Elbow Grease and Paint Pants: A Penny for Your . . .

What I have to share with you this week isn't my greatest transformation or biggest bargain.

What I have to share with you this week is something that I've just wanted to have, kept my eye out for it for quite a few months, then bought.

Late last summer, when I started back up with auctions, I bought a gumball machine--a newer 25-cent machine that had been designed to look old.  I was ecstatic.  I brought it home, filled it with Mike and Ikes, hoping this would become the motivator for my kids doing chores.

I was sorely disappointed, but my kids weren't.  You see, the mechanism inside the machine that initially required money to trigger the dispenser had broken, and Mike and Ikes fell out of the machine with a quick twist of the handle.  Not what I'd had in mind.

I retired the machine to the garage, then later sold it for about what I'd paid for it.

This week there was another gumball machine up for auction--true vintage penny gumball machine.

It is fully functional, came with the key to unlock the glass, AND was newly stocked by the auctioneer with FRESH gumballs.

I love how it betrays its age through the worn paint above the coin slot.  How many kids over how many years have begged their moms for a penny so they could turn the handle for a gumball?

My kids discovered it in the garage before I brought it in the house.  The little boys immediately got out every size coin and determined it was a penny slot.  And you get TWO gumballs for a penny--jackpot!

Pennies are now more valuable around here than dollars.
Lesson Learned

• It's worth it to compile a list of things you're watching for.  When an item on your list comes up, determine what it's worth to you and go for it.  My kids are so excited, and I'm hoping I can exchange labor for pennies, literally!

I'm waiting for the gum to run out so I can fill it back up with Mike and Ikes and resume potty training.  Hopefully I've got a few weeks left. 

Until next week,
Going once, going twice . . .
SOLD!