This Week's Shopping Trip

My friends! I am so sorry to have neglected you so long. This has been a strange week, and blogging has taken a back burner. But I am back! I managed to get to Goodwill THREE times this week! And I found lots of goodies each time.

My top priority over the next couple weeks is to restock my shoes. I don't usually find more than a pair or two at a time at my Goodwill, so I was pleased to find FOUR pairs of Clarks there, and some Capezio tap shoes. Also found a turntable (half off color of the week) and yet another Alf! This is my 4th Alf, and he was the cheapest one yet at 50 cents! Total paid: $16.01

The mission on this trip was to find church shoes for my 4 year old and a plaid shirt for my 11 year old daughter's school picture. Mission accomplished, but not with the blue shirt. She already took off in the one she liked better. The shoes were too big. For eBay purposes, I found a NIP Spiderman costume, a Butterfly Gold Pyrex casserole, a beautiful (!) wool blend Rothschild coat, and the Prep School Gymboree dress and sweater. Retail for that outfit is $65! I'll never understand Gymbo moms... Total Paid for resale: $10.02

Having been there twice already this week, I needed something new to look at, so I've decided to start collecting kids' books for in lots. I'll only buy the half off color of the week, so that pile was 25 cents each. Found some goodies: Indian in the Cupboard, Magic Tree House, Last of the Mohicans ... Also some Bloch tap shoes, some I-swear-they've-never-been-worn Birkenstocks, a pair of black suede Mary Jane Keens, and the brown Softspots. These are NOT on my BOLO list, but I was drawn to them last week for some reason. Not drawn enough to pay full price though, but they were this week's half off color, so I went ahead and got them. Decided to risk $1.49. I see this brand all the time, so if they do well, it will be nice to have a new name to add to my BOLO list. Total Paid: $14.71

I really hope to get some time today to get these shoes cleaned up so I can list them. I've gotten a bit of a stash, but they won't sell sitting in my to-be-listed pile!

My Top eBay Moments This Week

I had 46 sales this week. Only 10 of those were shoes. I'm starting to feel a little bit panicky about the level of my shoe inventory. I am currently at about half of the most shoes I've ever had. I seriously need to get out for a road trip. One good road trip can get me anywhere from 30-70 pairs of shoes, depending on where I go. I didn't have ANY deadbeat buyers this week! I didn't have to open ANY unpaid item cases. What a breath of fresh air! I did have a woman buy a puzzle and pay for it, and then she immediately wrote me and said never mind, her son already has that one, so she needs to cancel. I also got notified of 3 pending returns. One was absolutely my fault. Turns out the "S" in a shoe size means "Slim" and isn't just part of the style number. Oops.

My favorite sales this week weren't necessarily high dollar amounts, but I'm happy about them for one reason or another:

This vest was my daughter's. She hardly ever wore it. It's really cute, so I'm not sure why we never put it on her. I would have stuck it in the yard sale for 50 cents or a dollar, but I thought I'd give it a shot on eBay. I wasn't sure how it would do, since it's not a brand name (I think it's Walmart, in fact). It sold for $8.99 with free shipping. Shipping was only $1.92, so I came out pretty far ahead of where I'd been by putting it in the yard sale.

Honestly, I couldn't care less about the sale of this game, but I wanted to share the backstory. This was part of a big lot of board games I bought at an auction for $3. There was absolutely nothing exciting in the box. Pictionary, Scrabble, HuskerDu, Yahtzee, blah blah blah. Run of the mill games, but for $3, I bought them. I have sold 6 of them for $54.96. That's why I wanted to write about this game. If you can get a box full of games for cheap, even if they are super-ordinary games, go for it. People will still buy them. I listed these low ($7.99 - $12.99) so that they would sell quickly. Because my investment was so ridiculously low, selling these games at rock bottom prices has still netted me a very nice profit. Oh, and the auction was in August, so they've almost all sold in a month and a half.

I'm sharing this sale as an idea of what NOT to buy. I paid a dollar for him. He's a Mt. Vernon George Washington bear. I thought for sure he would be a good seller, but no - not at all. I listed him for $9.99 + shipping and got VERY few hits. After the first couple months, I changed it to $12.99 f/s and he sold immediately. So I guess that's not terrible, but hardly worth the storage space.

