Uncategorized

Will You Take Fifty Cents For It?

80 Comments

It’s garage sale day today, tomorrow and Saturday.

Geez, we’ve just hauled enough stuff out of the basement to fill two houses. It’s the Clown Car Scenario – there’s no way they could all fit in the back seat and yet clowns keep popping out. That’s how I feel about board games. Did we really play all those?

We’re rich in cheap plastic toys, obsolete software, computer printers, yo-yo’s, kites, puzzles and electronic gadgets where one feature (cassette player, CD, radio) inexplicably stopped working. Do people really repair these things, or are they only useful as doorstops that happen to have a digital time readout?

Something happens to stuff once you have decided to retire it but not throw it away – you put it in an out-of-the-way place and it becomes invisible, like the dark matter that dominates the universe. An astronomer named Fritz Zwicky coined the term “dark matter” in the 1930’s to describe all the stuff that his mathematical models told him must be holding things together, even though we can’t see it.

I could be wrong, but I think Fritzwicky is the name of one of those board games I just dragged up the stairs.

We’ll open the doors this morning with about 1% of the debris priced. I wonder if I would have bought any of this stuff if it had come with a Truth In Consumption label – the retail price ($49.99) with the expected garage sale price ($3) right next to it. Of course there is no Truth In Consumption label requirement. That’s just another job killing socialist idea of mine – something I wish had been in place to protect me from my own impulsive decision making and grandiose ideas about what I was going to do.

So goodbye (with luck) to the Hilton of rat cages, the lovely canvas sling chairs we rarely sat in, the plastic pig that I was going to modify so it would light up, the tennis and racquetball rackets I stopped using, the power washer that I bought to do a difficult job that I eventually hired someone else to do with his own equipment, and so on and so on.

Time to face the deep, deep discount music.

Have you got a memorable garage sale experience?

80 thoughts on “Will You Take Fifty Cents For It?”

  1. Morning all!

    Good luck w/ the sale, Dale. Hope the weather treats you and the sale well.

    I’m not a garage sale sort. I have a tendency to jettison stuff without waiting to sell it. Lots of big black plastic bags full of stuff have been taken over to the Salvation Army over the years, or I take things to work that I think someone else might like to have. I also live on Lyndale, which is a mecca of “get rid of it easily”. Stuff set out on the boulevard usually disappears quickly. And I don’t have the shopping gene, so “garage-saling” doesn’t appeal to me either.

    I used to have a neighbor across the street who had a sale almost every weekend. He always had plenty of stuff, so he must have shopped at other garage sales and then marked stuff up and put it out. Maybe he made some good money that way, but just seemed like a waste of good summer weekend days to me!

    Like

    Reply

    1. VS, my thinking on garage sales is very similar to yours. Just like you, I have better things to do. I also leave lots of stuff at the Salvation Army stores.

      At one time we had a good second hand store in Clarks Grove where I did find some good deals on second hand items and where I got rid of some things. I wish all the garage sale people would have made use of second hand store in place of doing garage sales. The big garage sale day is coming up soon in Clarks Grove and I will have to navigate my way around all the people looking for bargins.

      Like

      Reply

  2. Rise and Shine Baboons!

    THere is no such thing as “A” memorable garage sale experience. If you are into them there are MANY! I LOVE GARAGE SALES. There are two facets:
    1) the ones you put on
    2) the ones you attend

    I have great memories of both. For years I assisted with one that our former church would have each May. Getting that much stuff sorted and displayed was always a challenge (this was a $6000-$8000 sale). It took up most of the church areas. However, one year 2 church members died while setting the thing up and we had to box up everything and store the stuff–twice–so the funerals could be held in an atmosphere of some dignity.

    Then there are the great buys. The flower vases, canning jars, just the thing I was looking for and really needed, furniture. The $25 hand made wooden file cabinet I scored for an office mate who needed a file cabinet!

