Poppin' Tags

I have long been a fan of Goodwill shopping. However, it took a song by Macklemore to put my feelings into words. Please allow me to break off a little piece for you... "I'm gonna pop some tags, only got $20 in my pocket. I'm huntin'... this is... awesome."-- Thrift Shop by Macklemore 

Financial Guy was never excited, when I'd bring home something I felt like I practically stole, but when I'd reveal the true value of said bargain, he'd say something like, 'that's good'... until last night.

Our twins are literally growing like weeds right now & it's absolutely ridiculously hard to keep them in pants. It's almost like as soon as you wash them, they outgrow them! They announced yesterday morning (as we are getting ready for church, mind you) that NONE of their pants are long enough any more. Not an issue if it's not 20 degrees outside... which, of course, it was. Nice. Time to pop some tags.

Financial Guy was with me (something I usually try to avoid, strictly because having him follow me around, while I'm "huntin' for a come up" is quite possibly worse than taking a crying hound because I usually hear "how much longer?" about 3,000 times.) and I was a wreck about it. I immediately land 3 pairs of pants for the twins, all popular names, a Land's End fleece for me, and a suh-weet pair of Issac Mizrahi 4" summer wedge heels, NWT (new with tags), thank you very much. Then Financial Guy appears... holding a shirt (shut up!). He says, "this has an orange tag & that sign says orange tags are 99 cents." He smiles. It's his favorite brand. I say, with the sweetest smile I can muster (that smacks just a tad of 'told you so'), "so get it".

$18.50 later, we're headed home and Financial Guy immediately gets on the computer. He looks up the Joseph A. Banks shirt he just scored & they're listed for (get this) $99 on the website (are you kiddin' me??), but they're on sale for a mere $49. Seriously?? However, it makes his 99 cent purchase all the sweeter.

The point here is two-fold. The most obvious, there are uh-mazing deals to be had and many things are still NWT. However, if you're familiar with brands and how much they sell for, there are also lots of opportunities to buy & resell deals you find on places like Craigslist or eBay. For instance, I found

these boots  a couple of weeks ago for less than $20 and their list price on eBay, at the time, was $89. The best I've heard recently however, was a friend of mine bought a Mickey Mantle baseball glove for $1.99 & listed it on eBay 2 weeks before Christmas. That puppy sold for $850! You read right.. eight hundred and fifty dollars!

Am I telling you to be some kind of Goodwill hoarder and fill your house with junk you'll never use or sell? Not a chance. What I am telling you is try to pop some tags before you hit the mall. You may just start singing Thrift Shop and yell, "This is awesome!". Again, big shout out to Macklemore. Save on, friends!