Waco, Texas — World’s Largest Collectible Dog Museum

Posted by Meghan in Field Trip | 4 Comments

While in Texas we spent three days in Dallas. On Friday and Saturday I made plans to try and hit some yard sales, or at the very least some thrift stores. Both days we had drank a little too much the night before and just couldn’t get going in the morning. In fact on Saturday we didn’t leave the house until noon. So, is Dallas a bust? I have no friggin’ idea.

On the three hour drive back to Austin we talked about trying to stop in Waco, but we thought it might be too bible-thumper. Then we saw the sign: Antique Mall and Free Dog Collectibles Museum.

Free dog collectibles museum

The antique mall itself was all right, but when you are faced with bringing items home in your suitcase that is already bulging … I didn’t buy a single item.

Dog museum entrance

The dog museum was pretty cool with over 7000 items — many of them I would have loved to own.

Shelf of dogs

Cabinet of dogs

Dog stuff

Happy dog

Saling in the off-season

Posted by Jenny in Sale Tales | 1 Comment

Saturday was cold and drizzly and Meghan was still out of town, but I had the itch to hit some sales and headed off alone around 8:30. Going to sales in the off-season is a whole different deal. In summertime you can just drive around for three hours and barely make it out of one neighborhood. From about October through April there aren’t that many sales and more time is always spent driving around to different neighborhoods (or even waiting in line for estate sales to open up). There aren’t as many people going out, but there always seems to be more competition at the few sales that there are. It’s a very different vibe, but it can still be fun.

The first sale I went to was an estate sale where the ad looked great. I walked into the garage and immediately heard one shopper say to another, “They have good stuff, but their prices are way too high!” Not a good sign, and it turned out to be pretty true. The stuff was piled up in boxes and piles in the basement, unpriced except for some generic signs on certain items. I asked about a couple of things knowing that I probably wouldn’t want to pay what they wanted, and I was right. I left without buying anything. As I drove off I was thinking that if the stuff had been nicely arranged and clearly priced, it wouldn’t have seemed all that bad. I have nothing against digging through toppling-over disorganized piles, but then I expect things to be cheaper than antique store prices.

Next, I hit a series of sales where people were sitting there shivering in their garages with really unremarkable stuff. Then I decided to go to a sale that happens twice a year, a fundraiser for an artists’ group that puts on an annual crazy solstice parade. Meghan and I have been to this sale quite a few times and you would think that they would have great funky arty crap, but you would be wrong. I have never bought anything and most of the stuff always seems to be on the lame and/or hippie side of things. I knew that Meghan would be horrified that I even bothered to go, but part of me thought that maybe this was the year that there would be a ton of really great stuff. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. I think the huge parade float pieces do lend a little something to the shopping experience, though.

Solstice sale

Finally I made it over to an estate sale that sounded interesting. It was in a cool ’50s house painted blue and built into the side of a steep hill. The living room had an incredible view and was filled with interesting things. I instantly felt glad to be there and knew that even if I didn’t find anything at least I’d enjoy spending a bit of time digging through the house.

The prices all seemed to be in that range where if you really want something it’s not bad, without being so cheap that people are going nuts buying things for resale. There were a few tiki items and a lot of souvenirs from foreign lands. It seemed like the people who lived there must have been pretty interesting. I later overheard one of the sellers saying that they had been university professors, then retired and had second careers as antique dealers. Which would explain the whole room full of priced antiques (offered here for half of the price on the tags) and the tons of antique price guides and books they had.

After scoping out the living room and kitchen I headed downstairs, which was at least five separate basement rooms filled with stuff. There were books in almost every room in the house.

Estate sale basement

One of the rooms was full of dolls and crafting supplies.

Dolls and crafty stuff

I was amazed at how organized the crafter had been. She had gone nuts with her label maker. She labeled everything! There were small plastic storage boxes with labels spelling everything out. “Red trim.” “Gold trim.” “Blue trim.” It was amazing. This tool cabinet filled with buttons and doodads is just one example.

