Yard Sale Deals - 6/25/11

 Found some pretty good deals last week!

***  LL Bean Insulated Lunch Tote  - $3  ***

Like New Condition - Retails for $15.95

 

***  Fisher Price Little People - Noah's Ark with animals & Noah - $4  ***

Like New Condition - Retails for $21.99-$40.00

In researching this product, the older versions include a Mrs. Noah in addition to what is shown here. The new version, however, does NOT include a Mrs. Noah, and has replaced the birds with elephants. If you buy direct from Fisher Price (the $40 version) you get Noah & 20 animals. Since the versions sold at retail stores only come with 8 animals (in both the old and new versions) there are additional animals sets that can be bought to stock your ark.  Each set has 3 pairs of animals and retails for almost $15. I have my work cut out for me to find these animals at a significantly reduced price!



***  Fisher Price Little People - Animal Sets - $1 each ***

Like New Condition - Retail Value is unknown, because I can't figure out if they're part of a bigger set.

I have yet to determine what these little animals go to, but my guess is they are some part of the Fisher Price Zoo set. Regardless, $1 per set to have these adorable extra animals is a steal! They're super chunky and the baby LOVES them!!

*** 5 Disney VHS Movies - $2(total) ***

Good Condition - Retail at our local thrift shop: $3-$4 (which I think is outrageous for a VHS!)

The baby enjoys the Winnie-the-Pooh movie we already have (also on VHS) so I couldn't pass up 3 additional titles.

Seller wanted $.50 per movie, but I grabbed a couple extra and talked her into selling me all 5 for $2 - which was the equivalent of getting one free.

***  Letter & Number Foam Puzzle Boards - $2  ***

Like New Condition - Retails for around $10

These are not the GIANT foam letter/number floor mats, which I like because they are small enough for the baby to hold in her hand. We're starting to work on letters & numbers (with our sign language too) so I couldn't pass up nice, big, bright examples for her to associate each letter with

***  Little Tykes Piano Toy - $3  ***

Good Condition - Less "complicated" versions sell for around $13

First off, I didn't buy this toy, my mother-in-law did. $3 was more than I wanted to spend on a toy, even though I've wanted a piano type toy for the baby for awhile. This piano runs on batteries and has is set up like a player piano - baby hits a key, a tune starts playing with the different keys lighting up, and then stops until baby hits another key. It will play songs with music, or with animals sounds. The parts on the top each correspond to an animal - bird, dog, or duck - and if the baby preses those, the melody changes to the sounds of the animal (think: barking dog Christmas carols).  The music doesn't last too long, so it's tolerable, but when we received it the previous owner had left the batteries in too long. Hubby had to clean out the battery case and it worked fine, however, 1 week later & with new batteries it sounds like it's dying already.

THIS is why I'm not such a big fan of battery-operated toys, BUT the baby does enjoy it...WHEN it works!

***  Deals not pictured  ***

Bag of magnetic letters for the refrigerator - $.50

Good condition & includes multiple sets of the alphabet

Books (of course!)  -  5/$1

Only one is being removed. Flipped through the pages, seemed in good condition. Got home & realized that some of the pages toward the back are ripped. Still, 4/$1 is a pretty sweet deal!

Yard Sale Deals - 6/11/11

This week I found TONS of great deals! Of course, it's only a deal if you FEEL like it's a deal. To me, finding something specific that I've been looking for and paying much less than what it would cost in the store is a deal...and a thrill! 

These items are for either myself or my husband.

 - 8x10 picture frame with colors that match the baby's room - $1

- decorative jars with cork lids - Retail Value: $5/each.  Tag Price: $2/each.  Price Paid:  3/$2

- portable radio w/CD player (an item my husband had been wanting)  -   $5

- worklight  - FREE!  (The guy couldn't remember what was wrong with it. Even if it never works, no money spent!)

