Garage Sale Season, Yay!

It's my favorite time of year, garage sale season!

On Friday we went to a church sale, which was apparently unadvertised except for a few signs. We got there about an hour before the end of the sale on their second day. They were handing out bags and we were told we could "stuff the bag until it's ripping" for $5.00!

So, I crammed as much in my bag as I could. We also went to a thrift store in a nearby town on Friday, and then Saturday morning I got up early and went to a couple estate sales and two subdivision garage sales.

Turned out to be a pretty good weekend. There was one estate sale that started at 9:00 am, and there was a huge line in the driveway, so I passed it up and went on to more garage sales. I stopped back later and went to it, only to find that it was really just a way overpriced garage sale masquerading as an estate sale. Glad I didn't waste my time waiting in line for that one!

I found these two guys from Monsters Inc. Not sure what they are called, they each have a strap and a little zippered pocket on the back. Kind of like a really big coin purse. And two plush Dalmatians, I think from the 102 Dalmatians movie.

Finding Nemo branded Memory game, Disney Robin Hood, Care Bears, and Last Unicorn VHS tapes (probably for the niece and nephew), and two vintage Peanuts books.

Wonder Woman, Tweety Bird, and pink bunny Pez dispensers.

Two vintage tray puzzles, Barbie and Snow White.

A random assortment of magazines from the 90s about the Chicago Bulls. There's also a Dennis Rodman paper dolls book in there somewhere.

This was the best part of the bag sale at the church. I got 16 Playstation games and one PS2 game. Found the two N64 games at the thrift store, and the SNES Toy Story game at a garage sale.

Two vintage stitchery kits.

At one estate sale I found a box with these vintage (probably 80s) 4th of July paper decorations.

New Shoes and a Few Sales

I didn't buy much this past week. It was dreary and rainy most of the time, and the one estate sale that was advertised was across the river anyway and I didn't want to drive that far for what looked like a mediocre sale. We went to Salvation Army on Friday and looked around a while, but I couldn't find anything that interested me.

Earlier this week I did find a cute pair of shoes (Hush Puppies) for myself.

This is one of my favorite things about thrifting, not only finding things to resell, but finding items for myself. These probably sold for $70-80 new, but they are barely worn and I paid $4.99. No wonder I have such a problem buying anything new anymore!

The other reason I didn't do much shopping is because garage sale season is fast approaching (yay!) and I have GOT to get my house organized. It's ridiculous.

So I spent some time on Saturday cleaning and organizing stuff, and managed to make a small bit of progress. I'm trying to reduce the amount of stuff I own, so when I come across stuff that I don't need anymore, if it's not ebay-able, then I've just been pricing and packing things away in a box for our garage sale in May. I have about four boxes already!

I sold one item on ebay this weekend - Vintage Tomy Fashion Plates (just like the ones I had as a kid!)

And from my Etsy shop, this mid-century vase is on it's way to Australia (hope it survives the trip)

Coming Soon.. Garage Sale Season!

Thift Share Monday Post!

I'm finally getting around to restocking my vintage shop and listing more items on ebay. It seems I usually let my shop lapse a little over the Christmas holiday, because my other Etsy shop is fairly busy during Christmas, and I also feel the need to take a break once in a while.

My inventory is pretty slim this time of year. I shop at thrift stores regularly, but many have become ridiculously overpriced lately. It seems that every store is trying to get higher than ebay prices for everything. There are still some deals to be found, but more often then not I walk out empty handed.

I am excited though, because now it is March! And that means, that in a few weeks as the snow starts to melt, the garage sales will be starting up again. I love garage sales. I actually use some of my vacation time during the summer to take Fridays off, just so I can go to more sales! Estate sales too. I've been to a few estate sales this winter already, but they pick up more during garage sale season.

I've found a couple cool things so far this year:

Vintage 1960s Enid Collins wooden box purse.

Blue Fenton Hobnail Vase

This isn't vintage, but it's part of a canister set from Target designed by Orla Kiely.

Orla Kiely Pear Canister

I have a few more, but haven't photographed everything yet, so I'll save them for another post!

It's Been A While....

Over two months since my last post. Usually I get a little bored with the thrifting in July. It's hot, garage sales are dying down and my online sales are usually slow. But now with school starting and the weather cooling off, there will be sales starting up again and I'm back in the mood.


I was so excited a few weeks ago to find this unopened package of vintage Strawberry Shortcake Christmas cards! I think they are from around 1982.

Vintage Strawberry Shortcake Season's Greetings Cards

Sent those to Ebay. I also found a second package which was open with a few cards and the seals missing and put those in my Etsy shop.