Someone loved their label maker

The labels were most prominent in the crafting area, but even extended into other parts of the house. She even put labels on things where you could see the contents, so there was really no need for a label. I guess she was just on a roll. (In this case, the contents of the box must have gotten mixed up at some point prior to the sale. Or maybe she started moving stuff around and lost interest in the whole labeling project.)

Gold and silver slippers

I had found one great piece of barkcloth in the craft area but that was all, and I was sure there had to be something else I wanted. I started looking through more of the books and ended up pulling some out that seemed like they had to be worth more than the $1 or $2 they were asking, although I really didn’t know for sure. I ended up buying a good-sized stack. Later, I looked them up online and found that I will be lucky to even get my money back. At this point I started asking myself what I was thinking, considering that I already have plenty of unwanted books at home to deal with and I really didn’t need to be bringing back any more. When I really thought about it, I decided that the answer is gambling. Part of me likes to gamble, and if one of those books had ended up being valuable it would have been really exciting. I’ll give a couple away to people I know who will like them, but the rest will just get sold to some bookstore or at my next yard sale for whatever I can get. I suppose if I have to have a gambling-oriented vice, spending $20 on yard sale books every once in a while might be a better option than compulsively buying scratch-offs or developing an online poker habit.

Striking out at Austin sales

Posted by Meghan in Field Trip, Sale Tales | Comments Off on Striking out at Austin sales

I arrived in Austin on a Friday night and made plans to go out and hit some sales the next day with a local Texan (a short-lived Seattle expat). Lisa had warned me not to expect too much, saying that the thrift stores can be good with repeat visits, but that most yard sales are pretty bad. I was thinking “How bad can they be?” Let me just say: BAD. I know that Jenny and I are lucky and we live in a part of town that yields some major finds, but I had no idea how different Texas would be.

We started out hitting some regular sales, nothing to report. We had to drive all over Austin to get to the few sales that we did hit — it’s spread out around these parts.

We went to a very strange perma-sale.

Big Sale

I am not actually sure if it really was a sale that he had all the time, but it had that feel. Nothing good to buy, but he had a ton of stuff.

Bad Austin perma-sale

Austin crap

Lisa and I hit a sale that has a table of fuzzy kitten items. I was too shy to try and take a photo, but the woman showed us a Renaissance Faire item that looked like a kitten on a stick that I guess you put into your top with the kitten sticking out of your boobs and then you make it move its head with the stick running down near your waist. We high-tailed it out of there fast.

We stopped at one more sale, where they had a suit of armor and a table full of nutcrackers.

Armor for sale

Scary nutcrackers

Lisa purchased some records and a really cool lamp for $3. I for once didn’t buy a single item!

Fall is here. So are links.

Posted by Jenny in Grab Bag | 2 Comments

Fall is here. Rain is here. Yard sales … well, they’re still here, but not as much, and certainly not as much on my mind. I went to just one sale last weekend and all I bought was a 25-cent hammer. Not exactly exciting blog material, hmmm?

Meghan is off in sunshine-y Texas right now, and I think she’ll be giving a report on that after she’s back. In the meantime, here are a few links I’ve come across recently that are worth checking out.

  • Yard sale movies? We’ve come across sites for two of ’em: Yard Sale: The Movie and Zen in the Art of Yardsailing. Both look great — I’m dying to see them, but as far as I can tell they aren’t really in circulation. Anyone have any scoop on these?
  • This is a pretty entertaining article about one man’s junking-method-of-choice: swap meets. This guy is a hardcore devotee (i.e., one of our kind). Great pictures, and funny stuff — I cracked up at the story about the record swap where the score-hunting squirrels started showing up earlier and earlier, until they were all just meeting up the night before.
  • I Don’t Give A Damn is a true tale of a yard sale I’m really glad I didn’t go to. Small underground theatre companies, you have just found your newest short play.
  • Over at Sweetheartville, there’s been a mind-boggling rash of amazing thrift and garage sale scores. Dang, woman!
  • Finally, I cannot believe that this drool-worthy Heywood-Wakefield dining set was scored at a Salvation Army for a mere 39 bucks. Astounding! Her collection of ’50s lamps is also quite impressive.

