Thrifted Finds

In my last post you’ll see in the photo a yellow plate that I got at a yard sale.  It was signed and dated on the back by the artist.  I paid probably less than a buck for it.  I really didn’t think too much of it at the time.  At the sale, I had done a quick search on my phone for the artist’s name (Breininger), and saw that people collected his work.  He’s a Pennsylvania potter who makes pottery in the old German style using local red clay.  This is from his early days (1976).  Well, I finally got to listing it and it sold last night at auction for $137.50! I certainly didn’t think it would sell for that much when I first bought it. Goes to show you that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure!

And while hubby was gone a couple of weeks ago, the kids and I hit a couple of yard sales (usually I try to go sans kids).  It was a dud of a day (though we only went to a few), but I did come home with two vintage Liberty of London scarves that I paid $2 for.  They sold last night for $31.  That paid for donuts and gas! :)

And the vintage Pyrex refrigerator dishes sold quickly with a buy-it-now listing of $50 (I paid $20 for them, though that’s a lot more than I normally would spend. But I knew I would have no trouble flipping them quickly).

Just a quick update on recent eBay sales.  Remember the box of rubber stamps I bought at a yard sale for $30?  Well, I sold $566.47 worth of them! I have several other stamp sets I still have to list, so let’s just conservatively round it up to $600 in sales - less eBay/Paypal fees and the cost to buy them - which would make it about a $510 profit. Not bad!  The Waylande Gregory plate sold for $115 - about a $100 profit. Sadly, Big Josh didn’t go for much more than I paid for him so I only made a couple of bucks, but hopefully his new owner is happy.  The Arabia of Finland heart bowl’s auction ends tonight, but it’s currently at about $100 (I paid $5).

Saturday I went to some garage sales with the kiddos.  I got quite a bit of random stuff (see pic below).  Not pictured, I got an Ann Taylor cashmere sweater, Banana Republic camel colored leather blazer, and an Old Navy winter white wool coat - all for $2 each!  See that creepy Ronald McDonald action figure?  He’s what nightmares are made of, but for 25 cents I couldn’t resist.  Plus, he’ll probably sell for $10.  There’s a knob on his back that makes his head turn.  Don’t try this before bed. :)

SWEET DREAMS!!

A little late for Valentine’s Day, but I found this sweet vintage Arabia of Finland Finel heart enamel bowl for $5 at the thrift store around the corner this morning. They have most recently sold for $100-$200 on eBay.  I hope this one finds a happy home! The listing goes live tonight.

I haven’t been to a flea market in years, but on Saturday morning a few ladies from church and I went to the Waldo Flea Market. Where’s Waldo, you might ask?  It’s about 20 minutes from my house in the middle of no where. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any men in red and white stripes with large glasses.  :)  

I had my fussy daughter and it was cold. That combo didn’t make for the most pleasant experience, but I still had fun and found a couple of interesting things (polar opposites, I might add).  The first thing I got was a vintage Mattel “Big Josh” action figure and accessories for $8. I had never heard of him, but he was quite funny with the beard and orange undies.  I did a quick eBay search on my iPhone and found that people do collect him. We shall see!  Next, we meandered to the indoor antique mall which was nice and warm.  I did spot a cool plate and upon reearch on my phone, Waylande Gregory pottery is very collectible. It was marked $9.50, but when I checked out it was 1/2 off!  Along with the Big Josh doll, it goes to auction tonight.  Here are pics:

A couple of weeks ago I bought a huge bin full of rubber stamps for $30 at a yard sale. Most are Stampin’ Up! brand, a bunch from a company called PSX, a few StampCraft, and the rest have Big Lots labels. Today I finally got to sorting through them.  There are hundreds!!  I spent time on eBay looking at completed listings for each set, and put a sticky note on each one with the price range it has sold for.  Any that have sold for $20 or more each will go in an individual listing, and the rest I’ll sell as a lot.  There are about 25 that have sold for over $20 a pop, a couple in the $50 range.  I’m hopeful I’ll make a decent profit off of them!  I’ll be sure to update my two faithful readers, Agents S and J. Here you can see how many there are (these are just the Stampin’ Up ones):

I seem to find a lot of second hand designer bags, some vintage and some newer.  I’ve never been one to shell out a lot of money for something that is meant to hold money, but  if I can get a nice bag for less than Target prices, I’m thrilled!  Agent S. (remember my partner in thrifting) has a keen eye for these pieces. And my dear husband found his first out thrifting a couple of weeks ago (vintage Dooney and Bourke).  I sell some and I keep some.  Sometimes I use one for a while, then sell it, and sometimes I wish I would have kept some that I sold right away.  Oh, well. They’re just things….things to hold stuff.  Here are some that I currently have listed on eBay.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the local Salvation Army thrift store.  Usually I don’t find anything good so don’t know why I bother going there, but I found this vintage Balans Variable chair in red.  It’s in excellent condition.  I didn’t know what it was at first, so whipped out my handy dandy iphone and googled it.  At $11 I couldn’t pass it up!  Modern ones sell for $395.  My dear husband likes it so much that he’s using it in place of his regular desk chair (it’s great for posture). Perhaps we’ll sell it when he wants his regular chair back. But here it is (along with a terrible demonstration photo):

