About The Dime: “The Dime is a blog about money for people who aren’t just about money. It’s about frugal, but not cheap, people and their lives. Whether you’re a teacher buying school supplies on your own dime or a crew member paving a million-dollar highway, this is the place for you. You can bet your bottom dollar.”

Be sure to check out their articles and Authors, they have a quite the lineup of money-saving characters!

The Site is powered by Colorado PERA (Public Employees Retirement Association)

Thanks for the mention! -The Team @ Tagsellit.com

Special thanks to Megan Buerger at the Wall Street Journal for allowing us to repost this awesome story!

In the shared Brooklyn loft of sisters Porter and Hollister Hovey, stuffed birds mingle comfortably with eclectic vintage furniture. The unusual décor displays the combined styles of Hollister, 34, a leather-loving tomboy with a taste for Louis Vuitton luggage and antique backgammon sets; and Porter, 30, a photographer who loves exotic stuffed birds, chinoiserie vases and pearls.

“It’s Palm Beach on crack,” Ms. Hollister jokes, describing Ms. Porter’s style, “but mixing and matching in an eclectic way is our game.”

A framed Hermès scarf that belonged to their mother hangs above Porter and Hollister Hovey’s fireplace. -Dorothy Hong for The Wall Street Journal

The sisters run the up-and-coming décor company Hovey Design, creating a distinctive aesthetic by combining keepsakes with thrift-store antiques and a smattering of modern electronics. Since founding the firm in late 2011, the Hoveys have decorated penthouses in Williamsburg, developed a wallpaper and an adhesive wall mural for retailer Anthropologie and published a book entitled “Heirloom Modern,” which was released last month. On May 23, décor e-retailer One King’s Lane will release a “tastemaker tag sale” with about 100 of the Hoveys’ favorite items up for grabs.

On Hollister’s blog, which she started in 2007, the sisters share old family photos, renovation tips and snapshots of thrift-shopping adventures from the Berkshires to Tokyo. Known in design circles for its vintage style and flea-market savvy, the blog receives about 2,000 hits per day.

It’s easy for manipulated authenticity, particularly one built around nostalgia, to feel contrived. “The key is to be yourself,” Hollister says. “It sounds simple, but trust us, it’s not. You have to be honest about your story. If you try to be someone you’re not, everyone who enters your home will notice. Instead, they should take a deep breath and say, ‘This is so you.’ ”

To do so, the sisters say clients must embrace their oddities and abandon perfectionism. The Hoveys’ design service, which begins with a consultation that costs about $3,500 per room, comes with a lengthy, personal questionnaire. (They typically charge between $3,500 to $5,500 to conceptualize each room, plus an additional 20% charge on top of the price of any items they source.) In the questionnaire, clients are asked about their favorite childhood vacation, the best advice their parents ever gave them and the secret career they wish they had. Those answers then become a treasure map for details to highlight in the décor.

Last fall, Anthropologie commissioned the pair to design a wall mural called ‘Photographed Antiquities’ ($248). The print is based on a photograph of the Hoveys’ living room. -Anthropologie

“Our process is very personal,” Porter says. “Sometimes it feels like therapy, unearthing childhood memories and showcasing them in a sophisticated way.”

“The memories aren’t always happy or pretty, but that’s life,” Hollister adds. “It doesn’t make your home a sad place, it fills it with life. It’s what makes it interesting.”

The Hoveys’ 1,400-square-foot Williamsburg apartment is brimming with quirky antiques, animal prints and a mishmash of design genres—a lot like their childhood home in Kansas City, Kan. The two credit their treasure-hunting abilities to their mother, who was a fan of flea markets and eccentric fashion and filled their home with trinkets from around the world.

“She believed eclecticism was fabulous and always encouraged us to be individuals,” Hollister says. “She potty-trained me by bribing me with designer underwear.”

Their mother died in 2002, and the women have turned her favorite Hermès scarf into a piece of framed wall art. Next to it sits an old family desk flanked by a pair of 1970s Art-Deco chrome chairs and a large portrait of a hunter. The space also includes a life-size papier-mâché leopard, plastic tusks made from melted toys and a trio of taxidermied birds including a pheasant, swan and scarlet ibis. None of this is supposed to go together, but that’s the point. The sisters rely on traditional design rules such as color balancing and shape variation, and then bend them to give the space personality.

Among the heirlooms is a collection of stuffed birds. ‘They’re elegant and exotic,’ Hollister says. ‘Every woman should have at least one.’ Dorothy Hong for The Wall Street Journal

Hollister and Porter Hovey took different paths out of Kansas. Hollister worked as a reporter before joining a health-care public-relations firm, where she still works, and Porter worked at an art gallery in Manhattan before dabbling in music public relations and, now, real estate.

Their first client, Peter Jenkins, was one of Porter’s bosses who hired them to decorate his penthouse loft apartment in Williamsburg. It was so well-received that it quickly led to more clients; the apartment he bought for $2.16 million in 2011 was listed for $3.25 million and is now under contract.

In their book, the sisters offer personal examples of translating a life story into décor. The book draws on a mixture of family and friends for inspiration; subjects include their aunt and grandmother, along with friends like New York hotelier Sean MacPherson, of the Bowery and Jane hotels.

