Yard Saling is like Trick or Treating

According to my three year old, yard saling is just like trick or treating. I hadn't thought about it before, but I can see the similarities. You go up to people's houses and you never know what you're going to get; even the best CL ads promising oodles of toys can turn out to be a trick instead of a treat.

On Saturday, my daughter had a makeup gymnastics class (to make up for the one she missed on Halloween, how fitting) at 9 AM so I knew I wouldn't make it to the sales before her class. Her gymnastics class is up north near the area where I usually yard sale anyways, so when class ended at 10AM I checked my yard sale app on my phone and mapped out a couple of close sales advertising kids' clothes, toys, and maternity clothes.

Despite it being so late in the morning, the first sale we hit up still had a good selection. The first thing I spotted was a Fisher Price Incrediblock with some Peek a Blocks (still haven't counted how many but at least 15 I think). It also came with the boat pictured in this auction, so it might fetch a few more bucks at auction. These sell well on eBay and hopefully shipping won't be too terribly painful. This is where calculated shipping is important! I managed to snag this and a cute maternity top for $5. Even better was the fact that the family was all outside including their young almost three year old daughter so my daughter had an instant playmate while I got to browse the sale. That's always been my fear with taking my daughter to the sales with me - that she would require my attention the whole time and I would miss the good deals. It was a win win for both of us.

At the next sale, I wasn't so lucky. Not sure if they had better stuff earlier in the morning and it was all gone by 10AM but when we got there it was slim pickings. My daughter found some transformer looking things to play with while I browsed (for all of 5 minutes), then we left empty handed.

The third and final sale we hit was a fluke because I was trying to find another sale from CL but they must have packed it in early, because there was no sign of it at 10:30. I saw a sign for a sale as we were leaving that neighborhood and although I don't usually follow signs for sales, I figured why not since we were so close. It was an older couple, but the lady used to be a Kindergarten teacher so she had a bunch of books and some dress up clothes. I looked through the books, but nothing struck me as an incredible deal. There were some leveled readers, but I already had some to sell so I didn't want more. The lady tried to get me to take the whole dress up set for $3, but a lot of it was too big for my daughter and more boyish. There was a cute bumblebee outfit and a construction hat that my daughter latched onto so I gave her a dollar for those and then we headed for home.

Overall, it was a fun morning and I got to spend time with my daughter doing something that benefitted both of us. My husband got to sleep in and rest at home (he's recovering from pneumonia, poor guy!). I don' t think I'll take her out on the 6:30AM wake up calls, but if I ever have another late start, I'll bring her along for sure.

There aren't usually garage sales in close proximity to my house, so I either have to drive north or south about 20-30 minutes to get to any good sales. I've been going north a lot lately, so this past Saturday I thought I'd try going south. Although I got some good deals, I think I prefer the north better. I use Yard Sale Treasure Map to map out the sales from Craig's List on Friday night. I like it because it optimizes my route, although not necessarily with regard to the time it starts. I managed to get out pretty early and make it to a 7 AM sale and a 7:30 AM sale. I think I went to 4 or 5 sales total - although, I don't know if I'd count the last one as it looked like this lady's house had just thrown up all the junk inside of it. I felt bad for her and tried my best to find something to buy, but alas left empty handed from that junk sale.

Here's what I came away with (I can't break down the prices too well for all of the items, so let's just say I spent $14 for all of it):

Pictured above are a Dora talking backpack (50 cents, but it only came with 2 accessories), Dora schoolhouse ($2), and Dora castle with figurines ($2). I had remembered reading that Dora does well, so we'll see if that's true. I've got these for sale in a lot to see how they do and may break them apart if they don't sell as a lot.

Also pictured are a pink Gymboree dress (50 cents, for my daughter next year), 8 sets of hair clippies (also for my daughter), a Janie and Jack 18-24mo denim dress that I've got listed with a bid already ($2), and a Faded Glory denim romper for future baby (50 cents).

I got a lot of books this time around. Books have been good to me recently, especially after I bought a complete set of American Girl books for $2 and sold them in lots by character for about $60 total. Apparently Felicity, Addy, and Josefina do well. Molly, Samantha, and Kirsten are ok too but don't bring in as many bids as the other girls.

I found a bunch of Magic Tree House books to add to my collection so now I can list a couple lots of those (I even found one hardback one). I also got a bunch of Clifford and Little Critters books that I might try to sell as a lot or just keep for my daughter. Finally, I got a few Thomas the Train books. They're in good condition and I think I could sell these as a lot pretty well. Thomas the Train anything is always good this time of year. My daughter has a Dennis train that doesn't work with her generic wood train track, so I'm going to sell that too - not sure whether to include it with the book lot or not.

So there you have it, no spectacular finds but enough to keep me going and I'm still a bit backlogged in the listing department so I'm trying to get caught up since now is the time to sell, sell, sell.

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.