What's the best thrift or garage sale deal you've found?

I went to the thrift store today and found a Lego Creator Beach House set-in box with instructions and all the pieces are there-for 6.00 I just checked it out and its a retired set going for 125.00 new. Yay!

What's your best, most amazing find?

 

I found an old car manual in a thrift store once. Paid $2, sold it for $73 on eBay.

 

I don't know what it is, but I'll try to describe it. It's a big, bulky, wooden thing that sits on the floor and has two clamps on it. I bought it for $5. And I can put my quilting hoop in the clamps and do my hand-quilting. MUCH cheaper than a quilting frame!

I also found a Scrabble board that turns for Rachael. It cost $1, and she really likes it.

 

That is AWESOME! Legos are so expensive!

Well I shop mostly thrift stores so how about recent ones....

I just got my youngest son a real desk, actual wood, no pressboard stuff, for $30.

I got a leapfrog talking globe last year for $6 with batteries already in it! Going for $76 on Amazon

I get most of our clothes at thrift stores, I've paid $1.25 for a dress or skirt more than once and sometimes I can get the kids a shirt for $0.25

 

I went to a garage sale about 5 years ago that was an estate sale of an old retired teacher. They had 6 HUGE boxes of very old books. I offered them $20 for all of them and they said yes! I came home and started digging through the boxes. I had the entire first edition series of Boxcar children. I sold those and 90 percent of the other books on Ebay over the course of the next year for close to $1500 dollars. I kept an old 1800's German Bible for myself.
I don't think I will ever do that well again!

 

WOW!!! That's a good purchase, Zoburg!

 

Salvation Army is right by our Aldi (grocery) store, so every other week I go. It's like Christmas! One of my favorite things I found there was an old, OLD set of brass measuring cups for $2....but it was half price kitchen items day! Amazing what a buck can still buy.

 

I went to a thrift store that only sells books and I have bought TONS of workbooks(barely used) and a beka books on clearance for $1, and it's even better when they have 20% off everything so I can get them for less than that. Occasionally I can find books like this at goodwill for $1 as well. Using these 2 sources my dd has a huge book collection. I mostly shop thrift stores or make things myself so there have been tons of great deals I've found the books just always stick out to me in a house that loves books

 

I got a HUGE fluffy high end artificial christmas tree for $10

a big bag of boy's toys for $5........ star wars mostly

 

A real American Girl Doll at the Goodwill store. I think it was a couple of dollars. The same day I found a Build a Bear with a Hello Kitty outfit on it and every bit of it was brand new. It was $1.00 . Last week I found a Boyd's bear with the tags still on it for $1.00. I love Goodwill.

 

Garage sale a few years back.. I can't remember the exact name of the thing, but it was plastic pieces that were raise and place a paper over them and use a crayon to bring out the design.. Mix and match shoes,shirts, skirts. Etc.. It was barbie themed and all there still in the box.. Paid .25, sold for $73 on Ebay..

 

Should I just list random things for 73 dollars on Ebay. LOL

 

today at a rummage sale i got dd 7 shirts, two gowns, 3 pr pants, myself a hoodie, 10 shirts, 4 pr jeans and an electric 5 tray dehydrator for 4 bucks. By far my best find was some peach luster oven ware by Anchor-Hockings Fire King line. They're worth more than I'd ever pay for oven ware and I pulled them out of a collapsed abandoned house for free!

 

OMG BROOKE! WEEEEEEE have a Salvation Army to our old Aldi store TOO!! LOL Do you live in St. Joseph Missouri?????? LOL

The best things we've gotten in Thrift stores:

*Brand new boy's winter coat (insert and down stuffed overcoat) for $5
* HUGE box of wooden Thomas the Train Track and wooden Thomas' for $20 (it seems steep, but if you've ever gotten a wooden Thomas set, you get very little for $20, and we got a WHOLE BIG BOX! It's in the Garage for Christmas.)

When our tax refund comes in, my mom and I are going thrift store Hopping and we are getting things for the house, kids, and us.

