Garage sale haul!

A couple weekends ago, it was Maryville's (my town) city wide garage sale day. As a certified bargain shopper AND an antique dealer, this is more fun than Black Friday. (I had to capitalize "Black Friday" since it's a national holiday and all.)

You should have seen my jeep. (I drive a 2 door wrangler). I'm fairly confident that I looked like a Clampett with all my treasures.

I thought it'd be kind of fun to show you my goodies, and my plans for them.  P&L statement at the end of this post. ha!


1.  Blue jars.  I buy them every time I see them (if they are under a couple bucks).  I can turn them over hand over fist if I mark them a fair enough price - which is in the $4-5 range.
Paid -$4.00 for 4. 
Sell - $20.00

2. Decorative Candle holders - decorative pieces like this go well - again, got to mark them cheaper than what they'd ever get them for in the store.  These are new, but they look "old".
Paid -$.50
Sell - $5.00

3. Vintage pyrex refrigerator ware - becoming popular again.  History's answer to tupperware.  I keep thinking I should use this myself, but it's nice to spend the $ instead.
Paid - $3.00 for 3
Sell - $18.00

4. Glazed stoneware.  The one on the right I paid $1.00 for.  I love the look of glazed stoneware pottery like McCoy.  (I can't remember the name of this company though).  The planter on the left, I actually saw in an antique store and looked at it for the longest time.  I almost bought it on sale for $18.00.  I didn't buy it.  Good thing because I found this one for $.50
Paid - $1.50
Sell - $5.00 - because the planter stays here.



5.  Kitschy kissing fish from 1950's Japan.  I love this sort of stuff, I'm in love with kitsch but I try not to have too much of it around!
Paid - $.50
Sell - $6.00

6. Empty original fisher price box for a trailblazer set.  I used to have a friend into FP, so I knew it was highly collectible.  Findinging an original box, to go with someone's complete set will increase the value of their collectible quite a bit.  This will go on ebay.  They were wanting $1.00 but when I asked him if he'd take less, I ended up paying a quarter.
Paid - $.25
Sell - $10.00

7. Set of small Currier and Ives lithograph prints in an envelope.  Not something I normally would buy, but I see potential profit.
Buy - $.50
Sell - $5.00

8.  Brass Easel.  Nice deep easel, harder to find.  Marked korea - very pretty.  Probably should have marked it more, I already sold it.
Buy - .50
Sell - $4.00





9.  A quilt rack.  I original bought this to put in my booth, but then I remembered that my sister Amber had been looking for one a couple years ago.  I asked her if she still needed one and she said yes so it's now hers. 
Paid - $3.00
Sell - $0.00

10. Jewelry box.  Have you priced jewelry boxes lately?  They are RIDICULOUSLY expensive.  I know this because I wanted to buy one for each of Gene's granddaughters since they had no place to keep their jewelry.  Expect to spend $20 on a cardboard jewelrybox.  So imagine my excitement when I found this one for $2.00  It's in mint condition.  I'll be giving it to Gene's youngest granddaughter Bailey for either her birthday or Christmas.  Probably with a pretty piece of jewelry in it.
Paid - $2.00
Sell - $0.00

11. Rattan chair.  Remember senior photos from 1983?  Yeah, rattan was the shit back then.  Ironically, it's still kind of shit now.  A year ago I declared that I would find a rattan chair and rock it out on my next senior girl.  Took me a whole year to find one.  I'll use it a few times and then resell it.
Paid - $5.00
Sell - $0.00 (for now)

12.  Lead crystal decanter.  Bought this because I thought Gene might like it.  He loves crystal and we have a really pretty bar we built.  We already have a couple decanters on it (including one I surprised him with for Christmas) so he turned it down.  Quick trip through the dishwasher and it was ready to sell.
Paid - $2.50
Sell  - $17.50



13.  I ran into my mom at a garage sale, she told me of one that she was waiting on in a nicer part of town.  About 15 min before they opened, I showed up there and there was a line outside of people waiting.  Since I'm not THAT dedicated, I sat in my car and waited for the rush after the doors opened.  When I made it inside, I found my lawyer lived there.  I also found this lamp.  It needs a tiny bit of work to make it happen, but what a bargain.  I texted my mom (who wasn't there) and told her what she missed out on.  She loves dragonflies and stained glass.  booyah.  The grasshopper passes the baton.
Paid $5.00 - I will invest about $10 more to fix the broken bit.
Sell - $50.00

14. Basket.  I don't just buy any old basket.  I want cute baskets that are more wooden and less rattan.  Better quality.
Paid $.50
Sell $3.75

15. Sail boat stain glassed piece.  Very pretty, pretty specific genre but the right person will love it.  Sometimes it pays off to show up too early to a garage sale.  I was 20 minutes early - it was a mad house.  I missed out on a bunch of good stuff not being aggressive enough.  Note to self: more elbows... less eye contact.
Paid $7.50
Sell $33.00

16. Cross stitched kitchen piece.  A little harder to sell, but very well done, and professionally framed.  I want this piece to move quickly so I priced it to sell.
Paid $1.00
Sell $13.00



17. A crate of old pepsi and diet pepsi bottles.  He was using them to bottle his own beer.  He had a bunch more he offered up, but I didn't know how well they would sell.  I love how they look sitting in the blue crate.  At the moment, they are sitting on my deck under my blue bench.
Paid - $5.00
Sell - $23.75 ($1.25 ea)

18. Canoe shelf.  There are always a lot of unlisted garage sales skyping off the neighbor's listing.  Sketchy if you ask me, but you do what you gotta do.  After I bought the lamp from the lawyer, I saw another garage sale across the yard.  I walked in, and before I even got to it, I said "I'm taking that".  Canoe shelves are pretty cool.  This is a reproduction obviously, but a bargain at $5.00  Original intention was to sell, but it will probably end up in my own bathroom holding towels as it kind of goes with the "theme" I have going on in my house, which is "rustic boaty cowboy meets renaissance art" 

Haven't you heard? it's all the rage.
Paid $5.00
Sell $0.00


Total investment?  $42.75
Potential profit? $214.00

Plus I get a bunch of stuff for essentially free after I sell a few pieces.

Sometimes I know this makes people angry, so I never say I'm buying to resell.  Why, I'll never understand.  You DO understand that Wal-mart makes a profit right?  Buy low, sell high... kind of what America is all about.

But also keep in mind I have expenses like booth rent, and commissions, so even if I sold every single one of those things, I'd still be in the hole for the month!  Yikes.

We recently moved stores (by force, our store moved and didn't have room for all of us).  I've decided that this is the LAST TIME I'm moving.  If I don't make a go of it there, I'm out for good.

Which means... a kick ASS garage sale at my house next year.
(underwhelming "yay")