Toys & Togs Totals

I’m writing this while stuffing my face with Wendy’s sitting at Sea-Tac waiting for 4:30 when I can board my flight to Spokane.  A bit annoyed that security confisgated my hair products, but what can I do?  Not much…oh well!
I think this will be my plane, it’s another commuter plane where you get to walk on the ‘runway’ to get on the plane.  I’ve only been on one, once before when we went home from Disneyland last year!
Anyway, Brandi, Alex & I went to card-count today for the Toys & Togs Sale last Saturday and I have to say everyone did really well!

Emoms: $68k, not the highest ever grossing sale, last fall it was over $80k, but still nothing to frown about! *they now have to pay the sellers, pay for rental fees,etc. so I'm not sure how much they actually get to keep*

Charity: $375.00 total and she'll get a check for $338.15  (she made 90% as a team-lead, Emoms keeps 10%).  Charity didn’t sell much this sale, because her girls aren’t going through clothes as fast!  It’s crazy the day finally came when she is about done with the sale!

Julia & Jaime: $2,630.75 total and Julia will get a check for $2,367.68 (she made 90% as a team-lead, Emoms keeps 10%).  I did a quick tally of Jaime’s cards and we figure Julia will end up keeping about $1,900 and Jaime about $650 of the total amount.  We won’t know exact numbers until we get the cards back. 

Not to shabby for anyone though!!  I wish it was my money!  Okay I better pack up my stuff, hit the potty and then go wait to board the plane…Spokane…here I come!

Toys and Togs Summary

I'm pooped!!  I have been on my feet moving since 630 this morning!  Now it's 7:15 and I am already to crash!  What a busy day!  I chaired toys with my silent partner Paul, because Charity had to go down to Portland with the girls. Brandi assisted me in toys, Alex was as bagger (the hardest job out there in my opinion), Jaime worked in equiptment and Julia ran the members table! At one point the checkout line was so long I was pulled out of toys to cashier, so that was a nice change of scenery, but the pressure! I was freaked out I'd make a mistake!

The sale went really well!  Julia, Charity & Jaime brought (total) 4 SUVs and 1 car full of stuff to sell!  And I would say 80% sold!  We'll see next Saturday during card counting for totals!  Still guess (just Julia) will make $2k!  Jaime knows she already pocketed $260 for sure in big items, plus LOTS of colthes!  All of Julia's big items sold except for her changing table, but she just plans on posting it on Craigstlist and I have no doubt it'll sell!  Charity didn't have much to sell this year, it was amazing!  I think she ended up taking 3 bins of clothes home, so she did really well too!!  Like I said, I can't wait for next week!

Until next time.....

Tagging Frenzy

That's what today was like for me!  The sale is on Friday and I've been a tagging fool today! 

Jaime came over to my house to help me work on Julia's clothes.  We worked for almost 4 hours, and when we finished were 90% done with her clothes!  Tonight before I went to bed I finished tagging the remaining clothes (maybe 10 items) and then bagged a few piles up.  I have probably 30 items of clothing to hang and then bag up, plus a huge pile of onsies that still need to be sorted, bagged and tagged.  I hope to finish all of Julia's clothes tomorrow night!  It'll be such a great feeling to be done but also to get my room back - lol!  I look like I should go on that show The Hoarders with my piles of plastic garbages bags strewn across my room!

Tonight Brandi & I went to Charity's to help her with tagging.  Boy the lady has hardly anything to sell compared to years ago when we had TONS!  We got a good amount done tonight and she is going to have the girls go through their clothes and stuff tomorrow and we'll reconvine on Wednesday to finish up!

Last night (see I told you I've been in a tagging frenzy), I went to Jaime's to help her finish up tagging her stuff.  All she needs to do now is hang her clothes and then sort by size.  Brandi & Jaime are going to try and finish that all up tomorrow evening.

I the sale, but the prep leading up to it can be a killer!  Especially since we all wait until basically the week of, to start preparing!  Oh well, that's what makes it fun....isn't it?

