Friday Finds.....From My Inventory Stash.

Since I did not source anything this week, I went into my stash of thrifted items for resale.  Below is a picture of several items I pulled out.

I pulled out a vintage PYREX white milk glass covered butter dish with blue snowflake pattern.  I paid $2, comps are between $20-$30.  I plan on listing it for $30.  

a

I pulled out 3 pieces of  Bakelite handle serve ware, each cost $1 each. One is a meat fork, a knife sharpener, and a steak knife.  I am not sure on how to price these, comps include a slicing knife which I don't have.  I need to research these pieces more comps for a single knife sharpener were $4-$10, these may end up in future antique booth.

 

I have a 1995 Longaberger kiddie basket purse with floral fabric liner, I paid $4, comps were from $10-$55, I plan on listing it for $30.

I picked up the Pampered Chef  bread tubes, star and flower.  I paid $2 for each.  Comps are all over the board from $1-$20.  I only have the two tubes one with its box, the other no box.  I am going to list them together for $12.

Along with the Pampered Chef bread tubes, is a Pancake shaker bottle, a sandwich crimper, and a corn on the cob butterer  Pancake shaker comps are $10-$12.  The sandwich cutter comps $10-$15, the corn on the cob butterer comps are about $1-$5.  I plan on listing as a group for $20.

Not in the photograph above, I pulled out a vintage PYREX covered divided glass baker oval, Blue Horizon pattern milk glass lid with a blue flower pattern garland.  I paid $2 for it years ago, comps are between $25-$35, I plan on listing it for $30.  I added a photo below.

Lastly I have a gallon size zip lock bag of vintage aluminum cookie cutters, I paid a $1 for the bag.  I am going to sort them out, there are doubles of the cutters, and create smaller lots.  These I will need to research a bit more, I saw sold comps with similar cutters ranging from $25-$40  I did not realize these old cookie cutters could be worth that much.  

My Bucket List Of Items I Want To Find In The Wild

Since I don't have a thrift flip ready to share, I will share my treasure hunt bucket list.  My list consist of  items I hope to find in the wild, meaning at a thrift store, garage sale, etc.  I noticed many of the resellers I follow have bucket list of items they hope to one day find in the wild.   Here is my current bucket list.

1.  Fenton Glass Hand Painted and Signed.  I have found Fenton in the wild just not any of the hand painted and signed pieces.  Like the glass birds, the cats, or vases.

2.  Burmese glass

3.  Fenton Fairy Lamp.  I have found a fair lamp, it is an Indiana Glass large amber stars and bars fairy lamp.  I am admiring it for now.  It will eventually be listed.

4. Victorian Glass bridal basket with its metal base

5. Victorian Glass Pickle castor

6.  Tiffany & Co, where its jewelry, crystal, art glass any would be a welcomed find.

7.  Waterford Crystal

8.  Lalique

9.  Baccarat antique glass

10.  Miriam Haskell jewelry

11.  Weiss jewelry

12.  Czech glass

13.  Murano glass, I did find a Murano paperweight.  Not 100% sure it's a real Murano Italy one or not. 

14.  Belleek 

15.  Sterling Silver Candle sticks

16.  Sterling Silver serving dishes

17.  Art Pottery, Weller, Van Briggle, Roseville, Moorcroft

18.  Rose Medallion

19.  Copper Cookware English or French

20.  Le Creuset cookware

21.  Lundberg studio art glass

22. Lucite candle holders.  I did find Lucite candles a matching pair at Goodwill.  I sold them for $35.

23.  Lucite flowers and napkin holder.  I have found Lucite trivets.  I sold one for $10.

24. Eickholt art glass vase.  I found an Eickholt paperweight at an indoor flea market.  I still am admiring it, it too will eventually end up being listed.

25. Larson pottery animal

26. Eldrith salt glazed pottery baby Jesus and animals for the nativity, I have the rest of the figures.

27.  Artesania Rinconada ceramic animal figurine

28.  Wade pottery

29.  Rosemaling, Norwegian folk art.  I have a decorative wooden spoon and a set of candle sticks.  I collect Scandinavian folk art, glass, and pewter.

30.  Fire and Ice 

31.  Glassy Baby

As I check off an item, I will add something new to the mix.  

What's on your bucket list, leave a comment below!