Remember this yard sale? I paid $6 for this one and sold it for $26. Not quite as high as I wanted, but with all the stuff I bought at that sale, I'm going for a quick turnover, so I took the offer. I bought 6 NWT Jansport backpacks for a total of $31.75. I have sold 3 of them so far for a total of $90.99. So I've tripled my Jansport investment and still have half of them to sell!

Here's one of the other ones. Paid $7.50, sold for $30. Again, not fabulous, but good enough for me. The retail value on this one was $65, so I'm sure I could have held out for more, but they are bulky, and I quadrupled my money. Sometimes you just have to take the quick nickel instead of waiting for the slow dime.

The broken NES system that I mentioned here ended up being an unpaid item. I relisted it (accidentally at auction again) and had no bids. Then I remembered I could do a second chance offer since there was more than one buyer the first time it sold. I contacted that buyer and he said yes, he definitely still wants it, but he's out of the country right now and could he buy it on October 2nd? I told him yes, I will relist it on the 1st. He also told me he would pay $30 for it (the original winning bid was only $27, so naturally I was fine with $30). On October 1st, as promised, I relisted it, but I was skeptical, because it had been about 2 weeks since our conversation. But on October 2nd, also as promised, he bought and paid for it immediately! So I paid $15 for the whole Nintendo lot. I sold 3 Mario games for $23, the other 22 games for $51, and the broken console & accessories for $30. I got a total of $104 out of that $15 investment. Not bad :)

I was literally just wondering why these hadn't sold yet. Clairol Kindness is always a good seller. The Clairol Kindness Deluxe usually does better, but this one still should have sold. But I hadn't even gotten any offers on it. The day after I wondered why it hadn't sold, it sold. I paid $1.95 in May and they sold this week for my full asking price of $39.99!

I was very excited about this sale! This is a set of 22 Help Me Be Good books by Joy Berry. It's not a complete set. The complete set has 29 books, so I wasn't able to get top dollar for them. I bought 21 of them for $5.99 and then found another one a couple weeks later for 50 cents. So altogether I paid $6.88 (tax) for them in June and sold them this week for $45. I had free shipping on them, but media mail shipping was only $5.06, so I still did well!

And this!! I didn't even look this up on my phone before I bought it. It was only $2.99, so I figured I could make at least some sort of profit. Imagine my excitement when I saw the current listings! When I just got that link, I see that there are some listed for higher than mine that weren't there when I listed mine. No matter! I listed mine for $69.99 or best offer. I took an offer this week for $59.99 plus shipping. It's going to New Zealand, to a mother who is "desperate to find this" for her daughter's first birthday. Oh, and it was listed for 3 days!

How'd you do this week?

Have you visited eBay Underground this week?
And have you heard all about our new EBUG Classifieds? It's pretty bare-looking now. Come and post a few things for sale so we can get that filled up and exciting-looking.

This Week's Shopping Trip

I only had one shopping trip this week. I have GOT to get a road trip planned. My shoe inventory is getting desperately low. So I stopped into Goodwill in the hopes of finding at least a couple pairs. Well, wouldn't you know, I found zero. But I found some other goodies, so all was not lost!

I found a soft bonnet hair dryer (back left). I have another one of these listed, but no bites yet. I'm hoping a production company will buy it. I haven't tested this one yet, but it was only $1.99. And on the very next shelf, I found a hard bonnet hair dryer (back right). It was also $1.99. I have another one of these be get listed (paid $1 for it), but it needs some repair. It runs, but it doesn't blow any air out. I'll have to have my HVAC brother look at it.

I also found 3 more microwave turntables. I told my husband I wasn't going to buy anymore of these unless they were in perfect condition and didn't need cleaned. At the time, my stack of turntables was all the way up to the shelf above it, so I had no more room for any, and I refused to start a second stack. (Seriously, isn't 30 enough?)  However, I have sold quite a few of these over the last couple weeks, so I have room on my pile again. These were $1.99 each.

I was so excited to see the green box full of Alpha Omega Lifepac social studies homeschool workbooks ($4.99)! When I picked it up to look at it, I realized that the box that it was sitting on top of was full of 90+ more Lifepac workbooks!! I've sold these before with good success. These sets aren't complete (neither were my others ones), and the tests are missing, but I think for an investment of $9.99, I'll still do well!

