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Estimations

Let's talk some more about how to estimate the value of yarn lots you can thrift online before you place a bid. Here's a nice lot of 30 Red Heart Super Saver skeins that has an opening bid of $15.75. This is where you do simple math. $15.75 divided by 30 is .525 cents. Now, if the winner lands this lot for the minimum bid, and the shipping is another $20.00, that brings the total cost up to $35.75. That's still $1.19 per skein.

Red Heart Super Saver retails for $4.49, and Jumbo runs about $7.99 now. So Let's say you get 27 regular skeins, and 3 Jumbo. These would cost you $145.20 to buy new.

Small yarn lots can have value, too, and they're a bit easier to price if they have the labels, but you need to watch the cost of shipping. There were 11 total skeins in this lot (four are not pictured in the opening listing shot) and I estimated them to be worth $38.27 retail. The opening bid on this lot is $8.99, but shipping is probably going to be anywhere from $15.00 to $20.00. But it's still cheaper than retail, and if you need a specific yarn, it may be worth it to you.

Here's a massive yarn lot with what I count to be 73 skeins, hanks and balls of yarn that weighs well over twelve pounds. Many of the skeins are in plastic bags, which is a good sign. Opening bid on this one is $7.75, which is about 11 cents per skein. The shipping to me on this one is less than twenty dollars, which is fantastic for such a huge lot.

If I were going to bid on any of these lots, it would be the first one. Why? I like Red Heart Super Saver, which is a workhorse fiber that never lets me down. It's a very decent value and the yarn looks clean and mostly unused. The reason I'm not bidding on it is because I currently have enough of these colors in my stash, as well as plenty of Red Heart Super Saver.

As for the others, the small lot has a couple interesting skeins, but in the end does not offer enough value. While the massive lot seems tempting, a lot of the yarn in the bags appears on closer inspection of the pics to be eyelash yarns, which I don't care for, and many of the other skeins are probably vintage acrylic judging by the labels, which does not age well.

When thrifting yarn online it's always a buyer beware situation. So do your homework first, run the numbers, and if it's a decent value for you, then place a bid.

Image Credit: all of the pics in this post came from the auction listings at ShopGoodwill.com.

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