    And of course, the Antique Road Show worthy antiques that will make me rich. They are in a box somewhere in the basement.

    Like

    Reply

    2. Church members died setting up the sale?….oh my. (Or was it happenstance that they died, peacefully and safely away from the church environs, during the days you were setting up…)

      And indeed, Blevin’s chapeau is lovely.

      Like

      Reply

      1. I would think it would become difficult to get people to volunteer to help with setting up the sale, given the mortality rate.

        Like

        Reply

      3. UMM. BAck from my walk now. I plead writing this while early.

        Two elderly church members in nursing homes or hospice care died during the period of time that we were setting up the sale. Their funerals were schedule during that time….

        The grammar police were correct to site me.

        Like

        Reply

  3. Dale-it’s a good thing I don’t know your address-I might end up with a pig.

    I regularly garage sale with specific items in mind. I shop for rattles and other infant developmental toys for babies in orphanages. As my son says I brake for primary colored plastic. We regularly send duffel bags full of rattles, mirrors, stacking toys etc to babies in Korea, India, Vietnam, Moldova, Bulgaria, etc.

    The sales I remember are the ones where folks price so far below the going rate that I can buy the whole lot. My car sure makes funny noises when full of my treasures!

    Like

    Reply

  4. i am a garage sale guy. i love garage sales. lps and books are the first things i look at to see who i am dealing with, but the real scores come in a vairety of areas and you never know quite what they will be when you drive up. the trick is in being open. i used to get a lot of flack about it from my wife , bringing home all sorts of useless crap but now i have a guy who dose nothing but list stuff on craigslist and ebay for me so its ok. at a garage sale the pressure washer dale is selling for 3 dollars will be a great item because it will sell for 25 on ebay. the lps and book end up being for me which is a problem but i can live with that. the furniture needs to be an exceptional deal but 50 dollar leather couches and 5 dollar speakers from 1970are favorite items. a 20 dollar honda law mower mowed my lawn yesterday when my riding mower bit the dust last fall and has not yet been replaced. 10 dollar trombone, 5 dollar keyboard, 10 dollar violin, beautiful clothing and shoes for 1 dollar. my summer wardrobe of hawaiian shirts and casual shorts are garage sale finds. cool art deco furniture, briefcases, art, a sailboat, 1000 golf balls, i just don’t know if life gets better than garage sale season.

    the most interesting is what people value and what they don’t. a playschool sandbox that sold new for 69 dollars will be out there for 40 bucks if you get there early, a 400 dollar pair of speakers will be 10 dollars or at the next garage sale the priorty will be reversed. do not try to understnd, just buy the correct item from the correct sale. 9-11 on thursdays is prime time. wednesday is for the hardcores and saturday is mop up time for all the crap that didn’t sell.
    if you have some stuff left over thats worth something dale don’t give it away i can get big money for you on ebay…or maybe you and i can have a sale next week with all the cool stuff i’ll find this week.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Yep, it’s a form of gambling, where you put in your time because once in while you hit the jackpot.

      Like

      Reply

  5. I’ve already posted about my former brother-in-law who had a fatal garage sale infection, fatal to his marriage at least. When Cody saw that busted incumbent bicycle, he had to buy it, and what makes that remarkable is that he already had three broken incumbent bicycles. So . . . you get an idea of how addicted he was. The pile of stuff he had bought accumulated in my sister’s garage (itself bigger than some people’s homes) until it resembled nothing so much as the garbage ghost in Miyazaki’s wonderful animated film, “Spirited Away.”

    What was so sad about this is that each item represented a dream about himself that Cody held but could not act upon. He fancied himself a photographer, so he had three enlargers in the garage . . . each gathering mold and dust and mouse nests. I guess we call people like this “hoarders,” and poor Cody hoarded visions of a better version of himself.

    That should make me invulnerable to garage sale lust, but Dale, I covet that pig!

