Yard Sale Bloodbath

Here’s Karl’s thoughts on our day o’ saling last Saturday!

the time had arrived to be a guest star with the bloodbath girls and this is a treat for sure! i was psyched so when jenny wrote to me “be at meghan’s at 8:30″ it all seemed doable. yet after a rendezvous the night before which went sour with a less than liberating friend, i knew i was in for some fun. hitting tons of sales before noon is something i can’t seem to do on my own but in the hands of these pros, i was ready.

double guest star cathy (feeling the night before) (didn’t we all in some way?), meghan, jenny and i set out and as already detailed by meghan, we did ok but i personally observed some interesting things. first, the drive-by…is it worth it? a small debate ensued and both sides were presented but my feeling is that it boils down to intuition for me. i have drove by many a sale just peeking and saying “no way.” instead of thinking i missed out on those pristine blue note records or fill in the blank on what your flavor is – just drive by if you are feeling it. there are more sales to get to which also leads to the quantity issue. the girls and i hit so many sales and i was being pretty focused and that means, go to more and seek out what you are looking for instead of making mercy buys…which is what i did at the end. i had to buy at least one record (as i am a record nerdlinger) so when we stumbled upon a sale with records i was psyched. my psyched feeling was squelched quickly as they were $3.00 per and the lady barely budged after i created a pretty big mercy stack with donovan, steeleye span, you get the picture. then she told me “these are worth a lot of money, i checked online.” talk about harshing my toke…i trimmed my 20 lp stack down to three and that was because i had to buy something, anything. i was desperate and i think it showed. after i purchased my three (incl. the aforementioned donovan lp) the woman having the garage sale killed me by telling me “some guy was here and purchased…well, he took 73 but he is going to do work for me.”

ok, bottom line – i am going to guest star again and i know it will be a great adventure – as this one was too. final take that day: three lp’s, a gNr songbook for appetite, a handful of cd’s, a jewbacca shirt (!!), an everything bagel and a damn good time. thanks ladies!!

Thanks Karl! And thanks, Jewbacca.

Beautiful day in Ballard on Saturday with TONS of sales. I had put together a printout listing four pages of sales, and after four hours I don’t think we even got to any of the sales on the 3rd and 4th pages.

We met at my house at 8:30, had a quick bank run and started hitting some sales. This week we had not one but two guest stars — Karl and a new addition, Cathy. I hope that Cathy guest blogs, but this is questionable, since she was insanely hungover/still drunk from the night before.

I have to say that with the amount of sales, it wasn’t spectacular overall. I am not saying it was bad, but it just wasn’t AMAZING.

The first sale we hit was sort of “Mommy gets rid of her vintage.” They had some good stuff, but it didn’t really fit the folks selling it (like a Schlitz beer vest!). These folks seemed way too straightlaced to own anything not made by Baby Gap. As we got in the car to leave, one woman started hanging an old alphabet teacher’s aid in a tree. It looked cool and I yelled “I’m buying that” out the window of the car. One of the salers said “I just beat you to it!” Thwarted by a pregnant lady!

The next sale was way too hippie, and I don’t mind going to older hippie sales (aka REAL HIPPIES) but not hippies that like Phish — if you are even remotely close to my age and hippie, I know you aren’t going to have good stuff.

We went to a horrible rummage sale for the Ballard High Beavers Basketball team. It was the WORST!

Not even worth wasting time talking about how bad it was, because that is time that I can’t get back. In fact that team owes me 10 minutes and about 50 cents’ worth of unleaded.

A friend of Cathy’s was having a sale and this is when I sort of lost all reasoning and purchased an entire set of dishes. As I sit here looking at the four unopened boxes, I’m still not sure what happened. Let’s start by saying, I have absolutely no space for dishes. We don’t even have space for an extra coffee cup let alone a full set of dishes. I already have what I would call “Christmas dishes” or “fancy family dishes,” plus a full set of Fiestaware and a full set of Pomegranate Eclipse dishes.

