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It’s time for another edition of Tuesday Troubles. I’ve said it before, but this should be named “things i’m annoyed / confused / want to complain about”, however I couldn’t figure out how to make any of those into a snappy title, so Tuesday Troubles it is. And yes, I do realize that these aren’t true “troubles”. I know that many of these for sure could be defined as first world problems!
~So I was browsing on eBay last night and decided to randomly search for the Missoni for Target chevron throw / blanket from a few years ago. Everyone in this house loves the one we have and I wouldn’t mind another (aka I don’t want to share). Well I certainly found some on eBay, but umm, they are going for like $200? For real? WTF? I thought maybe the popularity of these would have died down by now, but clearly they have NOT. I’ll check again in a few years because I don’t want one that badly!
~I caught up on The Rivals II a little last night and OMG, why do these people fight all the time? Even when they aren’t drunk, they are just crazy. I’ve love to see these good get together with some of The Real Housewives for a complete pile of craziness. Maybe one day there will be a crossover and my wish will come true.
~My biggest “trouble” today is all about garage sale pricing. I am going with a $1 / $5 / $10 system for the most part, but I am kind of at a loss on what to put on items like clothing? Do I sell old North Faces at a garage sale or are they more of a thredUP / twice item? And if not, how do I price something like that? And just clothing in general? Also, is it weird to have a “free” box? Like with branded t-shirts (I’m looking at you MGM Grand shirts) or just stuff I wouldn’t feel right putting a price tag on. My SIL and I think it’s normal, but I just want to double check ;).
~This has always troubled / annoyed me, but why do 911 calls get released to the public? I mean, I suppose I know why and understand it (in some cases), but at the same time it just seems SO personal. I shudder when I hear some of them on the news.
~And finally, how does one “pick a sport” for their kids? L is 5 and doesn’t really have an opinion one way or another about what he wants to play. Well wait, he wants to play volleyball (?), but there isn’t really a volleyball league for 5 year olds. So do I just randomly pick between baseball, soccer and like karate? I know he’d love to do something, but what?
That’s it from here for now! What’s troubling you today?
I don’t know for sure but I think you just pick a sport and see how it goes. My daughter had been asking to play soccer for awhile so instead of just going all in, we signed her up for a one day soccer clinic to try it out. We decided she wasn’t ready yet (she is only 3) but it was nice to see what it was like before fully committing.
We put our oldest in Tball this summer. Soccer is kind of cultish around here, so I wanted to start with something that was less so.. He enjoyed it, and now I’m contemplating soccer. It’s more expensive though.
When I had a yard sale I didn’t price anything beforehand. People would just ask how much and I would make up a price! I would say try to sell your north face and then if you can’t get the price you want then send it to thredup but they might not give you a lot either. And no problem having a free box. People will love it! And people at yard sales want things CHEAP! Some people would try to bargain and it was just ridiculous the prices they would try to get. Most clothing should be just a couple dollars.
My 4 year old is currently in dance and gymnastics and also takes swimming lessons. She also wants to take soccer and tennis. It’s hard choosing and she loves everything!! And I want her to be in everything but of course that’s not possible!
You can choose all 3 sports really. Soccer is more a fall thing while t-ball would be more for spring. Karate is excellent in the winter. The younger they are when they start it, the easier it is to pick up.
You might want to check on etsy.com for blankets similar to the one you mentioned above. It wouldn’t be the exact same, but you might be able to find chevron patterned ones.
I havent had a garage sale, but my mom usually priced clothes at a quarter or fifty cents. As far as the name brand stuff, you would get a better price from some of those stores I am sure. Typically yard sale shoppers dont want to pay too much. And you might want to keep a free bin close to you or have a list of whats in it, in case you get some not so trust worthy shoppers.
We put our 4 yr old in soccer last fall and while he did fine with it he said he didn’t like it. So now we are moving on to either t-ball or taekwondo. I figured we would just try some things out until we hit on something he liked.
I’ve totally searched for that blanket before too, I always admire yours in pics!
A free box is fine at a garage sale I think but don’t be surprised if something just decides to take the whole box, that would totally happen here! As for more expensive items I would tag them what you would like to get for them (leave some wiggle room) and if they don’t sell there then consign them. Keep in mind that you will probably get chewed down on EVERYTHING!
