It’s no secret that I love to thrift. I have a hard time passing a Goodwill by without stopping in. Usually I don’t know what I’m looking for and end up with lots of random things. Sometimes I find something on my wish list that I wasn’t expecting to and that is even better. My best find to date was probably a children’s book about home birth that is out of print and was like new when I got it. I kept looking around waiting for someone to snatch it out of my hands! Lately my favorite find was this awesome tree stacker from Plan Toys. I remember putting this on my Amazon wish list when Tuesday was a baby.

It retails for $24 and I never brought myself to spend that much on it. So I was super excited when I found it at a Goodwill… in the box! But then I opened the box and it was missing a piece, and another one looked like it had been chewed on by a dog. I took a chance and bought it anyway. And Bennet and Tuesday have been having fun with it even with missing pieces. But I guessed that Plan Toys had a replacement parts program, and I was right.

For $2.87 I had the two new pieces shipped to me. Not bad! The toy was $2.99 at Goodwill so I’m into it $5.86, over 75% off the retail price. I’ve done this quite a few times. Games often are missing pieces (you can take a game to the front to have it opened if it’s taped shut and you want to check pieces). Sometimes it’s hard to track down who to contact, but usually when you find the right person they are happy to help you. I have sent in money for pieces (found a form in the game box) and had it sent back because they were out of pieces and the game was no longer produced. Usually when I get an incomplete game it’s from Goodwill, where there is a 30 day return policy. So I have time to take it home and investigate my options.

In this case I would have kept the toy anyway, but I love that we now have a complete stacker. And so does Bennet. I really like this toy, and I think it’s one I’ll keep around even after the girls are grown.