So, I start asking questions about the dishes and the friend of Cathy’s is telling me how nice they are and how much money they are worth. I look at the back and I know that Limoges is good, so I talked her down from $50 to $45 and we filled the entire trunk in a matter of five minutes. When I called my boyfriend to tell him that “I might have purchased some dishes” his only response was “aw, fuck.” The dishes are Haviland Albany Limoges and I think I scored a really great deal.

Barry M. Later was having a yard sale. We have been to a few of his sales over the last three years and we usually don’t end up buying anything, but they are highly entertaining.

We hit a TON of sales over the course of the next two hours. I rarely ever grab stuff out of free boxes, but I found a crazy sea shell education toy, some scary sunglasses and some white ’50s pumps in different free boxes around Ballard. We also went to one sale which had a crazy amount of kewpie dolls, accompanied by the saddest looking seal ever.

It was a fun day, and we all ended up getting some good stuff.

I decided to check out an estate sale this morning. When I walked in, I thought it was going to be a dud. The family was running the sale and they weren’t very organized. They were still sorting through stuff and some rooms weren’t “open” yet. Nothing was priced and there didn’t seem to be that much. The main item of interest on the main floor was a huge collection of vintage salt shakers and small animal knick-knacks. I was wishing I’d had my camera because the sheer quantity of it was kind of fascinating.

I went into the dining room and the woman there said that the stuff in that room wasn’t for sale except for the stuff in the china cabinet (mostly teacups), and that the ceramic cat figurines were “taken.” (As you can imagine, I wasn’t sad about that.) I asked if there was more outside and she said “just some tools and stuff.” Then almost as an afterthought she said, “There are some things upstairs, but …” I was confused. “Can I go up there?” I asked, not sure what the deal was. “Yes, it’s just that the stairs are really steep.” I assured her I would manage and headed up.

The upstairs was one huge room and it was chaotic, with boxes piled up and stuff everywhere. A couple of guys were digging through corners in trance-like states. I started to look around and realized hardly any shoppers had been in there yet. I got all excited digging through an untouched closet, pulling out box after box with high hopes, but it was all random stuff like bills, saved greeting cards, or a bag full of shopping bags. Every time I thought I was on to something good, it was a dud, or something that would have been cool if it wasn’t kinda destroyed.

I poked around the perimeter of the room for a while and was just thinking it was going to be a total bust when I opened a small dresser drawer. Barkcloth! I grabbed the piece and under it were some vintage aprons. OK, now we are getting somewhere. I took my time pulling everything out of each drawer and soon had to get a box to stash everything in. I probably pulled out at least a dozen fantastic aprons (none newer than the ’50s) as well as some other interesting linens and fabric. My hands were starting to feel kinda crusty, but I had too much of an estate-sale-high on to really care.

Re-inspired, I surveyed the room and began my search-and-acquire mission in earnest. I moved a large sad teddy bear and found he was sitting on a barkcloth curtain. I cleared a bunch of empty shoeboxes off of a large chest which turned out to contain some chenille throws and vintage baby clothes. I found some t-shirts from the ’60s (or older?), an odd little firetruck toy, an old framed cat picture, some vintage unused decals, some small quilts, vintage baby blankets, more fabric, more linens, and other random things I’ve already forgotten about. I was pretty selective because I wasn’t sure how much they would want – I figured it would be on the cheaper side since they were so disorganized, but you never know, and I was starting to amass quite a pile.

Finally I had two overflowing boxes and I had been there for over an hour and I decided I’d better call it quits. I lugged my boxes down the treacherous stairs. “Oh, do you want more blankets?” they asked. I told them I had seen the others upstairs, but they said there were more in one of the downstairs rooms (which had opened up by this time). I really sort of just wanted to be done, but I went in, finding a few more things (including a demented yet cute old stuffed animal, which sort of looks like the vintage precursor to Ugly Dolls).

I was a little afraid about how much it was all going to cost. In my mind I decided that if it was $100 or less I would just pay it, but if it was more then I’d have to look back through and maybe take some stuff out. The woman poked through the boxes for about five seconds and said, “$30? Is that OK?” I managed to keep my jaw from dropping, and told her that was fine.