That’s all for now … we’ll have more bloggy fun soon!

Rainy day sales

Posted by Meghan in Sale Tales | Comments Off on Rainy day sales

This weekend my mom and aunt came down from Bellingham, WA to hit some sales with me. It was crappy on Friday night, so I knew that some folks would cancel due to rain. Then Jenny called to say that she needed to have some down time and was going to stay home.

Leslie had sent me some listings for sales, including one at the F.O.E. about 15 blocks from my house. Two years ago at the same Eagles Hall I bought a rare ’80s skateboard for $4, so I definitely wanted to go there again.

Let me start by saying that my mom is the worst navigator for sales. She will give you three addresses at the same time, doesn’t look at what time the sales start, and can’t read signs if they are too small. A total nightmare. Then add in sales that are listed, but aren’t really happening! Frustrating.

We hit three of these nonexistent sales, then finally went to the F.O.E. hall. The usual cast of characters was waiting out front including my sale nemesis: the guy that can’t close his car door.

The sale was not what I expected. One woman was selling her “collectibles.”

"Collectibles"

Another lady was selling her figurines and some other assorted junk.

Figurines

We left and hit a sale for a couple moving back to New Orleans and I purchased a plug-in fireplace for $6. Really, what was I thinking?!?! They did have these wonderful unicorn pictures.

Unicorns are magical

We drove to a sale that was supposed to start at 9:00 that wasn’t happening. We drove by again at 10:00 and it turned out to be the best sale of the whole day. They had great books, some cool clothes, my mom bought furniture. It was great that they didn’t open on time, since we must have been one of the few people that went to the sale. I filled two paper bags for $15 total.

Yard sale

My trunk photos turned out badly, but we filled the whole car. Over the course of the day we hit about 15 sales. Some were crap, some were overpriced, but for a rainy day in late September it turned out to be pretty good.

The yard sale catch and release program

Posted by Jenny in Grab Bag | 10 Comments

There was a nice mention of our blog in the comments of this post about online yard sale maps from Metroblogging Portland. (We haven’t tried any of these newfangled mapping dealybobs yet. I keep thinking we should, but I guess I’m just lazy. Plus, there are some sales that we deliberately skip based on their description, and I don’t know how easy it will be to weed these out. I guess I will get around to finding out sooner or later.)

Anyway, I had to laugh when I read this remark about us:

What I can’t figure out is what they do with all their finds. I don’t know if they run a store, or just collect things like those crazy people who have to clear out paths in their homes through the piles of newspapers and styrofoam meat liners that have been building up for years.

Well, we certainly don’t run a store, although we do resell some of our finds through various venues (often referred to as “supporting our habit”). And we are not crazy hoarders — granted, both of us do have more stuff in our homes than is strictly necessary by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s not like we’re anywhere close to this.

So, what is the deal? The junk in our trunk photos don’t lie: we bring home a lotta stuff. The reality is that much of it ends up going through what my sister termed the “yard sale catch and release program.” (Genius!) It goes something like this:

  1. Buy something at a yard sale.
  2. Bring it home.
  3. Keep it around for a while.
  4. Sell it at another yard sale.

This isn’t about reselling for profit. Occasionally I’ll price something a little higher than what I paid for it, but more often than not it’s just about the same. Knowing that something can go into a future yard sale does provide some (not entirely logical) justification for some purchases I’m not sure about. Meghan’s been known to say “Hey, if I decide I don’t want it, someone will buy it at my next sale.” And she’s usually right. I have even bought things already knowing that they will likely end up in my next sale, but somehow deciding to get them anyway. Maybe just because even if it’s not something I need to keep forever, it’s nice to spend a little bit of time with an interesting (if not objectively valuable) treasure. Until I’m done with it and ready to send it on its way.

This might be slightly demented, but we are definitely not the only ones participating in this program. More than once we’ve sold something at one of our sales, only to see the very same item again later — at the yard sale of the person who bought it from us.

