Eid=Thrift Store Shopping!

Today is a Muslim holiday, and since so much of the student body celebrates it, we had a day off. That meant breakfast out with hubby followed by thrift store shopping! We went to a little Mennonite shop the town over which is sooooo clean and organized and has lots of cheap goodies. I got some random stuff, including several VHS tapes for 25 cents, a few Junie B. Jones books (I think I have enough for a lot), a few items for teaching, etc. I spent around $7.50 there. Then we went to Volunteers of America. On the last Tuesday of every month, EVERYTHING there is 50% off! I just learned that. I am so excited about this... another store, Ohio Thrift, does 50% off clothing and shoes every last Wednesday, but it's way over on the other side of the city. VOA is close and nicer! We spent about $34 on the following:

Spiderman shirt for DH: $2

AE plaid shorts for me: $3

NWT Christopher & Banks shirt for me: $2

beautiful Indian style New York & Co top for me: $3

NWT Everlast Coolmax exercise top... I might resell, will check prices, if not, I'll keep: $3

NWT Covington sweater for me: $3.50

simple Banana Republic top for me: $3

Adidas windpants for DH: $1

The North Face shirt to sell: $4.50

Adidas Clima365 top for me: $3

Care Bears bed sheet to sell: $1

Pixos: .45

EDIT: forgot a bag of more things from VOA:

My strange spouse wanted 2 stuffed animals. He's Mexican and found a teddy with a sombrero as well as the TY Beanie Buddy Mexican bear. I think each was .50 or $1. Seriously he has the strangest collection of random toys. Star Wars, wrestling figures, superheroes. It's cute but sort of annoying. I want to get him a shelfing unit so at least everything will be displayed. But it's all up in his man cave a.k.a. the spare bedroom upstairs so out of sight, out of mind. Who am I to judge; I have a curio cabinet full of roosters.

I got a Puffalump to resell for $1.

Also a stack of postcards that say "Greetings from the Seventies" and have a guy in a leisure suit. Still sealed. Can't find any info on them but I have a feeling they'll do well. Cost .45.

I really need to list. My house is overflowing with random crap!! It's much more fun shopping than listing.

eBay sales... the I Screwed Up Again edition

So I screwed up yet again with underestimating shipping for international buyers. I can't believe it costs so much. I also had a horrible experience at the P.O. with perhaps the meanest USPS worker in central Ohio. I think he might be Steve from Meijer's brother. Anyway here's what I sent out today:

Risk game= sold for $31.99-$3 I paid for-$29.29 shipping to Spain (WHAT?!)= .30 in the hole. !!!!!

Allen Edmonds from GW Outlet sold for $31.96-$27.50 to Germany=$4.46 :'( so sad... That brings me to $13.35 left to break even on GW Outlet trip #2.

I did do good here:

Allen Edmonds loafers sold for $26.94-$8.23 shipping=$18.71. Yay broke even at GW with $5.36 profit & lots more to sell.

Also sold a lot of Tamagotchis. They cost about $2. Sold for $18.40-$4.56 shipping.

Of course after I went to the P.O. and got depressed, I had to walk next door to the thrift store. I got a Far Side mug for 30 cents, blank cassette tape .50, a No Whining sign for my classroom for .50, 3 Popples magnets for .90, and this thing of Glo Bonz, building toys for .90.

Craigslist Success

I managed to find a Little Tikes Football Toy Chest at VOA Thrift Store! It was $8. I logged into our CL account to list it and noticed 2 listings had expired: one for our garage door opener & one for my old phone. Oh, so that's why no one had been inquiring about them! So I reactivated both, and ta-da! They've both sold!

The garage door opener was picked up in the spring at a yard sale, with intentions of installing it in our garage. Mr. Thrifty is not so handy, or so he says, so we decided to resell it instead. It sold early on in the summer for $100 to an older couple, who then called the next day and asked if they could return it, because according to the people who were going to install it, it was a crappy model. Uh. Anyone else think the old folks were getting screwed by the company who convinced them to buy their $300+ model? I do! Anyway, we gave them a refund but they told us to keep $10 for the inconvenience.

