Thrift Shop Commando

I made my goal of 1,500 total listings. A. lot. of. work. The last 200 or so have been Christmas CDs. Supposedly, there is a reseller in my area with 30,000 listings. I am betting that is a full-time job.  Algorithms fascinate me. I don't understand all of the ins & outs of eBay's algorithms, but I do know when I am listing in a certain category, that is where I am usually getting the sales. I was going great guns, then suddenly sales dropped off 50%. Sewing patterns still remain the most watched item.  I continue to refine listings. After I pass a milestone, such as this 1,500 one, I work up a buffer of about 25 items. With that buffer, I start ending low performing listings. My intent with CDs is to lot the lower priced ones together.  One aspect I do enjoy about composing the listings, is discovering the potential value of an item. I spend 25 cents to $2.99 on CDs, depending on value. Some I know right off have value, the off-beat ones, DDD recordings, and those that are

Thought this would be a cool fall image - me wearing the black strawberry print dress, with newly purchased thrift shop black leather gloves ($2.99) and black heels.  I try not to think of all of the fun fall activities I enjoyed prior to this forced lifestyle change. I was also involved in the social committee, planning the fall potlucks, and Christmas parties. Work social activities were my only in-person social outlet.  For a time, State workers were allowed paid time off to receive COVID vaccinations, to recover from those vaccinations, and to care for a family member stricken with the illness. Those protections ended in September. Now, it is anyone's guess what, if any, protections will continue.  Reseller update: I continue to list Christmas CDs. I did quite well last year selling those items, people purchased them well into January. I picked up some Barbie clothes so I will lot those up to make a few bucks. I sell a lot of little stuff - but all those littles add up! The sew

  I attended the Sierra Gold Quilter's Guild Sierra Gold Harvest Quilt Show, l ast day of the show late afternoon. I paid my $7 attendance fee and enjoyed the eye candy. The Guild had a table of freebies, and me, being the quilt book reseller that I am, found 4 books I can list. But on with the show! This Featherweight sewing machine and Mary Engelbreit fabric quilt was a sure show stopper for me. In one of the outside cases, this was the best I could do to avoid window reflection.  These are my "Best of Show" picks in no particular order. The artist's information is provided on the card image. Each one had some unique feature that prompted me to highlight their creation. Quite a group of talented people!

Sometimes there is no sourcing, I don't mind when it is all for me. This cross-stitched rooster came with the lot at a community yard sale. I also spent $10 on a bag of clothes. One garment was a custom-made black print with strawberries State Fair dress. I bought it from a young mother who had special ordered it, wore it once, and now it is mine. I hope to model it in an upcoming post. I even bought a red pinafore on eBay to wear with it.  Last year, I completed a quilt named Quilter in Quarantine for the fair. I was devastated, I am sure like all fair competitors, when it was canceled. Not only was I competitor, but had obtained a Media Pass for the past two years, and had covered the delightful creations in the crafts pavilion. T he Fair will be held in July 2022.  calexpostatefair Press-Release Right now Redwork quilt is in progress. I bought some supplemental fabric at retail. I want this one to be more than a wall hanging. I envision it in an upstairs bedroom in my cabin away

I forgot to share this little wind-up cowboy Snoopy. He was part of the estate sale haul earlier in the month.  I have pulled this cookbook I had up for sale - Disney's Family Cookbook . I wanted to check a recipe from it, so it has come back into my collection. Since we are on the subject of Disney, this is one of the cutest patterns in the lot of costumes I recently listed on eBay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/185061705529 I started a new process with listing Christmas CDs. I look up the title first in Terapeak product research in the eBay Seller hub. If the CD is only selling for a couple of dollars, I will just thrift it back. My first batch of 20 total approx. $300 in listed amounts, the lowest valued at $6 (iffy, but still sellable), to the highest valued at $35. Downstairs is the death pile of Christmas CDs, some 125+ waiting to be listed. If I average $300 per 25 listed, I can earn $1,500!  I seriously have to winnow down my personal collection of Christmas CDs. It must hover a

That is how tall the stack is of books I have recently listed on eBay. Only one more round of books to go before the  September push to list Christmas CDs. Found a wood CD rack at thrift for $15.99, with the ones populating the rack already listed. Before I started listing, I began deleting the non-starters, Big Band and Perry Como type stuff.  September is my prompt to start preparing my Countdown to Christmas posts. I have photographed my new round of 25 CDs I have found at thrift for my daily "What I am listening to," sections. Also,  I have added to my Christmas tree pin forest, and completed a Mary Engelbreit-bordered Christmas quilt.  On the thrifting front: It never hurts to ask if price can be negotiated. The sewing patterns were priced widely at hospice thrift from 49 cents to $2.99. I asked if I could purchase them all at one price and the cashier said, "How about $10 for the lot?" I said, "Yes!" It turned out to be 40 of them.  Made the rounds i