintage radios, canning jars, 8 track tapes, cassette tapes (Merle Haggard was their favorite). I casually asked if there were any old eyeglasses, jewelry or perfume. That netted 5 pair of vtg 50's eyeglasses.
 Not too shabby. No perfume but I did find an old gold filled service pin, tie bar thing.Does anyone know what company used this logo
That little guy in the black diamond shape.

looks familiar but I can't place him.

All total I loaded up two big IKEA blue bags with overflowing stuff for $20. In those bags I was able to stuff two pair of bib overalls, a vtg pair of denim coveralls, Shadowline NIB pajama set, the eyeglasses, a bunch of quilt squares not sewn together, a box of 160+ DMC wound on plastic cards, a service pin, several pairs of scissors, a crock from a crock pot, a storage tote, a metal grabber for picking things up, a red satin Budweiser jacket and some sewing notions.
166 cards of DMC and I haven't checked for duplicates.

After spending only $20 for everything I estimated that everything was about 63 cents each. That is 63c for 166 colors of DMC, 63c for each pair of glasses, overalls, etc. Somehow I think I will make a very good profit for 45 minutes of scavenging.

And we still had time to get to our Father's Day lunch with time to spare and a wonderful time was had by all.

Back in the Saddle--Picture Heavy

I really mean to blog more often but lately life has reared its head and demanded attention. I have been super busy trying to clean out my piles of stuff and maintain sanity. Most days I don't think I have done a very good job. But I have found the bottom of a couple of tubs so I must be doing something.

It's hot here in NC and if you don't have air conditioning you really suffer. Especially when you are ...ahem...in the senior sector. We had our 24 year old furnace quit, die, give up and refuse to produce another BTU. Get estimates, talk to the different companies, get more estimates, talk again and finally make the choice. First, the a/c unit was working but the gas furnace died. What to do? Replace just the furnace or furnace and a/c? What brand? How big? Efficiency? I learned more about furnaces and air conditioning than I really wanted to know. Finally made our decisions and got the new units in and working great just days before it was in the high 90's. We squeaked by on that one. It's good to have ebay money in my stash to help with the new furnace/ac.

So...shopping trips have been scarce around here. Between my SweetiePie being sick and all the furnace details I have been limited to my sourcing. Which was a good thing. I got a lot of the piles of stuff sorted and lots of pictures and lots of listings up and even more scheduled.  I have been able to go yard sale-ing the past 3 week ends and found some amazing things.

Each day we have a doctor's appointment I have to get listings up for the next day because we are wiped out after a day of hurry up drive there and wait and wait and sometimes we have to wait for meds and just a hundred different things going on. But hopefully we have a diagnosis and that will mean that we can start with something to get things controlled. Since the end of February we have been to 6 different specialist and finally today I think we are at the right place. More when I feel that this is the right diagnosis. Light at the end of the tunnel.

YARD SALES are great!! I picked up a tote full of camera stuff 3 weeks ago. I walked up to the sale about 8am, it started at 7am, and the guy said, "Oh, I forgot that camera stuff" and he brought out a whole tote of camera stuff. I was the only one there. I was stoic on the outside but on the outside I was singing "Happy Days are here..."

The tote held an Olympus OM1 camera with 4 different lens, case, and the original box. Also in the box were 2 NIB Vivitar electronic flashes, an Olympus flash, a Nimslo 35mm 3D camera NIB, a Nimslo Opti-flash NIB, a Celestron C90, 1000mm lens(for photographing stars or anything from a distance) and the set up for the Celestron to use the OM1 to take the photos. I paid $40 for the cameras plus $2 for the tote. I estimate $500-600 if I list some things by themselves and bundle some items. SCORE.

I keep finding boots, shoes and purses. I wish I could find enough of just that type of things to fill my store. When you pick up a belt for $1.39 and sell it for $35 in a day its a gooooooo day. A pair of UGG boots for 50 cents and the soles show no wear,  Life is good.

