The Tale of the Sale . . .

Every year the Enchanted Cottage paper crafting store in Lewisville, NC holds their annual Customer Yard Sale and usually my PIC (stamping Partner in Crime) and I shop this sale held in the parking lot behind the store.... this is the first year she and I have rented spots so we could sell items. I had weeded items out of my craft room and the DSD now has a full time career and no longer uses her paper crafting items so I combined her items and mine and sorted and priced it all to sell.... Unfortunately my PIC's Mom had passed away so my PIC was left with her whole paper crafting craft room of supplies and tools. My PIC also weeded items out of her craft room so between us we had 4 craft rooms of items/supplies to sell at this sale. She sorted and priced her items and I did mine. 

The night before this sale my PIC brought over all her boxes and bins and such of things she was selling and my DH helped me get my boxes and bins and such out to the driveway and the three of us loaded up a small trailer and the back of DH's truck for our trip the next morning to Enchanted Cottage for this sale. It is a 2+ hour sale from our house to Lewisville and the store had assigned us a setting up time of 7:30AM and we did not want to be late - esp with all we had.... DH not only drove us but he set up the two canopies and we set up the tables. I had bought black tablecloths at the Dollar Tree so all the tables looked neat and tidy since some of the tables are different colours and some have spray paint on them and such from house projects..... I also had made signs on green poster board from the Dollar Tree to list some of the items we were selling at our side to side spots. We hung these signs on the canopy using spring clamps from Harbor Freight as I did not want to use something that would damage the canopy cloth. 

When we shop this sale I usually take photos as soon as we arrive but we had shoppers before we even had a chance to finish setting up so these photos were taken late in the morning:

This year there were 30 sellers at this sale. Enchanted Cottage sent out emails and did posts on Facebook announcing this sale and she gave a list of some of the items sellers had told her they would be selling at their spots. I decided I would run an ad for the sale on CraigsList in Raleigh, Charlotte, and Winston-Salem and I listed some of the items other sellers were selling and I added a few of the items we would have. We had Big Shot machines, SU carousel ink pad holders, a Cricut with programs, embossing folders, etc.. On the signs I had made up for our spots I listed many of the items we thought people would be looking for and each sign I wrote out I made it different and listed different things

Both my PIC and I had read the email from the store listing items from other sellers and on the list was a Spellbinders Glimmer hot foil machine. I already have this system but my PIC wanted to see what shape this machine at the sale was. We did not know which of the sellers had it for sale and our plan was once we were set up I would scope out and look for this machine for her and check it out since she does not know what the machine should come with..... we were far too busy for me to shop right away as I was helping my PIC set up and we helped the first rush of customers and then I went through the sale looking for the machine but not looking at other seller's items for sale at that time.... two booths from the end.... 

I saw two ladies looking through a large pile of SU Paper Pumpkin kits and right behind all the Paper Pumpkin kits I saw the Glimmer box.... the ladies were nice enough to let me stand between them so I could look at the box - the guy at that spot was a teenager so he got his father to come over to help me as his mother was helping another customer on the other side of her spot. I asked the father how much the machine was and did it have all the plates, platform, cord and all? He said he was sure it had everything because the box was still sealed from the factory and never opened..... the store sticker price on the box was $164.99 but the sale price they were selling it for was $35.00!!!  So I paid him right away and hurried back to our spots to give it to my PIC and to help with the sale. A little later I was able to get away to do my shopping and since I already had seen all the other seller spots I knew the spots I wanted to shop at. GREAT deals all over..... bought 3 of the IRIS bins for card stock for $3 each, picked up dies for $1 and $3 and a stencil for $2, and TE stamp and die sets. I also bought a TE stamp and 4 piece stencil set for $12.00 but when I came home and opened that up the $22.00 die that matches that set was in the envelope between the stencils so that was a DEAL for sure! Also bought a hot foil sentiment strip set with matching dies. So happy shopping for me for sure:

As I always do when I shop this Yard Sale I stop in the Enchanted Cottage store and buy things to support their business. This year I bought the Wavy Rectangle die set from Penny Black:

This die set will make frames and shakers and some how I did not own a wavy rectangle die set so I was happy to pick it up. I also ordered one of the new Sizzix Big Shot machines from them and they will let me know when it arrives at the store and I will go back to pick it up and looking forward to that!! The store is all decorated for Fall and Halloween with cards and projects all over the store for inspiration so I am hoping all the shoppers made a stop inside....

We packed up at the end of the sale and loaded up and headed out for a late lunch and then headed home and we got home just as it was getting dark. We unloaded all the boxes/bins and such of PIC's items and loaded her car for her ride home and left all the rest on the trailer for the night. In the morning I got up and unloaded the trailer by myself so that DH did not have to deal with that. I am certainly happy we came home with many empty boxes and bins! YAY

When I was going through items in my craft room that I was weeding out I had three of the white shadow boxes left over from the Butterfly Shadow Boxes I had made - here is a photo of the one I made for my craft room:

For the sale I made two of the pink butterflies and one of the aqua butterflies -- here is a photo of them in progress before I put them in the frames for the sale:

Sold the two pink ones but brought home this aqua shadow box:

We had a great sale and came home with empty totes and bins and boxes and not so many machines so YAY.... Probably in November my PIC and I will hold a sale at my house and see how that goes.... Fun day and huge thanks to DH for pricing w me, loading the truck and trailer with us, driving us to and from there and a huge thanks to DSD for being the main Cashier!! Thanks a lot to Enchanted Cottage for giving us customers a chance to buy our supplies at a used Yard Sale in their parking lot and for being the ONLY paper crafting store still open that we can get to........