Originally paid $40 at yard sale-$10 from old folks=$30 in the hole

Today we sold it for $85 to another guy. Hopefully he won't have any problems!

-$30 + $85= $55 profit!!

I don't know how much we originally paid for the phone, but we got $50 for it today.

However, the Little Tikes cooler/toy box/whatever hasn't sold yet. But I live in Buckeye Country so I'm not worried! I think I will change the category (currently in baby & kids) and that will do the trick!

More eBay sales

Shoes that have cat faces on them, purchased in the fall for $1 at a sale. Wear them several times. Sold for $31 with free shipping. Made a profit of $21.23

Leapfrog Cartridge bought for $2.13, sold for $6.99. After shipping made a $5.24 profit.

Sold a box with a duck on it that I got at GW Outlet Trip #1. Sold for $6.99. Need $8.27 to break even on that trip.

Also sold a Patriots patch that I got free from my dad. Made $5.09 after shipping.

Goodwill Outlet Profit Checks, Yays, an Oops, and News for Tomorrow

So it's easy for me to know whether or not I make profit off of items at regular thrift stores and yard sales, because it's all individually priced. Well at the GW outlet, since it's weighed by pound, I will take the total I paid and slowly subtract each item that sells until I've made more than I've spent.

Goodwill Outlet Trip #1... the receipt went missing...pretty sure DH had it... need to learn to stay better organized if I truly want to continue to grow my eBay business/inventory... sigh... Anyway DH said he thought it was $19. For some reason I thought $22. I'm going to go with the higher amount...

$22

1 item sold so far, Jell-O Beans mold, $6.00

Around $16 to go to break even!

Goodwill Outlet #2

Spent $30.51

1 item sold so far, Tinkerbell curtain, $12.70

$17.81 to go to break even

Here's some Yays. Two items from Half.com.

I purchased an audio version of the Bible, NIP, at a yard sale for $2. Sold for $14.55

WTC DVD purchased at a yard sale for .50, sold for $5.86

Oops. I made a huge blunder in terms of shipping. I thought the flat rate boxes cost the same no matter where they go. The medium boxes are $10.95 to send domestic, but I learned they're over $40 to ship internationally! The buyer of my LPS lot is in Russia. The USPS clerk told me if I put it in another box it would be around $22. The buyer paid $10.95 for shipping. I just can't cover $11 in shipping. That will kill any profit. I know I'm risking a negative feedback, but, I emailed the buyer and explained the situation. Mentioned I am new to shipping internationally and told her she can either paypal me the difference and I'll ship or I can refund her. We'll see how that goes. SIGH!!! I'm not going to stop shipping internationally though, as the buyer of the Tinkerbell curtain is in Canada. I just need to be more careful.

Tomorrow, Wednesday August 17, is National Thrift Store Day! I know one Goodwill here is doing 50% off children's clothes. Volunteers of America is giving 25% off your total if you bring in a bag of donations. We're going to do that as we are planning on buying a couch from them, if it hasn't sold yet!

Goodwill Outlet Trip 2

Went to my new-found treasure chest yesterday, the Goodwill Outlet. It's over an hour away so it will be a rare treat for me to go there, and we have to justify the gas mileage. It wasn't nearly as exciting as the first trip there. It was really mellow, which, if you read anyone's descriptions of what shopping at a GW Outlet is like, is very rare. They only switched out the bins once the entire time we were there. Bleh!

I didn't get anything super exciting... Last time I looked exclusively at the housewares bins, but this time I rummaged through books, shoes, and linens. I managed to find three pairs of Allen Edmonds men's shoes. Supposedly they sell well, we'll see how mine do. I also got a pair of Smart Fit kids boots & Land's End's kids canvas shoes for the consignment sale I've signed up for in October. Shoes total= $14.25 (they weigh by the pound). I sure hope the Allen Edmonds pay off!!!

