Lesson Learned...Nothing is EVER free....

     This story today is a lesson learned that nothing is EVER free. About a month ago I stopped at a soda machine in front of our local walmart. I put my money in got change and TWO drinks came out. Oh what luck huh?? No not luck at all and it did not come for free. Let me explain....
     Two weeks later I went to the same machine to get a drink (I get a drink from the machine cause it is cheaper than getting them inside the store, well maybe not now but it was). Put my money in only got .25 back (I'm supposed to get .50 back). At least I got my drink and it was cold (this little bit will be important in a second). So yesterday (which if you have been paying attention is another two weeks later) I go back to same machine and what to do you know I only get .25 back and my drink was hotter than hades....
     So let's recap, I got two drinks a month ago for .50. Two weeks later my one drink was .75 and two more weeks later my other drink was .75. If you can do math at all you will have figured out that I actually paid for that "free" drink within the next month and that the last drink I paid more for was so hot I couldn't drink it. Like I said a lesson learned 🤷‍♀️ nothing is ever free and if someone or something is telling you it is you better pay close attention! **Oh and p.s I checked to make sure they hadn't changed the price and sure enough the lighted display said .50, just in case you were wondering**

Thrift Haul... A little bit of everything...

It is time for another collective thrift haul, these items came from goodwill and yard sales. I found a few things for my self, some stuff to resell (always fun but I really need to make sure I list the stuff 😒) and of course I got a few things for my sons (that is something else I always do). 

All of the items in the picture came form goodwill. New in box mini garden set was 1.99, 2 terra cotta birds was .99 for both, owl light was 1.99 and the small wooden pedastal was .59. 

These two items came from a yard sale. The tommy girl 10 was 1.00 and the tommy girl was 2.00 I love them both, they are both amazing scents!

Both of these items came from yard sales. Coach purse was only $1 (purse needs some cleaning but for that price who cares 🤷‍♀️) and the camo boots was 3.00. 

Goodwill Find.... Vintage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Plush-Ace Novelty Co-New in Package..

     I wanted to share my very interesting find with you, of course I needed more info on the items so I did some research and as I like to call it "fell down a rabbit hole". I went to a goodwill out of my town today with a friend and found this whole bag of vintage teenage mutant ninja turtles plushies. They are marked ace novelty co. and marked 1989 (so these are real vintage). I was intrigued by them cause they are new in package, meaning that these are in the very same bag they would have been shipped in back in 1989 and no one has opened them. So of course I wanted to know more about ace and here is what I found online.
"Ace Novelty has been in business for over forty years. Ace was located in Seattle, Washington from 1951 to 1982 when they moved to Bellevue, Washington. On October 3, 1997 Ace Novelty moved to Woodinville, Washington. In June of 1996 Ace Novelty was purchased by Play By Play Toys and Novelties of San Antonio, Texas. Offices and warehouse facilities are also located in Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles, California, Miami, Florida, New York, Spain, Hong Hong and Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. The Promotional Products and Premium Programs Division for the company are done through the Ace Novelty office located in Woodinville, Washington. (Special thanks to Wakkas Warner for providing the info!)
Boy, just like the company itself, Ace Novelties plushies are "all over the place". These plushies are not very high quality for the most part, being used primarily as amusement park prizes and such. Their stuffing ranges from a "dryer lint" type stuffing in the smaller plush to styrafoam pellets in the larger ones. There are even several different kinds of the same size plushies that were made in the same year!"
     The page I got this info from was about animaniacs toys but hadn't been updated since 2000 (wow that is crazy, someone wrote the blog above in 2000 and never looked back). It seems that Ace got the manufacturing rights to make these toys in the likeness of popular characters like warner bros who own looney tunes so back in the late 80s they got the rights to the ninja turtles. Now a days I don't think this is even possible with all the copy right infringements that happen but maybe bigger companies can still do that? Seems to me Ace Novelty Co. was/is a provider of carnival/festival toys. So basically these are the prizes you  would win when you pay $25 at one of those fair games that you already paid $20 to get into and $30 to eat and I better digress here. They did move into a brief time in the 90s were they made actual toys that were in stores but as it always does that ended and they went back to what they knew best, toy prizes. Ace is still in business today you can buy their carnival prizes on their website, ebay and amazon. Of course it is just the little plastic breaks easy things but atleast they are still around.
     I know this post wasn't really about the ninja turtles plushies I bought but thought this was  a pretty neat find in a random goodwill on the east side of the us, in a relatively small town. These guys have been kept in their bag for 30 years! No one ever wanted to open them, poor dudes. I don't think I even mentioned that I only paid 2.99 for the whole bag!! That means I paid .25 a piece for 12 vintage turtles and some history. I am going to sell these guys at some point but now I just need to figure out what to do I really want to sell them all together in their bag but people may not be interested. We shall see, thanks for hanging in and hope you enjoyed this show and tell/history lesson...