    Like

    Reply

    1. I like “incumbent bike”, Steve. That might have to go in the Glossary of Accepted Terms – a bike that’s sticking around for another term? Husband and I stopped at Calhoun Cyclery yesterday looking at rrecumbent bikes yesterday. They’re awfully pricey, and one of the questions he asked was “What can go wrong with them?” so as to determine if he could fix a garage sale one. Wonder what happened to those 3 broken incumbent bikes.

      Like

      Reply

      1. I have an incumbent bike…it’s ready to serve another term as soon as I elect to fix the brakes.

        Like

        Reply

    2. I, too, wondered about the “incumbent” bike, couldn’t quite figure out what it would look like. Knowing that Steve at one time he considered himself an “outdoor writer,” I figured it had to be another newfangled contraption that I wasn’t aware of.

      Like

      Reply

    3. Acch! I’ve been up since 3 AM watching war movies, and I think I took a hit to the brain. I wrote my post and then lost it, so I had to dash it off again. Do you suppose we all grow more and more like tim the longer we post here?

      I need to get incumbent.

      Like

      Reply

  6. I’ve told this before, but back in ’81, the summer we were living out on our friends’ farm near Winona, Janis and I would leave the kids with the guys on Saturday mornings, steady our coffee cups on the dashboard and head out. One morning we found the prettiest little German wood burning stove – we thought it would be just the thing for the garage/workshop the guys were planning to build. With only a little indecision we plunked down the $25 and put it in the back of her Suburban, then proudly displayed our treasure to the men when we got home. Unfortunately, they were not impressed… there was some part missing (stovepipe?), and the garage never quite materialized. We were laughed out of the house, and we learned our lesson. Next time we were out and found ladders, we made sure to find a pay phone (this was early 80s after all) and call them first to see if the ladders were wanted. Of course, by the time we got back, they were sold, and the guys’ comment: “Of course you should buy ladders – we can always use ladders.”

    Like

    Reply

    1. Going to garage sales on a day like today can be great fun. In my younger days, when I was still in the mode of acquiring things, I’d go with some regularity. Nowadays, when I’m trying to get rid of some of the stuff we’ve accumulated over the years, I’ll go only for specific items. A couple of years ago I picked up a ceramic dish made by my favorite potter for $1.00, a real bargain.

      I’ve also had the occasional garage sale myself. The first one was in the early 80s, a few years after we got married. A friend had given us a set of ceramic canisters with a really ugly glaze as a wedding gift. They had been gathering dust and whatnot in the basement, it was time to get rid of them. Wouldn’t you know it, with the canisters were prominently displayed on a long table by the garage, the friend who had given them to us showed up. With quick thinking and a flurry of activity on both my husband’s and my part, we somehow managed to hide the canisters while she was parking the car. We did manage to sell them after she left. At that same sale we also sold another wedding gift (from a former boyfriend of mine), an ornate brass lamp without a lampshade.

      Like

      Reply

  7. OMG Dale, don’t sell those lawn chairs, I need them for our little casita in Kino Bay, Mexico. Lawn chairs are hard to come by in Mexico, and these fold flat and would be easy to transport in the car. Please, please, please.

    Like

    Reply

      3. No bucks around right now. Did see a beaver on Eagle Lake right where the swans were a couple days ago.

        Like

        Reply

  9. When my folks downsized to an apartment in the mid 90s,they had 3 garage sales and got rid of a lot of old stuff. I helped with one of them, and it was particularly poignant to see all this stuff from my past walking out of there with other people. Most of my dad’s tools, all kind of misc. dishes, books, bedding… That’s the joy of having a sale, though – seeing that stuff walk out of there.

    Dale – not that you’ll see this in time, but a quick trick for unpriced stuff is having one table for 50 cent stuff, one for 1.00 stuff, etc. High priced stuff gets the individual stickers. You only have to make a few signs; you end up having to trust people when they tell you where the items came from, but oh well, it’s only a few cents different anyway.

