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Post by Embri on Nov 15, 2019 22:55:23 GMT
I've never thought of thrifting as a skill, but you're right of course. It's something that gets better with experience and practice. I've been buying second-hand stuff since, well, practically forever. My grandmother used to take me to the Salvation Army occasionally, and garage sales were a regular and looked-forward-to weekend activity while I was growing up and into adulthood. Anything we no longer have a use for and has some life left in it goes off to the thrift for someone else to enjoy.
Flipping - though it wasn't even called that back in the day - was my first real job. I got into it by accident, mostly as a way to fund my own collections and get rid of extras I didn't need. This was before eBay even existed, so there was a lot more stuff available to find locally. Nobody carried around a cellphone to look things up because most of that information didn't even exist on the internet, nor could you even get data on a phone! Had to carry all your knowledge in your head, so it was almost exclusively collectors who did it. I loved the hunt and I loved finding exactly what my customers were looking for. Nothing felt quite as good as reuniting someone with a beloved childhood toy or game they hadn't seen in decades. Fixing up old things or finding all their parts to make them whole again was also pretty rewarding. Dealing with the general populace and the inevitable horde of kids, not so much!
Nowadays we have our fair share of pickers, but they don't compete for crafty stuff. They're after the 'big scores' like old cameras, vintage toys, video games, and easily scan-able things like books/records mostly. Those "amazing" haul videos you see on YouTube are largely staged - they're not making their money on the haul, but on the video ad revenue. Just like that show, what was it called... Storage Wars! Same idea, same M.O.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2019 8:43:39 GMT
Embri You are definitely a reseller. I know people use flipper and reseller interchangeably. Oh, I don't think so. Resellers are kind, work with each other, don't overcharge, do not get competitive and resell things that they love and have expertise over. Don't make YouTube videos tearing down people who donate items by calling said people who donate "Stupid lazy people who throw money away by donating, so why not make a profit off of them?" A friend showed me two videos of those D-bags and that is still in my head, lol. Resellers also know the true value of said items and not just use Ebay for a gauge. Flippers- Run through stores and push a little boy out of the way so they can set up their little scanner area so they can start scanning bar codes of the books. I saw this today. I was seething. Flippers also compete with each other. overcharge, and most important have no expertise whatever they are selling. This is the best test to find a reseller or a flipper. A reseller can tell you about the item and even the history of what you are purchasing. A flipper is vague and lot of um, uh, let me get back to you, dialogue going on. I am not good at reselling. I am very shy IRL. I do have friends who resell and they give me lists of items that their clients are looking for. I even have a few of those clients request me to find said items. That is really sweet and flattering. I do get paid a nice fee. I am sure not piling my cart up with items for people and then running to them and throwing all that junk on them, lol. I might do about a dozen items a year. I have a specialty, that surprisingly is not crafting. I have a good eye for it. Embri you are a reseller!!!! I did go thrifting today. An elderly lady told me I was a very polite lady. Awwwww! She made my day. Nothing much in art items. I did see a lady had the brand new Victoran magazine in her cart. That thrift store sells magazines for a quarter. I was so happy for her. I loved the young college girl buying her first Christmas tree, and some ornaments. You all should have seen her. She was so proud of that tree. I was back by the trees when she was picking one out. She opened the box and made sure all the branches were perfect. Her score was $10 for all her new pretty X-mas goodies. She had to tell me and the cashier all the ideas she had for decorating her tree. It was so cute. I loved it! I like watching people score treasures that make them smile.
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Post by Skellinton on Nov 20, 2019 19:28:20 GMT
I got a Fiskars Procision trimmer today at our thrift store for 23.99. It cuts perfectly, I don’t really need it, but I can take it into school for the kids to use on scrapbooking day and it is a nice trimmer. I love my new CM trimmer, but I think I will use this one when I am cutting my 12x12 cardstock down to the 9x12 size.
