Confessions of a Yard Sale Princess

My adventures of being a thrifter and a yard sale princess.

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I am extremely proud of this steal. I got it from someone who originally got it from Bloomingdale's for $42.00. I bought it from her for only $10. I am really happy right now.

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The One With the Community Garage Sale

So went to three different Multi-Family Garage Sales. First one was a fundraising type sale for the local Marching Band. Bought a costume, cause of course, I’m a cosplayer. Plus it was only $5. Beats the $50 ones over at Party CIty and Spirit Halloween. And I also got foot warmers for myself (my best friend when I, myself was in marching band). Then we got to the garage sale where it’s an entire block. About 10+ garage sales I went to and bought some jewelry for me and my best friend, Emma. Some clothes that were cheap. And also candles for my mom. I also got Brita filters for my sister and I got them for free. AMAZING! I could’ve gotten shorts there too, but one of the women wanted to sell her shorts for 10 a piece. Like seriously?! It’s a garage sale. Not a fucking retail store! And I saw a wedding dress she had custom made for her and it’s Vera Wang and it cost 10K! I would spend 10K on my entire wedding! All in all I so some interesting stuff. One of the houses had a awesome light saber, collector’s item and I saw two bassinets which I thought were too cute! Other than COUNTLESS baby items, it was a good sale. Next I went to the Community Sale. It was insane! 21 garage sales happening at once! went to each of them, got a few things here and there like paint and supplies for cosplay of course. Also I got fabric for free, so that’s awesome! This was a HUGE jackpot for me. I love it! And I bought so much stuff and only spent $32. Not bad for 30+ garage sales in one day. I will be updating you guys with garage sales and everything that comes with it.

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The One With The Two Churches

So it is April and I’m back! Just went to two churches for a garage sale. They call it rummage sales, but I just call them garage sales. Both sales were HUGE. Three rooms worth of stuff. So I went to a Methodist Church where I found mostly gifts for my brother, who has autism so I was that much for excited to find things for him. Found a few Disney books for him. Bought more loom bands, for not that much. I also found a interesting thing:  Toilet Golf. Apparently it’s a mini pad that you place under the

Next I went to the Prebyterian Church. I’ve gone there a couple of times for sermons but now I’m back for the sale. I got more at this sale than at the other church. I found a make up bag, finally. A mini draw. Comic books for my boyfriend. X-Men The Last Stand and and the Matrix. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any supplies that I could use for my job. I also found nose guard goggles and the cutest penguin earrings for my sister. Today I spent $22.50, which is not bad at all considering that I was looking for things that I need for the house since I’m on my own now. But all in all it was a great day for “saling”.

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The One With Listia

Alright, so fall is coming, which means I will not be able to go garage sale shopping until next spring/summer. Which is okay, that means I can save up money. Well I have been going on this site Listia for a while. It's basically a better form of Ebay in my opinion. It claims to give you free stuff and it's partly true. There is an option in which you can PAY for you credits (what you use to bet on stuff.)

Credits Price  

3,500 Credits $5.00 limited time sale!  

7,700 Credits $10.00 (10% extra)  

16,800 Credits $20.00 (20% extra) Popular  

36,400 Credits $40.00 (30% extra) Best Deal

Now honestly, when I first started, I did pay for some of them. But other than that, I haven't invested in it too much. Other than this there are other ways to get points.

1. You can connect to you Twitter account. I barely use it so I really don't care if it posts on there.

2. On the top of the page, you can get 150 for posting on Facebook. I do not want to bother people, so when you click the facebook tab, if you want, click custom and set it to "Only Me." Listia cannot tell the difference so you get free points for sharing it to yourself.

3. Complete Surveys. Sometimes I do this, but it takes forever so no worries about that. If you do want to get credits, take them just be weary.

4. Watching videos. They have daily videos and you get credits for watching them/ You get 9 credits for watching it. So while you just play the video, go to another tab and do it until you are ready for the next one. Most videos are only a few seconds to a minute long, but some are actually above 5 minutes so I usually just let them play and I do something else like watch tv or something till it's over so don't worry.

5. Sharing a bunch of bids. You don't even have to bid. Just put it on your watchlist, go to it and share it to Only Me on fb. That's it and you get 50 credits. That simple.