Linens, I grabbed a bunch of receiving blankets to bundle together for the consignment sale. I also found a vintage Mickey Mouse bed sheet, a piece of Winnie the Pooh crib bedding, and a Winnie the Pooh throw. And a bandanna for Daisy, since I lost the one I got for 10 cents! Linen total= $3.38.

For books, I got 5 Nancy Drew books in great condition, a few books for my classroom, and some other children's books. $3.77.

Housewares... 2 Littlest Pet shops pets, some McDonald's toys still in their packaging (will throw that into a big lot with the stuff I got at a garage sale last week), a vintage Playskool puzzle set, some VHS tapes of Barney, Mary-Kate & Ashley, & Richard Simmons, a battery-operated dinosaur, some Mr. Potato Head parts, a notepad for myself, Blue's Clues radio, small My Little Pony, vintage Avon perfume, NIP Tinkerbell valance, & a NIP Wee Sing cassette & book. $7.11 for wares.

Also, on our way to GW we stopped at a sale advertised as "awesome" on Craigslist. There were like 3 kids that were getting in the way and being total pains. Whining to their mom about why their toys were out there and the prices of things. O.M.G. I spent $10 and I don't even know why I got some of the things I did. I got a knock-off Christian Dior purse for $1. For whatever reason I was thinking it might be authentic. I don't know why. I got home and found an authenticity card inside and got stoked! Well then I looked up how to tell a real designer bag vs. a knock off, and sure enough, it's a knock-off. It's simple and in excellent shape so I'll probably use it. I also got a Tamagotchi which is up in a lot right now, Carlos found an Xbox 360 game, I got a Melissa & Doug pirate chest, what I thought might be a Playmobil pirate ship but I don't know what it is after trying to research it, a Voltron or something figure, this box of random building pieces and parts, and a bottle of vinegar. Yes, I bought Giant Eagle apple cider vinegar at a garage sale. Well I needed it and it was still sealed. I used it today to make microwave pickles, YUM!

Teacher orientation starts tomorrow and goes all week so my summer is pretty much over. Which I guess in a way is good because I've been buying so much and not seeing a big enough profit just yet to justify spending more money, so it's good to cool down for a week or so.

Today's Garage Sale Successes and (kinda-sorta) Failures

Whew! I am tired! Got to some great sales today, including a huge one at a local high school. Sorry too lazy for a picture, but I'll tell you what I got.

Sale #1

Don't we love the dads who take care of the sales? I know I do. Case in point: I was sorting through a box of VHS tapes. Noticed a lot of Barney ones. The box said "25 cents each". Daddy-0 says, without any prompting by me at all, "I'll take $2 for the whole box." SOLD! When I get home, I count the tapes. Most are Barney, with some Blues, and a few various. Ends up there are 43 tapes in the box! What!!

At the same sale, I got a baggie with three virtual pets. I believe 2 are actual Tamagatchi brand. I also got a pack of blank cassette tapes. For both, I paid $1.

Sale #2

I got a Scooby Doo Mystery Machine kinda toy thing for $1, a Blues Clues suitcase kinda thing that has some art supplies in it for $1, a pair of kids' Born sandals for $4 (IDK if I spent too much... the completeds are iffy), & Carlos A.K.A. Mr. Big Kid himself got a toy light saber for $1.

Sale #3

This was the big high school sale. It's for athletic boosters and each sports' team had its own table/area. I got a ton of stuff, I'm going to see what I remember...

I got a bunch of fabric book covers for 25 cents each... I'll sell these to my students because book cover was one of the supplies for my class. I know I'll have kids who come unprepared to school, unfortunately...

A bunch of Mary-Kate & Ashley VHS tapes... 25 cents each

For my classroom, the following items:

talking GeoSafari globe $2, little bag of coin/token things for playing games .10, magnetic USA map (fun, I played with it, haha!) $1, some books from 10 cents to 50 cents, giant USA map floor puzzle $2, USA trivia game $2.