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Post by Embri on Nov 20, 2019 21:10:19 GMT
Nice one! I've gotten a few trimmers/cutters at thrift, always a bit of a toss-up if they're going to actually work or not. Glad yours is perfect.  You can never have too many paper cutting options. Nothing really crafty for me this week. Some self-sealing 8x10" poly bags, and a French copy of 'Twin It!", a card matching game. There was a set of border and corner punches (floral) on the pegs but they wanted ~20$ for the set, yikes no. I don't use a lot of flowery stuff to begin with. Any punches that come home with me need to be basic and versatile. There was also one set of distressed flower Stampin' Up wood block mounted stamps, another pass at 7$. Not much else of note - thrifts are gearing up for Christmas so there's a bunch of new junk taking up space. I'll be glad when we're at year's end at last. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2019 6:58:02 GMT
@skellinton I love it! Great find! I love it even more you are taking it to school. Back in my day we had those Marie Antoinette guillotine trimmers that would cut your hand off, lol. Do you all remember those? I love that modern day kids can cut paper with nice safe trimmers. Embri I agree with you about the dart board comment you made earlier. Twenty dollars for a punch set?  !!!! They lost their minds, lol. I can buy a new punch set cheaper than that, with a coupon. My thrift stores have been a bit blah too. |
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Post by Embri on Nov 21, 2019 8:27:03 GMT
@skellinton I love it! Great find! I love it even more you are taking it to school. Back in my day we had those Marie Antoinette guillotine trimmers that would cut your hand off, lol. Do you all remember those? I love that modern day kids can cut paper with nice safe trimmers. Embri I agree with you about the dart board comment you made earlier. Twenty dollars for a punch set? !!!! They lost their minds, lol. I can buy a new punch set cheaper than that, with a coupon. My thrift stores have been a bit blah too. Hey now, I love my 'pay attention or lose your finger' guillotine trimmers! Sure, you have to pay attention when using them but they cut well and self-sharpen, something most modern ones can't seem to manage. I wouldn't let kids use them without proper instruction but that holds true for a lot of tools.
Yep, 20$+ for a corner, a border and a smaller border. I think it was 12$ for the biggest one, 6-8$ for the other two, each. They're off their rockers with the pricing some days, no joke. Still not as silly as the stuff that has dollar store price stickers still on it and they're asking twice that amount.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 22, 2019 7:32:56 GMT
Embri Girl, you are braver than me!!!!  Those 1970's guillotine trimmers were death traps. I was terrified of them in grade school. Even in high school when we were starting to go into the 90's they still had those old trimmers. I was responsible for the school bulletin boards and I had to use those trimmers. I was a nervous wreck, lol. I know a few paper crafters that just scour the thrift stores for those old trimmers because they are workhorses. You got a lucky find according to some paper crafters. I think you got a murder weapon, ROFL. I have a Swingline guillotine trimmer. It is the modern one with a safety guard. I love mine. I mainly use it to cut bulk paper or thick papers. I have the little Fiskars Photo trimmer. Never ever to the 70's death trap models, lol.
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Post by Embri on Nov 27, 2019 7:25:43 GMT
Hah, well they're both (I have a letter size and a full 13" size guillotine) my murder weapons now, happily! Not the most precise cutters in my arsenal but they chop even mattboard like champs.