6. Referring friends. You actually get a lot of points for this so I decided to do just that. There is a link and that's it. So, Enjoy the site if you decide to join.

https://www.listia.com/signup/1238792

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The One With The Civil War House

I went over to my boyfriend's house for a town wide garage sale. Never went to one so I got excited. That morning we went and followed my Yard Sale Treasure Map App on my Droid and as we drove we saw where we were going. We were garage sale hopping from 9am to 3pm. We had gone to more than 2 dozen garage sales, maybe more. The first house we stopped at was an amazing looking house. Like one from World War times. Big house. huge porch, Similar to this picture except the second floor didn't have a porch and instead it had a sunroom on the right side (also one the first floor there is a sunroom there).

And inside was a three-room kitchen, a basement that creeped us out. We went into one room of the basement and we all of a sudden felt weird so we left. Upstairs we saw some nightgowns that look like something a ghost would wear walking around with it. A doorway that had bookshelves leading into another room. It was amazing. Though we didn't buy anything, we had a great time touring the place.

Another garage sale was interesting. We parked on the sidewalk.. Suddenly, the old man was screaming at us "You are in my driveway by a foot. If you stay there I'm calling the cops." So we moved, then I looked back at him and started, "is that better?! Sir is that better! Is that better?" He just ignored me. Then at the garage sale (his neighbor's right next to his house) he walked over and stared at me as I shopped. What the hell? Don't give me looks like I did something wrong. You were  nasty to me and threatened me.

Yes, if you disrespect me or my friends for no apparent reason, do not expect me to be nice to you. I don't care how old you are. I treat everyone the way they treat me. And this old man needs to understand that his neighbor was having a garage sale. So I would be there for 1-2 minutes tops.

Another garage sale I saw a colorguard uniform that I was tempted to buy, but what would I do with it? I don't do guard no more.

So after all the garage sale shopping we were beat. Brian was looking for video games, which he did not find at all, we felt bad. Sam got a lot of clothes. My boyfriend got a few things. I got:

6 Tanks- 3 for $1.00

Egyptology Book- $2

Left Behind: Apollyon- $0.75

A nice black dress for a dollar and a corduroy jacket for a buck.

Today, we went to the flea market. There I was looking for a hair extension for my costume Vanellope Von Schweetz. There was a bag tied so it was so hard to see the hair things. Many wigs, many extensions, but I had a difficult time. They kept on telling me to take the whole bag for $10. Now I saw some prices on them and one of them was $20. When I got home I counted them and there was 25 hair extensions, wigs, I found four that I like so it was a good find. I can always sell the ones I don't need or want.

P.S- Yard Sale Treasure Map App wants to charge 1.99/yr for you to access the special features (that damn update). Want something similar to it, download Garage Sales Everywhere.

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The One With The Heated Ice Scraper

Wen to one near my house and was amazed. It said estate sale, but it was just a regular sale. I got Avatar for only 50 cents. It's a good thing so I can replace my bootlegged one. And I got yarn for only $5. And it was a bag full of them. There are 24 unopened skeins of yarn and I got them all for 5 bucks. Now I love seeing how much I saved on certain stuff so I looked at it. One of the skeins usually cost around 8.99. And I got 24 skeins of the same brand so it comes out to 215.76 for all of them. So I saved 210.76 on yard. THAT'S CRAZY SHIT! Also I got a heated Ice Scraper for the car for only $1 which usually costs $30. It is amazing what you can find for such cheap prices.

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The One With the Flea Market

There was a flea market near my friend's town and there was so much stuff. Got a nice green for $2. Then saw DVDs galore at it. Only for $2 each I got:

What Dreams May Come

28 Weeks Later

The Wolverine

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Bad Boys II (this one was a different vendor and it was only a dollar )

One Flew Over the Cuckoos nest

I went to a yard sale that was right next to it and got a nice silver bracelet for just 50 cents.

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The One WIth The Free Stuff

Now, spent three days with my boyfriend and his family. His mother is supposed to get surgery next week, so we both decided to spend time with her. During that she had a HUGE bag of clothes ready to sell, but couldn't so she gave them to us to look through. Ray found a bunch of shirts and pants for himself while I only found two shirts and a pair of pants (the clothes were XL-2X) so I told her to give them to me so I can sell them on my online garage sale group and at the garage sale in Englishtown.