Also got a leash for the dog $1.

For resale... a set of hot rollers $2, Lemony Snicket game $1, Star Wars Monopoly $3, Risk game $3, some blank cassettes .50, some various books like Junie B. Jones, Berenstein Bears 10 cents to 25 cents, a bunch of POGS .50

Also got an Abercrombie tote bag $1, Life is good flip flops .50, and a cool pillow $1, both for myself

Weirdo husband got some Hulk gloves for 25 cents.

Here's my kinda-sorta failure... I also bought a set of Sesame Street books for $3 and a cool pop-up book for .50. At that table I had bought the VHS tapes... Ended up I only got one of my bags... Sigh... So I lost $3.50... They are open tomorrow but I doubt we'll go back, it's for a good cause anyway... So I'm bummed but I guess I'll get over it.

Sale #4

Set of notepads & a cool bandana for the dog .50. Failure #2-- I think the bandana fell out of the car at some point because I can't find it.

Then I dragged the spouse to Goodwill! I got this Hockey Guys set for $1.99 to sell at the consignment sale, but similar items sell well on eBay so I'll probably try that first. No insertion fee, no loss! Darling just had to have some skate shoes for $4.99.

Hoping I'll do well... Sold my Littlest Pet Shop lot but the buyer hasn't paid... Knock on wood... haven't had a nonpaying buyer yet...

Yays & Nays

Let me tell you some of my successful and unsuccessful auctions on eBay. We'll get the bad over first...

This was my first auction since I started reselling again. Even though it was a few short weeks ago, I already realize things I should have done differently. It was a lot of Little People animals and other generic animals. I should have sold the generics separately and held on to the LPs for later. You live, you learn. I paid $3.18. I only got one bid, $6.99. I underestimated shipping. Ended up with a very slim profit of 36 cents. Probably nonexistent if you factor in the eBay fees.

Secondly was a set of Sweet Valley High books. Paid $4.82. Sold for $9.98. After shipping, profit of $1.93. Not much but it did get me a positive feedback. So there's the bright side!

Just to vent, here's some more nays unrelated to eBay. I cut my finger open while chopping cabbage (from the garden!) for coleslaw. I cut it at a very awkward angle where it went through my fingernail. It still hurts. Also, I was making microwave bread & butter pickles out of my garden grown cucumbers. As I was taking the bowl out of the microwave, I dropped it on the floor. Poor pickles and sticky me.

Now on to the YAYS!!

Picked up a set of Pokemon tupperware lids for $1.07. Ended up with a profit of $7.93.

Got a brand-new Carters romper for $1.07. This was my only Buy-it-Now. Profit of $5.64.

How is everyone doing?!

:-D

So, I took some more pictures of a Littlest Pet Shop auction that's been up for almost a week. I linked to my photobucket account. Lo & behold, an hour later, I have a bid! Yeah! The power of pictures! I love seeing green instead of red.

Goodwill Finds 8/9/11

A special hello and thank you to those of you who have just found my blog thanks to Yard Sale Mommy! It's exciting and encouraging to see some new comments on my entries. For whatever reason, the comments aren't being emailed to me, but I'll try to reply to them manually.

Well today I got a mishmash of random things at Goodwill. I spent more money than I normally do, but there's truth in the adage that you have to spend money to make money.