Of course I have my share of duds, just like everyone else. I found a Living Italian Language course with I thought everything but ended up book 2 of the set was missing. There was another book in the box and I didn't look good enough. In a hurry...kick myself....move on.

I found part of an old photo album. The covers were missing and just the middle part, with the pictures mounted on black paper there. Family photos from 1941-42. Someone had a pet possum and it was forever memorialized in photos.
They name the goat Ruthie but there are no names of any of the people in any of the pictures. That's a snowman next to the possum.

This was a cool page with the airplane and the original tickets. The cost of a flight from Hickory NC to Knoxville, TN on 10-5-1941 was $15.93. A lot of money for the time.

Today after we left the dr's office we needed to make it a "business trip" so I stopped for a quick run thru of a church run thrift. They have added a section with laundry baskets mounted on a rack (someone who was handy with the hammer and nails made it) and filled it with $1 reject items. I found 7 pair of Bruno Magli women's shoes in the bins. $1 each, of course they are 7.5 AA and I don't know if they will ever sell, but into the pipeline they go. They are all cute and well maintained.

After going for over 2 months with no returns. I had two tonight within minutes of each other. One, I had shipped the wrong swimsuit. Both were black, new with tags and of course I shipped the wrong one. But she opened a return request and then emailed me to tell me that it wasn't a normal return but a wrong shipment and she needed the correct one. We worked it out and I'm sending the right one, a return tag and hopefully it will go smoothly.Grrrrr. About 5 minutes later a buyer who bought a NEW Tusk wallet wanted to return it because it wasn't as described. Then she went on to explain,"Doesn't match description or photos. The wallet is very light. Seems small. It looks more impressive in the pictures. I would like to return it." I had measurements in the listings. I called ebay and they found the case in the buyers favor so she would pay shipping and when I receive the item I can call and get the case closed in my favor and prevent a blemish on my account.

I need to get more than 5 listing a day up if I want to grow my store but I am struggling. When you have to do it all and your SweetiePie is sick the days are just not long enough. And I know it isn't going to get any better for him or me. But I think I'll just go make some lemonade...

Happy thrifting and keep listing those treasures. It will pay off.

Yes, I'm Crazy!!!

I may or may not be crazy when it comes to listing the bay stuff. But I don't think everything I do is crazy.

Remember this?

I listed it for $59.99 on Tuesday and 17 minutes after it went live I received a best offer of $50.00. Now, the person who responded obviously had a search saved for that particular item since they responded so quickly. I was floored that I got such a quick response because I couldn't decide on what the price should be. It was an open kit and there were no instructions. (Instructions available free on line)

I responded with my typical response when someone makes an offer so quickly after the listing goes up. That is that I don't usually offer discounts until at least 30 days after the listing starts. Sometimes that gets a positive reaction and the buyer just buys the item, sometimes not. Most of the time I will get my full price and if I don't I will wait until I do. It may be that buyer with the low offer or it may be someone else. Who cares if it sells.

This was one of the good times. While I didn't hear from the buyer right away, they did purchase the plane in about 3 hours. Yeah!!!

Of course it helps that there were no other listings on the bay right now, it is an out of production item and I priced it at a fair price.

It pays to be crazy....at least this time!!!

I have the other plane listed and it is more expensive so I don't expect as quick a sale but I will keep my fingers crossed that it goes quickly.

I have a new furnace to pay for and I need all the help I can get.

Have I gone crazy?

Don't think about that too hard. For the people that know me really well the answer is obviously yes. For 

those people that don't know me very well, that would still be the correct answer, Alex.

My SweetiePie is sick. He has been for quite a while. We have been to numerous doctors and have yet to find the answer to the problem. It is very frustrating for him and stressful for me. In the past he refused to go shopping with me for inventory. He didn't like thrift stores, the smell, the dirt. But lately it is the only thing he likes doing, besides going out to lunch. Let's make this a business trip. He doesn't read, doesn't like watching tv all day. He used to made RC models. Boats, cars and airplanes. But his tremors don't let him do that any more. So we go thrifting almost every day mostly at GW because that is the only option close by. Nothing serious. Just looking and walking around and seeing other people.