Why? I don’t know. It’s kinda fun though.

Saturday’s scores — edible and otherwise

Posted by Jenny in Junk In My Trunk | 1 Comment

Junk In My Trunk 9-15-07

Meghan summed up our Saturday pretty well in the last post, but I wanted to chime in and talk about some of the cool stuff I got. From that one amazing sale in the mostly-empty house I scored three pairs of shoes for a buck apiece: Fluevog boots, green/tan Born shoes and — can it be? — another pair of Giraudons! Unfortunately, they all ended up being just a tad too small, but I am sure I will find them some good homes. I also got a cute “A Is For Alligator” print, two vintage bowls, and a bunch of books (most of them were okay, but not quite as enthralling as the Heavy Metal one). At other sales I grabbed some cute cloth napkins, yet more books, and some free magazines that ended up smelling like cat pee. (Ew.)

Karl’s scores included a bowl from Tai Tung Restaurant, a very long and skinny landscape painting in lovely ’70s shades of brown, and a box of Star Wars trading cards that he somehow talked the empty-house-sale guy into giving him for free as a “commission” for bringing us to his sale.

I think our most amazing scores of the day came from the Sweet and Savory bakery. Karl promised us he knew where to get some good baked treats, even going so far as to “stake his reputation” on this place. Well, I am pleased to report that his reputation is intact — maybe even elevated a notch. Everything we had was delicious: coffee cake, a plum/almond tart, a chocolate croissant … yum! Perhaps tastiest of all was the homemade salt bagel with cream cheese. Meghan claimed it was the best bagel she’s ever eaten (and let me tell you, she’s eaten plenty of bagels in her day). We couldn’t stop thinking about the pastries all morning, and we ended up making a second stop later to get even more. Those are a couple of fresh baguettes that you can see poking up in the back seat of the car.

Southside sales

Posted by Meghan in Sale Tales | Comments Off on Southside sales

Karl had invited Jenny and I to come to sales across town in his neighborhood on Saturday. I was feeling pretty iffy about going, since I had plans to have an end of summer party on Saturday night. But the pull of the last few sales of the summer was more than I could bear. A few party details can wait, no?

We never go to sales in this part of town — in the years we have been going to sales I think we have hit this area all of 3 or 4 times. It’s usually pretty good, but since it’s across town who wants to waste prime garage sale time in the car. Karl has a route that he does most Saturdays and he usually has some pretty awesome scores, so we thought we would check it out.

After picking Karl up we drove by a sale that was starting at 10:00 and wouldn’t allow anyone to look, so we headed four blocks south to a sale that at first looked like had the potential to be too baby, but ended up having some hidden treasures. At another stop we met this nurse who let me take a photo of her sweatshirt — the sale wasn’t the best, but they were cool folks.

Nurses call the shots!

We were definitely spending more time driving than shopping. Karl seemed to feel badly about the lack of signs (and even listings on Craigs) and for a few minutes this little excursion seemed like a bad idea. But what was lacking in quantity was sure made up for in quality at the next sale. The house was almost empty and it looked like it was going to be really crappy until we found some really great books. Both Jenny and I sat on the floor grabbing stuff. I was super jealous of Jenny finding an ’80s book about heavy metal music.

From one of the back bedrooms I heard Karl say my name once, then again — whatever he had found, I was sure it was going to be good, so I got up and went over there. Hanging against one of the doors were 6 vintage dresses and there was clothing all over the floor. Yes!

The owner was nice, but then he told us about a guy that “owned an antique shop” who had bought all kinds of stuff earlier in the morning. I groaned and Jenny said “Don’t tell us that!” Still, everyone found great stuff. I filled up three boxes packed full of clothing and books. I thought the guy would sit and count everything, but he just peeked into the box and said “How about 15 bucks a box?” DONE!

We hit a few more sales, nothing amazing, but a few were interesting. We filled the trunk and had some amazing baked goods that I’m sure will get the royal blogging treatment later.