 

For the Baby:

- pants, tank top, dress, 2 sweatshirts (1 not pictured) & 2 pairs of PJs  -  $.50/each

- shoes, size 7, worn once (hopefully will fit this fall)  -  $2.00

- more hard-back kid's books & Disney books to add to the collection  -  $.20 - $.80/each

- Not pictured are 2 sets of 'Megablocks' (think Legos for babies).  I bought 2 sets at 2 different yard sales and paid a total of $4.  Normally I wouldn't have paid this much for toys, BUT one yard sale was a benefit for cancer, so I felt bad negotiating.



 



 



 This is why I LOVE yard-saling!  I needed a small piece of furniture to fit a tight space next to my rocking chair. The end table I was using was WAY too big. 

This little table fits the space perfectly. I am able to put my magazines in the door, remotes & a box of tissues in the little cubby, and still have room on the top for...whatever!

- Pricetag at the yard sale:  $8

- Price paid:    $5

Yard Sale Tip:  Negotiate prices with the husbands. It's usually the wives that have set prices on household items so the husbands are just happy to get rid of it, and have cash in hand!



And what's that perched atop my new little cabinet? Why, it's my "Deal of the Day"!!!                            I have been looking for a French Press for a very long time.  This is a 4-cup capacity and looked like it had been used maybe once.  I paid $.50 for it!

Yard Sale Deals - 6/4/11

If there's one thing that unites my mother-in-law and me - it's yard sales.  I make a list of items that we need or want and the adventure is finding those items without spending more than the quarters in my change purse.  Sometimes we do quite well. Sometimes we don't. What follows is a photo journal of the deals & steals I've found along the way.

 First things first...Piper's stuff:

- stacking ring toy - $.50

- Velveteen Rabbit VHS - $.50

- wooden letter blocks - $1

- Little Golden Books - 5/$1

(DVDs for Mom & Dad - $1/each)

- Disney's Wonderful World of reading books. My OCD kicked in when I realized that I could start a collection of Disney books at a fraction of the price.  I have 23 titles here that range in price from $.50 - $1 each.  This is a children's book club that initially starts with 3 books for $.99 each, then sends you  more for $4.99 (+ S&H).  The details after this point get a little sketchy, but from what I've pieced together each book ends up costing about $10 PLUS shipping & handling, so I'm happy to pay $1 or less for each.

- The last row is a collection of hard-back kids books that I liked, none costing more than $.50 each.  I remember having a large collection of Dr. Seuss books as a child. These will soon be at our home with us, and so I've also been looking for any that I didn't have in my original collection.  To say the least, Piper will have lots of books to occupy her time!

 I would probably consider this item my "deal of the day".  When I was first pregnant and began building my baby registry I was convinced that I HAD TO HAVE a shopping cart cover.  I was not, however, going to foot the price tag for this convenience. (These can cost anywhere from $30-$60.)  While I decided that it was not a necessity, I certainly was not going to pass up this deal. 

- Shopping cart cover - $1.50

Yup. That's right. $1.50.  Clean, intact and a deal to be had!! 

This last item is not something I purchased.  It was, however, purchased for me. This is one of my birthday presents from my mother-in-law. She must have seen me drooling over at as I walked past it 5, 10, 30 times at one yard sale!! The price tag was $25, but I did not bring that many quarters and knew I wouldn't be able to afford it.  The owners could also see how badly I wanted it and said for $15, we could have it. She didn't even hesitate before saying, "We'll take it!"

My very own picnic basket includes (all brand new):

- blanket

- 2 Corelle plates

- 2 Corelle bowls

- 2 Corning ware dishes with covers

- 4 small Tupperware containers

- 2 wine glasses

- 2 candle stick holders AND candles

- 2 settings of silverware - salad forks, dinner forks, spoons, soup spoons, knives

- serving spoon, serving fork & butter knife

It is absolutely adorable and I can't wait for my husband to take me on our very first picnic!!