Our GW only accepts cash. Yes, can you believe that? Cash and checks only. But with checks they have "the list" that they whip out when you write a check. Heaven forbid if you ever make that list.(And they don't have a bathroom. A pet peeve of mine.)There have been several rumors that they will accept credit/debit cards but nothing has ever happened. So if we go I have to make sure I have cash.

We went yesterday and saw a familiar item on top of the glass counter by the front door. A remote control airplane kit. New in the box, never used. The previous owner never even attempted to assemble the plane. Yeah!! We carefully inspected the box and then looked at the price, $49.95. I told the clerk I would think about it. I discreetly went to the back of the store and looked it up on the bay. None of this one listed but similar ones sell for $50 to $500 depending on the model and size.

In my book that looked like a good buy. We hemmed and hawed over it and I finally just bought the thing. When I got home I did a much more thorough search and found one sold in Germany a couple of years ago for $224 and one on ebay in the UK for $200. So I think I made a good choice. But I sure did resist spending that much money for one item at the time.

 
I got this kit at an estate sale last year and it went for $125, almost complete.

And this one was purchased last week at another GW in town. This is incomplete also but should bring between $75-100 and there is a roll of the film to cover the plane in the box that will go for $25 on its own.
But funny thing is this kit was only $3.99. Guess one of the managers knows planes and the other doesn't.

I'm not really into RC planes, just selling them is enough of a thrill for me. If you find them, then buy them.

Thank you Mr. Know it All

I had this for sale
I also had a jerk potential customer email me to inform me that I was asking too much, $35, for this piece of history. A vintage truckers hat from UGA with the bull dog and THE flag.(That is the state flag of GA from 1956-2001 and not the flag that no one wants to display. I truly was afraid that someone would protest and I would have to take down the listing before I sold the hat. But in reality it is a vintage GA state flag.)

Anyway, I had this person email me with an offer of $25, including shipping. I had it listed for $35 plus shipping of $4.25. Now, I didn't have make offer on this he just took it upon himself to make me an offer. I told him to check back after 30 days and if it was still available I "might" lower the price. Of course, I had no intention of lowering the price. He emailed me a day before the listing was scheduled to turn over for the first 30 days and made the offer again. Persistent, but I am way more stubborn that he could ever dream of being.

I don't know who the potential customer was that made the offer but I wasn't about to accept his offer. I had 8 watchers on that hat and I knew I could get my price. And it only took 31 days.

So there Mr Smarty Pants, Know it All. Pffffffffffffft!!!

And to everyone else, make YOUR price. Don't let someone else make it for you. If it is based on thorough research and past experience then GO FOR IT!!! If all else fails you can always lower the price down the road. I prefer way down the road to next door.

Now get back to work. Those tubs won't list themselves!!

We miss you Sheila and Randy

Everyone must move on.

Better jobs, retirement.

But we really miss Sheila and Randy at our little post office.

Within one week both of the regular counter people were GONE!!! One moved up to a full time job in a larger post office but he had to move to a larger town. The other one retired, a hard earned and well deserved retirement.

But I'm totally selfish. I want them back. Or at least their clones.

It used to be fun to go to the post office every day. But now the postmaster is the counter person and some days we get the temp person who fills in at various post office when vacations and sickness requires extra hands.

And the lines!!!

What used to take less than 5 minutes, on a really busy day now takes 10-20 minutes.

Now I can hear all of you asking why I go to the post office every day. Glad you asked. Well, its close by, some days I have more packages than will fit in my mail box and because I want to. My SweetiePie is disabled and he would sit home for days if we didn't go to the post office. So we go to the post office every day, if I have something to ship, and then we run errands or take care of doctors visits or go shopping. Something, anything to get out in the world. And then I come home and work.

But Sheila and Randy were a nice part of our day. Always smiling and ready to help. Quick in and out and on with our business.

While I wish them well, I kinda want them back until we get the new people "trained" appropriately.

And from the looks of things that will be a while.