On the hunt for supplies for a song? Don’t forget Craigslist.
If you’re like me, and I bet lots of you are, you don’t head to Michael’s, Joann Fabrics or A.C. Moore without a coupon at the ready. But those wonderful 40% off darlings aren’t the only game in town when it comes to saving money on supplies. Have you checked Craigslist lately?
Yup, you read that right. I said Craigslist.
After my move last year, all of my supply stash was stacked in boxes in my daughter’s basement. Slowly I had been pulling different boxes upstairs to craft with. My Sizzix Big Shot and dies, my scrapbooking supplies, my acrylic paints and glues. But after several hunting expeditions that included my son in law, he finally announced that with everything down there the stamping supplies were most likely underneath a multitude of boxes that were impossible to reach at the moment. He mentioned that I was probably better off to buy new ones if I needed them right away.
Ack! New ones? I pictured my lovely Tim Holtz stamps, bundled in packing paper along with the lovely Distress inks. I was quite sure the little lost box held at least $200 in stamping supplies. I just didn’t have the money to go out and replace them. Not to mention the box was sure to be found if I did. I needed stamps for my latest projects, but not necessarily those exact stamps (even though I really loved those stamps).
On a whim I decided to search on Craigslist. I’ve had great luck finding furniture pieces to upcycle there, I’ve sold a few things and I even found a great apartment there once. The search didn’t turn up much, but what I did find were great deals. People tend to sell whole lots of crafting supplies on Craigslist and stamps were no different. A large lot of Stampin’ Up stamps caught my attention for $30. Now that I could afford. I contacted the seller and set up a time to pick up and pay for the lot.
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting the amazing deal I received. For the most part, none of these stamps had ever been used. In fact, I had to mount almost all of the sets myself. All were still in their original packaging too. And all retired sets. Oh and a few of the nifty ‘wheelie’ stamps that I knew as Rollagraphs way back when. Amazingly, I ended up with over $200 worth of stamps for that $30 investment, making me really glad I followed the whim to search Craigslist. Will you find lots of deals like this there? Probably not, but if you’re a crafter on a budget it’s well worth a quick search on a regular basis.