Day 974 Selfie Silliness

 

Silly selfies with my stepmom Teri. We always have such a great time together—though not often enough these days—but it’s always fun. When our lives allow, we meet at Mariner Grille for dinner and long-overdue catch-up chats. She's so busy caring for her 93-year-old mom that it’s hard for her to sneak away. Imagine living to be 93? Now that I’m 60, I can hardly imagine living another 30+ years. I suppose that’s why the saying goes, “Live as if you’ll die tomorrow, but save and spend as if you’ll live forever.” I don’t really think that’s an official saying, but it should be.

The big question on everyone’s mind once they hit the big 6-0 is, "When can I retire?" I suppose if I knew I’d live to be 90, I’d work at least until I was 75. The gambles we take! I have friends retiring left and right all around me, but I’ve got a long way to go before I start thinking about that. I do know that once I retire, I’ll be a thrifting fool. I can imagine I’ll have a whole new career buying and selling cool stuff on eBay. Heck, I do it now, just on a very small scale since I’m limited with time. I’ve always had a good eye for cool, aka expensive, items, so thrifting comes easy to me.

Last week, I picked up eight beautiful wine glasses for $40. A bit pricey, considering they’re usually $0.50 per stem, but I didn’t let the high price stop me and bought the beautiful set anyway. Once I had them home and began to unwrap and marvel at them, one still had the original sticker on the base of the stem that read, "John Rocha at Waterford Crystal, Made in Ireland." After a quick Google search and a bit of research, I found that these glasses were part of a designer collection, and Waterford stopped making them in 2014. You can still purchase them on Replacements Ltd for $150 per stem! I quickly found a pair on eBay selling for $300. Looks like I might be flipping my beautiful new glasses! I’ll keep you posted when they sell and for how much, but I’m thinking I should be able to get $1,000 for the set. Not a bad day’s work, for sure.

I was so excited about the prospect of flipping these glass gems that the next day, when thrifting, I couldn’t resist looking at the stemware and buying another set! This set is Mikasa Park Lane, which should pull in about $39 per glass. I found two sets—one set of six wine glasses and another set of six iced tea glasses. I see so many folks these days walking the aisles of thrift shops, Googling item after item, searching for something they can sell for a profit. Ugh. I’m sorry folks, but if it takes that much work and time, I’m not sure it’s worth it. I watch as they Google items from the Christmas Tree Shops as if they’re going to be valuable, while walking right by a unique item that’s worth something. Hopefully, they at least have fun with it, but I’d like them to move along the aisles at the very least and get out of my way. I only thrift during my lunch break, so time is limited!

I love a good treasure hunt—quickly scanning the shelves, never knowing what I’ll find, excited to see my next treasure.