New Stuff

I’ve been trying to expand my range of store inventory to go beyond the pretty, girly things I’m fond of. Yes, I will always sell vintage jewelry and interesting pottery, but it feels good to look at other possibilities.

Vintage Medical

My recent foray into vintage medical supplies is turning out okay. I listed one of the leather doctor’s bags and it sold within a week so I’m already well in the black on the medical items.

And the best part is that the buyer told me she is going to fill it with spa stuff to give to a friend who’s a medical student. I told her a bit about the previous owner, a pediatrician, and she’s going to share that info with her friend. (Now, hopefully some of the other medical stuff will sell too.)

Toys and Games

I rarely look at games and toys with the exception of dominoes and old playing cards and the like. But I’m trying to see more possibilities in this area. I mean honestly I know some old board games are like gold!!  So last week at Goodwill when I spied an unopened 1996 Guild, made-in-USA, jigsaw puzzle, I threw it in my basket. It’s not gold…hardly worth my time really…but it’s so nice and I love the image of vintage postcards.

And if it doesn’t sell, we’ll open it up and put it together as a family!

And yesterday, also at Goodwill, I found a bag of doll clothes, oddly enough, tagged as “home decorations” and tucked in the soft furnishings aisle with the used sheets and tablecloths. (??) Huh??  But these looked nice. The bag was taped shut so I couldn’t examine them, but I was willing to take the risk.

When I got home I found that they were American Girl doll clothes made by the Pleasant Co., all circa 1986- 1990. Some of the dresses are “retired” and they are all in the Kirsten line: a school dress, a summer dress, a birthday party dress…well, you get the idea. And dang…even missing a few of the accessories, these older American Girl doll clothes fetch a pretty penny!! I could list them all separately, but I think I will sell them as a lot.

Scoring on these helped to take the sting of a Goodwill loss I had on that same day. I had asked a staff member if she could tuck a large embroidered Chinese picture behind the counter for me. (It was beautiful, but big and didn’t fit in their little wheeled carts.) She happily did that.

Fifteen minutes later when I went to check out I told the cashier I had an embroidered picture back there too. He looked at me blankly for a second and then said, “I just sold that to someone else.”

I was stunned for a second. What???!!! This has never happened before. Who the heck bought my picture??! Well, it was no use getting upset or mad about it, though it was frustrating.

But I reminded myself, it’s just stuff. There will always be more stuff, more deals, more scores.

How about you? Any good scores…or ones that got away?