Last Saturday, I went to an estate sale when they had everything marked 1/2 off.  I only came out spending less than $5, but got got a couple of goodies.  I got some vintage Pyrex decanter looking S&P shakers, vintage Disney sheets, Swedish Sea glass votive holder/vase, and probably something else I’m forgetting. Sorry, no pictures yet.  But when I was there I remembered seeing a photo of a green Cathrineholm lotus teapot in one of the estate sale company’s photos for their next sale (today). I asked if they would please set it aside for me and they graciously did!  

When I got to the estate sale this morning, I asked her for the teapot and she said she had so many people interested in it. I am glad I asked them to hold it for me! They only had it marked for $10. Woohoo!  I found a couple other things, but had to be quick as the kids were waiting for me in the van.  I overheard some people talking about another nearby estate sale and got directions.  I went there and the house had lots of interesting things, but priced a bit high. I got a couple of things, but probably paid more than I should have.  Anyway, here are pictures of today’s finds.  I spent $47 total including tax:

Here is everything (on top of a fantastic vintage buffet we got for free at a garage sale):

Bag of cologne $5, vintage Night Before Christmas book $6, retro turquoise timer $5 (got these three at the higher priced sale).  Cathrineholm teapot $10, Franciscan bowl $.50, Blenko bowl (still has sticker) $2

Vintage California pottery lazy Susan and serving dishes $8

Arabia of Finland souffle dish $4, silver plated utensils $2, vintage Japan cardboard Christmas house and Erzgebirge candle holder $2

Estate Sales? Garage Sales? Thrift Stores?  It’s hard to say which of those I like best, but they all are fun and have great things to be found. I’ll talk about estate sales here, and do two other posts on garage sales and thrift stores.

I think estate sales are my favorite venue for finding things to resell.  I still can’t believe the two awesome ones from last spring. I wish I knew then what I know now and I could have probably gotten tons more. But it was definitely a fun, profitable, and great learning experience.  In my experience, the best ones are the ones run by older people who look at stuff and think of it as old junk, but others (ie: eBay shoppers) look at it as valuable vintage collectibles.   It can feel a bit awkward going to estate sales run by family members of the home owner, so I always try to remain respectful.  Ones run by estate sales tend to be less awkward.  I have to remind myself that their goal is to get rid of stuff, and try not to hold onto things that might have sentimental value.  Sales have been few and far between the past couple of months, but http://www.estatesales.net/ shows a few good ones coming up.  So, my one loyal reader and I will have to make some plans! I’ll refer to her as Agent S.

Speaking of Agent S., last month we went to a promising estate sale which ended up being run by an extremely stingy homeowner who was asking waaaay too much for stuff (probably the same price he paid for things decades ago, including stuff like electronics - $250 for an old laptop).  I did, however, get away with three vintage kitchen towels for $1 each.  Two of them sold for about $12 each, and another for $45 (plus free shipping).  Not bad!  I really wanted to walk away with some of his vintage Pyrex, but he was asking way too much for it and he wouldn’t budge.  I don’t know why I always feel I need to buy vintage Pyrex as it’s not always super profitable, but it’s just fun, I suppose.  Hopefully 2013 will bring lots more estate sale fun!

Sorry for the sideways shot, but this one is a 1956 Francis Dearden dish towel.  Paid $1 sold for $12.51.

This one is also from 1956, by Ivan Bartlett. Paid $1, sold for $11.51.

Finally, this vintage Tammis Keefe towel (again, sorry for the sideways shot). Paid $1, sold for $46.99.

So I was kind of hit or miss with posting last year. My plan is to post here on a more regular basis, more for myself to document my thrifted finds - for reselling and for personal use.  

2012 was a great year for reselling, especially considering I treated it as a part time job and exceeded my expectations.  I don’t know exactly how much I made since my computer crashed last spring, taking my spreadsheet with it (I never did get to creating a new one), but I probably netted around $4-5,000 for 2012.  Not bad!  I mean, it’s no lucrative business that I’ll ever get rich from, but it is a fun hobby that pays!  My goal for 2013 is to net $3-500 a month.  Last year, I had two really good months (April and November) where I netted about $1,200.

Not only has reselling been fun, but Joel and I have had a fun time building our wardrobes.  In 2011 we purged our old clothes and have slowly been building our closets with mostly thrifted clothes, but of higher quality stuff than we had and for cheaper prices.  For instance, just this past week I was hoping to find a sweater dress.  I found a really cute Banana Republic one for only $6 at the thrift shop around the corner. I can’t wait to wear it with my boots!

Well, I don’t know if anyone in cyber space will actually read this post, but it doesn’t really matter. This is my own personal thrifting journal that I hope to look back on.  Here’s to 2013!