Comments on: A Beginner’s Guide to Scoring Cool Kids’ Stuff in the Used Market

By: Amanda

Amanda — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:55:41 +0000

I think you don’t give Craigslist enough credit here… It is my primary source for cheap stuff of high quality. Definitely check out the “free stuff” section… Freecycle is a great one to mention though, not enough people know about it yet!

And, did I catch a Dr Who reference in there? Dalek Ave, Tennant Dr…?

By: Lori

Lori — Sun, 03 May 2009 18:26:30 +0000

My husband gives me such grief for stockpiling stuff. Typical hubby comment: “You don’t teach elementary school, you teach high school. Why do we need the complete ‘Ology’ book set? And why do you keep all these ‘Babysitters Club’ books?” We’re now expecting our first, and wow! All the stuff he complained about in the office now has a happy home in the bookshelves of our daughter’s room.

Of note, my husband is not a reader, by any stretch of the imagination. Me, voracious bibliophile. Any one else with similar situations? :)

By: RookieMom Heather

RookieMom Heather — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:04:26 +0000

Love it. We tweeted it already and will try to feature these fantastic tips on the main site… oh and, more importantly, I’ll try to get my husband to do all this work!

By: Susan

Susan — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:47:53 +0000

Freepeats.org is another place to score free used baby stuff. I think they have them in most large cities.

By: Carina Gardner

Carina Gardner — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:02:28 +0000

Thank you for the tips here. Very valuable and insightful!

By: Magda

Magda — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:19:06 +0000

I managed to use craigslist to find a middle school rummage sale, which I went to as a birthday excursion: about two feet of books, a popsicle-making kit, and a penguin marionette for about twelve dollars. Now I just have to dream up more bookcases…

I love just going back to look at your Wall of Awesome. Congrats on being posted on ohdeedoh!

By: CanCan (Mom Most Traveled)

CanCan (Mom Most Traveled) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 07:39:59 +0000

I too had a mind boggling failure of a yard sale with tons of baby items. In years passed those things had sold like crazy but I guess last summer was a bum time to sell infant clothing.
I never sell kids books, I’m a booktomaniac myself.
Luckily I’m from the south and our yard sale season is like 10 months long. One of my best “wall of awesome” worthy scores was a huge bin of wooden puzzles, all dumped out and mixed up for $5. I looked through it long enough to determine there were at least 8 good, complete puzzles in it and then hurried to buy it. The extra pieces were things like letters and numbers so they were cool to have too. In the end I figured it was something like 60 cents per complete puzzle, and tons of missing piece ones that I got rid of on Freecycle.
Kids books can be SO cheap. Don’t buy from the people who sell them for $1 each! I have been given boxes of books. Sometimes I have to Just Say No because my hubs gets mad at the volume of “bargains”.
I’m pretty jealous of your science stuff!

By: Sara

Sara — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:56:07 +0000

that IS impressive…I don’t have the energy to do what you do, but I do make a weekly stop at goodwill. True, I pay a bit more for items, but I routinely pick up pristine books for $.50-$1, and I grab ones we already have for things like birthday gifts, etc. I also outfitted my son this winter in brand-name clothes for under $20. Love resale!

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:31:28 +0000

Oh man, and I thought we were good at the yard sale circuit. :)

My husband is a shameless haggler… he got a little tykes outdoor play cube for five bucks. They were asking $25. I just can’t do that.

I’d also say that teaming up with a friend is a good idea for the neighborhood sales. Come up with a list of things you want and split up. A camera phone can usually help fine tune details, but you’re essentially covering twice the ground you normally would be able to cover.

The key with ebay, (for clothing, mostly), is to shop out of season. Some sellers sell summer clothes in winter and vice versa. These auctions usually have far less bids and if you can estimate the size of your kid, you can get a lot of clothing for a steal of a price.

Befriending a thrift store worker is gold. I once got a 10 piece play hut pop-up set for .38 because they were mislabeled. When I questioned, she said, “Oh, you’re here all the time, consider it a good shoppers gift” She also knows when I usually come in and will point out finds or hold stuff back if she can. Finding a thrift store in a nicer area usually reaps huge rewards.

By: MIdge

MIdge — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:38:58 +0000

Nice cat! And very impressive wall of awesome!! I agree it’s hard to get good deals on Craig’s List. Plus, it’s hard to get motivated to drive all over town to pick up items you’re paying, at most, $5 for! I find it hard to motivate for Yard Sales week after week, though.

Thanks for sharing your strategies! Maybe I’ll run into you some day on the Yard Sale circuit!