The Thriftmas Rush
Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and the four busiest selling weeks of the year. The shows worth the drive, what's moving, a free raid train, and Neil's garage.
Two piles down. Thriftmas next.
Hey friend,
Two Death Pile to SOLD weekends are in the books, and I'm still smiling about them. Between our August and October challenges, you showed up, you listed, and you sold. Here's what that looked like:
Both challenges combined, August and October 2026. The items and profit are what the 33 who reported told us.
That's 257 pieces that aren't sitting in a bin in somebody's garage anymore. I love that.
Now the Thriftmas rush is here. The prep you did this fall is what pays you back over the next four weeks, and this issue is built for that stretch: the shows worth your gas money, what's moving, a raid train you can build for free, and a joke about Neil's garage, because there's always a joke about Neil's garage.
A few things are new since last month. We're on Instagram now at @soldnowofficial. Our free SOLD Now Facebook group is where the everyday reseller talk happens. And Neil has been busy: the new SOLD Now Chrome Extension, The Card Catalog, Bins with printable labels, Vinted listings and more. It's all below.
I'll be putting the new Bins to work myself. Marissa's Home is at the Plano Antique Mall Parking Lot Sale on Saturday, November 14. Everything is going in labeled, barcoded Bins, so when a shopper asks for a piece, I can find it fast, and I'm checking out every sale with SOLD Now invoices, the same way we ran the Texas Pyrex Swap. If you're near Dallas, come say hi.
One more: our Reseller Survival Summit is moving to January so we can build it right. Watch for registration opening in January.
Hit reply anytime. I read every one.
Marissa
Founder, SOLD Now
Make the busiest weeks the calmest ones
Thanksgiving is November 26. Black Friday is the 27th, Small Business Saturday the 28th, Cyber Monday the 30th. Shoppers are out looking, and the pieces that are listed, tagged and easy to find are the ones that sell. This month is about being ready before the rush, not catching up during it.
Five days, one plan
Tap a day.
In their words
From someone who took part in our August challenge:
Loved it. Made money on my death pile, am organized, have a system, learned new things. So glad I participated.— KH
Got a Thriftmas win of your own? A big sale, a cleared shelf, a sold-out live? Post it in the SOLD Now Facebook group with #SOLDNowWin or hit reply. You could be featured in December.
Five categories to have out now
Vintage Christmas
Ornaments, ceramic trees, blow molds and holiday dishes. Collectors shop early, so if it's still in a tote, it can't sell this year.
Gift bundles
Three small pieces that belong together, wrapped as one gift. Easy to say yes to. See the bundle tip below.
Stocking stuffers under $25
Small kitchen pieces, vintage jewelry, little glass. Group them together so a shopper with a budget can fill a stocking from one shelf.
Cookbooks and records
Books and media topped the National Retail Federation's list of secondhand gifts shoppers said they'd consider. Pull your best cookbooks and records forward.
Glassware sets
Matching sets for holiday entertaining. Keep sets together, count the pieces on the tag, and price the set.
Which Selling Platform Is Best for Vintage?
What you actually keep on a $40 vintage sale on eBay, Etsy, Whatnot, Facebook Marketplace and Vinted, and how resellers decide which platform gets which piece. Read it before you list your holiday stock.
More for the holiday stretch
Run a Black Friday weekend raid train without chasing anyone
Sellers pick their own times, so choosing Cars isn't the hard part of being a Conductor. Chasing confirmations is. The Raid Train Manager builds the lineup, lets each seller claim a Car by scanning a QR code (Whatnot doesn't let you share links), and hands everyone a Boarding Pass with their Car, the running order and who they raid into, in the show's time zone and their own.
Try it: claim a Car in this sample lineup.
Sample lineup for illustration. Cars can be 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes, or longer. It depends on your train.
New on the Raid Train Manager
- Waiting list. Sellers who want a Car when none is open can join it, and you put them on a show when there's room.
- Lineups split by day. A train that runs over more than one day shows the date above each day's Cars.
- Swaps. One seller leaves a Car and another puts their name in it, in real time.
- The Raid Train Billboard. A page listing the trains Conductors want the public to see.