Of course none of this stuff is listed yet, because I've been focused on getting my NWT yard sale finds listed. I'm a little over halfway done with that stuff. I hope to get it done by the weekend. Then I'll focus on this stuff and some other odds and ends. Hoping for a road trip on October 13 or 14, if everything falls into place.

=======

Speaking of listing, have you joined our October listing contest yet? The contest started on Monday, but you can join up til the 10th.

My Top eBay Moments This Week

I fell into another black hole this week. This one lasted for TWO days. I didn't call eBay this time - I wanted to just wait and see what would happen. After two days of nothing, yesterday was a $250+ day! I'm going to continue to monitor my store visits and patterns, but the next time this happens (and there WILL be a next time - probably next Tuesday), I'll wait it out a day or two and hopefully that's all it will take.

I had 87 sales! 38 of those were shoe care products at very small dollar amounts, which causes extra work for less money. But I figure if I'm going to be ordering those products for myself and our eBay Underground members, I might as well order extras to sell. Only 12 of my sales were shoes. My shoe wall has a LOT of holes in it. I need to get out for a shoe sourcing road trip.

I have one unpaid item case open right now (for shoe cream, of all things), and I had to cancel one order to Venezuela. Add that one to your blocked countries list. Too complicated.

Are my Top eBay Moments posts getting too long? I have a hard time narrowing it down sometimes, but if you're getting bored with the long posts, please let me know! I want you to keep reading, so if that means I should pare these posts down a bit, I'll certainly do so.

This wasn't a big sale in an of itself. 16 Scrabble racks for $14.99. However, in the past couple of weeks, I also sold the 6 boards for $24.99 and I sold the 500 tiles  for $50 minus $4.90 shipping. So for my $4-5 investment in these Scrabble games, I got $89.98! Always buy Scrabble games.

I bought a set of 6 of these Rudolph plush characters last January (half off) for $7.95. I have only the Santa left. This Yukon Cornelius sold this week for $21.99. The 5 that have sold totalled $117.97!!

This Frosty sings and dances, and his cheeks light up red. And trust me - it's annoying. I paid $1.90 for him in July, and I was glad to see him go this week for $24.99.

I bought these Fire King mugs in August for $4.24. I tried to auction them to no avail (why am I ever surprised by that?). They sold this week for $24.99. Good enough.

I was pretty amazed by the "special something" of these SAS shoes when I found them. I bought them in June for $2.99, and they sold this week for $35.

 I ALWAYS buy Ariats when I find them, which isn't often. I bought these in May for $2.98 and sold them this week for $35.

Another good SAS sale. I had a lot of inquiries about these, but no takers until this week. Paid $2.99 in June. Sold for $40.

There was a really really old man that went to the same church that I went to growing up. When I was in high school, he randomly stopped by our house and gave me these Beethoven sonata books. There were at least as old as he was, and he was ooooolllld. I never really understood why he gave them to me, but I enjoyed playing out of them for several years. I went to college (piano performance major) and ended up buying a new edition of the same books, so these just went onto the shelf. They are HUGE and HEAVY. They held no sentimental value, but I didn't know if they held any monetary value. I listed them for $99.99 or best offer and they just sat there. Very few hits, no watchers, no offers. A month or so ago, I dropped them to $69.99 or best offer, and I accepted an offer for $55 this week!

Another great sale! I bought this lot in May for $5.29 and listed it pretty high with best offer. I got a couple ridiculously low offers on them, and I was just starting to wonder if I needed to redo the lot. These books are mixed grade levels, which probably had something to do with why it wasn't selling for what I wanted. I finally ended up selling them yesterday for $65 with free shipping. It fit perfectly into a side-loading medium flat rate box, so I was only out $9.97 for the shipping.

And this was my favorite sale of the week! I bought these Ariat boots for $5.00 at a yard sale over Labor Day weekend. They needed fixed up a bit, because the lady selling them put the price on masking tape right over the toe. When I took the tape off, it took some of the color off. Grr. But my Meltonian fixed them up nicely, and they sold within 4 days of listing them for $65!

What did you sell this week?

This Week's Shopping Trip

My 4 year old and I had a date over the weekend. After our movie and dinner, I asked her what she wanted to do next, and she said she wanted to go shopping. Of course, we rarely do retail, so to her, shopping means thrift stores. What a great date she is!

