4/21/15 Update

I'm back with an update! Life always seems especially busy in the Spring. Life reemerges after the cold winter. We come out of hibernation. We naturally want to get things back in order. It is instinctual for us to start losing weight, cleaning house and planning for the summer. We have lots of energy too, and of course an off shoot of all this is yard sale season. There has been too many yard and estate sales in Virginia Beach over the past few weeks to tackle them all. I've tried to hit up the promising or close to home ones.

Last weekend I stopped at two sales in a nearby neighborhood - they were both a bust.. but I "pulled a Martin" as I call it now because of my favorite blog, and stopped at two huge garbage piles right down the road. I pulled out some silver plate flatware, an old in-dash Pioneer tape deck (completeds here) and several military flight suits and a flight jacket made of 100% Aramid (completeds here).  Not going to make me a millionaire but solid finds for sure. Today was trash day in our neighborhood, and I stopped at a promising box and pulled out a Vera Bradley purse. Seriously WTF?

After a SLOWWW few weeks I was getting frustrated and disheartened with eBay. I decided to go "back to basics" and work things like I did last year when I first started eBaying. Yep, auctions! I ran a bunch of .99 auctions on some of my kids old clothes - stuff I wanted out of the house but didn't want to donate. Those sales spurred more sales and I turned out to have the best week I have had since the fall. Yesterday was a huge day for me and I made over $450. This gave me a big eBay boost which I was needing, and also gave me some blog-energy. I will plan on updated monthly or semi monthly with some highlights.

I've been working hard the past two months listing TONS. I had over 700 items for a few days - followed by a bunch of sales, and haven't caught back up yet.

Some fun highlights since I last updated - as always I charged shipping unless otherwise stated:

This wooden serving lotus sold for $179.99

The leaves detach as bowls, and there is a bowl in the middle.

I profited about $140

Purchased at an estate sale in the fall

 

This is a QVC fragrance that I paid $2 for at an estate sale.

It sold on auction for the opening bid of $19.99

This is an example of me going back to basics. I needed the cash flow that the auctions afforded.

Thanks to other bloggers I finally decided to buy some fragrances - so far so good!

 

I can't remember where I got these Fire King restaurant ware bowls.

I do remember paying $2 though.

Sold for $26

 

I paid $1 for this Red Wings poster at an estate sale

I took a best offer of $20

 

Of course it wouldn't be a Beach Thrifter update without me boring you over flatware

This lot of Oneida Tortellini pattern sold for $120 Free Shipping (small flat rate box)

I continue to love selling flatware:)

 

I bought 4 of these at an estate sale. I looked behind a door in a laundry room and there was tons of ziplocs etc. I remembered reading a blog post that vintage types of these would sell on eBay. This is wax paper. The pink box with little mod flowers caught my eye.

I've sold one so far for $9.99

 

I bought a dozen or so Life's Good hats at NWT or NWOT at Second Chance thrift maybe 6 weeks ago. These hats retail for $20. I sold this one for $39.99 Free Shipping

Several others have sold for full price, and some for best offer. I've made at least $15 on each one. This is a great example of charging what you think people will pay - not what the MSRP is. I chose to charge more because these are all discontinued designs.

 

This butter dish is AMAZING. 

It literally still had butter in it when I bought it at an estate sale.

I paid $2, sold for $19.99.

I think the new owner probably gets a lot of joy every time she uses it, it's just so cool.

 

I hope that your spring has been filled with lots of amazing finds and sales. I hope that the pollen isn't as bad where you are as it is in Virginia Beach. Today's count was over 1800! And that you and your families are in good health. Let me know what's been going on with you and your thrifting.