Thursday

I love real BARGAINS, I love great DISCOUNTS and I love fantastic REDUCED PRICES!!

These things also help when you are going through a rough patch, such as being jobless.  Can you imagine if there weren't discounts and reduced prices??  I don't like to think about it to be honest.  

But lets concentrate on BARGAINS for now.  Where do you find a bargain?  Where have you found a bargain?  Where do you think you'll find a bargain?

If you are anything like me, you'll be thinking either eBay or second hand stores.  Right?  Well, not always.

Regarding second hand stores;  I have said it all here before and I will say it again....  With the prices they put on used stuff today, you may as well buy them new!  This obviously depends on what the item is.  But let's concentrate on the cheaper items for now.  The people that put prices on second hand rubbish (*ahem*.... referring to it as 'rubbish' because I'm angry with their warped pricing!) are living in LA LA LAND or a just being plain old greedy or they are not experienced.

One example;
I find 50 cent knitting and crochet books/magazine/patterns at one op shop.  Then I happily mozzzzy on down to the op shop across the road or suburb, only to find them at $2 each.  AND I have found the same 50 cent magazine/book at one store, for $2 at another store.  There is no uniformity with op shops.  I don't think they even have an interest in that.  While one shop finds it fair to place 50 cents on a book, another finds it fair to place $2 on it.  Who is supposed to be right?  Who makes up the pricing rules and why?  I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND IT.

Honestly, where has the charity gone?  Out the window.  Ka-put.  Gone, baby gone.  Hasta la vista, baby.  You get the idea. 

Having said all that....  I can still find bargains if I look well enough and happen to be at the right place, at the right time.  And I will let you in on a little secret... there are 2 or 3 stores where I can find knitting and crochet books/magazine/patterns for just 25 cents.  You heard me.... 25 cents!  Or another store that has 3 for $1!!  And to take it a step further..... they have balls of GOOD wool (some real wool and some acrylic) for 50 cents each!  And to top it off with a big bang... they occasionally have half prices days!!  So that means 12.5 cents for a knitting/crochet pattern/mag/book or 50 cents for 3 ... AND 25 cents for a ball of wool. WOW.  I almost feel like I'm stealing from them.  LOL!!!

Those shops are the REAL charity shops.  They are the ones that people go to time and time again. 

So, please take note, high priced op shop owners and / or workers.  We see you.  We notice you.  We are not impressed with your pricing.

Eventually your prices will match the normal shop prices, then we will stop buying second hand.  Be very careful how you price things.  And remember why the op shop actually exists and what it's function is.  Not only should it help the charity that the money goes to, but it should also help the buyers just as much. 

And back to why?.... some of us are jobless and struggling.  Yours is the only store that can help us with struggling times, if you'd only see it that way and not just see it as mostly a money making scheme.


Onto a great op shop find.... I paid just $3 for this AWESOME Asian bottle, which I think held some kind of herbal liquid medicine or the likes at one time.  It's one of those things that I'm glad I found and bought.  :)

 

Thursday

I'm such a sucker for many things, including mini perfume bottles.  I don't care whether they are full or empty.  I just love them.  Here is a classic blast from the past;

I remember Sea Jade by Yardley, but I never wore it.  The smell is fresh, but I'm not really able to describe that well.  It's not a horrible smell and it doesn't even smell old... but it's something I'd probably never wear unless I was desperate for perfume.  

And here I am in possession of Sea Jade and it only cost me $1.99.  Now, when I found the bottle at the op shop it wasn't actually in the box.  Something made me vigorously rummage through the basket of knick-knacks that it was in, and I miraculously found the box.  I'm so glad I did!  Do you know how rare it is to find something vintage like this WITH a box?

3 more mini's found at a different op shop for $2 each;

Perfume unknown - it has such a cute little top;

The lovely Ysatis by Givenchy.  I remember buying this once in the 80's and I adored it, so I must buy it again some day.