I've sold these rollers at least 4 times, so I was thrilled to find another set for $2.99.

And I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw FOUR of these older style military jackets - NEW with tags - for only $3.99 each! I've sold my husband's old used ones for around $10 before, so I'm excited to see these sell.

Later in the week, I had an hour to kill between two appointments, and what do we do when we have time to kill?? We shop! I only had 20 minutes of actual shopping time, but I made it count! Here's what I got:

I had my eye on these a couple weeks ago. I picked one up and saw the $9.99 price tag and almost laughed out loud. Then I almost laughed out loud even harder when I realized that price was for EACH picture! So I put them back down and left. Apparently everyone else thought that was a funny price too, because they repriced them this week to $1.99 each. Much better. I have no experience selling this sort of thing, but they're really cute and in great condition, so we'll see.

I recently sold a lot of 22 Nintendo games for $51 at auction. I wish they'd gone higher, but my investment was so low that I was still happy with $51. Goodwill had a huge box of these the other day, but they wanted $1.99 each for them. I asked if I could buy the whole box for less, but they had just put them out that day, so they said no. I picked out what I thought were probably the good ones. I was wrong about Zelda. It's the gold cartridge that does so well, but I should do ok with mine. I also sold Mario 1, 2, and 3 in a lot for $23, so I'll hang on to this 1 and 2 until I find 3. Adding Dr. Mario in with that should get me even more. Tetris ... meh ...

I ALWAYS buy Josef Seibels when I find them, and they ALWAYS sell within 2 weeks. And mary janes? Even better! I also always buy SAS when they're in good shape. They're a pretty high seller.

And last but not least, I picked this up without even checking it on my phone, because I thought surely it would do "alright."  I was right! Definitely worth the $2.99 risk :)

This Week's Shopping Trip

We have a regular feature on Fridays about our favorite finds for the week, but I never get to show off the other stuff I find. The ordinary stuff that can be just as good. This week, I stopped at Goodwill twice and Salvation Army once. Here's everything I found:

I spent a total of $47.69 for all of that, which is just about right for me. I think $50 a week is a good limit for me. We'll see how long I stick to that.

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume, shell, and mask (paid $2.99, will probably list for $19.99)
• Large plush Shrek Donkey (paid $1.05, will probably list for $24.99)
• Large plush Alf (paid $1.05, will list for $34.99 - I've sold 2 of these already for that price)

• Black SAS shoes (paid $2.99, will list for $35)
• Brown Clarks Artisan mary janes (paid $2.99, will list for $25)
• White SAS tassel loafers (paid $1.49, will list for $35)
• Black Clarks Artisan slides (paid $1.99, will list for $25)

• NWT Gymboree hooded sleeveless pullover (paid $2, will list for $15.99)
• Clue Mysteries board game (paid 53c, will probably list for $12.99)
• Quantum Pad, a division of Leap Pad (paid $6.35 for that plus 6 games/cartridges, will probably list the Quantum Pad and sampler game/cartridge for $14.99. Will list the other books/cartridges individually)

• earth green crocheted sandals (paid $2.99, will list for $35 or $40)
• 2 pair of the exact same style & size brown Born loafers (paid $5.99 for one, $2.99 for the other, will list for $25 per pair)
• black earth mary janes (paid $3.99, will list for $35 or $40)

• size 15 men's Sebago loafers (paid $2.99, will probably list for $40)
• Big Jim Safari Hut (paid $6.35 and was really excited when I saw this, but then not so excited when I realized mine doesn't have Big Jim and is full of a bunch of odds and ends safari animals that do NOT go to this set. Will probably list for $34.99obo)

******

Oops. I had already written this post but hadn't published it yet. I just got home from another yard sale. On a Tuesday. Hunh.

• Microwave Turntable (paid 50c, will list it for $24.99obo)
• Pyrex Amish Butterprint 1pt casserole (paid 25c, will list it for $8.99 - bah)
• Ms Pac Man Plug & Play (paid $3, will list it for $24.99 - I've sold 2 of these at that price)
• Aladdin (paid 50c - my daughter just asked me for it this other day, so I was excited to find it so quickly!)

