Tag: fall

New Hobby

I started a new hobby about a month ago, and this is something I’ve always wanted to do besides blogging. I started thrifting clothes from thrift stores, garage sales and storage at the house and reselling them for profit.

I’ve been in the reselling business for a little while with my Etsy shop (VintageByKristinShop) now CLOSED, following the lead of one of my favorite youtubers, The Crazy Lamp Lady. I found vintage and antique dishes from Facebook Marketplace, the Salvation Army and the Goodwill in Redding.

I found things like a Currier & Ives casserole dish, milk glass, Danube teacups, an Inspirado Biscotti cookie jar, and several Starbucks mugs and tumblers.

Several months later with no bites, I started shopping off of Poshmark, and bought a few things that were name brand for a cheaper price. People were selling everything on there. So I started by listing a black and white dress with a sun, moon and star pattern on it and a couple of unopened Artisan soaps. I wasn’t really expecting any sales, and I completely forgot I had things listed until I came back from my hunting trip and found that someone had purchased my dress.

The woman, unfortunately, bought it right after I left out of service for two weeks, and cancelled the sale after I didn’t respond.

I decided to download another app to buy things from called Mercari, which incidentally turned out to be better for me because it has cheaper shipping costs than Poshmark, in most cases.

So I decided to list some old clothes from my closet that were just taking up space on Mercari, hoping I could get rid of them. My first listing was a Calvin Klein cardigan that I’ve had for awhile. I had no idea it was Calvin Klein, and when I posted it, it sold quickly, for $8 and after the fees, I took home $7.20. Then I sold a Juicy Couture three bottle travel size perfume set for $15, and after the fee of $1.50, I made $13.50. Then I sold a “random beauty bag” full of unopened makeup and beauty products I had lying around that I wasn’t going to use in an Ipsy bag that I didn’t want. That sold for $5, and because I had free shipping on it, I only took home $0.15; but that was okay with me because it was less stuff in the already compact bedroom I share with my boyfriend. Those three sold all in one day and I was amazed at my progress.

I wasn’t prepared at all. I didn’t have anything to ship them in. Dustin’s mom, however, happens to work from home as a shipper for a company her cousin owns. Thank god. I managed to fold some of the packing paper that she uses into packages and tape them up. Then I had to forward the emails I was sent by Mercari  for the postage labels to her email, so I could print them. I ended up using her postage scale and packaging tape too.

The next day I sold a yellow t-shirt for $6 with free shipping so I only made $0.15.

The day after I sold the sun, moon and stars dress for $7 with free shipping so my take home was $1.05. Then a pair of sunglasses that looked like Breakfast at Tiffany’s for $6 with a take home of $1.15.  Korean face masks for $5 and free shipping, so I took $1.51, and a brown blouse that Dustin’s mom didn’t want for $6 making $0.15 after shipping and fees.

Fast forward to today, I’ve made 39 sales, totaling $176.32. 35 of those sales were made on Mercari, 3 were made on Poshmark and 1 was Facebook Marketplace.

My biggest sale so far has been the cost of a printer – $50, which I sold on Facebook Marketplace.

I was doing very well for myself for awhile, and then I got in trouble with the post office. Apparently First Class, Priority and Flat Rate actually have meanings. I wasn’t paying attention to the boxes, because a box is a box, until the government steps in.

I was sending First Class postage in Priority boxes, and then they got sent back to my address with a very angry note attached, letting me know that I was basically an idiot because I don’t know the difference between Priority and First Class. For gods sake they’re boxes.

Thrifting clothes, which I really shouldn’t be doing at this stage, but I can’t help it – turned out to be more than I was expecting.

I have found a Banana Republic Wool Blazer, a Banana Republic knit sweater, a Banana Republic Leather Jacket, a Cashmere Charter Club Luxury sweater, a Cashmere cardigan by Valerie Stevens, a Ralph Lauren sweater (Men’s), a Calvin Klein button down (Men’s – not yet listed), a Orvis Sporting Goods Silk button down blouse, two Keurigs – one of the basic models in the color Red, and another a B60 Special Edition (which is up for sale), the Red one I’ve decided to keep to gift to my mom, which she preferred over the Special Edition.