 

My best find so far was at our local thrift shop they have Christmas stuff out.. The day it opened, I went a bought a huge Christmas tree for fifty bucks that at the store was over $200 dollars. I so so pleased. I wanted the biggest they had (over 10 ft tall) but my husband did not go far it

 

my bread machine for $7 and our sandwich maker for $5. We use those things all the time. Want a quick grilled cheese, pop it in the sandwich maker and make it. Want bread for breakfast, toss it in the night before and eat it hot in the morning. We use it mostly for dough or specialty breads but we use them both several times a week. Even though the sandwich maker only runs $25 new we have gotten more than our $5 use from it. Bread machine same thing except $7 was a heck of a deal since it's normally around $50+.

 

I found an electric turkey roaster (think BIG crockpot) for $4, a brand new christmas tree for $10 (was $300 @ costco), and AG doll that looked brand new for $3, an OLD medical book for $3 that is rare and sells on ebay for $900.... But I am keeping the book because it is sooooo cool. A king sized headboard and frame in perfect shape for free tbat I later sold for $300. A solid wood bunk bed set for $75 that I sold when we moved for $450. There were many other things, but since living here the deals are very scarce. Seems people out here like to keep their stuff FOREVER and then try to sell old used abused things for top dollar :roll:

 

It is pretty hard to list any one great buy at our house, considering most of it has been bought used. The only new piece of furniture I have is a recliner chair and crib that were bought as gifts for my first child. Most clothing, with the exception of shoes, socks, and underwear, we buy second-hand. I usually manage to get a whole bag full of clothes for less than the price of one item new. I've gotten some neat stuff on Freecycle too. With patience and planning, you can find just about anything you need for free or low cost.

I avoid second-hand stores most of the time, because their prices are so high. I do stop in the Salvation Army store a few times a year, but most of our deals come from yard sales.

The best resale buy was a broken, vintage Strawberry Shortcake house with furniture and beat-up dolls. I paid $25 for it and the whole mess sold on Ebay for over $600. To this day I have no idea why, but we figure that it must have had some rare furniture or something. I was expecting to get around $100-200.

 

I'm apparently not doing it right LOL! The best I've ever done is 2 fall jackets and 6 shirts for $32! I thought I had scored a major deal, but you guys are showing me up! This past weekend dh and I tried thrift store shopping, but I guess around here, its just not possible. Every place we went into, I felt like I needed to disinfect myself after leaving. Eww. Our Goodwill seems to be where left over garage sale items go to die. It used to be easier when the kids were little since baby clothes are so plentiful, but now that they are past the toy stage and into nearly adult sizes, (and very particular about their "look") its just about impossible to find anything I need. However, Dh once found a digital crockpot sitting next to one of those clothes drop-off boxes you see in parking lots. It was perfectly good and looked brand new!

 

A few weeks ago I bought 4 yards of thin suede leather. They charged me "fabric" price for it. 75 cents a yard! It would have been $20 a yard from a leather store!

I also regularly find good clothing deals. Going through my youngest daughter's closet I realized she has lots of short sleeved shirts, but very few long sleeved shirts. I first checked online for solid long sleeved t's to layer.... They are freaking $10 at Target?? Crazy! They cost more than the pretty decorated long sleeved shirts. So I headed to good will and found 4 white or off white long sleeved t-shirts for $1.75 each. These will go a long way to helping my daughter's winter wardrobe!

I also found a great deal on Listia, which is kind of an online garage sale. A woman listed 8 pairs of size 8 girls jeans which is my dd's next size up. I got them for 50 credits (about 5 cents) plus $11 shipping. SUCH a deal! The only pair that didn't fit was a pair of 8 slims, but they were Justice brand so I took them to the consignment store and they snapped them up!

That's another good deal. Check out consignment stores in your area. I take my kids stuff that they have outgrown, and then use whatever I make on them as store credit to buy them new stuff. Anything that doesn't sell in three months I just donate to the store. Then I don't have to deal with it again.

Edie