Yard Sale Finds: Vintage Books and More

After my Friday night Goodwill trip, I was stoked to get up on Saturday morning and hit the yard sales. I even woke up before my alarm and was up earlier than when I have to go to work.
I was out the door by 6:30 on my way to 7 AM sales - this week I headed south instead of north to try my luck in that direction. When I got to the first 7 AM sale, there was no sign of life. There were a few boxes and an old dresser in the driveway along with 2 parked cars so I wasn't sure if they were just getting a late start, but I wasn't going to hang around to find out because I would miss out on other 7 AM sales. I was a little bummed because they had advertised a Britax car seat cover and some brand name shoes like Doc Maartens that I thought would do well. From reading the Ebay Underground blog, I've been itching to try my hand at selling shoes.
At the next sale, I got all of this for $10:

I'm hoping to sell the bumbo on CL for at least $15 (paid $5). Inside the bumbo are a pair of Pedipeds (I got some shoes after all) that I think could get $10. The baby bunting goes for about $15, maybe more as it gets colder since I can't imagine planning for winter in this heat. The cowgirl outfit has a lot of NWT listings on eBay so I'm not sure about a used one, but I'll try $10-$15 for it. If nothing else, my daughter will wear it. There are also two Eric Carle rattles/car seat toys that could fetch $8-$10. Finally, I love the look of the Pottery Barn owls, but not the price. I'm wondering if I can sell this owl plush as a cheap alternative.

At the next yard sale, I got this lot of vintage Dr. Seuss and Beatrix Potter books for $5. I separated out the large Dr. Seuss books and the smaller ones into 2 lots and am hoping for $10-15 per lot. UPDATE: I sold the lot of smaller books for $20 already. I also saw a closed listing for one Beatrix Potter book for $25 so I'm hopeful that these will do well.

I'm amazed to find unopened toys at yard sales because I can't even get from the store to the car most times before opening a toy for my daughter. I got this Thomas the Train take along Christmas set for $1 with a free DVD. I might hold off until closer to Christmas, but even in August these are doing well used and I have a new one.

At the last sale of the morning, I got all of this for $10:

The Lincoln Logs are almost complete, but I think I'll combine them with the other Lincoln Logs I got at Goodwill and see if I can sell them as a big lot like this one. I also got a Batman tote which might do well at Halloween for the little boy who wants to be Batman and have a matching bucket for candy. I also got several books including a decent number of Early Readers (may wait to collect a few more so I can sell these as a big lot), a new Dr. Seuss book, a Little Critters book, a kids Bible, and a couple of Magic Schoolbus books. I'll keep the other books for my daughter for now unless I find more Magic Schoolbus books and can sell them as a lot.

Overall, it was a successful morning and along with my Goodwill finds, I feel like I have a good inventory of items to sell. In fact, my guest room looks like a crazy mess with all my stuff to sell on eBay and various unfinished projects. I'm hoping to make my way throgh it slowly but surely.

I'm linking up to My Life on a Taffy Pull's garage sale treasures for the first time.

Friday Night Goodwill Trip

I took a week off from my usual yard sale adventures to travel to Arizona for my mom's 60th birthday party and engagement celebration. It was a whirlwind trip jam-packed with lots of visits with family. I had visions of hitting some AZ yard sales on Saturday morning, but the jet lag just didn't want to let me wake up that early. Needless to say, this past weekend I was definitely itching to get out there and find some good deals after missing a week.

When hubby said he had to work late on Friday night, I took that as an opportunity to do some Goodwill shopping with my daughter. It's a pretty good setup there since the toy aisle is in the back corner of the store so we just set up camp there - me with my iphone and her with every loud toy she can put her hands on. It's a win win for both of us. Here's what I picked up on our Goodwill outing:

Fisher Price Purse for $1.99. Not a huge profit margin (selling for $5-6). 

Fisher Price Piggy Bank for $1.99. Selling for $11-12.

Special Agent Oso figures for $1.99. Selling for $7-8.

LeapFrog Click Start Cars Game for $3.99. Selling for $12-13.

Set of 26 Alphabet Incrediblocks for $2.99. Hoping to sell for $20 like this one.

Timmy Time Night Night Timmy Plush for $4.99. Closing auctions on these were between $15 and $25 - it's a popular international seller. UPDATE: This sold for $25 within 1 day of listing it.

Big bucket of Lincoln Logs for $7.99 (not pictured, but it's this set missing a few pieces)

I was hoping to go back later in the weekend to take advantage of tax free savings on clothes and shoes, but I never made it back since we went to the circus on Saturday afternoon and then Sunday was spent catching up on loads of laundry backlogged from our trip. My yard sale finds on Saturday made up for it though.

$5 and a little elbow grease

Today was a SUPER slow day for yard sale finds. That's not to say that there weren't many yard sales - there were quite a few on CL and I saw many signs while I was out and about. It was more about quality. I had mapped about 6-7 sales from CL that said they had toys, but when I got there their toy selection was basically one or two boxes of discarded toys that didn't even look worth sifting through. Very dissapointing in regards to the toy selection.

I did come across one sale that had a lot of kids' clothes and shoes for 25 cents each. If only I knew what baby #2 is going to be, I would have been able to get some good deals. My daughter currently has enough clothes, but I did end up getting her a pair of hardly-used soccer shoes that she can use in about a year when she's 4 and I sign her up for soccer. I also got a couple pairs of larger-sized water shoes that looked like they hadn't even been worn for when she outgrows her current water shoes. So far, I had spent a whopping 75 cents - I spent more at my Starbucks run on the way to the sales :-)

On the way home, I hit a sale that was in my neighborhood and this was my most successful stop of the morning. I've been wanting to get my daughter a vanity for her room for a while now and I've been stalking CL to find one that looked nice at a reasonable price, but hadn't yet found anything that fit that (I liked this one, but for $50 I'd at least like a stool). Well, at this sale they had a vanity for sale. At first glance, many people probably would have passed this vanity up because it was a little worse for wear. It was certainly well-loved by some little girl named Leslie who had scribbled all over it in blue pen and painted her nails dark green and black (as evidenced by several large pools of dried black nail polish on the vanity's top). However, I saw potential and for $5 I was willing to take it home and experiment with the Magic Eraser that Yard Sale Mommy had mentioned could work wonders on reviving old toys. I wish I had taken a before picture to do justice to the end result, but alas you will just have to take my word that this vanity started off looking a lot more shabby than chic. So, for $5 and a little elbow grease with the Magic Eraser (I'm a believer!) I was able to give my daughter a nice new-to-her vanity for her room.