Yard Sale Bloodbath

My parents were in town last weekend. We had non-sale-related plans on Saturday, so we thought we’d hit a few Friday morning sales. Since there usually aren’t that many sales on Fridays I figured it was a perfect time to try out iGarageSale – an iPhone app that places sale listings from Craigslist onto a handy map so you can see what’s nearby. I found a couple in our neighborhood and a few more a little further out that seemed promising, and we headed off.

One of our first stops was a church sale, which ended up being the same church we’d been at as part of the Crown Hill Garage Sale Day. It had been awful then, but a different organization was having the sale this time, and there was a lot more stuff. I still figured it might be a bust, but then I wandered down the hall to a sort of hidden area and found a cute little box purse with a ’60s looking “YES” painted on it. I opened it up and discovered that despite its complete lack of bejeweledness, it was an Enid Collins purse, and even had a mirror inside. Score!

On the way out I noticed this box of “men’s shoes.” Um, if you say so …

After one boring sale and one that wasn’t actually happening we headed off to something billed as a “three-estate sale.” There was stuff spread around all outside the house. One of the first things I noticed was this sign up on the wall.

Don’t strain your eyes on the blurriness, I’ll tell you what it says: “If your reading this it probably means Im DEAD! Tell my family I love them. Good bye … forever (we can make love in heaven)”

Creepy, no? I asked the seller what the deal was, and she got sort of a strange look on her face. For a second I wondered if perhaps there really was a death story involved and if I shouldn’t have brought it up so casually. Then her look became one of pure bored irritation and she replied, “I’m pretty sure it’s just a joke.” Still no explanation why it was on the wall of the house, but I could tell that more questions were not encouraged.

There was definitely an odd hodge-podge of stuff. My dad made a comment about how these dogs were maybe a little too excited to see Santa.

There were a couple of stuffed dogs whose price tags included their names. I think sometimes you really can give a potential buyer too much information.

This lady was so lovely. Too bad about her arm.

There was more stuff set up inside, and it kind of felt like an antique mall space — I wondered if someone used to have one and was selling off what was left? Or maybe it really was from someone’s estate who was really into collecting glassware and such. Everything in the room was priced, and laid out very nicely.

Then there was another room down the hall that had more dishes … set up in front of a painted sign for the Amazing Alfredo, big enough to cover the entire wall.

They had some nice stuff, but nothing I fell in love with, so I left empty-handed. But on the way there we’d seen signs for another estate sale, so we headed off to that one. This sign in front cracked me up, especially knowing how the hardcore estate-salers can get kind of crazed and bloodthirsty waiting for a sale to open up.

I walked into a bedroom and encountered this rather large school project on “The History of Reggae Music And Bob Marley.” All that work, and now it was on sale for fifty cents! I hope they at least got an A.

It’s always cool to come across old family portraits like these.

And I was delighted to spot this built-in file cabinet in another bedroom. We’ve seen some weird built-in stuff at estate sales before (the pull-out toaster is an all-time fave), but I think this is a first.

Since we’d ended up further afield than I’d expected, I whipped out the ol’ phone and consulted iGarageSale again … and discovered another estate sale just a few blocks away! I wouldn’t have even known it was there, so that was pretty cool. Most of their stuff was at once fancy and boring (a deadly combo in my book), but I did get a pink Russel Wright bowl for $2. Then right when we thought we were done for the day we stumbled upon an un-craigslisted block sale — but alas, all of the sales were lame.

The haul was pretty paltry compared to a typical Yard Sale Bloodbath Saturday, but we were all happy with what we got.

Me: Enid Collins box purse and pink Russel Wright bowl.
Mom: Pyrex dish.
Dad: Rainbow-colored outdoor hanging thing (that’s actually the real name. Look it up), hose splitter, Seabiscuit documentary DVD, The Spell Of The Yukon book, and three CDs.

This was a pretty big weekend, since the annual Phinney sale and the Olympic Manor sale ended up both being on the same day. I have been belly-aching about this for a couple of months, but I managed to have one of my best days, thanks to one sale.

After hitting a couple of sales on the way to Phinney Ridge, I was speeding down 74th Ave. Karl hollered out that I had driven right past a sale.

The first thing I saw were some amazing green dinette chairs. But they had just been sold — argh! We started looking through the rest of the stuff, and noticed the sellers hadn’t quite finished their breakfast yet.

They had tons of stuff, but sadly some of it had been set up on Friday and was sort of dewy. This didn’t seem to be the case for the clothing or shoes, but the cups and bowls were damp. There was a stack of old Look and Life magazines that had been under a towel held down by a large rock — not the best situation.

In the first couple of minutes, I grabbed three pairs of 1940’s shoes. Karl usually lets me have first crack at the clothing, but I usually let him take first crack at any box of LPs at a sale, so it works out. Jenny looked around some, but she quickly got sort of bored with the whole sale. I did make her come over and look into the strange box of vintage pills.

Not something you see on a regular basis. Especially when they still have some of the pills inside. Eek!