Wednesday Work: Tackling Inventory Not Yet Listed

 Let's focus on inventory for reselling.  My inventory has gotten out of hand. I only buy a few pieces each which have added up to storage totes full of inventory to process.  I currently have to many totes more than 10, of items to resell, not yet listed.  

I have sorted 2 totes so far, I pulled everything out.  I Googled Lensed each piece, wrote on a post it note what I found about about it, what the piece is selling for, what I paid for it, and assigned it a number.  While I am doing this I am writing down each piece on a sheet of paper with the corresponding number, including a brief description, price and purchase price.  This helps me when I go back to the tote and I can see what exactly is in there.  My goal is to get through the remaining totes this summer.  I also note whether the item will be on Etsy or Poshmark.  My paper list will come in handy when I list the item and then added to my spreadsheet of listed items.  My spreadsheet is broken down by platform, it helps me keep track of what is currently listed and which items have sold.  I am learning what does better on each platform.  During this sort I am pulling out anything damaged as well.

As I am going through my inventory I take this time to really decide if it is worth the time to list the piece.  Not every item I buy ends up being listed.  I will make multiple purges of inventory as I work through it.  These purged items could ended up being donated back to the thrift store, put on a garage sale, or offered online a bulk lot.  For instance, I have 10 to 15 Vera Bradley purses and bags, some I purchased to resell and some are from my closet.  Vera's do not sell well unless they are brand new with tags, retired, or the vintage originals made in the USA from the 80's and 90's.  I know there are platforms just for selling bulk lots to other resellers.  I will need to research this option before jumping in.  As I sort through my inventory, I keep empty boxes near by for sorting, one box is just for pieces I want to list soon, one for damaged and one for items I am not sure about anymore.  If I am lucky, I will have an empty tote when I am done.  When I ended up with a box for donating, I take it right away to the thrift store.  

Inventory can easily get out of control.  I am on the verge of that happening, I really want to move stagnant inventory out and fresh in to my listings.  For this reason I have cut my sourcing to only the best of the best, which I have not found much of lately.  Yesterday I had several paper weights I found thrifting, I put all of them back.  All where priced at $6.99.  Only one I could identify the maker, and sold comps where anywhere from $12 to $40, it was not a $40 or $30 paper weight.  These really where not worth it to me right now to buy.  I have two paper weights in my inventory not yet listed.

You may not see any thrift finds being posted once a week.  You may see a weekly post on finds from inventory.  I may have to start a  coming soon to my Etsy or Poshmark weekly post.

As a reseller you have to decide what is right for you.  I do not have a lot room for large amounts of inventory, I have to keep it to a smaller manageable amount.  I am working on being more selective on what I pick up for resale.  Remember you have to do what is best for you.

How Do I Identify Makers Of Items.

 Identifying who made a vintage or antique item can be difficult.  I would say fifty percent of items I pick up in the thrift store are unmarked.  Researching any unmarked item is time consuming and often leads to dead ends and the item is still unidentified.

My first go to is Google Lens on my phone, it always with me and is pretty simple to give me a quick idea of what the items and potentially a maker.  I try not use Google Lens to get an idea of what the item is worth, some returns may included the list price.  If I see several returns with a similar list price I then go on my mobile browser and look on eBay or Poshmark.  I will search for the item and then filter the results to sold or completed listings.  This step gives me a rough idea of what the item is actually selling for, it is easy to fall for listings with high asking prices.  Take a screenshot of any listings that give you the information your looking for, this helps when creating a listing.

After all the quick research on my phone, I have to decide if I am going buy it.  If I decide to buy it, I will do a deeper dive into the piece at home on the computer.  For instance, I bought a milk glass collection in May. figured all of the pieces where Fenton the pattern, hobnail, all matched from piece to piece.  The research showed me, before 1970 Fenton hobnail milk glass did not have any imprinted mark in the glass.  They used paper sticker labels.  The piece made 1970 and later all have a Fenton mark in the glass.  Many of the older colored glass piece that were hand painted are generally signed on the bottoms and dated.  This helped me to decern that all the pieces are indeed Fenton. 

When I am researching at home I will look through the listings of the item on eBay, Etsy, and Poshmark.  I will compare the measurements with my item, condition, color, etc.  If I am lucky to find a listing with the maker identified, I then use Google to research it even more.  