Shelves were pretty picked over today - lots of folks out shopping, gearing up for the holiday season - but I did end up bringing home a bag with these stamp bits in it. ~1.50$ for the lot. All of them are pigment pads from what I can tell. All the smaller cubes were brand new wrapped in shrink. The bigger ones still seem plenty juicy too. Normally I'm not too keen on picking up stamp stuff because I rarely use it, but I didn't have most of these colours and the price was right! Small cubes are face down because their labels don't represent the colours well. There was also a smattering of random stamps included.  |
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Post by refugeepea on Dec 1, 2019 2:10:05 GMT
The Studio G stamps are from Walmart. I have two or three and they've held up surprisingly well for the $1.00 price I paid. Do you know the brand of the turned over stamps Embri ? |
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Post by Embri on Dec 1, 2019 4:41:50 GMT
The Studio G stamps are from Walmart. I have two or three and they've held up surprisingly well for the $1.00 price I paid. Do you know the brand of the turned over stamps Embri ? - While I haven't had them long, I'd say the same; they seem just as good as any other pigment ink pad I've tried. The colours are particularly nice, so is the size. The five smaller cubes are all "craft smart". From Michael's I'm pretty sure? |
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Post by refugeepea on Dec 1, 2019 17:46:22 GMT
The five smaller cubes are all "craft smart". From Michael's I'm pretty sure I'm not familiar with that brand, the back of them look just like the SEI mini ink pads. I also have the same problem of the ink not matching the color. I found a stamp that says ho ho ho and stamped a "ho" image and adhered them to the back.  |
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Post by Embri on Dec 2, 2019 1:08:56 GMT
They may very well be the same product as SEI - a lot of craft supplies are simply rebranded versions of the same white label product all made by the same factory. Happens with food a lot too.
I've taken to indexing all my pads, because so many of them are just not the right colour on the label. Thankfully I don't have too many to worry about, but it's still nicer that way.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2019 8:59:37 GMT
Embri I love your ink pads and stamps. I have the StudioG ink pads and they are still going strong. I think they are a billion years old, lol. I reinked two of them a couple of days ago with my reinker concoction I make and they are now even better. I love Studio G ink pads. They are treasures. I was at a thrift store one day I saw Distress Inks brand new for $1. I had the colors so I didn't buy them. They also had StudioG ink pads marked $3! I am like "These people are stoned! That has to be the reason why they price things so darn silly!" ROFL!
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Post by Frazzled Mom on Dec 7, 2019 23:04:56 GMT
My Goodwills have had a ton of really old wood mounted stamps and cheap yarn lately and not much else in the craft section. Yesterday I found a boxed Heidi Swapp Memory Dex Spinner in the plastic aisle. It was marked $2.99, but was the color of the week so I got it half off! I'm pretty stoked since I started making MDCs not too long ago.  |
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Post by Embri on Dec 8, 2019 4:29:21 GMT
My Goodwills have had a ton of really old wood mounted stamps and cheap yarn lately and not much else in the craft section. Yesterday I found a boxed Heidi Swapp Memory Dex Spinner in the plastic aisle. It was marked $2.99, but was the color of the week so I got it half off! I'm pretty stoked since I started making MDCs not too long ago. It's always a great feeling to find something you've wanted at a bargain price! None of our stores have half-off a particular colour days, alas. Last week was a blank, didn't find anything worth bringing home. It's all good, I have more than enough stuff to play with for now.  |
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Post by pas2 on Dec 8, 2019 10:58:48 GMT
i think the junk journaler thats purging their stash was at it again. My smaller Goodwill had a basket of lace on those large plastic cards from the store, with a yard or more of 2 or 3 kinds of lace per card for $1-$2. I bought 4 cards. I should drag DD back there, she uses lace to trim period costumes.
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Post by Embri on Dec 9, 2019 1:46:48 GMT
I wish I had uses for lace, because it's all so pretty. I have a tupperware container full still from my early teen years, so cannot justify buying more but I do like to look, particularly the small dainty stuff. Ribbon too! 3+ yards for a buck or two is a great find, some laces can be crazy expensive depending on how intricate they are.