One of the guys at the sale said there was more stuff inside, so I asked him to bring out more clothing for me, which he did. So many coats, dresses, shoes, scarves and hats. All vintage, lots of it really great. The bummer? Only the older woman (named “Jenny” also, adding confusion whenever I called over to our Jenny) could work out the prices. And the prices made no sense. One dress that was just okay would be $7.25, then some amazing ’40s number would be $2.50. An extra large Bauer pot was $20, a box of vintage wallpaper $5. And this all took forever, even with our Jenny working a calculator, Karl handing the woman items one at a time to keep things moving, and me taking the stuff to the car. Jenny was really starting to lose her cool. I know that she was excited for me, but she was ready to get on with the other sales. We spent way too long at this sale, but it was so worth it. My “vintage adrenaline” was pumping hard!

Karl and I picked up enough stuff to fill up the trunk and half the back seat. The trunk photo doesn’t even do this justice. We had to drop everything back at my house before we could hit any more sales.

Around 1:00 both Karl and I ended up going back to the sale. Since I had told one of the guys helping at the sale what I was looking for, they had kept some of the clothing in the house for me and started bringing out piles of stuff. I ended up scoring a 50s vintage Hawaiian shirt. Karl was a little upset, but seemed to get over it when he figured out I was going to keep it. We both picked up a bunch more stuff. All told I spent around $200 at the sale and picked up some amazing items. The Phinney and Olympic Manor sales didn’t really pan out like I’d hoped, but after hitting the jackpot so big at this one, how can I complain?

Last Saturday was the day we’d been waiting for all summer: the annual Greenwood-Phinney neighborhood yard sale extravaganza. For at least a decade this has happened in late April and we’ve often referred to it as our “spring opener.” For some reason, this year they changed it to September. This might possibly have had something to do with the fact that last year’s sale day had snow … or it could’ve been for some other purpose. Whatever the reason, it really felt like the natural rhythm of the season had been thrown off. It didn’t help that they picked the same date as another neighborhood sale we always hit — Olympic Manor.

We figured we’d head out early, cruise through Phinney, and then maybe hit Oly Manor on the way back. We made a plan to meet up at 8:00. This might have been kind of stupid, since there weren’t actually any sales starting at 8:00. Not one! We used the time to get our pastry and coffee fix in early and hit the ATM, and then started stalking some of the sales on the way to the big she-bang. A few weren’t open yet, but as it got closer to 9:00 we found some that were ready. At our first stop Meghan found some cute ’50s framed drawings. I found (but did not purchase) this.

The next stop had listed vintage pottery. They weren’t kidding around! Great stuff, but they knew what they had. The prices seemed reasonable if you really collected that stuff, but kind of high for a random yard sale purchase.

The next sale had a very creative free box (or should I say freebarrow).

Everything in there was free, including the wheelbarrow itself. Karl pulled out a truly demented and wrong “Cat Lady” totebag. Note also the bizarro hand-knitted ’80s sweater, which wasn’t free (I think it was $3).

By this point it was about 8:45 and we were still on the outskirts of the actual neighborhood sale. We were driving along towards it when Karl suddenly yelled out “STOP!” Meghan and I had been too busy yakking to notice that we’d driven by a random sale. This sale that we hadn’t even known about turned out to be amazing — so amazing that it really deserves a whole post, so I will let Meghan cover the bases on that one later. Suffice it to say that we were there for over 45 minutes and had to go back home to empty out the trunk (AND back seat) when we finally got out of there. (Purely due to Karl and Meghan’s purchases. I don’t know if I’m somehow channeling Yard Sale Addict these days or what, but I bought nothing.)

After our drop-off, we beelined over to the Phinney sales. We noticed immediately that the usual crazed tangle of cars all trying to fit down narrow streets at the same time was missing. I’m not complaining about it being easier to get around, but it didn’t have the same manic vibe as usual. There seemed to be fewer sales, and definitely fewer shoppers. I think there is something about having it at the start of the season that really brings people out. We’re all itching to go to sales in April; by September, lots of people are kind of over it.

The first few sales we hit were really boring. Not even bad in an interesting way, just full of baby stuff, cheap kitchenware, and boring clothes. Well, some of them were boring — others were just hideous.

I’d printed out the official sale map, but we didn’t end up using it. There were enough sales that just meandering through the neighborhood seemed to work pretty well. A few sales even had extra signs up pointing the way.

We followed some bright pink signs to an estate sale. When we got there we weren’t sure if we were at the right sale — it just seemed like regular yard-sale stuff out front. Then we realized it stretched around the side of the house.

Most of the boxes were filled up with very crusty books. I managed to find a couple of choice items that weren’t too funkified. Both of them are from 1961 — isn’t that the year the first season of Mad Men takes place? They’d definitely fit right in: Stoned like a Statue: A Complete Survey of Drinking Cliches, Primitive, Classical, and Modern (with intro by Dean Martin!), and The Executive Coloring Book — completely un-colored-in. As I shelled out my buck twenty-five, the seller told me about how some relative had passed away fifteen years ago, and they’d just stored all his books in boxes until now. Like I couldn’t have figured that out from the stank.