Another unknown perfume, but gosh the bottle is a vintage-y kind of lover-ly;

Saturday

Just when we think the weather is getting cooler, another heatwave hits us this weekend!  I tells ya... I can't take it anymore!   38 degrees today and 40 degrees tomorrow.  How much more can I possibly stand?

Calvin Klein's Obsession Night mini scent (minus the dust) found for 99 cents;

Gorgeous glass perfume bottle with metal stopper, found for $4.99.  I'm not sure if it's vintage, but I'm going to say that it is.  Go ahead and sue me if it's not.  :/

Thursday

$1 each for these little port/sherry/liquor glasses;

 

$1 for this little green tinted bottle.  But I couldn't stand that hand made 'thing' on it.. so off it came;

$3 for this tube vase.  I had found one exactly the same last year for $2, so now I have twins!

Monday

I know these types of little perfume bottle have a specific name, but in all honesty I can't remember.  So I will dub thee 'cut glass perfume bottles'.  

And at $12 for all three, I do love them!

Oh, to be free.

Freebies galore.  They are never ending... and filling up my home.  I'm frightened of becoming one of those hoarders that I've seen on that program, what's it called?  Oh yes that's right, she says with sarcastic undertones, 'Hoarders'.



Beautiful Italian scarf.  It's oh so sheer and flimsy;

 

Woolen drop stitch scarf.  It's lighter in weight than what it looks;

Passionfruit & Guava body scrub and bath bomb.  I've not opened the scrub, but I bet it smells yummo.

Patron Tequilla bottle.   Please don't ask me why.  I guess it would make a nice vase.  It did have a label on it, but I cleaned it right off.  I discovered through ebay that it came with a perfectly round cork.  I, of course found it without the cork which is a shame because it would have looked oh so much nicer.

And just to keep my eyes busy, girly magazines;

Smelly and fresh

I found 2 perfume bottles at the op shop, still with perfume inside.  They don't make / sell them anymore.... so would they be worth something now, I wonder?

 $4.  Avon Soft Musk.  I could tape this bottle to my face, right under my nose and smell it all day long.   It's simply gorgeous if you like a soft smelling musk, of course.  A good size at 30ml.

My mother had this perfume in the late 1980's, but in a different bottle which she kindly passed onto me last year.  The bottle is empty, but I can still smell the scent on the spray nozzle.

$3.   Lauder for men.  I'd love to smell this on the dear husband, but there is no way he's using it.

It smells quite lovely, not too over powering for a man's scent at all but a little hard to describe.   Funny... when I look at the bottle, I see nada scratches on the plastic cover.  The camera flash certainly knows how to grab every ugly scratch!

 Unfortunately the writing is so very tiny under the A45, I can't even read it with a magnifying glass!

 

Don't bottle it up....

When somebody was offering 'free bottles, some decorative' in my favorite advert paper online, I just couldn't resist.  The ad was not in the freebie section (where it should have been and where I always look) and I came across it by chance.  Thankfully I was looking in the right place, at the right time.  

I dashed to a small house, with a sign out front and near a window which said 'baby sleeping, please keep the noise down' or something along those lines.  I was almost petrified to knock on the door, so I knocked every so gently, but I wasn't heard.  I knocked a little louder and I was suddenly greeted at the door.

I certainly wasn't expecting such nice (empty) bottles from that lovely lady!  

This one is my favourite.  At the moment, I keep it in the bathroom and I've placed a cork stopper in it;

A rather masculine bottle, and I'll let you use your imagination as to what's on the other side;

 

Oh ok, I'll show you!

Kaiser Stubl wine bottle, because it says so on the other side;

Triangle bottle, no kidding; 

This was either liquour or wine... but after smelling the inside - it was more than likely wine, but honestly what would I know? hehe.

Love the grapevine design on this one;

 

Ugly at first sight... but it has some ships on the back;

But that's not all folks!  I will show you more of what she gave me tomorrow.   :)   E.T.A a few days later; oops!  Forgot to show you, but I will soon!