When arbitrary works in your favor

For people who like to go flea-ing, thrifting and antiquing, perhaps the thing about it that makes it the most fun (and also the most frustrating), is the seemingly arbitrary way that items are often priced.

Sometimes this is bad.  For example, when I walk into an antique store for the first time - that's in the middle of nowhere - and everything is really, really expensive, it's always a surprise.  I always wonder who the shoppers are and how the place stays in business.

But on the other hand, sometimes you discover a place that (unexpectedly) is really affordable and has great stuff.

Most of the time, though, places will have bit of both.  Since antique malls rent their booths to different vendors, people will price things differently.  And once in a while you find that great item that seems priced WAY below what it's worth.

(This is also why Goodwill is great and antique dealers are always trolling thrift stores for things to resell.)  Often people donate to Goodwill not knowing the value of their donations.

Those Holly Hobbie plates I paid $10 each for and then saw at Goodwill for $3 each?  A good example.

But here a couple of times lately when seemingly random prices have worked in my favor:

Remember these adorable duck planters that I found at thrift stores in the fall?

Here they are after I filled them with chrysanthemums.

See the price tag when I bought them?  I paid $3 and $4 each.

Well, I saw one at the antique store last week.  It looks nearly the same as the one on the left:

Do you see the price tag?  $25!

And here's a beautiful pitcher and basin I saw in a different antique store last week:

Such a pretty color!  I always want to fill these with flowers!

But this price!  $129!  Wow!

Here is my version, you may remember this from one of my original posts last year:

Perhaps this one's design is a bit less detailed, but I paid $5 for the basin and pitcher.

Really!!

With $8 worth of alstroemerias, I thought it was the perfect spring arrangement.

Like I always tell myself when buying an expensive vase I don't need - it makes a beautiful gift if I want to pass it on.

And one final score from last year, one that I use all the time at The House of Goodwill:

Excepting the water glasses in the bottom right of this cabinet, all the other glasses in the cabinet were part of a carload of things I got for $55 from Denise's basement.  (A lady who was selling garage sale leftovers from her mother's estate in bulk.)

Those beautiful Indiana Glass green goblets on the second shelf - they are one of my favorite things.  I probably got 16 or so in the heap of stuff I picked out.

I run into them regularly at antique malls, and they aren't cheap.

Here's a posting from online; this is typical pricing:

Yes, that's $50 for 3 glasses.

Yes, once in a while arbitrary prices favor the buyer!

And that's the fun of it.  To create something beautiful on a budget - that's the game!

Take that money you save in little bits here and there, add it up over the years and you've got the down payment on your lake house.