Fantastic Finds Friday

We want to hear all about your Fantastic Finds! This features isn't about your exciting sales. It's about your exciting finds! There are so many places to find inventory: your closet, your garage, a yard sale, thrift stores, a consignment item you're selling for someone else. What did you find this week that you are excited about? It can be something you're excited to get listed OR something you're excited to keep! You can even post to your listing, if you'd like. Free advertising!

==========

Lesley

==========

Well! Where do I start??? As I mentioned last week (and a hundred times since then), I took a 3-day buying trip last weekend. I went with almost $600, never dreaming I'd actually spend it all, but I came home with $28 in my Paypal account and $60 in my busines checking account. Yikes! I have a TON of work to do! But so far, I've gotten over 50 new listings up this week. Whew!

A quick summary:

• 16 plush (sold 3 already)
• 15 microwave turntables
• 76 prs of shoes
• Leapfrog case (to add to my big leapfrog lot that's already listed)
• Care bear mug
• odds and ends maternity
• Thomas the train wilton pan
• several pieces of Revere ware
• 5 sets hot rollers
• several pieces kids' clothes (gymbo & baby gap)
• several board games
• 4 older blue Ball jars (2qt, 1qt, pt, 1/2 pt)
• brooks brothers jacket (46 regular) $1.50
• coffee carafe in box
• wiggles car
• ice skates

Jessica
===========

What did you find this week? Anything exciting?

Fantastic Finds Friday

We want to hear all about your Fantastic Finds! This features isn't about your exciting sales. It's about your exciting finds! There are so many places to find inventory: your closet, your garage, a yard sale, thrift stores, a consignment item you're selling for someone else. What did you find this week that you are excited about? It can be something you're excited to get listed OR something you're excited to keep! You can even post to your listing, if you'd like. Free advertising!

==========

Having made out like a bandit shopping the last two weeks, this was the week I found nothing really.  But, that's okay.  You see that is to be expected.  Running a business isn't always fun, things don't always magically appear and everything doesn't smell like roses all the time.  The key to being successful in any business is perseverance!  However, all was not lost. 

This morning I still got up out of bed in the relentless rain and headed out for the yard sales.  Again, nothing....oh but wait.  I found a train table for my neighbors little 2 year old.  I know they have been looking for one and when I spotted it, I took this photo and messaged her if she wanted me to pick it up for her.  So I didn't find anything for myself, per se, but I will be thrilled to see the look on little Peyton's face when he sees what new toy he has! :)

Imaginarium train table with storage drawer.

Yard sale price $25.

Lesley

==========

I'm counting today's finds. I went out yard saling and got a bunch more great Gymboree sweaters, mostly 2009 and 2010. But the best part was when we got to a church yard sale just as they were closing up. They were just GIVING stuff away. The first thing I spotted was a set of these. That listing is mine from last week. The set I found today is still in the box, so I will probably ask a few more dollars for it. She tried to give it to me, but I insisted that she take the (whole entire) $1 that she had on it.  I just didn't feel right taking it for free knowing I'd turn around and sell it for $50 or more.

Jessica
===========

What did you find this week? Anything exciting?

Fantastic Finds Friday

We want to hear all about your Fantastic Finds! This features isn't about your exciting sales. It's about your exciting finds! There are so many places to find inventory: your closet, your garage, a yard sale, thrift stores, a consignment item you're selling for someone else. What did you find this week that you are excited about? It can be something you're excited to get listed OR something you're excited to keep! You can even post to your listing, if you'd like. Free advertising!

==========

I got another mountain of stuff from my sister-in-law this week! She brought me 31 MORE pairs of shoes, a boatload of Care Bears (1 of which sold already), and a BUNCH of odds & ends. I was MOST excited about the *SIX* pairs of Keens toddler/kids sandals! One sold already, and one went to my 3yo. The rest took top priority. Here they are!

Jessica

==========

Woo hoo I found my first Starbucks Coffee mug today.  Now to decide if I will sell it or keep it for myself!  Also, I found my first pair of Teva sandals and a kids pair of Keen sandals.  They're in the washer right now getting cleaned up.  It was a great shopping day! :)

Lesley
==========

What about you? What did you find this week? Come on over to our NEW group and chat with us!

