Some friendly competition & sales

When I was younger I met a girl at my church named Mandy. She was a little weird, and so was I. Her mom loved good deals, and so did my mom. It was a match made in heaven! Our families became friends, and I spent most of my adolescent, teenage years becoming good friends with this girl and her family. After we were both out of high school we worked together at a local elementary school. We ran an after school program there... and let me tell you.... we were awesome at our jobs... Those kids had some awesome parties, some awesome games, and interesting activities. Because Mandy and I think so much alike, the kids had such a fun time... Before and after work Mandy and I would spend our time vegging out, talking about single cute guys, but most importantly... going to thrift stores and yard sales looking for awesome deals. (I told you it was a match made in heaven). On weekends we would go yardsaling with our moms... The 4 of us would pile into our car and go scouting for deals.....
Fast forward a few years.......
Mandy lives in another state now. I have kids. She has a son. And we keep in contact quite often...(actually at least 5 times a week). I have FINALLY gotten her on the eBay train. Its taken me months of bragging to her about my sales... but it finally worked... and let me tell you.. She is alot better at scouting out items to sell on eBay than I am, and has been selling like crazy. In fact she has been selling so much, it has made me a tad bit jealous.... There I admitted it. She at one point had more listings then me. So I stepped up my game. I listed a ton of items one week and jumped ahead of her. My hubby told me that If I could stay 15 listings ahead of her every week, he would take me out to dinner of my choice that weekend. (Hows that for some motivation. I will NOT turn down food!).
Challenge accepted. Mandy knows of my bet with my husband, and we are listing like crazy. We both have been encouraging and making sure we stay on top of our sales/listing. Its been so fun to have a friend in on this, and my sales are improving.
I even told Mandy she should move back here so we can thrift together, and after we both realized that might be too competitive being out together looking for the same deals, we both realized that could be a bad idea. (HAHA).
Moral of the story: Find a friend in another state to be your ebay buddy, and compete with. Great motivation.

(Me on the left, Mandy on the right- Back in our prime years- being our crazy selves)

On another note, here are some recent sales- (All sales are Free shipping unless noted):

Christmas cookie cutter lot.  Paid $1 Sold $21.95

 Babystyle Peacock Costume. Paid $5 Sold $25

The post office lost this package and then it was found. This is a crazy story I am saving for another blog post. 

 Kids Play Tools Lot Paid $2 sold for $24.95

 Hard Rock Cafe Hawaii Bear Paid 50 Cents sold for $9.95

 Starbucks Tazo Tea Bone China Cup Paid 75 cents sold for $10.95

Disneyland Baby Dumbo Plush. A gift to my daughter. Sold for $19.95

Happy Thanksgiving.I am so thankful for my family, our health, a beautiful home to live in, and all of you! I love the ebay blogging community!!!

Goodwill Boycott. WHO IS WITH ME!?

Thats it. I am fed up. Their overpriced items are one thing, but I am so tired of them destroying all these great finds with sharpie markers! So what do you know... I wrote them a little letter today:

To Whom it may concern;
I am a long time thrifter and antique enthusiast. I frequent many thrift stores throughout California, and whenever I am traveling. I live in (my city) California and frequent the (my city) Goodwill store occasionally. This particular store has a horrible system for marking prices. They use sharpie markers on everything. Clothes, toys, kitchen wear. You name it, they mark it. The problem with this is that it virtually destroys whatever it is they mark. I will pick up any article of clothing and can easily find a big 5 marked right on the inside of a shirt, and it clearly bleeds through the shirt and can be seen by anyone who wears it. Yesterday I visited this (my city) Goodwill and purchased a brand new teddy bear that was in great condition. Upon returning home I looked over the bear only to realize the foot of the bear has a large “2” marked on it foot with sharpie marker. I cannot get the marker off of it, and the bear is destroyed. I have skipped buying multiple items because they are destroyed with the price marked on them. Purses will be marked with a price written directly on the purse, a pair of sunglasses with sharpie marked on one of the sides, a set of books duck taped together with the price written on the book. There are so many examples of how this careless way of pricing items has destroyed the items and eliminated any chance of them being bought.

I frequently donate to Goodwill and will no longer do so until I know that my items being donated will not be destroyed.

Something needs to be done about this. Because of my voice in the trifting blogging community, and the many contacts I have across the US, (YES I AM TALKING ABOUT ALL OF YOU)I know that not all Goodwills mark their items this way. Please do something about the way this Goodwill destroys perfectly good items.

Sincerely

Ashley (my last name)

So I am no longer donating or shopping at Goodwill until something changes. Plus, Salvation Army would make better use of my items since their proceeds help many men and woman across the country.
If you have a problem with your local Goodwill go here and let them know.

Oh and PS here is the ruined bear. It has a "O" for the worker who price marked it and a "2" for the price. If I had seen that before I bought it I wouldnt have gotten the bear obviously, and I wouldnt have paid $2 for the dumb bear.

Take THAT Goodwill.
 

BOLO Dala Horses

I have catching up to do! Especially with all my favorite eBay bloggers! We have had such a busy month in October, and I was sick for almost the WHOLE month.

Soo a few weeks ago I decided to hit up a favorite thrift store with my mom. She loves thrifting as much as I do. Occasionally my mom will bring me home things to sell on eBay, and usually they are worth nothing. I appreciate her effort, but have had to roll my eyes occasionally because they are usually silly things.
On this particular day, my mom found a beautiful small wooden turquoise horse sitting on a shelf. She told me she thought it was worth something. I kind of brushed off the horse, and she told me again that I needed to look it up to see if it was worth anything. I reluctantly pulled out my phone to search for this horse. It did have a marked "NILS OLSSON." I pulled it up, and what do you know... they were selling anywhere from $20-$80.
So I bought my little horse for $1 and went home to list it.

Well... I listed it at $34.99 FS and it sold within 20 minutes.

I was happy but realized I priced it too low. Later after the buyer received the horse, she told me that this was a very RARE color. Sure enough, I looked on eBay, and there were not any other turquoise ones. Dang it. I knew there wasn't any other turquoise ones on eBay, but I didn't really think to list it higher because of that. Apparently, I was too excited about my find.

So these horses are called "Dala Horses". They are Swedish... and Nils Olsson isn't the only one who makes them.
Check out the completeds here.

Moral of the story: Don't rush to list a listing you are excited about, and always listen to your mom.