Next we stumbled upon a sale where Karl knew one of the sellers! The sale stretched out through a carport and all through their yard. Sadly, there was not actually a dance hall.

I was excited to unearth an orange vintage bowling shirt hidden below a bunch of new-ish clothes. There was no design at all on the back, but the embroidered name was “Glenda,” so I was happy to cough up $2.

After stopping to get some water we decided to cruise over to Olympic Manor before calling it a day. It was already noon, so we figured everything would be pretty decimated at that point. Sure enough, we weren’t really feeling the vibe. We did stop at a house which seems to take part in the sale every year. Two years ago they had zillions of dolls. This year, there were only about a dozen. I was kind of amazed by these super-flaming ’80s Ken dolls (or Ken-like dolls — the hell if I know what they really are).

After just a few more fruitless stops, we decided it was quitting time. The trunk wasn’t as full as it had been earlier from that one sale (which you’ll hear about soon!), but we did okay …

I was not feeling the vibe for going out last Saturday at all. The previous weekend was kind of bunk (more on that later), it was supposed to rain, and it was Labor Day (always iffy for sales). I told Meghan she could probably talk me into it if she felt really motivated, and she said “of course! we have to go!” In the morning it was CRAZY raining and we almost just flaked, but we decided to at least hit a few. There are really only two things I have to report:

1. We saw this sign.

2. Meghan finally discovered that I had left the Jesus stickers from a few weeks back in her glove compartment. She flung them at me when I got in the car, and I proceeded to leave them at someone else’s (really awful) sale.

Really – after about five sales we decided to get breakfast and call it a day.

The previous weekend had a lot more sales to hit. One of them even started at 7 a.m.! It had been listed as an 11-person group fundraising sale, and our friend Spanky was one of the sellers. 7 is really way too early, but we made it there a little before 8. It was slightly drizzly, but seemed like it might turn around before long.

Meghan immediately recognized it as the same house where we’d been to a “big and funky” sale a few weeks back, although that seller didn’t seem to be anywhere in sight (nor did most of the supposed 11 sellers). Spanky had tons of fun stuff, but I didn’t find anything I really needed to possess. Meghan found this amazing school binder (we were calling it a Trapper Keeper, although I suppose that’s not technically correct) and I was glad she bought it, or I would have had to, just to give it a good home.

She also purchased a bunch of CDs and an incredible shirt made out of bandana-print fabric. I made a comment about how it was for when a bandana in your back pocket just isn’t enough.

There were a couple of sales listed as 8am on the list, so we headed to one of those next. Looked like they couldn’t quite make it happen …

Then we saw signs for an unlisted sale — drove over, and they were still setting up for a 9:00 start. We didn’t have high hopes, but thought we might swing back later.

Next, back to Meghan’s house to meet up with Karl, who was due at 8:30 (after proclaiming “anyone who starts their sale at 7 is a sadist”). Then off to the next round.

I had thought this one address seemed familiar, and sure enough it turned out to be a sale we’d hit last year — and Meghan had hit the year before that! This time was much smaller and it was still getting organized when we got there, but they had some cool stuff.

I picked up a cool piece of barkcloth and a ’60s kid’s sunhat, for a whopping $2. Karl got a few items and I think Meghan might have left empty-handed this time around.

We headed back to the sale we’d stopped at too early, and sure enough they were open for business now. Plus, the sun was indeed starting to come out! There was a lot of kids’ stuff, plus an odd mix of motorcycle collectibles and outdated kitchen appliances. Karl pointed out a Crown Royal bag stuffed with something … which turned out to be more Crown Royal bags! The seller said they had been saved for a school craft project, which seemed a little odd. Then Meghan mentioned a girl in her class who used to bring her lunch in a Crown Royal bag, which seemed even wackier. Then I heard Meghan say, “Oh my god, is that a Partridge Family tattoo?” The seller nodded and said, “I actually have three of them!” We were all amazed, and begged her to let us take a picture.

Not shown: “C’mon Get Happy” in swirling script around her other wrist. AWESOME.

We hit a few duds. Karl remarked that each of us had said “That sale looks terrible” a bunch of times. I hadn’t realized it, but it was true! At one point I said that this was the kind of day that made me think we needed a new hobby. Finally we stumbled upon what seemed to be a pre-estate sale … an older couple selling off some of their own cool old stuff.

Meghan swooped down on a kick-ass pair of vintage cowboy boots that seemed like they might actually fit! They were $25, but in really nice shape and still in their original box. I must admit, I was a tiny bit jealous. Later it turned out they were too big for her (and thus would’ve been for me), so it was kind of a moot point. I didn’t end up getting anything here, but it was a fun sale.

We then hit a sale that had started on Friday. We usually skip those, but this one sounded interesting, saying it was a mix of “artist stuff and Japanese items.” I guess this was true, but the items weren’t all that great.

We hit a few more terrible-looking sales, none of which turned out to be much better than they looked, and a few sales that were mysteriously cancelled. It wasn’t one of our best days for sure, but somehow the trunk got at least sorta filled up.