“We often feel like we’ve been branded as these vintage puritans, but it’s not that simple,” Hollister says.”Taste is more complicated than that. In the book, Sean talks about how the Navajo intentionally weave mistakes into their rugs as a way of celebrating imperfection, and I thought, ‘That’s it.’ It’s the antigeneric. It’s about breaking out of traditional design boxes in order to build your own.”

Special thanks to Megan Buerger at the Wall Street Journal for allowing us to repost this awesome story!

Original Source

Everyone believes they have one book in them, and The Garage Sale Millionaire was mine. Knowing your subject matter is the first step to writing, and I was pretty confident I had that down. I have to admit, however, that I thought writing and releasing the book it would be a lot easier than it was.

Writing the book wound up being more of an act of love than anything. It took me about two years to finish the writing, and that didn’t even end up being the hardest part. I was rejected by over 30 agents and about 100 publishers, and thought for a while that the book would never reach the public. In the end, I was able to get a deal with BookMasters. At the time, I thought they seemed like a great distributor, but unfortunately the day I signed on with them was almost the beginning of the end.

I sold a lot of books through BookMasters, but wasn’t paid a dime. After all the time, energy and money I had invested, I was left with almost nothing. I learned the hard way that everyone in the book business is not necessarily going to be looking out for your best interests. If you’re writing a book in order to make money, you should probably think long and hard about it before you dive in. The authors are typically the ones who get shafted in terms of profits.

I wrote The Garage Sale Millionaire out of love and passion, so I knew I still couldn’t give up. After a few smart decisions and a little bit of luck, I managed to pique the interest of Wiley Publishing and signed a contract for the release of a second, hardcover edition of my book. Now my book is available across the country.

The reason I’m sharing this story is to help illustrate the fact that everyone has a passion and a goal. Whether you want to do something simply for your own fulfillment of for the greater good, I believe that once you start, you should never give up. It will be difficult; nothing good comes easily. People will try to take advantage of you no matter what field you’re in, but if you’re passionate about your cause, you should set your sights on your goal and  not give up until you make it.

Good luck, and happy hunting!

-Aaron

To learn more about Aaron LaPedis, visit www.thegaragesalemillionaire.com or contact him at thegaragesalemillionaire@gmail.com.

Whether you’re the tag sale seller or buyer, you should look out for toy hazards such as small parts, loud sounds, soft plastics and lead contamination, consumer advocates warned this week.

These dangers were highlighted by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in its 24th annual “Trouble in Toyland” report, the first since sweeping consumer safety legislation went into effect earlier this year.

“This is definitely a time when people are going to be thinking about making purchases for the holidays, so we want people to be aware of these hazards,” said Elizabeth Hitchcock, public health advocate for U.S. PIRG.

The organization focused on four hazards: small parts that can choke children younger than 3-years-old, loud toys that can cause hearing damage, lead-tainted toys and soft plastic toys that contain chemicals called phthalates.

If you’re shopping a garage sale and have a smart phone, check out ToySafety.mobi, specially designed for use with mobile phones, to look up toy hazards while shopping.

Recently there have been massive recalls on select cribs and stollers, most notably the “Drop-side” baby cribs, in some cases causing death, and Maclaren Strollers that have posed a serious safety threat to young children’s hands and fingers where they could get pinched. It’s always best to be aware of children’s items and recalls prior to shopping, but be especially cautious when shopping for second-hand items at garage sales. It’s not worth the risk to your child to save some extra money.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission along with the US Government ruled in a law that it would be illegal to sell recalled items at any consignment, thrift store or garage sale.

Remember “buyer beware” and when it comes to your kids’ safety, don’t jeopardize it by trying to save money on a product in question sold secondhand.

I like to plan out my route the night before so that I’m all ready to go in the morning. I have everything ready to leave my house at about 7am, so that I can be at the first sale right when it opens. Most of the great items will be gone by 11am, so you need to plan out where you want to go first.

How do I decide which sale to visit first? Again, I turn to the app. You can check the sale listings to see what types of items will be at the sale and decide which ones sound the most promising. Hit those locations first, saving the more ambiguous sales for later in the morning.

Do keep in mind, however, that you can always swing by a sale around 3pm or so to pick up any items you’ve had second thoughts about. Odds are, if they’re still available, you’ll be able to get them at a much lower price. You might even get lucky enough to snag the items for free.

So my best advice to all you garage sale junkies is to save yourself some time and effort. Use the Tag Sell It app to plan your day, and have fun the next time you head out!

Good luck, and happy hunting!

-Aaron

To learn more about Aaron LaPedis, visit www.thegaragesalemillionaire.com or contact him at thegaragesalemillionaire@gmail.com.

