JOURNAL: YARD SALES: 2010 Expedition #4 – the biggest killing we’ve made since I started detailed reports

Wow! We made a killing this week! We got another guitar, another 2 digital cameras, another dvd burner, gun holsters and all kinds of other stuff! This was probably our best week in the past 2 years.

Went out around 8:10AM until about 12:40PM, for a total of 4.5 hours. Quite a long run. Total spent $92.95 plus ~$6 gas for 39 miles of driving, for a total cost of $98.95. We bought 26-28 items – a few things that we needed, a few more things that we could really use – for a total estimated value of $680.39, leading to a profit of $581.44. That’s $129/hr as a couple or $64.61/hr per person. And to earn that much after taxes you’d really have to earn $830; money saved (by not having to spend it) is actually worth more than we realize when the government’s cut is taken into consideration.

This is probably the last time we’ll take Clint’s car with no air conditioning… It was getting hot!

STUFF WE GOT:

• $25.00: guitar, acoustic, classical, “student sized” (36″x12″), HOHNER brand, model HCO2, 18 frets (guitar is so small, only first 12 frets protrude from body of guitar) plus music book: FJH Young Beginner Guitar Method (with cd), soft case for guitar, extra classic guitar strings (HOHNER CG230) ($90 new according to guy selling his for $50 on Craigslist; I’m going with $90 cause it was in brand new condition despite being opened) … And the best part is, I knew Mark I would tune it as soon as he came over to hang out. So I just ignored it ’til he came over, and now it’s tuned. This guitar is great for being smaller — you can actually fit it under your arm while playing cards, without fear of hitting the person next to you.
  

  same shape as my box, though I didn't have this piece of paper, it was just cardboard. Literally barely opened.

  

• $20.00: camera, digital, 5MP, Canon Powershot SD400 Digital Elph, 3X optical zoom, usb cord, battery charger, battery, 1G memory card – Except for being 5MP instead of 12MP, this is WAYYYY better than our (these go on Ebay for $5-$95 after being broken, $100-$300 used/working, $325-$415 new… For purposes of this report, I am going to value this at $150) – This is going to be our new primary camera! It goes from off to taking a picture way faster than any other camera we’ve had. It handles dark situations amazingly well; hardly any noise. It will save me hours and hours of photoshopping out the crappy GE camera’s artifacts. The only way the GE camera beats this camera is by being 12MP instead of 5MP. I’d love a 12MP Canon camera, but this will suffice for now. $20 well spent!
  

  our new primary camera, to be used for our flickr pics. Goodbye shitty GE camera!

Here’s an example of the high quality pictures the Canon can take. Click through and then click all sizes and then click the maximum size to see how well these shoot detail:





as well as video:


• $10.00: dvd burner, external, 16X DVD-R / 48X CD-R, LG model GSA-2166D (EV:$93 new, we’ll call it $75) – Since we burn 2 copies of every disc we create, and our computer is too full to put anything else in, this was a perfect solution. Because it’s USB, it doesn’t cake up any extra case space. Now we can use the multiple recorders option, and burn both copies of our disc simultaneously. This will save tons of trips downstairs every week, and keep us from getting behind in doing our backups.
  

  burn speed now doubled!

• $5.00: camera, digital, 2MP, Fujifilm Finepix 2800 Zoom, 6X optical zoom (best zoom I’ve ever had!!!!), LCD and viewfinder [why are viewfinders going out of style?!], case, 4 new AA batteries, 16MB FujiFilm SmartMedia memory card (mg-16sw) (128M replacement is $36 online, I’ll be getting one of those), USB cord missing (replacement is $5 online), plus a bunch of random pictures from the previous owner ($120 new, $30 for a beat up broken one on Ebay, so I’m gonna say $60 value, but subtract $5 for the missing USB = $55 estimated value)
  

  as soon as I saw the huge lens, I knew it was worth $5



test pic of $5 cam taken at yard sale



zoom test - before (no zoom)



zoom test - after (6X zoom)

• $5.00: frame, digital picture frame, 3-inch LCD screen, also plays videos (Brookstone 79024371) (EV:$50, based on the fact that their 3.5-inch model they now sell is $70)
  

  looks about like this, but without the remote

• $5.00: game, Life, Simpsons, shrink-wrapped ($25 new, though Amazon has the gall to sell it for $60)
  