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Post by OntarioScrapper on Dec 9, 2019 4:13:59 GMT
Salvation Army. The 1.5inch Xyron sticker maker. Hadn't been opened. Sticker roll in it. $3. Have two had home. Bought it anyway. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2019 7:51:32 GMT
I love lace. pas2 congratulations on your great find. My DH is always running up to me at thrift stores with Xyron. If I bought all that he has shown me I would have like 20 now, ROFL. I do buy the adhesive cartridges if I am lucky enough to find them. OntarioScrapper I would have snagged the 150 if the adhesive cartridge had a lot on it. You can't buy the cartridges that cheap. Plus, you can use it for messy things without messing up your good Xyron. Side tip- You can use your Xyron for lace. I use my Xyron for laces. I think that is what I mainly use my Xyron for is my delicate fibers and trims. No thrifting for me. I used most of my thrifting money for Black Friday. No art items but lots of new electronic items. I have one store that is not heavily traffic during BF like the other stores so the manager deeply discounts items to get them off the floor. He hates the clutter. DH & I got our 4K TV we had our eye on for $150 it was originally $700 for 55- inch. Ready for next year's next gen gaming systems. My manager at my store was like "Do you want this?" I am like no. He kept doing that until we got what we wanted. I wanted my washcloths and he forgot where they put them, ROFL! I did get my washcloths. This is the first year I never bought any art items. I guess I didn't need anything. I did buy some Gloss Medium but I did need that it was on my shopping list for the week, lol. |
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Post by OntarioScrapper on Dec 19, 2019 21:14:46 GMT
I love lace. pas2 congratulations on your great find. My DH is always running up to me at thrift stores with Xyron. If I bought all that he has shown me I would have like 20 now, ROFL. I do buy the adhesive cartridges if I am lucky enough to find them. OntarioScrapper I would have snagged the 150 if the adhesive cartridge had a lot on it. You can't buy the cartridges that cheap. Plus, you can use it for messy things without messing up your good Xyron. Side tip- You can use your Xyron for lace.  I use my Xyron for laces. I think that is what I mainly use my Xyron for is my delicate fibers and trims. No thrifting for me. I used most of my thrifting money for Black Friday. No art items but lots of new electronic items. I have one store that is not heavily traffic during BF like the other stores so the manager deeply discounts items to get them off the floor. He hates the clutter. DH & I got our 4K TV we had our eye on for $150 it was originally $700 for 55- inch. Ready for next year's next gen gaming systems. My manager at my store was like "Do you want this?" I am like no. He kept doing that until we got what we wanted. I wanted my washcloths and he forgot where they put them, ROFL! I did get my washcloths. This is the first year I never bought any art items. I guess I didn't need anything. I did buy some Gloss Medium but I did need that it was on my shopping list for the week, lol. It was a package never opened. I debated about 2 seconds since I already have 2 of the small one. Hey like you said full unused cartridge with it. I've been using that little sucker for years for ribbon to put on cards. |
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chendra
Pearl Clutcher
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Location: The 33rd State
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Post by chendra on Dec 21, 2019 21:28:18 GMT
I found a light blue Doodlebug 12x12 album full of We R Memory Keepers assorted page protectors at Goodwill for $4.99. It's very sturdy.
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Post by pastlifepea on Dec 22, 2019 14:19:53 GMT
I will never, ever, EVER top the find I posted above but I did score a Stampin' Up square storage box with 8 or 9 sets of clear stamps in it for $3 at Goodwill recently. I am only keeping the alphabet stamp sets...I think there were 4 of them in there. Still a good deal for $3, especially considering they usually price the old chunky wood block sets at $3 each or more. Also found a Martha Stewart skull & bones paper punch for $1.98 that was new in package. Very useful as Gasparilla will be here next month and we do love our pirates here in Tampa. If I can remember to snap a picture of the other stamp sets, I am happy to RAK them to someone that can use them. |
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Post by Embri on Jan 1, 2020 17:49:05 GMT