Fantastic Finds Friday

We want to hear all about your Fantastic Finds! This features isn't about your exciting sales. It's about your exciting finds! There are so many places to find inventory: your closet, your garage, a yard sale, thrift stores, a consignment item you're selling for someone else. What did you find this week that you are excited about? It can be something you're excited to get listed OR something you're excited to keep! You can even post to your listing, if you'd like. Free advertising!
==========

I hit the mother load with my hubby yesterday where we found tons of inventory, but it was my little stop on they way to the grocery store that got me so excited.  I found my FIRST cashmere sweater.  I have looked high and low and never found one...until now.  It's a v-neck cable knit and in perfect shape.  I'm looking forward to getting this up this week!

And anyone who knows me knows that a true shopping trip entails me finding something for myself, because that is what helps me to truly sleep well at night! :)

So tomorrow I will kick up my heels and start listing on eBay in my new tall black leather boots!

Lesley
==========

I shopped for 11 hours yesterday, in 11 different stores! It was exhausting. But I'm set for listing for a couple weeks. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't find anything interesting, but I found plenty of what I know best. I ended up with 14 Gymboree garments, 1 set of hot rollers, and 41 pairs of shoes. I've discovered that the folks in Harrisburg don't take very good care of their shoes, so I have a LOT of work to do to get these ready to list! (Please ignore my gross, ugly armchair...)

What about you? What did you find this week? Come on over to our Facebook group and chat with us!

Fantastic Finds Friday

We want to hear all about your Fantastic Finds! This features isn't about your exciting sales. It's about your exciting finds! There are so many places to find inventory: your closet, your garage, a yard sale, thrift stores, a consignment item you're selling for someone else. What did you find this week that you are excited about? It can be something you're excited to get listed OR something you're excited to keep! You can even post to your listing, if you'd like. Free advertising!
==========

I didn't find anything fabulous this week. A few pair of shoes. One was a pair of Florsheims, so I guess that's good. I need to get them cleaned up and listed this weekend...

Jessica
============

I had a blast thrift shopping this week.  Now that Spring is here, I needed to fill in my wardrobe gap.  I was on the hunt for some new "used" clothes...if you know what I mean.   I started out earlier in the week and took my aunt with me.  We picked her up 2 summer capris, 2 skirts and a top.  All high end quality pieces of course.  For myself, I found a pair of madras bermuda shorts that are all the rage, 3 Talbots tops, a talbots knit sweater and an Izod pullover.  I'm wearing one of my new tops right now! :)

I also found some great things for resale including some kids Clarks boots, kids Born shoes, a few Dansko's and this Lalaloopsy Doll that is hard to find.  My husband tried to talk me out of it because he thought the doll was quite ugly, and well she is a little scary but I do not let scary dolls stand in my way of turning a profit.  This was new in the package too!

Lesley
==========

So what about you? What great things did you find this week either for resale or that you're excited to keep for yourself? Leave a comment below as we would love to hear all about it.

Don't forget to fan us on eBay Underground!

Fantastic Finds Friday

We want to hear all about your Fantastic Finds! This features isn't about your exciting sales. It's about your exciting finds! There are so many places to find inventory: your closet, your garage, a yard sale, thrift stores, a consignment item you're selling for someone else. What did you find this week that you are excited about? It can be something you're excited to get listed OR something you're excited to keep! You can even post to your listing, if you'd like. Free advertising!
==========

I didn't have a real big shopping week. I found a few articles of kids' clothing and a pair of women's shoes. But I was excited to find this on the half off rack! It's a NWT Ralph Lauren boys' rugby cardigan. It has the original price tag on it of $85! I spent a little more on it than I would have preferred, but I still left myself plenty of room for profit. I had an offer within 2 minutes of listing it, so I'm optimistic.  Naturally, it was a completely unacceptable offer (less than half my asking price!), but I'm sure the right buyer will be along shortly.

Jessica
============

Each year I make a traditional "lamb cake" with a recipe passed down from my mother-in-law.  When my kids were little she used to mail us these delicious cakes for our family to enjoy at Easter.  As my mother-in-law got older and cooked less and less she handed the torch to me by sending me my own Wilton cake molds to make for our family.  Here's one of my handy creations!

About 2 weeks ago I found a Wilton bunny cake mold.  I had every intention on listing it right away because, well Easter was drawing near.  However, like several other things on my "to do" list it never happened.  But I think I'm glad I didn't list it because now I really want to make a bunny cake in addition to my lamb cake.

