Hi Everyone,
Hubby and I got into op shopping just before BB E was born as we drove through a small country town when we were driving up to Queensland. This town had so many book stores selling old books and hubby loaded up on some of the hard to find books and continued on with our roadtrip. That was my first experience of op shopping as my mum never liked op shops, mainly because there weren't much when mum grew up in Hong Kong and in Australia she would hardly go into one. So after that first experience, we visit op shops to get books. Don't get me wrong, we get lots of new books from the stores or online but some books you find are very new or even brand new at op shops and we stock up on those.
Recently we went on an op shop adventure with another couple who loves their op shops. They would get tennis racquets and do them up and give them out to friends, get board games for their kids so they never get bored around the house and the best part, when the kids are board with the games, he goes and donate them back so it doesn't get wasted. We have the same cycle, after we read the books we bought from the op shop, we donate it back and it goes around again. This time, we stocked up on loads of books in particular I found a set of books BB E would read. He normally borrow Zac Powers from school and I can't justify paying $10 for a book he could finish in 2 days so I tell him to borrow it from the library. That day at the op shop, I actually found a book set plus many other lines from Zac Powers for mostly $1 each. We ended up getting doubles but its ok, we just donate those back to the shops.
I also found an abacus, the original old school type. I have the exact one at home but I needed one more as I have two kids so I can get my mother in law to each them how to use the abacus. This particular brand is pretty famous and the good ones normally have copper on the sides to make it extra sturdy. These ones are extra valuable and last much longer. For $8, it as definitely good value especially the continue of the abacus was pretty good except for a small chip on the side. Random but we also got a pair of near new boxing gloves for BB E so he could practice some moves with BB M who got his own pair of boxing gloves we bought him from Amazon.
I bought a few things apart from the mountain of books which including a Japanese teapot, a handmade placemat made in New Zealand and a new board game ($3 can't complain) so I was pretty happy. Our friends spent $120 on their goodies and can fit it all in their boot. We spent around $300 and we bought heaps of books, a few knick knacks and a beautiful plate set brand new from the Taiwan Art Museum which we gave to my in laws, they love these types of display art. Hope shopping is great, you know where the money is going and you find treasures you normally can't find at the shops. I think we will need another of these op shopping adventure again very soon.
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