Chances are, you already know how awesome neighborhood yard sales are.  You can hit a large number of sales in one fell swoop, saving loads of time and money (gas ain’t cheap these days!)  If you shop with a friend, you can even spread out to cover maximum territory in minimum time.

My #1 tip for shopping at a neighborhood sale?  Be prepared to haul things!  In a busy neighborhood, it’s often quite crowded and traffic and parking can become an issue.  It’s not always easy to move your car from street to street, so I like to find a central spot to park and walk back and forth from there.  To make it easier on myself, I like to take a small, folding luggage rack with me.  It is small and light enough to fit in a tote, and folds out easily to haul a lot of heavy stuff.  See that little old lady up top?  That’s exactly what I look like!

Of course if you still have young children at home, a stroller works nicely as well, but for the stroller-less this luggage cart is hard to beat and it definitely works for me!

Hop over to We Are THAT Family for more great tips!

Make money from home, in your spare time, by selling your great yard sale finds – we can show you how!

Filed under: Shopping, Tips and Tricks by BellaBuggy
No Comments »

This weekend I had the pleasure to go yard sale-ing in the rain.  When I woke up on Saturday morning and saw the cool temperature and the pouring rain, I was very tempted to fore-go it.  Very tempted.  But I was on a mission to buy some Bibles, and our church youth group was having a sale to raise money for camp, so I forced myself to crawl out of bed.

Besides the rain, another factor was working against this yard sale – it was Derby day.  The Kentucky Derby may not matter in most towns, but in Kentucky, and near Churchill Downs, this is a huge deal.  As a church member I was sad to see the youth not having a great day, but as a buyer – wow.  This worked out very well for me.  Lesson learned – no matter how much I want to stay in bed, don’t.

On a lousy day, all the other buyers want to stay at home too.  If you brave the elements, you are rewarded with more selection and less competition!

From now on, I will definitely look for sales held on holidays and other ‘bad’ dates, and I will never cancel my plans because of the rain.

If you’d like to share what you learned this week, or read lessons from others, please visit From Inmates to Playdates.

Would you like to indulge your love of shopping, and put it to work for you?  Check out Here Comes The Stork- your guide to selling online!

Filed under: Shopping, Tips and Tricks by BellaBuggy
4 Comments »

I know it’s (finally!) spring and everyone is excited for yard sales and garage sales to get started. Those can be great places to get inventory, but I wanted to talk today about kids consignment sales which can be another fantastic place to pick up items to sell. It’s like going to a garage sale with 100 families (or more!) participating and all they have to offer is kids clothing, shoes, toys and baby equipment.

Have you ever been to a consignment sale? They can be lots of fun, but they can also be crowded and so packed with people and stuff that it’s hard to know where to look first. I’ve found several regular (either annual or bi-annual) sales in my area that I really enjoy shopping at. Along the way I’ve learned a few tips that I’m going to share with you.

Of course, the first thing is finding a sale in your area. A great starting place is http://www.kidsconsignmentsales.com. Click on the “seasonal sales” link and you can find a list of area consignment sales by clicking on your state. Canadian sellers, don’t feel left out, this site also has sales listed by Canadian province. Another way to find sales is to check out www.craigslist.org for sales in your area.

You’ve found a sale, marked your calendar…..now what?

• Be an early bird – get the worm. If at all possible, I like to shop on the first day of the sale and get there when it opens.

• Bring your own bag, basket or box. Only one of the sales that I regularly shop at offers shopping carts (and those are in limited supply). A big bag (like a beach bag), a laundry basket or even a box can work well for storing all your goodies while you shop. I’ve practically broken fingers (or at least cut off circulation for a long while) trying to hang tons of hangers on one hand while continuing to rifle through clothing racks with the other hand….not fun.

• Find out payment policies ahead of time. Many sales are cash only, so check that out and make sure you have enough money on hand.

• Consider being a volunteer. I’ve worked at two different sales and the benefits can far outweigh the little bit of time you have to give. Most sales offer a pre-sale (usually the day before the sale is open to the public) that you can attend if you are a consignor or volunteer. Shopping the pre-sale gets you access to the goodies before everyone else! The one sale I’ve shopped and volunteered at 3 different times…..each time I’ve done more than 1/2 of my total shopping during the pre-sale. My favorite time to volunteer is during the set-up time. Doing this allows me to scope out the good deals while I’m hanging clothes on racks or setting toys on shelves, so when the pre-sale starts I can go straight for my “must buy” items.

• Shop again the last day. Most sales run for 2-3 days and traditionally the last day is 1/2 price day. It’s a great time to snag some bargains!

• Know your price points. One downfall to a consignment sale is that there are items from many, many different sellers and everyone is allowed to price their own items. So you might find some real deals and other things may be pretty pricey. Know what you can spend and still make a decent profit and leave behind the overpriced items….maybe they will still be there on 1/2 price day and you can buy them then.

Happy shopping!

Filed under: Shopping by jmk_akk
4 Comments »

Yard Sales, Garage Sales, Tag Sales…whatever you call them.
They are great sources of inventory for your eBay store. People everywhere are Spring Cleaning and getting rid of stuff.

No babysitter? No problem! Bring the kids along (even your husband, too) and make it a family event. There are deals for all hiding amongst that junk stuff. It only takes one great find to make your day.