• 
  
• $5.00: holster, concealed, over-the-shoulder, ambidextrous/lots of adjustability, 2 magazine holders (EV:$20 but maybe it’s more, this guy was adamant that these were $80 holsters used in Afghanistan when he was there, and did have some other stuff with “Kandahar, Afghanistan” patches on it) – Not that I have a concealed weapons permit – yet – but this may be useful when I do.
  

  kinda like this, but brown/fabric, less leathery, more velcro less buckles

• $5.00: holster, open carry, drop/gun-on leg holster, 1 magazine holder (EV:$20, but maybe more given what that guy said about ‘em) – Useful if I ever decide to open-carry a firearm, which is legal in Virginia without a permit. I already went outside wearing it [but no gun] when there was an accident out front, and nobody seemed to take notice.  It’s kind of like this one, but without the camouflage:
  
• $3.00: shelf organizer, closet – basically, let’s you hang 1′x1′x1′ shelves off of a closet, for storing shoes ($14.99 printed price) – This went into Carolyn’s closet right away!
  

  like this, but in Carolyn's favorite color purple

• $2.00: lava lamp (EV:$20)
  
• $2.00: light, spinning color wheel 1970′s-type lamp (EV:$20, some are $30 new) … The color wheel itself was cracked, and would still work, but I replaced it with the older/bigger/better color wheel from my old broken color wheel lamp — the lamp itself broke almost 10 yrs ago, I’d kept it in my bathroom window to make colorful sunlight… so I just switched the 2 color wheel parts. All I really wanted was the lamp-motor combo. It’s a very basic thing you can do to spice up the weird-lighting factor of your rooms.. and here in Casa Clarolyntopiastan, we like weird lights!
  

  same type of light as this, though it looks totally different, crappier really, with papery (not hard plastic) color filters

• $1.00: bath mat, black, 40″ long, 24″ wide, (rubber in ours is degraded) (EV:$13) – Our was all slippery form the years it was used to keep our pool table level, before we paid to have it moved downstairs. The weight of the table had crushed/degraded the rubber. This used one is way better than the one we had…been meaning to replace it for a few years; glad we only spent $1.
  
• $1.00: candle holder, colored glass shards (EV:$5)
• $1.00: costume, french maid ($40 price on package) (Giggity!)
  

  not nearly as ornate as this one

• $1.00: game, Laser Battle ($31 @ Amazon) – box was beat up but pieces inside are still brand new/unopened. I thought Khet was the only laser+mirrors game! I had no clue this existed! Getting it for a dollar kicks ass!
  
  
• $0.50: action figure, Batman Beyond, wheeled base which makes him spin as he rolls, maybe 6 inches high (EV:$5)
  

  kinda like this, but standing on a base

• $0.50: cat toothpaste + fingerbrush (EV:$3)
  
• $0.50: ice bucket, aluminum, no top/tongs, very basic “pail” model + book of 115 mixed drinks (EV:$9)

  

• $0.50: ice trays x 3 (EV:$3)
• $0.50: pill sorter, 7 days, 4 times per day, each day is removable from the full-week-pack for travel ($1.89 price on package)
  

  this is pretty much exactly what we got

• $0.50: trippy prismatic eyepiece (we have lots of these, but this actually had a nicely painted design on the surface) (EV:$0.50, what we paid)
• $0.25: action figure, Beast, 10″ tall, about 7″ wide (EV:$15)
  

  kinda like this one

• $0.25: book, Psycho Kitty:Understanding Your Cat’s “Crazy” Behavior, Pam Johnson-Bennett ($13 cover price)
  
• $0.25: pillow, microbead, orange, long cylinder, spandex sides/microfiber edges (EV:$15) – I can NOT get enough of these microbead pillows! They are the most comfortable thing, ever.
• $0.10: book, Drugs: Why Unconcerned Parents Should Be Concerned, Walter S. Krusich with Ralph Bradbury ($30 online because it was only (?) printed in 1973, contains a lot of misinformation and propaganda, and thus is probably popular with collectors like me, and there are only 2 used copies available on the internet) … I gotta say I got my dime out of it just by reading the 2 pages about LSD that say it gives you leukemia and brain damage. ROFTLOL.
• $0.10: bag of stretchy snakes, various thickness and colors, for the cats (EV:$1)

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* EV stands for “Estimated Value”, which I estimate by looking things up in Google Shopping/Google/Amazon/Ebay. I don’t always deduct for an item being used, unless it’s actually in worse condition.

Mood: happy
Music: Nine Inch Nails remixed by Stephen Morris And Gillian Gilbert – God Given