Have you thought about listing your nicer clothes on here? I have seen some bloggers to that. Just add a photo, description, and price {with or without s&H}. Or selling it on your IG account? People are doing that too. All that to say what sizes are your NF jackets? I’m interested! 🙂
As far as the garage sale pricing, I would say make a $.25 box and I’m sure people will grab a few and you can give them like 5 for $1 or something like that. Branded t-shirts are the kind of thing where no one will buy them or some old dude will come up and buy the whole box.
You just kind of guess as you go in terms of picking a sport. My parents originally put me in ballet and my brother in football and both were a flop. In the end, we both joined the swim team at our local YMCA and loved it. I started in second grade and swam all the way through high school. My brother started in the mini swim team (kindergarten?) and also swam all the way through his senior year. I would just pick one and see if he likes it or if possible sign L up for all three!
P.S. Swimming is not only a great skill to learn, but a great sport to consider for when L gets older. 🙂
When Tim and I have garage sales we don’t really put a price on anything… we tend to just sell everything for $1-$2 except if it’s something big or worth something. For example, I sold a few coach purses and Tim started out asking for $20 and ended up getting like $12-$15 bucks! We tend to start high to get some sort of return, but then again we are making money off of stuff we wouldn’t be if it was still sitting in our house so we win either way! On a good day Tim and I will sell about $300 worth of stuff. Our garage sales have been good to us so far! We still have a TON of stuff to sell and we still need to go through more boxes in the rafters! Its not a fast process that’s for sure but the payoff in the end is super nice!
My hubby and I love to go to garage sales. A lot of people have a free box and I LOVE them! I own a daycare and am always finding little things in the free boxes that I can use.
We were talking about sports for our kids the other day. I want to start Mackenzie off in gymnastics or soccer. Mainly because she loves to tumble around and run and kick her ball. We will probably pick those when she’s old enough and then as she gets more of an opinion I’ll let her choose.
I think a free box or a 25 cent box is a good idea. Here I see lots more stuff in the $2-3 range…
for sports we started with swimming and gymnastics during pre school, and kinder kick (soccer). Once they were school age, they did the normal (around here) seasonal sports–soccer, basketball, t-ball/baseball/softball.
At one point karate was given a shot, and Clara took many years of ballet and jazz, and cheerleading. they’ve done tennis camps, and Jake did fencing through the school. But neither of them are superstars at anything in particular, they just play to have fun.
This last year Jake has done fall baseball, fencing, basketball, spring baseball, and about to start fall baseball again. this last year for Clara had cheerleading year round, basketball, basketball again, and she’s still in cheerleading and will play basketball again in the winter.
Sadly neither play soccer 🙁 (I played club soccer through high school). I guess Annalise will have to be the soccer player (she’s finally old enough for kinder kick! starts at 18 months…)
I think a “free box” is awesome! I never saw one before but it’s like hey, if you can use this more than me…take it! It will also make people more inclined to actually buy something if they already have something in their hands (:
Wow $200!??! That’s insane!
My girls play/have played/do/have done just about every sport and activity I can think of. They’ve basically just picked something each season. My oldest has stuck with dance and is still trying different sports. My youngest has ditched cheerleading and dance for sure but is still trying different sports. If he really is interested in volleyball (my oldest plays volleyball and here you can’t start in rec league until 4th grade) I would suggest starting with basketball. My girls played through a program called Upward which is nationwide. You can probably find the program at a local church.
I am stressing the sport issue as well, Jeremy is like a champion soccer player so everyone assumes soccer and that’s what Aaron plays but I kind of want to try a bunch out with Cassius and see what fits. I think I am going to try T-Ball first.
Free box = good. My kids love those.
But omg, don’t NOT price shit. I hate rummage sales like that. I turn around and leave. I was at one where a gal was selling golf clubs. A man asked her how. She acted all put out and said, “I don’t know. I need to ask my husband. I’ll call him.” So the man patiently waited. She finally comes back and said, “He doesn’t know. How much you want to give me?” He gives a number. She looks all pissed and says, “No. How about ____?” Well why the hell didn’t you just say that to start with? Why did you put out something if you had NO FREAKING IDEA what you wanted for it?
Name brand stuff, like the North Face coat, I think it depends on what your purpose is in selling it. Are you just looking to get rid of stuff? Rummage sale. Do you hope to actually recoup some of your investment? ThredUp. (People who are under some delusion that they’re going to get rich at their rummage sale tick me off. It’s a used freaking Barbie. It’s not worth $5.)
Obviously, rummage sales are a sensitive subject for me, LOL.