For myself, I got the rooster picture. I collect roosters & have decorated my kitchen & living room with them. There's always room for another rooster. Note, I could have made a tasteless joke in that last sentence but I chose not to. ;)... Anyway rooster pic was $1.99

Also for myself, got the scrubbing mitt there. I thought I'd use it to groom the animals. It was still sealed but I've already tried it once on the fur babies. $0.99

Everything else is for resale. 2 pairs of Naturalizer shoes in pretty good shape. $3.99 a pair

2 new Leapfrog Leappad something or anothers... $1.99 each

new Wee Sing tape & book, $0.99

The things in boxes are both from IKEA. I don't know much about them, and I've never shopped at IKEA but I know they have some quality stuff. I did an eBay search and both items have sold in the past. One is called an Ekorre and it's like a baby swing. It was $5.99. Hope I made the right decision here or I might have to set it up and give the cats a swing around the liviing room. Hmm they might like that. The other item is some sort of lamp, Orgel. It was $2.99. Both still in boxes with the Ekorre still sealed.

We'll see how everything goes. I have a ton of listing to do. Right now it's been so slow & discouraging. I recently got a photobucket account so I can take a bunch of pictures of each item and not have to pay. So hopefully that will help. Later on I'll post about my recent sales & profits.

Just the Two of Us...

Happy Anniversary to my best friend and husband! Three years down, 80 more to go! I love you.

One Last Awesome Sale

Linking up with Yard Sale Mommy. Her blog rocks!

Daisy & her sniffer... investigating items that were in someone's basement for awhile!

The last sale we hit on Friday was the best sale I've been to in awhile. There was so much stuff there and it all brought me back to my childhood! Immediately I noticed something called Dolly Pops. It was old and something I'd never played with, so I knew it was early '80s or older. A quick eBay search on my phone showed some completed listings for $20+. I grabbed it. Had a $5 tag on it but asked if they'd take $4 and they did. I saw some Barbie accessories that I had as a child. Got geeked over, a quick bit of nostalgia, but passed on 'em. There was a boatload of older board games, priced at only .25. I had Carlos check some on eBay as I looked around at more stuff. In the mean time, I grabbed 3 VHS tapes still in wrap (.25 each), 3 oversized NKOTB buttons , .50 each, figured I could capitalize on the NKOTBSB tour and make some cash off these, and then I saw a Caboodle. I had one of these and it was so cool. I even had mini Caboodles that were like lip gloss holders. No price, but the guy there saw me eyeing it and asked his wife (?) how much it was. She said $1. I grabbed it because I thought it would be a good container for make-up and such. Those things are durable. A search at home shows these sell well so I will resell it! Carlos told me that the NKOTB board game sells well, so we grabbed that and 4 other board games. Thanks to I Can Sell This, I knew I could make a profit from the complete set of Big Bird Dictionaries. I got them, all 8 volumes, for $4. Finally my eyes gravitated to this huge box of McDonald's toys. I saw a bunch I had as a kid so I knew these were late '80s and early '90s. It said 5 toys for $1.00 on the box but I knew I couldn't just pick 5. So I bravely asked what kind of offer they'd do for the whole box. They said $8. Thinking of my fellow eBay blog friends, I courageously countered, "will you do $6?". They said sure. Everything together came to $18.50.

At this point two things happened. #1 I reached into my pocket and panicked. No $20 bill. CRAP! I searched around, and WHEW! It was on the ground. Close call. My potential eBay earnings were almost shot. #2, one of the people hosting the sale showed her sister (?) something on her phone. I knew they were looking at the value of something on eBay. They had caught onto us. Carlos is not very sly at using his phone. I can do it kneeling on the floor pretending to be searching through boxes, but he's super obvious. I could tell they were kind of irritated. But oh well. I walked away with my huge collection of loot. Later on it was great fun going through that box of McDonald's toys. There were over a hundred pieces. I will be working on getting these goodies listed and will report back about how I did!

How do you feel if you get outed as a reseller? I feel kind of dirty or like I'm cheating. Similar to the way I feel when I coupon and get things for FREE. But in terms of the garage sale, this is what I have to say about it...

Anyone with even a small amount of computer literacy can search things on eBay... even my dad can do it, and that's saying something LOL! They should have considered that "vintage" things might sell well and look it up BEFORE the sale. Also, it's going to be a decent amount of work to get these things listed. Especially the board games, as I have to see if there are pieces missing and figure out what condition they're in, and then figure out how to ship them. So for the people who try to deter us eBayers... yeah, it's work. Fun work, but still...

