I remember when yard sales first started happening 25 or 30 years ago. Mother and Wife Lila and I would spend weekends buying stuff that would eventually end up in a couple of our own sales.
This weekend, Mother and I hit a big estate sale, a tag sale and several yard sales (some of them more than once.) I’m not exactly sure what the difference is between tag sales and yard sales; they all acted the same to me.
We got some killer bargains: both of us needed new suitcases, a big one for me and a small one for her. We picked up two that looked like they may have made one trip from Phoenix to St. Louis. The blank warranty card was still in one. Cost? About $11 for both.
I have a big box of kid books for a few dollars that’ll keep the grandkids busy for a long time. The most immediately useful thing was a decent office chair for $5. It’s way better than the funeral home chair I had been using in the basement.
Too busy buying to shoot
It didn’t dawn on me until we were headed out from the last sale with our arms full that I should have been shooting pictures. I don’t have many food pictures because I’m too busy eating to muck with the camera, and I was too busy shopping to shoot. Sorry.
What amazes me about yard sales is how many items are still in their original wrapping. Were the items given as gifts? Were they things bought by mistake? You have to wonder if the stuff was bought at another yard sale “because the prices was too good to pass up,” but never used.
What’s the best bargain you’ve run across at a yard sale? Do you think they are as good as they were years ago, or has all the good stuff been sold?
I have noticed, that before you die, Moma takes Popa to to Hawaii for a grand trip. While enjoying the sun and sites, Moma usually says, “what we need is Hawaiian shirts so we look like everyone else!” Moma then goes and buys Popa a really cool shirt and forces Popa to wear it at least a day or two. Popa hates the shirt and NEVER wears it again. It hangs silently the closet waiting to enjoyed and see the sun once more. Moma and Popa finally go to their great reward in heaven, and low and behold there is THE shirt in the estate or garage sale! So….I usually ask people going to yard sales to look for good Hawaiian Shirts. I wear a large or XL in case you are interested in adding to my collection. NEVER pay more than $5.00 bucks…remember the pocket material should match the rest of the shirt, coconut buttons are better that plastic and BIG scenes are better than small little patterns. All that said, if you like the shirt buy it!
LOVE offering of this type can me sent directly to me at this address or give to Ken in his many travels…Remember the good ones are still out there and have only been worn once or twice!
Mr. Hopkins, Sir,
I would be more than happy to create an ad with you wearing one of your primo Hawaiian shirts so you could solicit more. It’ll run you $50 a month and I’ll toss in a free month if you pay for three months in advance. I’ll even let you submit four photos that will play in rotation. My readers seem like the kind of folks who would check their closets for your colorful apparel and haunt yard sales all over the country.
The difference between yard sales and estate sales is that typically at an estate sale there’s a lot more merchandise or an entire household. Usually it is because someone has been moved to a nursing home or someone has passed away. Yard sales are usually categorized by excess household merchandise.