The Child’s Anti-Slavery Book

You may be thinking that it looks like an ordinary book; an old one but quite ordinary. That’s precisely why you can’t judge a book by its cover. It’s a rare copy of an anti-slavery book for children published in 1859. This mid nineteenth-century, abolitionist tract, distributed by the Sunday School Union, uses actual life stories about slave children separated from their parents or mistreated by their masters to appeal to the sympathies of free children. Vivid illustrations help to reinforce the message that black children should have the same rights as white children, and that holding humans as property is “a sin against God.”
It contains 3 sets of stories about the lives of real slaves and also has a short introduction about the immorality of slavery from a Biblical perspective. I’ve always enjoyed history class but through watching the movie Lincoln I realized I’m just a casual observer on the subject. During my education, history was approached through a series of events and dates and not from the perspective of its participants. I always thought that “everyone” in the North was against slavery and “everyone” in the South was for it. I never realized the political wrangling that went on to get the 13th Amendment passed and that a good portion of the people in the North were against it.

Illustration by Hammatt Billings

The book contains 10 etchings depicting slave life by Charles Howland Hammatt Billings who also illustrated Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I read this book this week and found it to be quite moving. I absolutely can not believe how despicably humans can treat each other. I can appreciate the way Quentin Tarrantino rewrites history for his movies so the bad guy loses in the end and the good guy triumphs. That’s the way we’d all like it to work. Even though Django Unchained was quite violent and there were parts I could not watch, I do admire his creativity.
I’m so glad that fate had me stumble across this simple and powerful volume and that I took the time to learn from its contents. I plan on selling it on Ebay to someone else who will appreciate it.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.

Aldous Huxley

Did you like history class? Have you seen either Lincoln or Django Unchained?

Thank you everyone for a great 5 years! We’ll be launching our newly designed website this month and be sure to be on the lookout for some big press later this month, too!

On Friday, I decided to try out my local Goodwill store, living garage sales for later in the weekend. I don’t visit Goodwill as often as I should, so I’m not in the loop on new shipments and items like I am at other locations; essentially, I was walking in without any idea of what I might (or might not) find.

I took my time, looking through each of the isles, scanning over everything. When I reached the art and frame section, I saw my big break. Low and behold, they had a beautiful piece of original artwork. I wasn’t familiar with the piece, but it looked like it could be worth something, so I busted out my smart phone. I did a quick search of the signature in the corner and realized that it was definitely worth a more than the $40 sticker price. I wasn’t sure yet how much it would be worth, but I knew it was definitely going to be a gem.

I took my find home with me and immediately did a more thorough internet search of the artist “K.S. Ringi.” I soon learned that the artist in question was a Swedish artist named Kjell Sorensen-Ringi, who passed away in 2010. His unique painting style appears to be more difficult to come by, but based on the pieces I did find, I would have to say that given the size and condition of the piece I purchased, the value could fall anywhere between $500 and $900. Even with the cameras rolling, I was able to find a $40 purchase worth over $500. Not bad for a high pressure situation!

This just goes to show that even though the economy has improved slightly, this doesn’t mean there aren’t deals to be found. I will say, however, that if you want to find great deals, you need to make your visits a regular habit. If you like garage sales, you need to go garage-saling on a regular basis. If you like pawn stores, you need to visit your favorites regularly; the same goes for flea markets and auctions. I may have gotten lucky on this trip, but you really can’t visit these spots just once a month and expect to stumble upon something every time you go.

So get out in the beautiful sunshine and hit those sales!

Good luck, and happy hunting!

-Aaron

To learn more about Aaron LaPedis, visit www.thegaragesalemillionaire.com or contact him at thegaragesalemillionaire@gmail.com.

The secret to sales success lies in an easy-to-remember acronym…

A.I.D.A or “Attention, Interest, Desire, Action”

Capture their ATTENTION: You need to craft a title that captures people’s attention. Putting in text symbols and unrelated content in the title of an item is not just useless, it’s wastes valuable space you could otherwise use for keywords in naming the item you have for sale.

Keep their INTEREST: Capturing a prospective buyer’s interest can be difficult, especially when there’s competition in the marketplace. Creativity, accuracy, details and quality photographs make a big difference in keeping your prospect’s interest in what you have to sell.

Fancy their DESIRE: Your goal is to get your prospective buyers to crave what you have to sell them. Make them want what you have and your sales will increase. You need to offer what your prospect hasn’t found anywhere else. Are you selling them an experience? A one-of-a-kind? A hard-to-find? What makes your item special so prospective customers will buy from you?

Get them to take ACTION: If they’ve emailed you or phoned you to speak with you about the item that’s for sale, job well done and goal accomplished – you have a potential buyer on the line! Be polite, be honest and be real. Don’t just look at this opportunity as a one-time sale, consider the future investment opportunity, repeat sales, referral sales and most importantly, word of mouth sales.

Some websites like eBay for example, have even streamlined the process of listing items based on keywords. The site can instantly and fairly accurately categorize an item you have to sell based on the keywords you enter, thus making it easier for shoppers to locate exactly what you’re selling.

One lucky seller on Tagsellit.com gets their item featured here as an example since they did a great job describing their item…

Title: Antique Hand Painted Desk

The seller describes the desk as an antique, distressed and includes the measurements.

Here’s a picture of the item they’re selling

Asking $100.00

Posted under Virtual Sales / Category = Furniture:

http://www.tagsellit.com/items-for-sale-online/2661903

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