    Like

    Reply

  10. Most fun I had at a garage sale was one I put together with my best pal Steph. It was a mix of my stuff, her stuff, her husband’s oddball stuff (which often includes strange military. mechanical and gun-related things), and a box of books left in my basement by an old roommate. Most of the books were dime store romance novels (Harlequin romances would have been a step up), with one or two accounting texts buried at the bottom. Early on in the sale, Steph dug out a rhinestone tiara that we swapped back and forth, based on who had the money apron (“go see the lady with the tiara to pay”). When things got slow long about midday, we dug out one of the romances with an especially cheesy cover and commenced to reading. Whoever read, got the tiara. It was a highly forgettable plot with remarkably bad prose – improved only by our decision that bad romance novels could only be improved by bad Southern accents. We didn’t finish the book, nor did we sell enough to retire and live off our earnings, but we did laugh so hard we almost fell off the front steps.

    Like

    Reply

  11. After living in the house for 25 years, we sold it and moved. But not without a garage sale and “estate sale”. My wife took care of the ‘estate sale’ in the now empty house. It was set up like a fancy-schmancy boutique. I had the garage sale in the garage, naturally, which was set up like, well, like a garage sale. The garage was my baby. The boutique was her baby. Her idea was to sell these treasures for as much as she could. My idea sell this junk for as little as possible and get it out of my sight, um, without her really knowing that was my strategy. Never the ‘twain’ met and all was good.
    As for the black matter? After 25 years there were discoveries in the nooks and niches that made us pause. Is this an antique yet? Garage or boutique? The decision was hers and hers alone to make. If it ends up in the garage, 50 cents. If it ends up in the boutique $5.00.
    At the end of the day we managed to ‘get rid’ of a lot of black matter, boutique items and other junky schemata. What was left in the garage was packed for the thrift store or dumped. What was left in the boutique had a different end. My wife ‘heard’ of these people who come, make an offer and take all the stuff away. It was my job to be there when ‘they’ showed up. The whole lot went for $125. Or at least that’s what I told the boutique manager. I’ll go to my grave knowing I stretched the truth by about $100. But everybody is happy.
    By the way, will you take $25 for the power washer?
    Have a great sale day.
    Paul

    Like

    Reply

    2. Welcome to the trail, Paul. My few garage sales have been likes yours… get as much gone as fast as possible. My other rule of thumb — once it leaves the house, it can’t go back in. Straight to Goodwill or Salvation Army if it doesn’t sell!

      Like

      Reply

    3. Thanks for posting a comment, Paul.
      $25 for the power washer? That would erase your profits from the boutique liquidation!
      You can write to me directly if you’re really interested – it’s still here as of 10:14 am … I’m at connelly.dale@gmail.com

      Like

      Reply

  12. Back in the mid 60s when I first arrived in the US, newly married to an airman stationed at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheynne, Wyoming, I furnished our apartment with furniture from Goodwill and various junque stores. I refinished a sectional sofa, and made new cushions for it, found a lovely old roll-top desk, a drop leaf dining table, some ladder back dining chairs and a couple of Danish-modern looking side chairs, a real mishmash of funky furniture. When we left Cheyenne, we piled it all in a Uhaul and drove to Carbondale, IL where we were both going to go to SIU. Whenever my ex and I would have a dispute of any kind, a friend of mine would always say “I get the furniture if you split up.” By the time we got our degrees and decided, for no particular reason, to head for the Twin Cities, we opted to get rid of most of our belongings. My friend, who by then was living in Chicago, rented a Uhaul and came to Carbondale to buy most of our stuff.

    About three years later, after we divorced, I drove to Chicago to visit my friend. Walking into her apartment furnished with all of our old furniture was deja vu all over again. Thirty-nine years later my friend still has all that old furniture.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Awww, that’s touching. I think we should be faithful to our furniture if it is faithful to us. I have been conspicuously loyal to some rank old sofas long after the words “till death you do part” would apply.

