Updates

Surgery Update

Today I went to see my surgeon for my post op visit. Everything is good and I feel like I'm almost back to 100%! Pretty amazing. I've had surgery before that took weeks to recover from. The medical assistant asked me if I needed her to write me a work release. It felt so good to know that I don't have to do that because I am self employed as a reseller! I don't answer to anyone but myself. Yeah!!

Bag Sale

After the doctor visit I went to one of my favorite thrift stores. It's a small store that raises money for the local lutheran school. They were having a bag sale on all clothes and shoes (that included hats) for $2 a bag. I filled six bags. I got a bunch of cool vintage hats, vintage jackets and tshirts. I also bought a bunch of other stuff that wasn't included in the bag sale. My total was about $45 dollars. I had so much that I had to check out and load my purchases and then go back in to shop some more. It's a great time for me to get a lot of new inventory as I just got an offer from ebay a couple of days ago to list free for a week. Since I'm almost to the end of my free listings for my store subscription the offer came at a good time.

Vintage Hat

Here is one of the hats I purchased today.  It's a hat that was produced when the DOW first passed 10,000.  Here is an interesting article about the hat with a picture of Rudolph Giuliani wearing one.  I couldn't find another like it for sale or sold so I priced it at $49.99. That might be kind of high but without any other hats to compare it to it was a little hard to know where to start. If it doesn't sell I'll bring it down a bit.

Sales have been kind of slow the last couple of weeks but with the surgery slowing me down a little I'm sure I didn't list as much as usual which translates to slower sales. 

Thanks for all of the well wishes. Like I said I'm feeling fine. It really didn't set me back at all. 

Scavenger Tip #4

Last week Wednesday I had a very unexpected expense. I had to have an emergency appendectomy. Fortunately I have health insurance through Obamacare. So one of my scavenger tips for the day is please if you do not have health insurance look at how you can obtain some. Without it I'd be thousands of dollars in debt today from last weeks totally unplanned event. As a self employed person I'm so glad that I can obtain health insurance. Although it is an expense I'd rather not have to have, I'm glad now that I didn't just assume I could go without if I tried to stay healthy. No-one can forestall certain health events like appendicitis.

My second scavenger tip of the day is to save cardboard rolls that come inside bubble wrap, tape or other types of things. I use these as a sort of box when shipping small breakables. I just tape the item into the roll (tape over each open end) and then put the roll into a polymailer. It weighs less than most boxes and costs nothing. I hate just throwing out the rolls. You can also use them as packing material if weight isn't an issue.

It's A Keeper

I love hand blown drinking glasses but in the retail stores they are out of my price range. I break drinking glasses often. I hand wash my dishes and use lots of dish soap and it's not unusual for a glass to slip out of my hands and break. I'm also picky about glasses. Because I don't have a dishwasher and hand wash my dishes I want my hand to fit in my drinking glasses when I wash them so I can get them perfectly clean (yes I'm a little weird about it). Lately I've broken a few too many of my drinking glasses and was on the hunt for cheap replacements whenever I went thrifting. I purchased a couple that are 'fine'. They meet the requirement to fit my hand but are nothing special. But the other day the thrifting gods looked on me with favor and I found two hand blown green (one of my favorite colors) drinking glasses for a dollar a piece!!!!! I love them and hope they live a long life.  See below one of my new beauties. It's prettier in real life. It has swirled ridges around it like an old coke bottle.  Don't you love when you find something at a thrift store that you want but would normally not purchase for yourself? Please let me know in the comments what gifts the thrift store gods have put in your cart just for you.

And here is a little lesson in identifying when a glass item is hand blown. You will see a rough circle at the bottom of the item called a pontil. That is where the glass item met the blow tube. Below is a not very good picture I have of one from another hand blown glass that I have for sale in my store. 

BOLO Bandanas

A couple of months back I picked up some Oshkosh B Gosh bandanas. Three of them I think. They looked like the traditional red or blue bandana that many of our dad's carried to blow their nose.  I didn't notice until I got home that they weren't all the same. Two of them had a polka dot design but one had paisleys in place of the polka dots. I did some research and couldn't find any of this particular one on ebay, etsy or google so I priced it high with best offer $99.99. Well I didn't get any offers or sales so after a couple of months I marked it down to $39.99. A couple of days ago it sold! I paid $1.15 for this. You often can find these at estate sales. Here are solds on ebay. Look at that Carhartt! Below is a picture of the one I just sold. Pros. Usually cheap, easy to ship, easy to store and easy to photograph. The perfect small.

Fun BOLO Little Tikes Manicure Set

I was doing some research on a vintage manicure set (not worth anything much). Often when doing research on something I find something else interesting to BOLO. This time was no exception. Today's BOLO is:

The Little Tikes Manicure Set

Check out the sold listings. I don't think I've ever seen this set but if I had I wouldn't have realized how good an item it was. Now I'll be keeping an eye out for it. It's cute isn't it? 

In Search of Smalls

I never used to think too much about the size or weight of things I was buying to sell. I bought what I liked, what caught my eye and what I thought I could make a profit. As a result I've got some large items that have been sitting for quite a while waiting to be listed. Staring at me. Lamps, vintage folding chairs, golf clubs, a vintage crib and more. What was I thinking?

Something finally clicked in my brain and lately I've been concentrating on finding good smalls. Why? Several reasons.

• I've been trying to get my workspace more organized and every time I bring in a big bag of new purchases I think to myself where is all of that going to go? Of course I don't think of that when I'm buying the stuff. 
• When I'm doing my shipping it becomes apparent how much harder it is to package up large, heavy, bulky or weird shaped items. First you have to find a box that fits. Often you have to cut it down to be the right size. 
• When I"m carrying a haul from the thrift store to my car and then from my car up the stairs and into my house it's so much easier when it's a nice light bag. 
• It is usually easier on the pocket book. 
• And lastly taking pictures of small items is also super easy.  

I find it takes some more digging to find these items because good smalls are usually hidden under other smalls! But it's worth it when you find a hidden gem. Below are some recent small finds that I was happy to come across.

I bought this Beatrix Potter rubber stamp today for .50. I've got it listed for $21. It weighs just a few ounces. It will easily fit in a flat rate mailer or go first class.

I found this cute vintage scottie night light yesterday again for .50. I've got it listed for $25. Again it weighs a few ounces. 

I have this vision that I don't think is realistic but is just a cool dream of only selling smalls. Everything would be neatly tucked away into drawers and cabinets and you wouldn't even be able to tell it was a workroom! Hah! With 1100 items currently in my inventory I don't really think that is possible but it makes for a pleasant daydream. What are some of your favorite smalls? 

Edited to Add: So today I went to a rummage sale. Bought a few smalls that fit into a plastic grocery bag. And then I bought 4 vintage cast iron claw feet from a tub or stove……So starting tomorrow….

Mystery Item

I got this yesterday at an estate sale. It's a brass duck clip that measures about 4 3/4" in length. It appears to be made to hang on a wall. Ive never seen one and am wondering what it might be for. The duck's bill opens to clip something. Any ideas?

Edited to add: see the comments. Tony from Mississippi Pickers came in with some great information.