I think a bomb went off in my room

NO I’m not going on vacation!  I have 90% of Julia’s kids clothes that her kids have outgrown for the upcoming EMOMS Toys & Togs Sale.  Why, you ask do I have all of her stuff?  Well after the holidays, then my back to back vacations, and now Julia’s whole family is really sick there’s not a lot of time left to tag.  I offered to take the clothes home with me that still needed to be done and help her out. 

Tonight Brandi & I tagged, we got through about 4.5 garbage bags full of clothes and have a 5 to still do…but that’s just what is in my room.  The trunk of my car is fill with about this many bags still!  We’re going to be busy the next week!  On top of helping Julia out, Brandi & I are helping Charity & Jaime prepare for the sale.  By the time the sale comes and goes, I’ll be VERY done with tagging!

If you are wondering what the Emoms (Eastside Moms of Multiples) Toys & Togs Sale is here is the blurb on their website www.emoms.org.

EMOMs' Toys & Togs Sale is held twice each year, once in the spring and once in the fall. The sale, which is open to the public, provides an amazing opportunity for you to pick up gently used (and sometimes brand new) items, just about anything on your shopping list for baby or child - including:

• maternity clothing
• nursery finishing's/decor
• high chairs & boosters
• strollers, infant carriers, and backpacks
• >100 racks of infant and children’s clothing
• infant gear
• Toys & games
• Books & CD’s
• Car seats

Approximately 150 EMOMs members sell items at each sale, keeping a portion of the proceeds from the sale of their own items. The remainder of the proceeds covers the cost of the sale and helps EMOMs fund club programs for families with multiples.

What can you expect as a shopper?
This is not your usual garage sale! If you haven't shopped at an EMOMs Toys & Togs Sale before, get ready for some serious shopping. The venue is set up like a baby/children's department store, with like items grouped together and clothing hanging on more than 120 clothing racks, organized by size, filling 2 basketball courts to the brim.

Be aware: because of the variety, price, and quality of items, this sale is well-known and very popular. As a result, the sale can be very busy for the first several hours.

For pictures of the Fall 2009 sale, please check out HERE!  I blogged after the event last year!  The amount of items for sale is absolutely mind boggling!  For more blog posts from the past couple years of Emoms Toys and Togs Sales, please click HERE.  Or you can always get more information from the Emoms public website at www.emoms.org.   

For those of you in the King County/Seattle area, with small children I HIGHLY recommend you attend this sale!  You won’t be disappointed!

Toys & Togs Numbers

Brandi & I went to sort and count cards today for the Toys & Togs Sale.  We arrived at Jenni C's home at 9am and worked until about 3pm.  Brandi & I quickly learned were not very talented at the 10-key.  We had to total each sellers cards up twice (or until we got the same number twice) a lot of the time it took us several tries!  Towards the end of the day we got a method down and actually was able to get a couple on the first try!  So totals....

Emoms: $80k, the most they have every grossed - $22k of that was Friday Night Shoppers! *they now have to pay the sellers, pay for rental fees,etc. so I'm not sure how much they actually get to keep*
Charity: $606.00 total and she'll get a check for $545.00  (she made 90% as a team-lead, Emoms keeps 10%)
Julia: $1,672.50 total and she'll get a check for $1,338.00 (she made 80% as a seller, Emoms keeps 20%)

Julia was the second top seller, the top seller made just a hundred or so dollars more then her!  Everyone did really well!  Very fun today to see the totals and more behind the scenes!!  Don't forget that the Spring Sale will take place April 10th at Bellevue Community College!  Hope to see you then!!

Toys & Togs Sale

The sale is now over and I wanted to share some pictures of the sale.  Unless you have ever attended one, you have no idea the magnetite of the sale!  I have no idea how much money the made, but I’d estimate that 75% of the stuff sold!  I wish I had remembered to take ‘after’ pictures, but it was to crazy!

Before people began loading in their stuff and a fairly empty gym!!


Pile of bikes & ride-ons – there was so much that you couldn’t walk around!


More toys!


The shoes tables

I was asked to go up into the ‘broadcasters booth’ (this was at the BCC gym) to take some above pictures for EMOMS.  I took a handful of pictures for myself as well!

