When did I buy that?

With cold and rain firmly entrenched in middle Georgia, Ella and I slept late on Saturday, ignoring the siren song of a few yard sales advertised on Craigslist.  Instead, I continued going through my backlog, and getting as much listed on Ebay and Amazon as possible.

 

As I opened box after box, though, all I could ask is, “when did I buy that?” or “why did I buy that?”

 

For example, I found a tote full of books on tape.  I don’t recall picking them up.  Maybe Ella did. 

 

Where did I find all those McDonald’s Happy Meal toys?

 

More KISS stuff? I thought I got rid of it all.

 

Why did I buy those stupid drum pedals? Or the compound bow that is missing pieces?

 

That teacher’s lot just won’t go away no matter how much I list.

 

Why is there a pair of cowboy boots in every corner?

 

Oh, that’s where those $100 books are.  Seriously, I found two $100+ books buried in the bottom of a box.

 

It’s nice to have stuff to list, but I really need to be more judicious with our money this year.  And I swear that once I get this mountain of inventory listed, I will NEVER let it back up so badly again.

 

The silver lining to all this listing, of course, is sales, and my phone cha-chinged quite a few times this weekend.

 

Late last year, we found a little thrift store in Macon, and Ella spied three Strat-O-Matic sports-related board games for $1 each.  I normally shy away from used games, but Ella was adamant, and it turns out her instincts were correct.  These are highly collectible games, and even with missing pieces, all three games sold for a best offer price of $80.

 

Ella gets all the credit for buying these games

At another sale, I picked up a box lot of Forgotten Realms books and box sets for $20.  The three box sets were worth $10 to $20, and were listed separately on Amazon.  The remaining individual books were mostly penny books, but listed as a lot sold for $90.

 

Combining books into a large lot can bring big bucks

I also listed a small lot of six Vampire Academy books.  On a $6 investment, the Vampire books rung up $28.

  

Small lots of books are worthwhile, too

In an effort to diversify beyond Amazon, Ebay, and the booths, we’ve also started selling on the local Facebook sites, as well as Craigslist and the local Bookoo.  On Sunday, I finally sold a large lot of Thomas the Train stuff to a buyer from the aforementioned Bookoo for $100.  I picked it up at a thrift store for $20.  We also sold a bicycle and a Robosapien, but no one seems to want our collection of Nerf guns.

 

Thomas the Train sold; our Nerf collection didn't

This week is tax week for me, with state sales taxes and my last installment of federal estimated taxes due for 2014. 

 

I hate paperwork, but c'est la vie.