This trunk photo didn’t come out very well because it’s such a bright and sunny day, and a ton of the best stuff is buried. Still, you can get an idea of how much stuff I got, and let me assure you that it’s all pretty good stuff.

This was the most exciting sale I have been to this year!

We did not go to this sale.

Just by chance I ended up finding out about the Crown Hill Neighborhood Sale on Saturday. We were intrigued, even though nearly all of this area is devoid of sidewalks, and as faithful readers know, our extensive years of sale experience have taught us that these areas usually don’t have the best sales. Still, we figured even if most of them were bad, there were enough sales in a condensed area that we’d probably hit at least a few decent ones.

So with handy map in hand, we set out on Saturday around 8:30. Sure enough, there were a lot of really terrible awful sales. Like this one:

Balloons were present! While this sale at least got points for organization, the stuff they had organized was nothing anyone wanted to buy (really – we drove by again hours later and it looked about the same).

We drove way into an alley to get to another sale which also turned out to be a complete waste of time, made even more so by the fact that we were nearly trapped in by another car – we only made it out safely thanks to Meghan’s shrewd maneuvering. She wanted to take a photo to commemorate how bad it was, and this dude walked by right as she pressed the button.

Thankfully, the whole day was not like this. We actually hit a lot of really good sales. Meghan was on a super roll and got a ton of stuff. I got to witness her buying one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen her buy: vintage fishing rods! They were obviously very old, and kinda cool-looking. Her logic was, “They have to be worth more than a dollar,” and I couldn’t argue with that. Still, it kind of cracked me up, especially when we realized they took up the entire length of the car and had to be lifted up every time she switched into reverse gear.

My other favorite moment came when Meghan discovered an amazing crazy-ass ’60s jacket with red, white, and blue graphic lettering reading “Vote!” and various other kooky sayings. It was only three dollars and our minds boggled at why it was still sitting there at 11:00. She bought it excitedly, then we went across the street where she scooped up a leopard print coat and about three vintage ’60s cheerleading uniforms. She then put on the wacky jacket (which looked great!) and ran back to the people who’d sold it to her, waving the uniforms at them excitedly.

Another cool thing she picked up was this framed picture. It’s probably about two feet square and the price-tape on it read “A Must For the Mt. Room!”

The last sale that we went to was in a slightly different area. The ad made it sound intriguing, listing strange and exotic items like “Vintage Indian bugdi earrings” (I am sure the actual word was something other than “bugdi”, but I don’t remember it now). It took us forever to find it since it was in the middle of a bunch of dead-end streets. Finally we got there and it turned out to be really good – it was probably even better earlier in the day, but then again the hidden location might have prevented it from getting completely picked over. I didn’t see any earrings, bugdi or otherwise, but I did pick up a crazy polyester shirt, some lovely note cards with a “J” design, and three books. One of them was this one, which I had just been admiring new in a store not too long ago. She wanted $10, which is a ridiculous price for almost any book at a yard sale, but I decided to splurge on it anyway (encouraged because the other stuff I got from her was really cheap).

Here’s the obligatory trunk photo – I should also note that the back seat was packed so full that when you opened a door, stuff would move around.

Our friend Libby’s Buffalo Girl upholstery & furniture shop is home to leopard print recliners, Our Lady of Guadalupe rockers, and cowgirl-themed couches.

Today it was host to some hard-core vintage clothing collectors selling off some of their stuff. I have been to a few of these sales and I usually come away with great items. Each year Buffalo Girl also has a Christmas artists’ sale that is usually a good way to pick up some last minute crafty holiday presents. Basically, any time they have a sale it’s gonna be good.

We both got excited for the idea of being able to hit a Friday pre-sale (the regular sale is tomorrow) with vintage clothing, snacks and wine!

I purchased a early ’60s pink suit, a Betsey Johnson dress (that I thought was vintage, but is still cool), a necklace and an aqua ’60s sweater. Jenny bought one crazy turquoise polka-dot dress with red trim.

