We met at my house at 8:15 on Saturday and headed to the sale. As soon as Jenny told me the address I knew who the woman was. I never seem to remember her name, but she has come to our sales and we have gone to her sales over the years. When we see her at sales she is always cool.

Her ad said it would be over 1000 pieces ranging from the ’20s on up, and sure enough … OMG doesn’t even cover it.

The sale was about 10 blocks from my house — a good thing, since we could barely get the trunk closed when we were done. We all bought so much stuff! Everything was $3 — all logic went out the window. We did get there before any wacko-pickers and I am not sure if it even would have mattered, since there was so much stuff. Some of it was really amazing and I’m sure there was more stuff we didn’t even unearth.

Why did she have this much stuff? Well, we have seen her at sales for years and I guess she was getting out of the vintage clothing biz. Her man seemed very excited about the extra room in their house being free of clothing.

The box that I purchased was so big that it had to be forceably pushed into the trunk. The photo below only shows me and Jenny’s hauls … Karl and Leslie had another box each that they just had to set on their laps for the ride home.

It was the first time we have filled the whole car on the very first sale and needed to go home to unload. (We did hit a bunch more sales, Jenny will fill you in on those later.)

My best score is a crazy bathing suit that fits me perfect. Sadly, I found a black velvet formal that was too tight and I wanted to cry a little.

This was a complete sale high!

While packing up the car after a really amazing sale I noticed a sign on the side of what they were using as their cashier table: “Babee Tenda – $5.” All I could think was WTF is that?!?!?

It looked like a normal small kids table, but as soon as you lift the green table top up you see it has an alphabet and animals. The main part of the table opens and becomes a seat.

You can see it in action in this old ad (with great commentary) over at Do What Now. Apparently one of the guys having the sale used to get put into this contraption as a youth. I had to snag it. The graphics on it are awesome.

Of course we felt the need to say BABEE TENDA about 50 more times thoughout the day.

They still make them.

Being the yard sale trooper that I am, I thought that I could work through it. I drove to a sale that started at 8:30 and when I pulled up I thought I might get sick, but I turned off the ignition and just stopped to get some fresh air. The sale was a total bust, but I was proud of myself for keeping my composure. I was able to get about 15 blocks before I had to pull into a parking lot and get sick out my car door. I was really embarrassed.

I was feeling pretty defeated and I headed home for a day of TV and the couch. I washed up, drank some water, and after an hour was feeling good enough to give it another try.

I hit a couple of sales, but I didn’t buy anything and I wasn’t feeling very good. Then I saw a sign for a block sale. Most of the sales on the block had family items, baby clothes, toys. I was thinking that I should just go home.

Then I saw a box of new Aveda products and I started grabbing stuff before even asking the price. I had my hands filled to the point of not being able to hold anymore. I spotted another box of large size Aveda hair products. A few other shoppers had started to grab stuff and in my weakened state I wasn’t very pushy. All small items were $1 and all large ones $2. I filled one box, then started in on another box. The woman owned a salon and didn’t want to carry the Aveda line anymore.

Most of the items still had price tags with the original boxes. I ended up spending a little over $50. I think you can see from the photo that I got a screaming deal.

I went home happy.