Pisgah Mountain 1 Cent Sale!

It’s finally here! The Pisgah Mountain Products 1 Cent Store!

Pisgah Mountain Products Catalog

All Pisgah Mountain Products Are offered for 1 penny, no strings, no catch – you simply pay shipping and handling.

Limit one item per customer.

Supplies and quantities are limited and not guaranteed, all sales are first come first served.

You will be alerted via email when your order has been processed.

Please allow 7 to 10 business days for standard shipping. All shipping will be done via US Postal Service – so please provide a complete mailing address.

 

$4.99 Sears Sander

Craftsman 0.5 amp 3D Sander
Sears item# 00911633000 Mfr. model# 11633
$4.99!!

I seriously don’t know how long this offer will last – so if you want one – HURRY!!

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00911633000P?mv=rr&sid=IAx20050830×000526&aff=Y

 

Dirty Little Pawn Shop Secrets

A pawn shop can be a real money saver for some second hand purchases. There are laws both written and simply applied to the profit ratio a pawn shop can have, as well as limits set to the amount of interest they can charge you on a pawn. However, one thing that’s unique to a pawn shop is that almost all of them have “wiggle room”. Legalities aside, bottom line is – if you happen to know the shop owner and do regular business with him/her – you’re likely to get much better deals when making a purchase and higher loans when pawning something. Never hesitate to negotiate on both a purchase and a pawn – you may be surprised at how much the owner will move on the price.

Bigger is not always better when it comes to a pawn loan.
The bigger shops do quite a bit of business, they don’t know their clientele on such a personal level, and they’ve likely been shafted many times. When you walk in off the street with your Blue Ray DVD, the first thing the guy behind the counter is going to wonder is – Who had their Blue Ray stolen last night? He’s going to either look your player up in a handy dandy pawn broker book, or he’s going to “guesstimate” it‘s approximate value. Once he has a value – he’s only going to loan in the neighborhood of 25% of that value. The story about your sick Grandmother isn’t going to get you a penny more from this guy. However, if you take the same player into your local pawn, where everyone knows everyone else, and you tell your Grandmother story – there’s a chance this guy may believe it, trust you’ll return, and loan a little closer to the amount you actually need. This can sometimes get you as high as the 35% range.

Smaller is not the place to go for purchases.
A small pawn shop doesn’t do the business volume that a large one does, therefore their individual item markup is likely to be higher. Because the prices are sometimes set on nothing more than what the owner thinks he/she can get for the item – you have a better chance at getting it for less at a larger shop. Again – never hesitate to negotiate.

Things No One Will Tell You About A Pawn Shop

1. A quick cash advance loan has a lower rate of interest than a pawn loan – and you don’t have to secure it with merchandise. A pawn shop’s interest ranks right up there with credit card cash advance rates.

2. In most cases you’re not only paying an interest rate on the money you borrowed – you’re also paying an additional monthly “storage” fee on the merchandise you pawned.

3. Most of us know that you don’t buy swimming pools in July or coats in December – you can get things at a drastically reduced clearance price by waiting and buying off-season. But did you know this same principal applies to Pawn Shops? Never buy archery or hunting gear and equipment during hunting season, and never pawn them during the non-season.

Good Pawn Shop Purchases

Fire Arms – Because of the Brady Bill, a check has been ran on the gun and it’s original seller – ensuring you that the gun is not stolen. When buying from a private individual, you’re making a purchase on nothing but faith that you’re being told the truth by the seller.

Jewelry – Because the pawn shop owner has purchased the item based only on it’s gold weight, he/she can sell them for drastically reduced prices. There’s generally a whole dance floor of room between gold weight price and asking price on a piece of jewelry, so make sure to always negotiate.

Musical Equipment (IF You Know What You’re Doing!) – If you’re the kind of person who can take one look at a guitar and tell the neck has a slight bow, or that some of the original parts have been replaced, you could do okay buying a used guitar. However if you’re a Mom who can’t carry a tune even in your head, and you wouldn’t know the difference between a Cello and a Bongo – you’re likely not the best candidate for buying your child a used band instrument.

Bad Pawn Shop Purchases

Power Tools – rechargeable or corded, both are equally bad purchases. Power tools are very intricate machines with very few, if any, user serviceable parts. Repairs generally cost more than replacement would. This is where a warranty makes all the difference! Most major manufacturers now offer really long warranties, with the option to buy an extended warranty. When you make a second hand purchase – you get zip. And if you’ve had much experience with power tools, you know all too well that what works fine today may burn out tomorrow. With the rechargeable, most people forget to take into consideration the cost of a replacement battery. In some cases the battery can be almost as expensive as the power tool! And again, if you’ve had much experience, you know that the first thing to generally go wrong with a rechargeable is the battery. Just because it works in the pawn shop – doesn’t mean it will work the full length of time the battery is supposed to – over time, they get weak and don’t hold a charge as long.

