Friday morning we made a decision just to hold off on doing our sale until next week. The weather looked okay, but we decided to just take a little bit more time to get ready. That meant going to other people’s sales instead of having ours! I met up with Meghan and Repeat Guest Star Leslie and we headed off. I was pretty stoked to be hitting sales again after a few weeks off.
The first few sales were pretty unremarkable. At one, we all became captivated by something called the “Carousel Soldier.” None of us wanted to buy it, but we asked if we could take a picture and the woman said sure. My camera was having some problems so it was taking a while and she was like “Or you could just buy it for $1.50 …” She had a point, but we finally got a picture and just moved on.
At another sale on that block I picked up a great pair of purple and black leather kids’ cowboy boots for $10. I thought that was a bit high for yard sale prices, and they are way too big for my kid and I usually don’t buy stuff that she won’t fit into within a year or two, but these were great so I just splurged. As we drove away Meghan was muttering about how the lady was completely on crack; I missed it, but Meghan had asked her how much she wanted for a pair of clogs and she said $55. At a yard sale! Crazy.
We spent the next couple of hours circling around in our neighborhood. We never really made it out of a 20-by-30 block radius or thereabouts. We ventured into no-sidewalk-land for a couple of sales. One was pretty cool and had this great sign:
I didn’t buy anything there, but Meghan got extremely excited when she found a ginormous tennis ball, perfect for sending her dog into a frenzy with, without risking the heartbreak of having it roll under the couch.
The other no-sidewalk sale was at this really big house with these very skinny preppy ladies. There was stuff spread out everywhere. They had a crazy amount of elaborate Halloween stuff and a TON of kids’ games and toys. Their prices were pretty high, it was decent stuff, but they had stuff marked for $5 that you could probably buy new for like $8 – that’s not usually enough of a deal to make me want to buy it at your sale. I asked if they’d take less on one thing and they said no, so we left. As we drove away I had to tell Meghan and Leslie about two things I saw there that disturbed me: a “Countdown To Your Wedding Day” clock, and a pink plaque that said “My Prince Did Come – His Name Is Daddy.” Insanely, this plaque was priced at $7. I am sure that they were packing most of that stuff back into the house at the end of the day.
A little after 10:00 we went back to an estate sale which we’d passed earlier with a line starting to form. We walked in and saw a ton of Fiestaware, which Meghan loves, even though I believe technically she is not allowed to buy any more dishes. As I walked into another room I heard her telling the cashier that their Fiesta prices were crazy.
Most of the stuff actually seemed pretty overpriced, including this fine gadget:
Just when I was about to give up on the sale, I went into the basement. This was another sale where the woman was way too into crafting and way too into saving every last bit of wrapping paper, thread, or whatever. It seemed like she had been pretty well organized, but there was way more than anyone could ever really use.
I started gathering up some of the cooler wrapping paper and vintage cards. Leslie and Meghan came in and started digging through, too. They were stoked to find some old Christmas stickers from various years of the past like 1958 and 1964. I picked up a set of card-suit cookie cutters (always kinda wanted some) and some corn-holders shaped like the front part and back part of a dog (so the corn makes the body). Leslie suggested they might be entertaining for my daughter, which is true, but I think I’ll be plenty entertained as well. I wasn’t sure if they were going to want crazy prices, but it seemed like they only really cared about the stuff they priced; the woman taking money didn’t even look through my stuff, just sized up the pile and said $3.00.
We kept thinking we’d tapped out the neighborhood but there were always more sales just around the corner. Finally around 11:00 we decided to drop off some stuff back at Meghan’s. I had been planning to keep going for a little while longer, but I decided to call it a day. An hour or so later I got a call from Meghan sounding a little freaked out by some of the sales they went to later, and I had to wonder what I’d missed out on. I couldn’t tell whether I should be jealous or relieved. I guess I will find out when she does her blog.
Here are the goods from the first part of the day. Please note my fantastic vintage barbecue set. (Thanks again Leslie for pointing that out!)
