Ever the princess of frugal, I am always on the look out for good bargains and deals at garage sales, that I can actually use. I avoid purchasing anything if I don’t have an immediate use for it, or I cannot see the long term benefit of buying it.
Recently I have attended many garage sales with scrapbooking supplies, and have been very fortunate to pick up some awesome deals on things I will most definitely use. That seems not only frugal to me, but a fun find as well.
I got pretty lucky on the first weekend we attempted to go out, in the beginning of June. Just as the temperatures were changing and the heat was starting to set in. It is my least favorite time to do garage sales, but my friend was already out and called me to join her. She especially wanted me to see this sale she had found.
The lady having the sale had cleaned out her craft room. Talk about a jackpot. She had every single kind of craft supply I could think of, and was excited to see stamping and scrapbooking supplies. The stamps were the only thing I wound up purchasing because it was such a great deal. There, on a table by themselves were dozens of plastic bags filled to the bursting point with rubber stamps. Upon closer inspection, I found dozens I knew that I would use and my kids would love them too.
Overall there had to be about 200 of them and she had them separated into groups in bags, except they appeared to have no theme. I couldn’t figure out why she had animals paired with one Halloween stamp when we found another Halloween stamp and a giraffe in another bag. I knew from the start I wanted all the horse stamps, so I immediately picked up the bags containing those. The stamp bags were marked between $6 and $8 each. And every time I picked up a bag, I didn’t put it down. The price was adding up.
Luckily I had my best friend, a total sales gal with me. When she saw what I was doing, she looked at the lady and said “Would you take $50 for everything?”. I gasped, because I didn’t have that much on me. This is a garage sale for crying out loud. She gave me a look that let me know she was negotiating so I left it alone.
When all was said and done, the lady settled on our original $50 offer and I wound up taking home what easily would have cost me about $1875 at our local stamp store (yes we configured the prices – most still had the original stickers on them). The past few weeks we have been going through them and seeing what we want to keep and what we won’t use. The total amount of stamps bought was 243. The majority of them were brand new, never used.
Oh, and my totally awesome, very sweet friend paid for them so I could get them right then and there, and none of the other people buzzing around the table could gobble any up.
That same day I also got a great deal on scrapbooking magazines and idea books, organizing supplies and some older paper. Totally worth the garage sale, and knowing how to haggle obviously doesn’t hurt either. And my friend Amy will definitely be going with me when I do go.
Here’s a photograph of the first day when we dumped out the stamps, most of them are pictured.
Nicole Humphrey writes articles for the Scrapbooking Blog and for the Frugal Blog. She also guest blogs on a variety of topics. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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Garage Sales: Frugal Ways to Clean Up Your Stuff
What Not To Sell at a Garage Sale Part One
What Not To Sell at a Garage Sale Part Two
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