March 11, 2023

MacBid review. Buying store returns at auction

Today I want to talk about a company called M@cBid. What this is, is a Pittsburgh based resale company for return products from big retailers Like Amazon, Lowe's, Home Depot etc. MacBid gets all the returns whether they are simply the wrong size or if an item arrives broken. They then put everything on their website and have auctions that the public is allowed to bid on and win.

Picking up merchandise at M@cBid

Now as you can imagine a vast assortment of products get returned to all those major retailers on the daily. I've seen everything on this site from clothing to food products, health & beauty, doors & lighting, vehicle accessories, toys, pet accessories and pretty much anything else except perishable items.

Now the first thing I'm going to tell you here is buyer beware! The main image used in each listing is a stock image from the sale page of where the item retails, but the other pictures are of the actual item in the MacBid warehouse. 

You are allowed to stop in and look at an item and inspect it before you bid on it, and I suggest you do! Unfortunately, as I live over a half hour from the closest location I did not do that. 

In the interest of this post I bought 11 different items off the M@cBid website to pick up at three different locations.

January 4, 2021

Turning Your New Year's Resolutions Into plans

It is that time of year when people decide what they want to get done in the coming year and call these goals, resolutions. While New Years Resolutions can be fun to choose, they don’t often stick. But the reason they fail isn’t because you can’t achieve them, but because they are often not thought out and don’t have a plan. It's easy to get distracted when you don't know exactly what you need to do!

New years resolutions written on small papers

When you make a plan for your new years resolutions, you have a much higher chance of success. Lets say my new year resolution is to lose weight. While we all know what that means, it's easy to get distracted a few weeks in by such a vague goal. If I had a definite plan, I would have a better chance of sticking to it.

Now lets say my resolution is to lose weight, BUT I have planned to lose 15 lbs. in 6 months by going to the gym 3 times a week, eating a salad every day and having fruit instead of sweets for dessert 5 days out of the week. Now that's a plan with structure that will be easier to stick to!

December 30, 2020

Visiting Hollywood Studios during Covid.

 We went to Florida this year for a trip to Disney's theme parks and unfortunately, we were really disappointed. Covid and the resulting pandemic has changed a lot of things down in Florida, including pretty much every normal practice at all the Disney resort parks. Gone was fast pass and going to the park any day you want. In it's place was a flawed reservation system that is backed up for weeks...for certain parks.

Hollywood studios attraction, taken during Covid

You don't have to take it from me though, you can read the hundreds of bad reviews on the app! I mean, a lot of the things you'll experience are common in lots of public attractions now. Capacity limits, temp screenings, mask rules and hand sanitizer stations everywhere.

Unfortunately we didn't even get to go to the park we wanted to because of the flawed reservation system I mentioned earlier. I will explain the rest of our experience though.

October 11, 2020

Fragrant Jewels bath bomb review

I have been buying products from the Fragrant Jewels collection for several years now and figured it was time I wrote a review with my opinion of the bath bombs, wax tarts and candles. I actually have mixed reviews here, because some of my experiences were amazing and others kind of sucked!

Fragrant Jewels rings that were in bath bombs and candles.

It starts back in 2016 when I ordered a bath bomb & candle set from their Wicked collection along with the Warm & Cozy wax tart set. I've placed a few orders over the years and have tried their candles, bath bombs, mini bath bomb sets and wax melts. I will start by saying the scents are strong and have all been very nice and the rings are usually quite lovely.

Inside every bath bomb, candle, scrub or melt set comes a costume jewelry ring. You get a code with your ring and you enter it online to find out the value of your ring. All of my rings have been valued in the $10-$25 range. Supposedly you can get rings up to $10,000 value...though I've never personally seen anyone get them.