Another one of my recent finds was this vintage 1980 plush Fat Cat by Dakin.

1980 Japan Artists Society Black Cat

He's so cute I want to keep him, but I need money, so to Ebay he went. Sniff. Maybe he won't sell...

Since I'm in need of some more inventory for my Etsy shop, I went thrifting during my lunch hour today. I found a few small things, and vintage unused Betsey Clark photo album and a Far Side mug. Also had one of those experiences that I hate... at one of the stores as I was paying for my purchase, there were two large tubs full of vintage Fisher Price toys on hold for someone! Grr. I should have gone yesterday.

Hate it when that happens!

Weekend Finds

My first Thrift Share Monday post!

This weekend was just not a very good weekend for me. I left early on Friday morning and on my way in to town passed a subdivision that had advertised a neighborhood sale for Saturday. I decided to go in and see if any of the sales were open of Friday. There were about four sales open. One was an older lady who  seemed to be emptying out her house. I bought a couple books, some Robert Kiyosaki audio CDs, a Far Side mug and a Disney Smarties mug.

1991 Disney Smarties Mug

Far Side Mug

At another sale a few doors down I picked up a small vintage Caboodle, a Donald Duck bean bag plush, two small bags of Kelly and Cabbage Patch dolls, and a Tomy Great Greetings maker, just like the one I used to have.

Vintage 1980s Great Greetings Card Maker

It was still in it's original box and has all the design plates and the little crayon to make the rubbings with. I was also happy to see on the box the original price tag from Venture. We used to shop there all the time when I was little, but it has long been closed and was turned into a K-Mart. Seeing old tags like that makes me happy! 

I should have just gone home after that, because I didn't buy much else. Saturday I went out early again and it was dismal. There was a neighborhood sale advertised that I was excited about, because it's in a nice mid-century neighborhood and there are usually a lot of good sales. I went there first at 8:00 a.m. and there were barely five houses open, and most of them were people who just pulled out a few things so they could participate. I went to all the sales on my route and only managed to spend $5.00. I bought a vintage 1980s clear phone for $1.00, and four boxes of new audio cassette tapes for $1.00 each.

Then I went back to the neighborhood from the previous day, thinking there would be more sales open on Saturday. Nope. Same ones. Good thing I thought to check it out on Friday.

I did run across to sales that had a Sega Genesis. I've been looking for one because I want to be able to test games before I sell them. The first one I found was $5.00, but was really dirty and dusty and only had one game. So I decided to pass. The second one was a bit cleaner, but still looked like it had been sitting in someone's garage for 10 years. It was $10.00 and had a bunch of games, but they were mostly sports. (Genesis sports games are about the most worthless as worthless sports games get) I passed on that one too. I don't like to buy electronic items that look like they have been stored in a damp area, because who knows what kind of mold and corrosion is going on inside, and it may not even work.

On the upside, I managed to get almost everything listed on Ebay and Etsy, and I'm hoping for some good sales this week!

Vintage Infocom Games

Garage sale season is here (well, it's been here for a while now) and it's one of my favorite times of the year. I love browsing garage and estate sales looking for cool stuff, lost treasures from my youth, and inventory for my Etsy shop and Ebay.

Being a child of the 80s, I'm always on the lookout for 80s toys: Nintendo and Super Nintendo games, Fisher Price Little People sets, old point and click adventure computer games, or anything that makes me say "I used to have that!"

One of my favorite finds so far this year:

This is an old Infocom game called Deadline. Most Infocom games from 80s were text adventures and they had no graphics (gasp!)

Many of the games came with extra little props called "feelies" that provided some hints or clues in the story. In this game the feelies are a crime scene photo, a bag of pills, an autopsy report and a letter. As far as collectors are concerned, the feelies are usually worth more than the game itself, because they were more likely to have been thrown away or gotten lost over time. 

I listed this game on Ebay and it sold for $38.00 within a few days (I probably should have priced it higher, but I needed to sell some stuff quickly). 

This game also serves as a reminder to me of my rule to never skip any garage sales I see. I was at a subdivision sale and had purchased some vintage driftwood grapes, and there was another sale across the street, but it didn't look like they had much. One table and a few other things on the driveway. I almost passed it up, but thought, I'm already here, I might as well check it out. Good thing I did, because there was a box on the ground under the table that had this game in it along with a few others for $1.00 each. I would have missed out on a $110.00 profit!

The only sales I do skip are ones that look like they mostly baby stuff (like a sea of pink or blue on the driveway). Never have much luck at those.

Welcome to my new vintage/thrifting blog! I decided to create this blog to share stories of buying and selling on Etsy and Ebay. Stay tuned!