Conductor or Car: which one are you this weekend?
The Raid Train Manager is free on every plan, Bronze included. Email and text invites and automatic reminders come with Silver and up.
Try it this week: build your Black Friday weekend train and post its QR code in your seller group.
Take the train home with you
Our two free Raid Train Guides, one for sellers and one for Conductors, put the worksheets, checklists and the chat command cheat sheet on paper. Print them or keep them on a tablet. Get both free
What Neil shipped since last issue
The Card Catalog
Free foreverA searchable home for every SOLD Now Digital Business Card, by business name, what you sell or city. Your card is already listed, and a buyer looking at another member's card can find yours. Rather not be listed? Turn it off on your Digital Business Card screen. Browse The Card Catalog
The SOLD Now Chrome Extension
Gold & PlatinumSOLD Now already lists to eBay and Etsy through their own official connections, and Whatnot is next. Some online stores don't offer a connection like that. The extension lets SOLD Now manage your listings there anyway. It starts with Vinted, with more stores coming soon. When an item sells somewhere else, it takes the listing down, and when something sells on that store, it updates SOLD Now. Install it from the Chrome Web Store.
Coming soon: Whatnot Auto List
In the worksNeil is building it now, using Whatnot's own connection, the same way SOLD Now lists to eBay and Etsy. We'll share more when it's ready.
Bins and Bin labels
Gold & PlatinumName every bin, tote and shelf, then print labels with the Bin's name, its Location and a barcode, ready for 2" × 4" sheets (Avery 5163/8163). Edit the label or design your own under Labels Layouts. Scan a Bin, scan what goes in it, and you'll always know which shelf it's on.
List on Vinted
Gold & PlatinumCopy to Vinted lays out every field in the order Vinted asks for it, each with its own copy button. On Platinum, Write with AI fills in the title, description and Vinted's own choices for you to check.
Your Events Page
Silver and upNo website? Sell tickets online anyway, from a page styled like your Digital Business Card. Silver now has invoices for event tickets.
Ten new fonts
Invoices Silver+ · Price tags Gold+Fifteen fonts for invoices and price tags, each shown in its own font so you can see what you're picking.
Full details are in the release notes in Training Materials.
Plan a 60-minute holiday live
Hey Simon is the assistant built into SOLD Now (Hey Simon chat is on Silver, Gold and Platinum). Copy this and paste it in:
Price the bundle, not the pieces
Pick three small pieces that belong together, wrap them as one ready-to-give gift, and put one price on one tag. A shopper deciding on a gift says yes to one easy thing faster than three small ones.
Rounded to the nearest dollar. Your discount, your call.
What's happening with us
Death Pile to SOLD, two weekends done. Thank you to everyone who registered, listed and cheered each other on. The numbers are up top.
Reseller Survival Summit, coming in January. We moved it so we can build it right. Watch for registration opening in January.
See it in person. Marissa's Home will be at the Plano Antique Mall Parking Lot Sale in Plano, Texas, on Saturday, November 14, running the whole sale on SOLD Now: barcoded Bins for every piece and checkout through SOLD Now invoices. Here's how we ran the Texas Pyrex Swap the same way.
Come find us. We're on Instagram now, and our free Facebook group is open every day for sourcing, pricing and shipping talk.
Big shows across the country, now through early December
Dates checked November 3, 2026 against the sources at the bottom. Double-check with the organizer before you drive.
Now to Christmas
USPS recommended send-by dates for delivery by December 25 in the lower 48 states. See USPS's full list.
USPS dates are recommended send-by dates for delivery before December 25 in the lower 48 states.
Black Friday: do you run sales or hold your prices?
Still thinking about last month's question? Tell me the one item in your death pile you'll never list. I want to hear it.
Ready by Black Friday
0 of 6 done. Saved on this device.
Neil and the garage, part two
Ride or run a raid train over Black Friday weekend.
Build your lineup in the Raid Train Manager, or claim a Car on someone else's train. It's free on every plan, and a free Bronze account takes a few minutes.
See you on the train,
Marissa
P.S. Neil says he's measured the garage. He won't tell me the number.