Great Sales on Friday

I am officially addicted to selling on Ebay & Half.com!! I've been building my inventory & learning a wealth of information from reading some blogs. Previously I was scouring yard sales & thrifts just for things for me and my family but now I'm on the lookout for resale items. And this will be the focus of my blog. Anyway, so on Friday DH & I ventured to a different area than we normally go, because Carlos heard about a restaurant he wanted to check out. The first two sales we visited were at neighbors' homes.

At the first sale, I found some vintage Polly Pockets! I have honestly never seen these at a garage sale or thrift! You would have bet I would have snagged them, because I loved PP's as a child and they're like the one toy I still have. I was super stoked to get these, even though they're just the houses and there's no people. I might venture up to the attic and take a few of my PP people; I know I have multiples. Each PP house was $1. I also got 6 books. I grabbed some for my classroom library as they were in good shape and newer titles. I think I will put Saving Juliet on Half.com though because it sells for a few bucks. The Dear America book I'm holding on to as I plan on listing a lot on Ebay when I get enough. Each book was .50. Spent $5.00 at this sale.

Next door I grabbed this Snugli baby carrier. It's in great shape. I signed up for a kids' consignment sale so I figure I can bring this there. I paid $3. I really should have asked if he'd have taken $2, but for whatever reason I didn't... I'm getting better at bartering though!

We went to a handful of other sales, but there was nothing fun. Next thing I got was a thing of yarn for .25. I'm going to use it for a team-building activity at school. At this same sale those blasted preschool entrepreneurs sucked us into getting a glass of lemonade for .25. They're persistent!

Next sale, no picture, but I got Jillian Michaels's 30 Day Shred workout DVD, .50. I picked it up for myself but will probably sell it. At this sale, I also got some items from the "FREE" bin/table... 4 pieces of boys' clothing (will try at consignment sale) and a book (to toss in my stack for Half Price Books)

Down the street we found another sale. As soon as we pulled up Carlos said "I am getting that Cavs chair!" Awesomely it was $5, but marked down to $2!

Goodwill Outlet

Hello, my name is Amanda and I am an addict. Addicted to the Goodwill Outlet store.

I just learned that there was such a thing last week, after I came across this blog. I read through several of her entries, in which she repeatedly mentioned something called the Goodwill Outlet. Huh? I thought to myself. Now I know Goodwills. I've been shopping hardcore at Goodwill for years. And I know what outlets are. I picked up my most favorite Gap sundress for only 10$ at the Gap outlet last year. But Goodwill and outlet in the same sentence. What?!!

Of course, I had to google this newfangled idea. What I discovered was like more crack to my bargain-hunting addiction. What made me want to snort it (are my drug references working? I don't know, I'm straight-edge!) was that there was a Goodwill Outlet only an hour away!!!

The Goodwill outlet is like a legal place to dumpster dive. This is where any merchandise that didn't sell at a regular Goodwill goes to hopefully get bought up. Instead of individually tagging everything, things are dumped into these big bins and you get to "pick". Then you push your shopping cart up onto a humongous scale and it gets weighed. You pay by the pound!

Well on Saturday my most-fabulous-perfect-wonderful husband of 2 years and 51 weeks drove us down to Dayton to check out the outlet. At first, I was a little weirded out. It was crazy packed for a Goodwill and at first I didn't dig right in. I walked around with my cart, and all I was finding was a really random assortment of junk. A "Happy 27th" birthday banner that I almost got for Amy Winehouse. Broken glasses. Pop cans. Pieces & parts to Lord knows what. But then the goodies started getting better and better. Ooh, a Little People person! That probably weighs an ounce or two, I can get that! Ooh, more Little People! Ooh, a laminated poster for class rules! Ooh, what's that? Let me throw that in my cart. And that, and that! Ten minutes later, I'm ravenously digging like the guy next to me. Begging DH to get me a soda from the vending machine because I'm working up a sweat.