Kids Thrift Haul for September 2019

This is a collective haul of kids items I have picked up this month from the salvation army and the goodwill. I love finding toys, books and clothes at cheap prices. Then after my kids are done with them I sell them in a kids consignment sale to get my money back (sometimes make a little bit too). 

Vtech garage .99 (goodwill) vtech robot 1.99 (salvation army) coca cola mcdonalds happy meal bear new in package .50 (goodwill) and bag of random .99 (goodwill, I picked this up cause the car that goes to the garage was in it). 

Build a Bear batman bear and gund duck stuff toys .50 a piece at goodwill. The duck is a pretty good size too, he is setting up if he lays down he is bigger than the bear. 

All the books was .10 at goodwill the homework wiz was .55 at the goodwill, I thought this thing was pretty cool I think it was around when I was a middle schooler so that was a long time ago! 

What's in the bag????.... $1 yard sale bags

Went to a few yard sales this past weekend and found two bags of random for my boys. These were only $1 a piece and had a lot of stuff in them. Some will be thrown away cause it was already opened or is broken but for $2 I think we got a deal! 

Yard Sale Haul... Sunglasses galore and vintage Reeboks

It's time for a thrift haul... This is an accumulative haul from yard sales and thrift stores.  These are the highlights of the past month or so... So that means I bought more but it wasn't up to par for the blog LOL. That also shows that I really do have a thrift shopping problem 🤦‍♀️

The sunglasses on the left (vintage 90s my mom had these) were found at goodwill for .99, the other two pairs was found at yard sales for .50. 

Perfume set yard sale $1, books goodwill .10 a piece. 

Book yard sale .50, mariah carey perfume $1, light up toy .25 yard sale, cover girl cc cream .25 and 3 pairs of sunglasses from walmart clearance $1.50.

Early 2000s never worn reebok tennis shoes $5 at yard sale.

$5 Rummage Sale Haul

A few weeks ago a animal rescue in my town opened up a little rummage store to help get some donations. It is a neat idea I am sure a lot of places do things like this but our town is so small this is a first for us. I go in every week to see what treasures I can find. This week wasn't much but I enjoy the hunt. I found an almost complete set of the Kroger mini pops that they gave out as a promotion last year (I think for every $25 you spent you got a mystery pop figure and you could purchase the collector case separately of course). A set of 28 nfl pencils that are from the 70s (I also found out these sell for pretty good money on ebay, who knew??). Also got a box of doll stands, a vintage handkerchief and a paw patrol car for my son. All of this was only $5, now that is a deal! 

Yard Sale Haul.... with a splash of goodwill... Kids stuff

This is a mish mosh of items from the past couple weeks, there is yard sale and goodwill. It is all kids items and most is for resell. I can not help myself when it comes to kid items and especially toys from my childhood.. I can not leave them! 

Barbie teacher set with kids $1, jazzie doll $1 and beach hammock set $1 all from a yard sale

Star castle $1 (yard sale), tomy train $1 and barney plush .50 both from goodwill 

New in box butterfly set $1 (goodwill), new with tag dog skirt $1 and pumpkin dress $1 both from yard sale

Photo stickers 5 sheets $1 octopus .50 both form goodwill, frog toy .50 (yard sale)

Shark blanket 1.99 from goodwill 

Goodwill Find... kate spade corduroy purse

I haven't had very good luck finding purses at goodwill (well at any thrift store or yard sale) lately, but this weekend that changed. I found 4 different purses and you have seen the other 3 this is my last bag from the last awesome week. I found this mid 90s kate spade black corduroy purse. I was skeptical at first that this was authentic cause kate spade is very counterfeited. With research I found out it was and I only paid $3 for it! Found a similar one on ebay for $50 so I am happy. 

What's in the bags??? Dino overload

It's another what's in the bags post! My goodwill goes through spurts where they don't have these bags for a while then that is all you find. I guess it all depends on what people donate. As you can see these bags contained quite a few dinosaurs, which my youngest has decided he wants to play with. My too much gene kicks in when my kids show interest in a certain toy or subject. We must have them all,  it stems from my childhood I swear.... For $8 ( a little more than I usually pay) I think we got some good stuff. Some will go to our collections and some will be resold.