Sisters-in-Law Turn Bargain Shopping into a Business

 Sisters-in-law Sarah and Halie Ballard love a good deal. In fact, they love shopping deals so much that they have turned their passion into a growing business, which is headquartered out of Sarah’s basement in Hampton.

Since launching their online reselling store, Double Trouble Deals, in October, the two have sold more than two thousand items to customers all across the United States. They sell everything from everyday household necessities to clothing, toys, electronics, decor and office supplies.

“If you can name it, chances are we’ve carried it or will be soon!” said Halie. “Originally we started shopping for ourselves. The deals are so good and some auctions are fast. We accumulated so much stuff we didn’t have room for we figured we would give it a shot to make a little extra money.”

The business partners get their inventory from Iowa Liquidation Deals out of Waterloo, as well as Central Iowa Discounts out of Boone and Wright County Iowa Discounts out of Eagle Grove.

“As for our main source of inventory, we would like to keep that to ourselves,” said Halie. “There’s lots of competition out there and getting inventory from places others don’t is a huge advantage to selling stuff that not everyone else has.”

They do most of their selling while live streaming on their Whatnot page (double_trouble_deals). Their next shows are scheduled for Friday evening, Jan. 2, at 6 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 4, at noon.

“Now that the new year has hit, we hope to get a consistent schedule of at least four shows a week spread out over different times of the day to catch more viewers,” said Halie.

When asked about deals, Halie said they have something for everyone in the family.

“Most of our auctions start at three dollars per item. We do have some higher priced items such as Apple AirPods, beats headphones, owlet dream sock/camera, etc that we start at at least 50 percent off the retail price. We also have smaller items that we start off at one dollar. On our Facebook page, Double Trouble Deals, we have a link for a sign-up code to get 15 dollars off free to use on the app.”

Double Trouble Deals offers free local pickup in Hampton.