Multi-tasking at the thrift store: shopping for resale

While you're thrift-shopping about town, you may want to keep an eye out for resale items. If you're planning a spring yard sale, participating in a fundraiser flea market (where you rent space for a day or a weekend) or have a digital camera and might want to sell on eBay, you may be able to make money while saving money. You can also buy for consignment but "buyer beware," - be sure you have a well-located consignment store in mind and that you know the prices. It gets even more interesting once winter ends and the yard sales, usually the best venue for this kind of buying, begin again.

If you shop yard sales, thrift stores, church sales or auctions, inevitably you've noticed the dealers. Watch them. Awhile back, at a sale, as I assembled an LL Bean backpack, an army blanket and a flashlight (right, we were going camping). Meanwhile, a man in his sixties arrived. He selected an a 1930's planter and from the same box, an old framed mirror and a numbered print of a fisherman in a yellow slicker. He'd snagged the prime resale items and left before I was halfway through shopping with wife/mother eyes.