      Like

      Reply

    2. your friend knew mo than you thought. got the good stuff out of the frinedship and maintained the friendship too

      Like

      Reply

  13. Morning–

    I mostly avoid or ignore garage sales… I’ve been peripherally involved with a couple garage sales but held none myself. Course being out in the country with a single car garage I always considered a blessing– or hindrance– to the garage sale event.
    The ones I’ve worked on were when my folks downsized from their home (and Dad marked everything to what *he* thought it should be worth– which it wasn’t).

    And unpleasant memories of when my wife was executor for her uncle’s estate and that garage sale involved relatives that weren’t named in the will and mobs from the large local ‘Gold Rush Days’ flea market that swooped in and bought all the good stuff to resell at their stalls. The whole thing left a bad taste in our mouths.

    The couple garage sales I’ve stopped at I look at the stuff and think ‘Why do I need this??’
    I can see the thrill of finding unexpected treasures but…..

    Like

    Reply

    1. 2 new pairs of cowboy 6 dollars
      30 lps 15 dollars
      trombone 20 bucks
      hartman suitcase 10 bucks
      todays treasures

      Like

      Reply

      1. What is a pair of “cowboy” I wonder – really cowboys? A brace of ’em? $6 seems pretty cheap…bet feeding ’em will cost more though. 😉

        Like

        Reply

  14. I was a professional garage saler at the age of 14. This was in Kansas. My neighbors were from the Ozarks. The mom’s father was really the garage sale pro. I just worked for him. Charlie Hand could not read and of course he couldn’t write either. He did know his numbers and his wallet was always full of cash. His wife worked the graveyard shift at the post office so she got the first look at local advertising circulars that included sizable want ads section with plenty of garage sales. During her breaks she could cull the best of the garage sale ads and then bring home the list. Charlie hired me to read the list, but he never said so. I also had to read the street signs, although Charlie knew all the main drags. Charlie ran a small second hand store featuring bargains from garage sales. His main thing was ‘furntniture’ but his absolute grail was ‘bedroom suits’ for his ‘rennal’ properties. It was a good job.

    Like

    Reply

    3. i remember working at the mann france ave drive in about 1970 and there was a kid there who came from a faomily who would buy stuff at a sale and sel it at a flea market, like bens folks. the manager thought taht was a sad story poor people had to by and sell junk. i though it was a great job

      Like

      Reply

  16. Shortly after both my husband and his brother emptied the family nest, my mother-in-law had a garage sale. One of the items she wanted to purge was my brother-in-laws old Howdy Doody marionette. She remembers someone buying it for $5 and thinking she’d done really well. A couple of weeks later there was a story in the Highland Villager about a man who had found a marvelous, highly collectible Howdy Doody marionette at a garage sale in the Groveland Park area. He’d bought it for $5 and turned around and sold it to a dealer for something like $750. Man, was that a blow to the MIL!

    Like

    Reply

  17. am i too late for the pig???!!!
    when the home ec dept. was closed at St. Scholastica everyone wanted some souvenirs. i wanted the big inflated Oscar Mayer weiner, but didn’t get it.
    i don’t like garage sales. we had one when my Mom had to leave her home. i was desperate to get rid of stuff (so i didn’t have to make trip after trip to Good Will or somewhere) so after noon i was saying “whatever you can stuff in a bag is yours for $1.” even had an old guy that i told whatever he could stuff in his car he could have for $5 – he left loaded way down with wire coat hangers and all kinds of junk. didn’t tell my Mom that – she said she’d rather burn things than sell them for cheap. 🙂 i didn’t sell that jar of home-canned plums that we found in the fruit cellar – no doubt from 1950 or so….
    good evening to You All
    made mozzarella this afternoon – shaped into bocconcini and marinated. we’ll see…

    Like

    Reply

      1. They have hidden it pretty well, Margaret. It is halfway between Duesler and Pleasant Valley. If that doesn’t help, think of that lightly traveled area between 35E and Scenic Highway 23, not too far south of Cloquet.