The 6:00 P.M. sale was pretty fun and we had a chance to see a few friends we hadn’t seen in awhile. What more can you ask for? Hmmmm … well, if you’re lucky you could gaze upon a super-cool tiki sign hanging on the wall!

Bad yard sales can be so disheartening. Like the retirement home sale Meghan wrote about last week. Or this one, which just sounds like the worst:

As I wondered through this home, the more I witnessed the less I understood. Why was this stuff here in Morningside? Who were these scraggly looking men who sought to sell these useless goods? Why would anyone think anybody wanted this stuff? Perhaps this sale was not a sale at all but a provocative display depicting the banal evil and waste of planned obsolescence?
I left feeling dirty and disturbed.

The write-up is from Yard Sale Addict – definitely worth taking a look if you aren’t familiar with this fine site! (I secretly think it should be renamed “I Bought Nothing.”)

I also love this totally dead-on Official List of Garage Sale Bummers and this related list of Things I Can Do Without (at thrift stores, but I think they apply equally to yard sales).

Anyway. Thanks to a somewhat flexible work schedule, I occasionally get to hit a few Friday sales. The last few times I’ve done this, they have been so pathetically lame as to not even be worth blogging about. Just the most typical unwanted crap, crap, crap … total waste of time.

Today, finally, I had a worthwhile time at sales on a Friday! I hit a couple crusty estate sales with not a lot of stuff but a few cool and cheap items. The most fun was at the sale of Liz, a gal who came to OUR sale a couple weeks back, where I got a fantastic dress she’d made from vintage fabric (visible at left of trunk photo below). It might fit or it might not, but for a dollar I could not possibly pass it up!

Please note the crazy decorating-with-tinfoil book (with scary ostrich-like beast on the cover). Sure enough, someone out there in internet-land has saved me the trouble of posting some of the most demented photos from this gem.

Total spent was $11 and I bought at least one thing from every sale I went to – except for the estate sale with a sign on the door saying “Open When It Stops Raining.” (Uh, it’s Seattle. Good luck with that.) I even bought two books (including “Why Wait Till Marriage?”) at a sale I meant to avoid based on their ad – “Moving To Paris” intrigued me, but “large lot of Mary Kay products” was a turn-off – but ended up at accidentally since it was on the way from one stop to the next.

And for more Friday Fun we are heading off to a very exciting Friday Night Pre-Sale at a friend’s place momentarily – woohoo!

Our pal Karl is another of our occasional special guest stars. We almost had to cut him off a couple years ago after he dished out some ludicrously inappropriate remarks, but he made up for it with his bestest behavior, so he’s back in the band. Scheduling difficulties have prevented him from riding along with us so far this year, but he was kind enough to send us this photo and report from last Saturday …

going to a variety of sales last week and hitting nothing but tupperware, “antiques”, incredibly ugly clothes and an array of crap that had me feeling as though I would be much better off back in bed or just doing ANYTHING else. driving back to my pad after hitting mt. baker, leschi and madrona i see this sign you see………….

….. and i have a theory. gays have the best and the worst sales. when they are good, they are off the grid and when they are bad, they are beyond bad – nothing in between. this sign told me good will happen so off i went with dreams of some real sweet guys selling all kinds of great records, clothes and other sundries. well, i was right but much of it was already picked by one guy who literally was filling up his truck with a bike (which I most certainly would have wanted), stereo gear, books, cd’s and what appeared to be a 35mm camera. so i don’t get too tangential, this guy buying all this stuff had the stupidest look on his face too…like he just hit the lottery and maybe he did but it bothered me. I recall saying to one of the guys having the sale that he was so happy that he was going to treat himself to some KFC after leaving … after all, it was 9:30 AM. Laughter ensued. OK, so I did come away with some loot at the GAY RAGE sale and got me a box of forty-fives in a carrier box which was one of the proprietor’s mom’s from the 5t’s and I also got some great cd’s all for fifteen dollars. The sign said it all but there was more GAY than RAGE – but all in all, a great sign and some really nice guys.

Thanks Karl!