 


Toys, Equipment, Media & Shoes

  
Clothes, Clothes & More Clothes!

So after seeing all these picture, I bet you now want to go shopping!!!  For your information the next sale will be April 10, 2010!  I hope to see some of you there!!  For more information see www.emoms.org!

I’ll update you on Charity & Julia’s totals when I hear what they are!  That’s the most fun part!!

Errands with Amy

Today both Amy & I had a bunch of errands to run and decided to run them together.  We went to her mom's house, BCC, safeway and the DOL to get her license renewed.  I knew of a DOL near BCC, so we decided to go there.  Amy checked online before we left and saw it had a 30minute wait time - so we figured that wasn't to bad and were on our way.   We get there and I'm not 100% sure where the place is so we circle the parking lot once and I decide the empty dark place IS the DOL...or at least used to be.  Sure enough I run up to the door and they have moved to a new location. 

Luckily the new location was only about 15 minutes away and still in the general area of the rest of our errands.  It only took her about 15 minutes and was in and out with her new license!  After that we headed back to her place and watched Biggest Loser and played Farkle the rest of the afternoon until I had to head to school.

I'm off to Charity's for our last night of tagging...I hope!  Tagging is kind of like wrapping Christmas presents, at first it's a lot of fun and you look forward to it, but at the end you are just done and never want to see another tag/present again!  That's kind of where I'm at!

Tagging at Julia's

Alex, Brandi & I came up to Camano yesterday morning to get all of Julia's tagging done for the Emoms sale this coming weekend.  Click HERE to see what it entails to 'tag'!  Julia is selling all of her babies stuff now that Brooke is back with them, so there is a TON of big items to sell!  We probably tagged more than 300 items (400 total) yesterday.  We had quite the system going, I'd iron the clothes and they'd tag! 

Piles of Clothes!

Mackenzie helping us!

Alex with her stack of clothes to tag!

This morning we finished sorting the items and then packed up their Blazer full and Brandi's car with as much stuff as we could! I'll drive the Blazer home and keep it my house until Friday.  Julia will come down with the Suburban on Friday with the remainder of her stuff. We're hoping they can get the rest in that car!

Left to go in the Suburban

Backseat of Brandi's car

Back of the Blazer

I'm guessing Julia will hit $2,000, so we shall see!  The sale is the coming Saturday!  If you are in the area and are in need of childrens things you really should stop by!  There are over 150 people selling clothes, equiptment, toys, bikes, etc!  Everything for premies-teens!

We took a couple of pictures of Julia and all 4 kids this morning!  It was difficult to get everyone to look at the camera, so these are the best two!

And here are a couple of MacKenzie & Brooke playing a few days ago!!  How precious are they??

Toys & Togs Wrap-Up

Wow, what a LONG crazy weekend this has been! I showed up at BCC about 3pm on Friday and was there until 11:30pm, and back at 8am the next morning until about 4pm! Lots of fun...but a lot of work!

FRIDAY:
Friday afternoon, we set-up with very little problems, so that was a nice relief! Then we had the fun part....SHOPPING! Brandi and I had a lot of fun shopping and spent way to much money! We were looking for twin sets of clothes for Kim's boys (gabbi has tons of clothes), clothes & stuff for Madison & Emmalee and a few items for MacKenzie. We scored in the little baby sizes for Emmalee, and there were tons of boy clothes, but didn't find anything cute for MacKenzie (that wasn't like $10/outfit - at a 'garage sale' that's a lot to spend I'm really not that cheap lol!), and items for Madison. Our BIG/GREAT deals were....

* Toy Storage/Bins/Shelf thing - $12
* Medela Pump-In-Style Breast Pump - $20 (Julia sold hers at the sale for $150!)
*Baby Jogger Triple Stroller - $75 (the cheapest single jogger was $90!)

Between the 2 of us, Brandi & I spent about $350! Don't panic, we were shopping for other people with their money....so we didn't lose that much money! There were quite a few items that we did buy though!