When Google strikes out, there are websites for glass, pottery, porcelain collectors and identification.  There are also Facebook groups for identifying and some will even give valuations.

There are paid subscription websites like Worth Point to help identify and even give what the item has sold for online.  According to Google, a monthly subscription can cost between $28.99 to $46.99, it is tier based and the higher tier gives full access to all features on the website. There is also an option for annual membership.  

You may never find out who made an item or even when it was made.  I look every now and again with Google Lens, you never know when you will have success.  You can still make money selling items with unknown maker, it may take a bit longer to sell.  

Monday Market Trends

 Good Monday Morning!

Here is a look at what is trending over the past 7 days.  I am going to start of with googles results of what is trending in searches.

1. Men's vintage boot cut jeans

2. Nike track pants vintage

3. Vintage shower curtains

4. Vintage mine dress

5. Vintage sideboard buffet

6. Vintage outdoor lighting

7. Vintage women's watches

8. Vintage fabric by the yard

9. Vintage Halloween sweater

10. Vintage chest of drawers

Now two of the above are furniture, however you can sell furniture on Facebook marketplace and eBay with local pick up.  The shipping on these items would be outrageous.

Now on to what I see trending on Poshmark.

1. Cowboy boots both modern and vintage.

2.  Vintage nick knacks

3.  Vintage wall art/wall hangings

4.  Vintage jackets

5.  Native American Sterling Silver jewelry

6.  Vintage sunglasses

7.  Vintage belts

8.  Vintage coffee mugs

9.  Vintage Corning Ware Coffee Percolators, Spice of life, Blue cornflower, Country festival, and Wildflower patterns.

10.  Vintage Brass, art glass, and ceramics still selling

I hope these help you in your reselling, I have a few of the above I need to get photographed and listed.  

Friday Finds The Week of June 15th 2025

Sorry I am a day late posting, to much going on yesterday.  Here is what I found this week while thrifting.  

First is this Michael Kors Gansevoort large sig nature monogram should bag, I paid $4 for it.  I have not decided where or not to sell it, I like this style of shoulder bags.  Sold comps are at $30-$42.

2.  Is this Andy Warhol clutch style bag with three stands of beads handle.  I didn't know Andy Warhol had purses.  I paid $1 for it, I have not found in comparable sold comps I will probably list it for $24 and see what happens.

Lastly, is a studio pottery candle stick and a vintage pumpkin clip on plush.  I paid $2 for the pottery and $1 for the pumpkin plush clip on, it is probably from the 1990's early 2000's. The pottery candle stick is signed, I plan on listing it for $14 and the pumpkin clip I need to do some research on it before I list it.

Happy Hunting!

Thrift Flip/Upcycling

 

Milk glass hand painted Bridal boxes

I come across bridal/wedding cake glass boxes from time to time at the thrift store. The two pictured above are Westmoreland milk glass.  I picked these up at Goodwill in the past year.  

front view

To create this planter, I used a Styrofoam block from Dollar Tree and several succulent stems from the Dollar Tree along with a few I had on hand.   You can find faux succulents at the craft stores and at Walmart.  I had to cut the block down about 1 inch to fit into the short box.  The taller box I had to cut of a little bit of each side to fit into it.  

 

block and succulent stems

Once I had the foam fit into the box, I took the succulents and removed them from their picks.  Some had wire on them and some had plastic.  I pushed the ends into the foam, rearranging until I liked their look.  I add one small hanging one to cascade over the edge of the box. You could add some deer moss or Spanish moss first over the top of the foam, this will hide the foam from peeking through.

front view

.  

top view

With the taller box I added the foam to it, I ended up using a greenery candle wreath.  A candle can be added to the piece.  You could use any candle wreath to fit your decor or season.  If faux plants are not your thing you could use wet foam for fresh flower arrangements.

front view

These cake boxes can be used to hold candles, small potted plants, or even a knickknack. You could plant real succulents in one.  They make great serving pieces for candy or nuts.  You will need to hand wash them if you use them for food or planting.  I don't recommend submerging these old glass boxes in soapy water.  I gentle wipe the inside with a damp soft cloth with a mild soap and I wipe again with a clean damp soft cloth with water only to remove the soap.  I usually let them air dry or I dry them off with a clean dish towel.

These bridal/cake boxes come in different colors, sizes, and designs.  If you see one, rescue it, added it to your home decor and enjoy it.