I'm happy to report that the boyfriend's garage sale (technically yard sale since we don't have a garage) was a success. Finally. Like in its fourth hour. Once I had given up completely and went inside to take a nap. We made 80% of our money from one customer - but sometimes that is all it takes. Especially when only 5 people decide to stop, despite having two really popular sales going on to either side of us so I know there was a lot more shopping traffic in the area. I think we just live too far off the road. Garage sale shoppers hate getting out of their car and wasting time for a table of 1970s Christmas memorabilia - and only second to that do they hate driving down a long driveway where they can't see what's for sale (our case).
I was curious to see how our much bigger and more popular rivals were doing. First I visited a much-advertised multi-family garage sale. It was open both Friday and Saturday, so by the time I got there around eleven on Saturday they were looking pretty picked over. They had some beautiful silverware - the real stuff - that I would have loved to been able to afford. I managed to control my classic-movie-loving self and pass on the small porcelain replicas of Gone With the Wind's Tara and Twelve Oaks. In the end I picked up two things:
(Here is supposed to be a picture of a white wooden T - the kind
that goes on a wall. Only I forgot to take a picture of it and I don't
feel like going through the whole take a picture/upload it mess again.
So use your imagination, please.)
Could be seen as a totally random purchase since no one's name starts with "T" but I've been very inspired by Blogland to create an alphabet wall somewhere in my house. 25 cents.
And this! $5! Of course, I haven't checked it out yet so it might be $5 worth of non-working mechanical parts, but I'm an optimist and the people at the sale assured me that it worked. Can you believe that the only two classes I regret not taking in high school are Home Economics and Shop? I never learned to use a sewing machine and I'm constantly wishing I knew how to weld. Okay, not constantly, but it's a super handy skill to be able to pull out of your bag of tricks. Anyway, she looks a little rough, but I'm hoping to do great things with her.
Next I headed to the other rival garage sale. It was in the parking lot of a local church and I arrived at the very end of their sale day. A woman practically ran to meet me at my car and hand me plastic bags because they were selling everything for $1 a bag. My kind of sale! In fact, I should just start only shopping at garage sales from about 11-1. Yes, most of the good stuff is gone, but everyone hates carting their junk home again, so you can always get what you like for a song.
I picked up this beauty. Since I have no plans of going Tiki in my home decor, it will eventually get painted.
And these. They are the exact same lamp, only different colors. I've been wanting a matched pair for our bedroom so I grabbed them. One still had a $60 price tag on it. The golf balls on top will definitely be nixed.
This blue lamp thrown in for free (despite me trying to nicely turn the seller down since I have no place for it).
Total cost = $3. They were a little miffed that I didn't take them up on the offer and completely load up my plastic bags. But I didn't feel right bringing home a new load of junk when the boyfriend had worked so hard all morning to clean out the junk we already own.
Anyone else score big this weekend?
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