So get out, enjoy the Spring weather have a great time with your family and get some inventory!!!

Filed under: Motivation, Shopping by Melisha
No Comments »

One of the things I (and Kendra, also) get asked over and over is, “Can you make Here Comes The Stork T-shirts?” With our cute new logo, I have decided to take the plunge. Cafe Press has a huge selection of merchandise that just looks ADORABLE! I also think that our logo merchandise is perfect for expecting mothers/baby shower gifts. Who knows, maybe we’ll find new members through this avenue?  Anyhow, without further ado…

http://www.cafepress.com/TheStorks

And here are a few of my favorite items:

I’ll be using items from here for future giveaways-so stay tuned!

Filed under: General HCTS Info, Shopping by Rebecca
2 Comments »

So what do coupons have to do with turning trash to treasure? It’s simple. You might consider coupons for stuff you don’t use trash, but if you use them right, they could be a very smart way to get inventory for your business!

Now I know we have all heard about using coupons to stockpile.  If you have been living under a rock (like I have, tee-hee), let me explain the basics. Some folks use coupons to match up with store sales and buy items at very, very little or NO money. Yep….FREE. For example, if I have a coupon for a certain toothpaste that is for fifty cents off and my store has that particular toothpaste on sale for one dollar, I can get it for free. My store doubles coupons up to a dollar so I would use my coupon to get a dollar off of one dollar. That would make it free, folks! Ok, so what if I have ten or twenty of those same coupons? You get my point now, right? So this is great if you happen to use that particular brand of toothpaste, but what if you don’t? As we’ve already established this week, just because you don’t, doesn’t mean someone else doesn’t. If you can find coupons for products that you don’t need or don’t need 20 of, you can get them for free or for very cheap and sell them as lots on ebay! Anything from shampoo, toothpaste, lotion, vitamins and even seasoning. Couponing and stockpiling is simple but it is also an art. LOL! You have to learn to get the hang of it but it is worth looking into.

I really hope I have given you some useful tips on how to turn things that you never thought would be profitable in your business, into some good money makers!  I want to thank everyone who read, commented and encouraged me! This was also my first experience blogging and I was really nervous (could you tell?).

The winner of the $20 gift card to my Ebay store is…. totally kidding, lol! The winner of the $20 gift card to the retailer of her choice is Tammy-4puppydogtails! Congratulations Tammy!

Thanks again and we hope to see you all in the HCTS forums!

Filed under: Freebies, Giveaways and Prizes, Shopping, Tips and Tricks by Xochilt
8 Comments »

How many things have we tossed because they are incomplete or broken? As you walk by some departments in your thrift store you might think to yourself “It would be nice if only they were complete”. Well it turns out, it may not need to be complete! It may not even have to be in one piece! Be on the lookout for certain things that might seem like trash but with research, a few cents and some patience, they can become a treasure! You might even get a better profit because what you pay for it might be considerably less because of the condition.
One example is Scrabble games. I find these incomplete at thrift stores, garage sales, etc. I keep the tiles and when I have enough, I sell them as a lot.  As I said in my last post, I have no idea what people might use these for, but they do! Other examples are Lite Brite pegs and empty print cartridges. There was a thread started a few weeks ago in the General forum if you want to look into what other Storks look for.

As you are shopping for inventory, you might also walk past a few broken items. Don’t be so quick to walk past! Things like video cameras, picture cameras, old gaming systems and tools can make you some money when needed for parts.
Lastly, how many times have you left behind certain items because of, say, a broken zipper? Look twice, it might still be worth picking up! I recently posted in General about a Columbia coat with a broken zipper and someone suggested I check the warranty info. Sure enough, it was covered! I sent it in to Columbia with a note and my info and I just got it back, good as new!
Sometimes all you need to turn trash into treasure is to see things differently. One of the best things I’ve learned in this business is that just because I don’t like something or can see no use for it, that doesn’t mean someone else feels the same!
Got any other experiences with things you thought were trash and they turned out to be treasure?

Leave your comment and don’t forget that will enter you in the drawing for a $20 gift card!

~Xochilt~

Filed under: Freebies, Giveaways and Prizes, Shopping by Xochilt
7 Comments »

Here’s the story from member aanikamarie1. If this story does not make you want to join us, I don’t know what will!!

Stopped by my GW today, and picked up an interesting looking doll…put it back down, watched several other people pick it up and put it down..there actually were a couple of them but this ONE stood out, my mom was with me and I said, no I dont know anything about dolls and was going to walk away because it was 7.99 but mom said, oh I’ll buy it for you and jokingly said when I make a huge profit I just have to pay her back the 7.99

So I came home with this doll…and found a tag on it so started researching…
I couldn’t find the exact doll but these are completeds for the designer…

brace yourself and try not to pee your pants

http://completed.shop.ebay.com/i.htm…&_sop=16&_sc=1

I AM DRIVING 45 MINUTES BACK TO GW IN THE MORNING FOR THE REST OF THOSE DOLLS!!!!!!

Isn’t that just amazing? I’ll post a link to her completed listing results as soon as she gets it listed and sold. Congratulations, Aanika!! Are you going to Disney World?

xoxo,

Rebecca

Filed under: Shopping by Rebecca
No Comments »