Last thrift of the year!  A mixed bag of bits - a couple of Schleich (phoenix, horse), a lovely Bento box that I'm likely going to repurpose for art supply storage, a large assortment of folders, presentation covers and report/project organizers, and a very nice reference book. I don't add many drawing books to my collection because frankly most of the ones I see are rubbish "how to draw" aka copy this exact picture ones. This is more of an anatomical reference than anything else. My only minor gripe is that only horses are covered in extensive detail, there's a good amount of dog and very little cat/cow/pig. Still a nice book. For the more crafty side, I grabbed a pack of ten sheets of specialty (rice?) paper. It's pretty nice looking, has sort of an overlay of shiny fibers that doesn't show up in the camera. Best find was PolyShrink (aka Shrinky-dink plastic) in clear, black and white. First time I've gotten my hands on this stuff, looking forward to making some pretty game tokens out of it. |
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Post by pas2 on Jan 5, 2020 12:19:00 GMT
It’s indoor flea market time. Picked up 22 late 1950’s Mademoiselle magazines for $10 in good condition. I also got a bundle of vintage workbasket booklets, post cards, letters, postage stamps, trade cards, receipt books, scalloped edge flashcards, children’s magazines circa 1960’s, matchbook covers featuring fashion, a book and more for a ridiculously low price. Can’t wait to sit down and go through my haul. I think I will return my foil quill and supplies to TM, I will get way more use and pleasure out of these goodies than I would the foil quill.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2020 19:13:02 GMT
I passed on a sizzix sidekick at GW yesterday for 2.99. Opinions? Should I go back? I am sure it is still there, craft stuff sits forever at my GW. (not that there is much of it)
I have a cricut and a cuttlebug. Do I really need this, even for 3 bucks? Heeellppp......lol
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Jan 5, 2020 19:30:53 GMT
I passed on a sizzix sidekick at GW yesterday for 2.99. Opinions? Should I go back? I am sure it is still there, craft stuff sits forever at my GW. (not that there is much of it) I have a cricut and a cuttlebug. Do I really need this, even for 3 bucks? Heeellppp......lol If you weren't jumping out of your skin to grab it & buy it yesterday, then you probably don't need it. Do it do anything that your other stuff can't? |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2020 21:45:28 GMT
Do it do anything that your other stuff can't? Nope, and it did not include the cutting plates. So I passed, but you know I keep thinking, well maybe...but you are absolutely right, I do not need it. For 2.99 I can get a 6x6 paper pad that I love, lol. |
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Post by 950nancy on Jan 5, 2020 22:26:21 GMT
I found a light blue Doodlebug 12x12 album full of We R Memory Keepers assorted page protectors at Goodwill for $4.99. It's very sturdy. I just bought a yellow one (LSS for $25). You got a good deal! |
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Post by scrapaddict702 on Jan 6, 2020 1:58:59 GMT
I narrowly missed a $200 listing for Ikea furniture on my local FB marketplace (2 each of 2 different kallax units, 3 each of 2 different alex drawer units and a couple of desks...one with 2 legs)...over $1000 retail. I didn't expect it to still be available when I messaged the seller because of the great deal it was, but I'm still a bit sad that I missed it.
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Post by Embri on Jan 8, 2020 0:03:49 GMT
It's not much fun when you miss out on a deal, but at least there's always more opportunities in the future. Passed on all the crafty stuff (and most of the rest!) today - I was considering a spiral bound notebook and 6x6" pad of paper, and some craft wire plus coloured cardstock but decided in the end I really don't need any of them. I'm at the point where if it doesn't jump out and say "BUY ME" I shouldn't be bringing it home.
The most interesting thing I saw was a guillotine cutter but the edge was fancy? Like ragged paper, similar to those scalloped scissors that were all the rage back in the day. I have no idea why someone would need a guillotine trimmer that produces a random ragged paper edge, but apparently that's a thing that exists!
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You can never have too many paper cutting options.
!!!! They lost their minds, lol. I can buy a new punch set cheaper than that, with a coupon. 
Those 1970's guillotine trimmers were death traps. I was terrified of them in grade school. Even in high school when we were starting to go into the 90's they still had those old trimmers. I was responsible for the school bulletin boards and I had to use those trimmers. I was a nervous wreck, lol. I know a few paper crafters that just scour the thrift stores for those old trimmers because they are workhorses. You got a lucky find according to some paper crafters. I think you got a murder weapon, ROFL.
I use my Xyron for laces. I think that is what I mainly use my Xyron for is my delicate fibers and trims. 
