Brand New Items at a Yard Sale?

People are often surprised at how many new, never used items can be purchased at yard sales, even in unopened boxes or with retail tags still attached. 

Sales consultants, those still in business and those no longer doing sales, sometimes have excess stock for huge discounts off their regular retail prices. Avon products particularly can often be found and are something that I always watch for. It is a product that I like and do buy from the catalog, so it's not as though I'm just buying something because a deal could be had.

This coming Saturday is one of the biggest days of the garage sale season for me, when a nearby community has their town wide sale. In honour of this upcoming event, I thought that I would share one of my finds from my outing there last year. And illustrate that not everything you see at yard sales is junk or other people's cast offs.

It was later in the morning when I chanced upon a sale by a former Avon consultant. It was the perfect time to bundle purchases and negotiate a big discount on already great prices. I ended up paying $15 for all of the beauty and cosmetic items shown below.

One of my favourite portions was this grouping of unused lipstick samples. I had been looking for new shades to try out and this was the perfect opportunity to see what colours work with my olive skin tone.

I have had so much fun experimenting with them! Some were multiples of another colour but most were unique.

There were other regular sized lipstick tubes as well. One had a matching nail polish and was a wonderful shade for fall.

This is an overview of the products that I bought that day. There was eye shadow, eyeliner, and mascaras. There were several lipsticks and nail polishes. I bought one palette of cream eye shadows.

The eye shadows are great for creating two different versions of a smokey eye. And they last so long!

I have always found Avon nail polishes to wear well. I really like these colours.

Also included in my $15 deal, but not pictured were two tubes of Footworks night cream. I am on my feet all day at work in steel toed shoes, and I really find this stuff works great!

I saved a significant amount of money had I purchased all of these items separately from an Avon consultant. The small lipstick samples are not something that I would have been able to buy, and even if a consultant had given me a couple for free to try out some of the shades, I wouldn't have been able to get this many of them.

Make up is something that I buy and use regularly. Finding it at a garage sale like this, new and unopened, is not only a delight, but a thrifty way to bulk up my make up bag. There is sometimes a perception that yard sales have nothing but junk. Or that buys like this are rare. The reality is that I often find and purchase make up at yard sales in the area. 

If there are direct sales items that you like and use, you might be surprised at what you can find out there, and how much money you can save. 

And remember that you can often negotiate an even better deal, whatever you are buying, if you bundle items together. Especially as the morning wanes and that first rush of shoppers has come and gone!

Nifty Thrifty and (Over) Fifty

Cathy