So today, I went to an estate sale and got paper plates, sponges, a bag of plastic gloves, key rack and the Magic Hanger all for only $5.

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The One With The Motorcycle

So I went to a sale not far from my house. I didn't find much. It was a little disappointing. I mean, they said it would be an estate sale, but it was just another garage sale. Anyways, I decided to look around. There was a motorcycle that was just amazing looking. I've always wanted to drive on the back of one. Not own, but ride on the back, with someone. It was 1,300. Reasonable price, but I didn't get it of course. But I did get a heart shaped necklace, a LED light and a zebra throw blanket. It was an okay sale, nothing interesting, no adventures this week, but hopefully next entry there will be.

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The One WIth the Pre-Sale

Sorry about not posting in a while, I was dealing with family business. Plus my friends all wanted to hang with me. Me and my social life :p

Anyways, I went to this same garage sale I went to last year. They had some nice stuff. The woman who was hosting actually remembered me. I'm glad I have a memorable face. So I went there a few days before the actual sale. I had to take my brother because he was off from school. Now I'm pretty sure you're seen my other blog on here: http://i-love-someone-with-autism.tumblr.com/ my brother has autism and being that because of this, he is antisocial and introverted, he hates going outside. He has his DVDs, music and all his toys at home, so that's where he wants to stay. I had him bring his MP3 player on our walk so that he has something to do. He got agitated a little, but me playing with him by reciting Disney calmed him down. So I get there and the woman isn't there but her husband is. I go to the garage and see so much stuff. I ended up buying a few shirts and a maxi skirt. My brother wanted Curious George but I said no to it, but I did say yes to the two Mickey Mouse Club DVDs. He was so good, it wasn't fair to not reward him. So he got those and it was only $11 total. I told them I might be back to look again to see if I missed something. On our way back, I looked at boxes of stuff from a garage sale I went to the week before. They had just put it out to throw away. FREE GRABS! I looked around, saw two face cleansers and a very soft robe. Got them and walked home.

That weekend I went to to the sale and found a nice shirt.

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The One WIth the Fifteen Garage Sales

So I had a productive day today at garage sales. Got up at 8:30am (I was up the previous night celebrating my birthday so I didn't get to sleep until 3am. I was running on 5 hours of sleep.) got dressed and didn't even bother to eat breakfast. I was just that excited to go to this sale. It was a 10+ family garage sale. I was beyond excited. So I got there at 9:30ish and started my rounds. I found some things I liked, reminded me of my nephew and niece but didn't decide to buy anything I might regret. I headed for the clothes and got a few shirts and dress pants (I DESPERATELY NEEDED THEM). One of the family sales had a few shirts with the tags still on them. It's kind of annoying for a frugal person like me to see. Not only clothes with the prices still on them, but this prices were like $89 $130, etc! What in the world? Why buy a shirt or pair of pants that you won't even use? Ridiculous! Anyways, I found knitting needles and DVDs as well.

The Fast and the Furious

The Chronicles of Riddick

The Fifth Element

The I found an awesome lounge chair. It had the theme of cheerleaders, but I didn't care. I saw the price and it was only $1.00. So I bought that, held it on my back. Also a few shirts and a black wig (I'm a cosplayer). Also some Pokemon cards and a loom bag. I was tempted to buy a Slinky but I resisted. I smiled because I can just imagine walking down the street with these huge bags on me. I hit two more sales. One was 4 families and had many many clothes. I got two games for the Wii(Mario Part 8 and Disney Sing It)  and some Yu-gi-oh cards Then I hit my last sale and I was done They offered me water and an old woman offered me a ride home. I got home at exactly 12:00, the time my mom wanted me to get back  so we could go to the BBQ.

I feel accomplished. Went to 15 garage sales in 4 hrs.