This place was absolutely amazing. It was like I had died and gone to frugal heaven. I found the strangest, coolest things. And they were so cheap. I believe it was something like 68 cents a pound. Total ended up coming to maybe, $22; the receipt is in hubby's car. Let me tell you just some of the things I walked away with:

• lots of old patterns, including some for making clothing for Cabbage Patch kids
• a handful of Fisher Price Little People
• addition Learning Wrap-Ups
• Magna Doodle accessory kit
• Jello Beans jiggler mold
• a 1990s Jurassic Park T-Rex toy
• 1990s Godzilla alien toys
• new-in-box America Brain Quest
• packaging tape
• almost the complete alphabet in Sizzix die-cuts
• Little People farm truck, which scared the daylights out of the dog
• rubber stamp & ink pad
• two decorative mirrors
• Li'l Tuppers Adventures game
• Star Wars Empire Strikes Back music cassette
• Star Wars Darth Maul costume, book on computer programming, and a Star Wars folder (hubby's picks)
• HDMI cord-splitter-thingamajig
• two classroom posters
• brand-new Purdy paintbrush
• pieces for Mr. Potato Heads
  

probably more stuff that I don't feel like running downstairs to look at.

Like I said, most of it was so unbelievably random. Most of it is going to be put on Ebay. The Jello beans, Learning Wrap-ups, and action figure toys look promising.

What was so neato about the Goodwill outlet was that they bring out new bins about every 30 minutes. And everyone lines up. It's a dog-eat-dog world. People grab at the stuff before the workers even have a chance to stop the carts. A lady grabbed for something, lost hold of it, and it flew through the air and broke, falling on my toe in the process. Alas, it happens when you wear flip flops to the troughs.

Beware! When they bring out a new bin, it's like Black Friday on steroids. Oops, another drug reference. See DH there? He's the one under the TV monitor, wearing black.

Some of the people there are absolutely nuts! You know, those folks that give the whole thrift store game a bad name. Let me tell you a little story here. There was a cart sitting absently. It had several bags of yarn in it. I eyed the cart and walked away. Came back a few minutes later and it was still there, sans owner. Looked around, with no potential owners near. So I took the yarn. Isn't that the number one rule you learn when you're five and at the grocery store with your parents? Don't leave your items unattended. Well, about 20 minutes later, as I'm digging through more junk, some lady rudely comes up to Carlos and rips into him about "stealing" her yarn. He gave it to her, with some sort of tongue-in-check comment to "take it, obviously you need it more than I do"... Manners, people, seriously. It wasn't like I intentionally took something; a simple, "Excuse me, I think you have something that's mine" would have been enough. Or, if I had been that lady, I would have said, that's what I get for walking away from my cart. But anyway, if you ever have the privilege (or punishment if you're Carlos, but he loves me so much he lets me be) to find a Goodwill Outlet here's some advice:

• Bring gloves. I wore a pair of latex ones. The stuff you will find is grody. And there's sharp edges, broken glass, etc.
• Set aside a few hours. This isn't an in-and-out sorta thing. It's treasure huntin' time.
• Be prepared for nasty people. Turn the other cheek and kill 'em with kindness. I thought about throwing my sweaty gloves into Yarn Lady's cart. But instead I helped someone else find trolls.
• Remember, the heavier, the more it costs. See that Handy Manny workbench in the first picture? It was in great shape. But it was big and I didn't want to have to pay several dollars (remember, it's pay by the pound). So instead I looked for small doodads. The Little People, the patterns... Could you imagine the payoff if you found vintage Polly Pockets? Whoa!

So much fun; I'm already thinking of begging DH to let us go in two weekends. There's an aquarium down in Dayton so we'll make a day of it. It'll depend on how my goods do at auction... Is the payoff worth the drive? Stay tuned...