As for other listings, I have Men’s L and XL shirts, Women’s XXS-L shirts, sweaters, jackets, coats, Women’s size S-L and Junior’s size 5-9 bottoms, I have yet to list shoes and many bags of assorted clothing.

Brands include American Eagle Outfitters, Calvin Klein, Forever 21, Hurley, Billabong, Banana Republic, GAP, Ariat, Kendall & Kylie, Fabletics, Abercrombie & Fitch, Michael Antonio, Guess, Hollister, Keurig, Ralph Lauren, Starbucks, Nike, Cosmopolitan, Roxy, etc.

Follow me, make offers, and get great deals!

Poshmark: https://poshmark.com/closet/kristinevans538

Mercari: Kristin Evans

eBay: kkse2-35

Hawes Farms

So typically around this time of year, I’ll start to see pictures on Instagram of girls in sweaters posing with pumpkins in the pumpkin patches, or pictures of Starbucks coffee dates, or twinkle lights with blankets and Netflix. I envy those girls. For one thing, my phone camera sucks, for another I don’t feel all that photogenic and my boyfriend isn’t a photographer.

From our trip to Hawes Farms, I have nothing to show. Also, because I have a tendency to live in the moment and completely forget to take pictures, completely forget to post those pictures on social media and then I beat myself up later for it because I could have documented this year’s “fall shit” in a scrapbook when I’m married with kids.

Hawes Farms is a pumpkin patch. Or it just started out that way. It’s a pumpkin patch with a corn maze, a cow train, haunted corn mazes, food, concerts, etc. I’d never been there, I didn’t even know it existed.

Dustin’s mom bought passes for us to go and kept pushing them on us on the weekends.

So we went for the night time part.

I’m not one to complain, but this place was definitely only for kids. The cow train had oil barrels that you sit in and you get taken around the length of the farm, but they were small. There was zip lining that was maybe ten feet long and not very high off the ground. There were go carts that went in a very small circle.

Instead of picking pumpkins like I was expecting there was one pallet of pumpkins with a price tag next to them. The corn maze was fun, although we never actually got very far and we were spied on by a drone.

We sat down with drinks and garlic fries and people watched for awhile. We watched while a concert started up in the back. The woman who was serving made my crown and coke at a 90:10 ratio and I had to chug it before we went into the haunted corn mazes. So I was feeling pretty good. So was Dustin, who was four or five beers deep by then.

The haunted corn mazes turned out to be not very long and full of jump scares. It wasn’t very scary, instead we found entertainment in scaring the actors. Dustin 1 – Kristin 1.

Dustin scared a “Doctor” who was performing some sort of disembowelment surgery. He was following the last group of people and Dustin walked right up behind him and he jumped when he turned around but then immediately went right back into character.

The next haunt, I sneaked up on someone who was pacing in a small storage unit, and yelled “boo!” and made him jump. We made a game out of it and came out laughing.

The last thing, one of the most exciting ones – at first, was the zombie paintball. We were herded into a storage unit, explained what to do and the safety part of it, then herded out to a tractor hauling two trailers. The paintball guns were attached to the rails of the trailer and could only move on a pivot, the “zombies” were just people in padding that looked nothing like zombies whatsoever and the area was a junkyard full of crap. We only got fifty paint balls, and maybe I was just irritated by that point but the high school kids supervising the ride were annoying.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to shoot the pumpkin cannon, pick a pumpkin or anything like that, because that was the morning part and I forgot to bring the tickets for it.

So Dustin and I left to meet our friends at the bar. Which we ended up leaving early, because Dustin had to work the next day and the Monster Truck show was letting out so there were tons of people flooding in.

The tickets, which were supposed to be season passes ended up only being good for one use, even though they cost $300+.