Here's our family recipe for the pound cake:

3/4 pounds butter

1 (8 oz. package) cream cheese

3 cups sugar

6 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp almond extract

3 cups cake flour

Cream together butter and cream cheese, blending in sugar with electric mixer.  Add eggs, one at a time and continue to blend.  Add flavorings and flour and beat until light and fluffy.  Pour batter into greased and floured molds.

 Place nose side of mold on a baking sheet.  Fill with batter until slightly below the top of the mold and rounded over in the middle about even with the top.  Cover with the other half of mold.  Bake at 350 degrees for one hour and fifteen minutes.  Turn mold over and bake on other side for an additional 15 minutes.

Remove from oven.  Turn mold over on it's back and remove nose section.  Turn carefully and remove cake from mold.  Set cake upright.  Cake is rather soft when hot, handle carefully.

Frost with butter cream icing when completely cooled.  This recipe makes two cakes!

Happy Easter and I hope your family enjoys this as much as we do!

Here's my new mold! :-)

Lesley
============

So what about you? What great things did you find this week either for resale or that you're excited to keep for yourself? Leave a comment below as we would love to hear all about it.

Don't forget to fan us on eBay Underground!

Fantastic Finds Friday

We want to hear all about your Fantastic Finds! This features isn't about your exciting sales. It's about your exciting finds! There are so many places to find inventory: your closet, your garage, a yard sale, thrift stores, a consignment item you're selling for someone else. What did you find this week that you are excited about? It can be something you're excited to get listed OR something you're excited to keep! You can even post to your listing, if you'd like. Free advertising!
==========

What do you mean, it's 10PM on Friday night? It's still Friday...

I had a bunch of ordinary finds this week, but I also found three Polaroid cameras. I never buy Polaroids, because I don't have film to test them, and I'm sure as heck not gonna pay $50+ for a pack of film just for that. But 2 of the 3 Polaroids I found the other day had film in them! One film cartridge is empty, but I can still use it to test the camera. The other cartridge is FULL, but the battery is dead. All 3 of the cameras work. None of them are the super-high sellers, but good enough to make me happy :)

Jessica
============

Lesley

============

So what about you?  What great things did you find this week either for resale or that your're excited to keep for yourself?  Leave a comment below as we would love to hear all about it.

Don't forget to fan us on eBay Underground!

Fantastic Finds Friday

We want to hear all about your Fantastic Finds! This features isn't about your exciting sales. It's about your exciting finds! There are so many places to find inventory: your closet, your garage, a yard sale, thrift stores, a consignment item you're selling for someone else. What did you find this week that you are excited about? It can be something you're excited to get listed OR something you're excited to keep! You can even post to your listing, if you'd like. Free advertising!
==========

I haven't been out thrifting lately because I've been too busy with my current inventory and frankly don't really need anything. BUT, I needed a day off, which includes a day of shopping, so off hubby and I went Tuesday to our new favorite Goodwill in Reading, PA.

This week I found some brand new kids Primigi boots. I have yet to list them but believe me they are sweet. I also spotted one lone Robeez on the shelf. It was unique because it looked like a dragon and was 3 dimensional. I found the partner to the shoe on the floor.....gasp!

Robeez in like new or new condition can fetch a fair price, but I soon discovered these were unique on eBay. Check them out here!

I also found this Stephanie Matthews girls wool dress coat.  I ALWAYS pick up these when they are in good shape and current style.  They sell well for me!

My total investment for my Primigi, Robeez and wool coat.....$13.91.....potential sales $110.


Lesley
==========

I'm in the same boat as Lesley. I've got SO much inventory here at the house to be listed that I just can't justify going out and buying a lot more until I get it all listed. I'm making real progress, so that's good! But I did hit a Goodwill on Saturday while I was out shopping with my sister. I found a really nice pair of men's Florsheim shoes! They were only $2.99! So I paid for them, along with a whole bag of clothes. When I got home from a long day hours and hours later, I realized the cashier didn't put my Florsheims in my bag!! :( Fortunately, I was back in that town the next morning, so I stopped by and found them ... back on the shoe rack!! I explained what happened, so fortunately I didn't have to pay for them a second time. I'll be getting those listed this week. I'll try to remember to post a link here.

============

So what about you? What great things did you find this week, either for resale or that you're excited to keep?