        Like

        Reply

      2. MoW — check out the “Out to Pasture” link at the top of the blog under “Blogroll”. This is Barb in Blackhoof’s blog (well, and Steve’s too).

        Like

        Reply

  18. I’m looking for a turntable that works. What can you do me for, Dale? If you have one and I buy it, will you throw in the oatmeal for free?

    Steve – I don’t want to hear any of your dirty minded lip! 😉

    Like

    Reply

    1. Donna… I have a turntable in the attic. It’s been up there for several years, but it was working when I put it up there. If you want it, it’s yours.

      Like

      Reply

      2. sorry jim tell you son in law i’ll keep looking.
        jim asked me for a turntable a month ago and i have been keeping my eyes open for him

        Like

        Reply

  19. Greetings! Garage sales can be fun, but frustrating, too. I got our family room furniture at a garage sale. Perfect condition sofa, loveseat, a couple paintings and something else — for $75-$100 — plus they delivered it to our house! The few sales I manage to stop at just have stupid kitchen junk. Although, there was one down the street from our old house that was great for adult clothes. He had an embroidery business, so he would sell off cheap all the sport clothes samples he would get. I got a fair number of nice jackets, shirts and polo shirts from him at a reasonable price.

    I had one garage sale when our oldest was almost 5. Sold all his baby clothes, gear and paraphenalia — and got pregnant within a year. Never again. Way too much work and not much return unless you have really good stuff to sell — and even then folks don’t want to pay more than fifty cents for anything. Going to garage sales requires time and a good eye, but it can be a lot of fun to find the perfect bargain.

    Like

    Reply

  20. I love going to garage sales. You can have a wonderful time with only a little loose change.

    Having a garage sale is a good people-watching opportunity. The last time my sister had one, I went over to help out. I remember one elderly fellow that came in and looked around – he had large horn-rimmed glasses and ears that stuck out like side mirrors, and he was wearing these shorts that were apparently pants that had been cut off, and the inside pockets hung down below the point where they had been cut off. White legs and black socks with sandals. He didn’t buy anything, but as he was leaving, my niece watched him walk down the alley and said in a low voice, “Oh my God, that’s the cutest little old man I’ve ever seen in my life.” I think she was about fourteen then.

    Like

    Reply

    1. What a hoot! That transvestite I saw in NY at the subway last Oct. was as cute as they get too. He looked like he could have been a member of the Red Hat Club.

      Like

      Reply

  22. Ya know, we should have a day here on the blog when we each list things we want “outa here” and see if any other Babooners want them. Like Donna and Sherrilee’s turntable. As Jacque said, Dale’s List.

    Dale, I hope you’ll let us know how your sale went, when it’s over…

    Like

    Reply

  23. During garage sale weekend in our neighborhood a couple of weeks ago I discovered you could leave all sorts of stuff on the curb with a sign that said “free.” Goes faster, and makes only slightly less money, than the last garage sale I had.

    Like

    Reply

    1. That’s one thing I miss living in the country; having the ‘Free Boulevard’ option for disposal. I have claimed a few things off the boulevards in town… just need to find a friendly neighbor on a busy street for the deposit I guess.

      I guess the country version of that is ‘Throw it in the ditch’– I do have a nice winter jacket I got out of a ditch.

      I do ‘Freecycle’… that’s been a good source for giving and getting by request.

      Like

      Reply

    2. Cindy – if you live on Lyndale, you don’t even need to put out the “free” sign. My neighbors got a new backyard table and chairs set last week and put the old set out on the boulevard early Friday morning. As I was backing out the driveway for work, there were two different folks who had stopped and were arguing over who had actually gotten there first!

      Like

      Reply

  24. Donna – email me at shelikins at hotmail.com about the turntable. And whatever hot cereal you want is fine. We have malt-o-meal, cream of wheat, oatmeal and ralston at our house.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to Anna Cancel reply