Having a free box is totally normal! My neighborhood in Brooklyn is always having stoop sales (yard sales but we don’t have front yards 😉 ) and most people put out boxes of “Free” stuff! I know I did when I had a stoop sale earlier this summer. I always feel sort of weird about the clothes too, I only put out some of my nicer less worn or never worn items and they actually did sell! But with the majority of my stuff I give to goodwill or sell to a second hand store.
Good luck with your sale!
I agree with one of the post above…post some things on here. Lots of us have kids around the same age. IMO…yard sales are a horrible place to sell clothes. Some people are yard sale vets and will haggle you to death. The last time I had one I probably had $1k worth of clothes(what I paid) and got maybe $75. I just got to a point where I was so frustrated that I was like “whatever, get that sh^t out of here” Around here a free box would be picked up by the 1st person there…all of it whether they need it or not. I’d maybe find a church or somewhere that they give kids clothes to needy families.
My 4 year old played soccer with our church league in the spring. He wasn’t feeling it at 1st, but quickly warmed up. It wasn’t about being the best player (to some), but to get out and have fun. I’ll get him in basketball this winter which his dad is super stoked about.
When my boys were little we did one spring sport & one fall sport. That gave them a chance to decide what they liked. As far as the garage sale I would hold out on a decent price for the North Face & if I didn’t get it I would send it in. I was usually able to get pretty good prices for name brand kids clothes. Maybe $5-8 for jeans or pants & 2-5 on shirts depending on brand. Good luck!
I think a free box is normal. I usually have one with random stuff in there. I also think that clothes get a general price point. So clothes all for for $1 or $2 a piece 🙁 for the kids clothes but they really sell that way. Coats and Jackets can go for about $5 each but that is it around here. I guess it depends on if you want to really get rid of them or if you are trying to make alot of money? I tend to price them a little low so that they will go and I don’t have to deal with it later. You could always try lots of clothes ebay. Like find out what you can fit in a Flat Rate Box and then say all of this for $xxx . I’ve never done it but I’ve seen them on there.
I had a ton of t-shirts and I just put them in a box for a quarter each. I maybe had one or two left at the end.
Other clothes I priced 50 cents to $5…depending on the wear (pretty much everything was close to being new, no real wear on them, designer stuff I priced higher though)…if it still had tags on I charged 20% of the cost listed (so if the tag said $20, I would put a price of $4). But again the clothes were in pretty pristine condition.
Since I had so many clothes (so many sigh), I bought several clear storage boxes, made big signs for each (skirts, pants)…you could probably do that with clothes sizes etc. And if all “pants” are $1 you could just list that on the sign.
Since I again had so many clothes (the skirt box alone had about 23 skirts) and they were of all sorts (most from the 90’s but a few from earlier and some quite new), I bought little tiny tags with string attached and priced each one (bought tiny little safety pins)…since there were several of us selling at the garage sale, it made it really easy for folks to know the price and to know who to pay. It was really easy for me to just grab a tub while watching TV and price away before the sale.
I had tons of jewelry to sell too. I bought some cheap ziploc snack and sandwich bags from the dollar store and put each piece/set in the bag and wrote a price on the front with a big black sharpie. I then just put all the bags in some tubs (about twice the size of a shoebox…and I had three of them lol) and let folks have at it. Kept the jewelry from getting all tangled and becoming a mess. Folks LOVED to look through the tubs trying to find something. Price of jewelry was .25 to maybe $3 (except for the vintage avon stuff).
I feel like you could get as much if not more for North Face jackets at a garage sale than ThredUp. Even more so here in Seattle. Or even more if you sold stuff on your blog.
I think kids join thing by season. We aren’t there yet, my son just turned 3, but my nephew plays both soccer and baseball/tball. If he has no preference you try one out and if he doesn’t like it, on to the next. We will probably start w soccer next year.
I agree about the 911 calls, they should think of the family who has to listen to them playing it over and over!
I started my boys off with soccer. U can actually play spring and fall. My oldest still plays. We did baseball next. They loved it. We then tried football and although my oldest prefers soccer. My middle boy prefers football and they both have been playing basketball since they were in elementary school. So basically they can play all sports at a young age. Its what u are most comfortable with. Eventually they will choose on their own. I say expose them to everything. It makes them well rounded.
I always have a “Free Box” at my yard sales, I include stuff like random cords & cell phone chargers that I have no clue what they even go to, old college books that even the bookstore won’t take back if I paid them, random tee shirts, & stuff that I wouldn’t pay money for at a yard sale but also things that are still usable for someone ! And I seriously laughed out loud at the Volleyball league for 5 year olds !