Electronics – This one is somewhat of a crap shoot as well. You won’t be getting the factory warranty, very few if any user serviceable parts. You’re only going to be saving in the neighborhood of 15 to 25% off the cost of new, and unless it’s an older – hard to find – electronics device, you might want to really think hard on the value of a warranty.

 

Off-Season Property Improvements

Developing our land has been a slow and tedious process. The location is remote, and the terrain is very rocky and steep. But one of our main priorities was to have a water source developed, be it a well, or a pond. We checked into the cost of both, and found a pond to be the most cost effective and offer more of a natural resource. People will argue that a pond may draw mosquitoes, snakes, and be a danger if you have children – and although all of these things are a concern, we believe the benefits far outweigh the potential drawbacks. A healthy fish population will generally moderate the mosquitoe population, snakes are a normal part of rural life (pond or no), and children need to be taught safety – not abstinence from risk.

The first task was to determine where the best location for holding water would be. Some companies suggest you have a “perk test” – the same water rate absorption test commonly done for sewer systems – in order to see if your location is viable. These tests can be quite expensive, and considering the depth we planned to reach – we had doubts on it’s validity as well. Instead, we chose the common sense way of looking for a naturally low and wet spot on the property. If an area tends to hold moisture naturally, it should certainly hold water if walled off.

The next task was to decide on the design we wanted. There’s two basic ways to build a pond, either by pushing dirt up to form high retaining walls – or digging a hole down in order to form a bowl. We chose to do a little of both. Because we live in the South and August can be so harsh, ponds do tend to go stagnant here if there’s no inflow and outflow of water. We decided to go the “watershed” route and center our pond over a natural drain off ditch coming down the ridge. Heavy rains come down the hill and right into the pond, effectively cleaning it out as they swirl around the retaining wall and flow out the other side. This also created a natural “drain off” for times when the pond gets really full.

And the last task was to price shop. There are companies that specifically build ponds, and some of them offer guarantees and the like that your finished pond will hold water. This sounded good, until they shot me the quote – low end being over $2400! My next move was to call private dozier operators. In the spring and summer I was getting quotes in the range of $1800 to $2000. So I bided my time and waited until November. Arkansas doesn’t really have a harsh winter, but November is prone to be wet and muddy – and cause the cancellation of construction work. Sure enough, the dozier guy I called was experiencing his “off season” and willing to negotiate price! We got the entire pond put in for the amazingly low price of $1100!

The entire pond was constructed with this dozier, and took about 8 hours one day and 4 the next to complete.

As you can see, the pond is quite large and deep! Over 12 feet at the low end.

This is a picture after it filled, and I’m standing by the run off ditch that flows into the pond, the run off is just to the left of here.

 

Gorilla Coupons

As budgets tighten, more attention is being paid to price than ever before. Using coupons has always had it’s drawbacks, but with the 3 gorilla tactics below, you can far outweigh the drawbacks with the incrediable amount of money you can save.

Increase the number of coupons you have and cut the cost of getting them.

Most stores no longer accept printed coupons due to fraud and misuse, they only honor manufacturer’s and in store coupons. Magazines, newspapers, and periodicals are a great source of coupons – however – it costs money to subscribe, and you only get a few coupons a week or month. This isn’t very cost effective! Instead, visit an online manufacturer’s coupon warehouse. The coupons themselves are FREE, but you are asked to pay a handling charge. For example, you can order 5 coupons for .75 cents off coffee creamer for .15 cents handling. Most of these warehouses have a minimum order amount in the $3.00 range. The best way to “go gorilla” here is to go in with several friends or family members who use coupons too. You can also drop your extra coupons in the coupon exchange box located in the front of most major retailers and exchange them for coupons you need.

Once armed with your coupons, the next step is to use your noodle.

Most retailers won’t honor a coupon if you try to use it on an item that they have on sale. So instead of looking for sales – use your brain and past shopping experience and ask yourself where these items are at their lowest regular price. If your $1.00 coupon is for antiperspirant, it’s generally priced for $1.00 at Dollar General and around $1.59 at Wal-Mart. Redeem your coupon at Dollar General and you get the item almost free!

Avoid the temptation of buying impulsively simply because you have a coupon!

Always make your grocery list before you look for coupons. Once you have your shopping list prepared, go in search of coupons to match the items you intended on buying. Only add an additional item if using the coupon will save you over half of the purchase price, or is a BOGO item.

A final word of caution…

No retailer is going to think it’s cool for you to ring up $24.89 at the register and hand them $23.00 worth of coupons. They automatically suspect some type of fraud. Space your coupon use out! Use common sense, don’t abuse your coupons or your local retailers coupon redemption rules.