SATURDAY:
Brandi picked Alex & I up at 7:15am - YUCK! After running through McD's we arrived at BCC about 8am. I then didn't sit still until I got home! I was constantly on my feet, moving toys, breaking down tables, organizing things, setting up bikes that had fallen, etc. Not to mention making about 100 trips back and forth the gym! Saturday was fun, but nothing overly exciting to tell ya! Oh one of my team said that she was going to email the EMoms T&T Co-Chairs and rave about what a great person I was, how well organized I had things and that it was amazing that I did it all just for fun Ahhh gee thanks! But we'll see if she really does!!

The next sale is in April! This sale Julia is also selling (or at least supposed to!), so is Jaime I believe...so there will be plenty of tagging to do once you add in Charity as well!

Oh...Charity showed up with 8 of the LARGE plastic bins...and came home with 1 bin (she donated about 1/2 a bin), so we think she did really well! We should know her actual profit in a few weeks! I'll keep you posted!!

*SIGH* Monday tomorrow...and my first stats lab & I am meeting with my chem tutor - not to mention my normal Chem lecture & Lab! Did I mention I HATE mondays!
Comments:
Erin: Was I not there at all?? ;)
Cori: Forgot...we never saw you ;)
Originally Posted on Myspace Blog

Toys & Togs Tagging 101

After about a week of tagging, I'm happy to announce Charity is officially READY for the Emoms Toys & Togs Sale! What's the Toys & Togs Sale you ask... funny you should ask, I happen to have a flier right here:

Toys & Togs Sale
Sponsored by EMOMS –Eastside Mothers of Multiples
October 11, 2008
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Everything for the Well-Equipped Baby and Child
Mostly gently used and some new merchandise

Clothing – preemies to juniors & teens
Cribs, changing tables, bassinets
Car seats, strollers, toddler seats
High chairs, potty chairs, rocking chairs
Rattles, games, dolls, books, videos, DVDs
Bottles, diapers, bibs, training pants
Nursery decorations, crib bedding
Maternity clothing, nursing equipment
Outdoor toys and play equipment
MUCH, MUCH, MUCH, MORE!!!!

Bellevue Community College Gym
3000 Landerholm Circle SE, Bellevue

Notes:
1) Laundry baskets and open shopping carts are welcome. Duffels, shopping bags and similar items will not be allowed into the sale.
2) Sorry, credit cards will NOT be accepted. Bring cash or a checkbook with proper ID.
3) All sales are final. While we strive for quality, gently used merchandise, occasionally, items with minor flaws included among our
merchandise selection. Inspect your items carefully before purchase.

More info: www.emoms.org (FAQ, map of gym, holding forms) or
email ToysAndTogs@emoms.org

Tagging takes a TON of time and energy, so it's always nice when it's done! EVERY single item that you want to sell must have a 3x5" index card attached to it with your name, price, size & description of the item ALL in a specific order! When we finished tagging Charity's items - she had 7 of the HUGE bins filled with clothes, toys, accessories, shoes, etc. plus a large laundry basket full! Charity normally makes anywhere from $500-$1000 on her items - and that is after Emoms takes 10% for themselves! So it is quite amazing!! If you live in the area - I highly recommend you come check it out! Plus you can meet me - myself and Charity (she's the one with the multiples (9yo GGG triplets) are the Team Leads of the TOYS SECTION! We will be in the chaos wearing red aprons...you can't miss us!

This was an 'easy' sale for me because only Charity was selling! There have been past sales when Charity, Jaime (selling as "Paul", Charity's husband because you have to have twins or more to join!) and Julia all sell - and I am the primary tagger extrodinaire for all! Julia was the high seller a few years back making over $1600 and I think Charity was the 'runner-up" seller with around $1200. I think I single handedly tagged everyone of those items! All that out of the goodness of my heart - since I make zip....except for a yummy thank you dinner after the sale!

I absolutely LOVE it though! It is so much fun and a great way to volunteer and give back to the community! Plus over the years, I have dragged Erin, Brandi & Alex all into the chaos and they to help tag and volunteer the days of the sale! So it makes it even more fun!

The craziness starts Friday night with set-up and then the actual sale is on Saturday!! FUN FUN FUN - I cannot wait!

Originally Posted on Myspace Blog