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The One With The Leather Jacket From Florence

I went to two garage sales today. One I only got two designer tanks, nothing fancy. But then I went to a house looking like a villa. It was so beautiful, huge and elegant, it even had  24-hour surveillance cameras. So I found a green shirt for $5. Everything in my opinion was overpriced. I mean come on, we are at a garage sale. Nothing in there was even below $5 except books, and silverware which was $2. I also found a gorgeous wedding dress. It was only $75. It was nice and pretty, but it's amazing she's selling it for that low of a price. I didn't buy it of course, but it was a wonder. I found a leather jacket that looked so amazing and gorgeous it was like calling out to me:

It looked like this but without the neck and it is light brown. The couple who was selling it told me she got it in Florence, Italy and they got it for $250 That girl was crazy buying something that expensive. CRAZY! But since they live in a villa-type house I guess it's okay. But DAMN! I would look at it and think "hmm. This is gorgeous. I like it.", then look at the price and go "I don't like it that much." and walk away. So anyways, she was selling it for $40. At the moment, I was like 'Do I really want it?'. Of course I did. But I didn't have that much on me. Only $26. I was about to put it back I remember a guy that I met at the first garage sale, who told me this hint "Don't pay the price. Always try to haggle a little bit." And that's exactly what I did. I brought it down to $26. I was so happy with my purchase. It was amazing. This is a VERY Happy Birthday to me!

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The One With the Wedding

I went to a wedding yesterday for my two friends. One I met when I was younger in Summer Camp, the other I met in High School and been friends ever since, being that our  mothers work together. I told you i won't be going to garage sales so no new adventures, but I can tell you I wore a dress that I got from last year's garage sale summer shopping. I remember when I got it:

I looked around (my mother drove me to this one because it was too far to walk) and I saw two dresses: a red one and a light green one. The woman came up to me and asked me, "Hi. Are you going to your prom?"  I responded with, "I went to my senior prom 3 years ago." She thought I was 16. I ended up buying the green dress, that I ended up wearing to my friend's wedding for the cost of..............

ONLY $2!!!!!!! ISN'T THAT AMAZING!?

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"The One With the Cosplay" is going to be the last entry I'm make on garage sales for 2 weeks. I have a wedding to go to next week, then the following week is ANIMENEXT. Feel free to message me questions and I'll post them as an entry.

Thank you to my followers :)

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The One With The Cosplay

So I am going to ANIMENEXT in two weeks and I just figured out who I want to cosplay: Raven, from Teen Titans. FIrst, I looked at her attire:

So what I needed was:

Cape

Wig

Belt

Boots

Leotard

White Pantyhose

I have the black leotard (thank you colorguard!) and black boots (don't mind too much that it not blue ). So me and my mom went to Unique Thrift Store. We found the material to make the cape, a while wig that we can dye and decorations to make the belt. So the list was then:

Cape

Wig

Belt

Boots

Leotard

White Pantyhose

We then went to Fabric Collection and FabricLand to get the remaining stuff to make the belt. Took 2 hours, but we got almost all of it. Just need the white pantyhose and we're good.

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The One With An Light Blue Silk Robe

Going to another garage sale not far from the one with the custody battle, was a girl I used to go to school with. She was a grade higher than me. There was so much stuff, but the prices were insane so I decided to cut down on what I bought. I bought a few shirts. Some of them had pitstains, which is another rule of mine: Never buy pitstained shirts. Two pairs of pants. For pants it was insane because I can fit into size 6 clothes except for jeans because I got a big backseat. So while I can wear size 6 shirts, skirts, etc. I have to wear size 7-8 jeans. And most of the time they have to be stretchy. So anyways, I was intrigued by a robe. It looked almost exactly like this:

My eyes were drawn to it. It looked so expensive, but they gave it to me for only $3. It was so snuggly on the inside.

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The One With the Custody Battle

So I decided to revisit the garage sale that I was a week early to. I bought two things; a sundress for $1 and a wallet for $3, but was dropped to $2. Normally I don't eat in the morning before my walk and I'm okay, but I got thirsty and hungry. I saw that there was  rice krispie treats and playdoh. Let's get one thing straight. I'm 21, yes, but when I see playdoh i gotta play with it. I didn't buy it, but I did spen5 a good minute playing with it. So I asked one of the hosts what's the fundraiser for. She is a stay-at-home mom that got accepted in Harvard University. She wants to take her kids with her, but the father refuses. So I donated $2 (bought 2 rice krispie treats) and wished her luck. I really do feel bad. No child should have to stay away from their mother. Here is the website to donate:

 http://www.gofundme.com/8ie58o