It did not promise to be a profitable day, but we set out anyway because we knew there were folks out there who could not go yard saling and they wanted pix. It was up and down, but turned out pretty good.
I couldn't resist photographing this first-rate signage, by the way.
Before we start:
Janie and I long ago took the back seat out of our car so we could get more payload. Here are three pictures of the batch of metal I took to the recycler last Friday:
Looking from the front into the back seat, all you see is aluminum.
In the trunk, more aluminum, and a little copper to the left.
On the right side of the trunk was a stash of brass, things like nasty candle holders that didn't sell and had been reduced to a quarter. This thing in my hand cost 25 cents and weighs 3 to 4 pounds. Brass is bringing 70 cents a pound. Off it goes.
In the end it added up to $58. I'll keep looking, especially for #2 copper, which is up to $1.20/lb.
Find of the week:
Huffy, with Tokheim 5-speed on the handle grip. Notice it has a light in the middle of the handle bars, baggage rack, and turn signals in the back *with red arrows*.
Price - $12.00
no sale
Someone had already beat me to it (not that I'm in the market for a bike). He talked her down from $12.50 - man, what a gem.
Item of least interest:
Art (in St Paul art crawl)
price - unmarked
no sale
This was later in the day, after our yardsaling was done. I am hesitant to consider much of anything that doesn't have a price, whether at a yard sale or a boutique or a grocery store.
Other things we did and did not buy:
Antlers
price - $20
no sale
As I told her, if I could grow antlers, that would be pretty neat, but I don't want any on my wall. Still, as antlers go, these were top rate. On the back of the mounting it said, "1965" along with the name of the guy who shot the white tail deer. I told her to raise the price to $30, and they still wouldn't last.
Rocker (same sale as the antlers)
price - $15
no sale
I wanted it but Janie sagely counseled we had no room for it. It had excellent design though. It sits on the ground and rocks just right.
Wine jug
price - $4
no sale
I love these 1950s things, with the raised grape leaves in the glass, but I have to get it for a buck or forget it. They take up a lot of space in the load of goodies I haul back to Colorado. I love them; everybody loves them. The space they take up displaces 8 pairs of sunglasses, a warm shirt, 6 smaller bottles - it ain't worth it.
More scrap
price -25 cents
sold
The copper bowl was a quarter. The pipe I saw in a bucket of tools and I broke all my rules to ask, "How much" - only because I suspected, correctly, she would say, "Just take it."
Minnesotan end table
price - $20
sold
This was not cheap, but if I saw something this well-constructed in Target, I'd jump on it, so I did. I had another of these three-tier things that was falling apart, so this replaced it.
Retro window blind
price - $3.50
Having the guy chase you down the street because you left the mounting brackets behind - priceless
sold
Shakespeare in English and Mandarin
price - .50
sold
There was also a larger book for a buck, in Mandarin. The used book store eats these things up. One of my prized books is Beowulf in side-by-side Modern English and Old English. It's just an ideal format for language enthusiasts.
Encyclopedias
price - $1 each
sold
The one is an encyclopedia of organic gardening; the other, a 1964 encyclopedia of georgaphy. These will go over well at the used book store. In fact, both had price tags on the inside cover, from the store I plan to sell them to.
Records
price - .50 each
sold
These are a bit scratchy, and Jupiter's Child on the Steppenwolf skips (I already have that song on their greatest hits album though). Slim Whitman does a great high and lonesome sound. Gene Krupa is a favorite of Micky Hart, and how could you get a better drummer recommendation than that? I like Gene Krupa for his great big band sound.
While at the Art Crawl, we were in the Rossmor building, and walked by a computer monitor in the hall. I stopped. Is that us? Yes, it was.
Janie in letters and numbers.
Janie in letters and numbers two.
The email for the fellow who is doing this is coding.tigger@gmail.com
He's going to post the software to the web so anyone with a webcam can use it. He's looking for feed back. Our feed back - absolutely a hit, dude.
Would You Buy This or Not - formerly known as To Buy or Not to Buy - is a weekly feature. To see more installments go here, and scroll down my articles to the Yard Sales section. If I were to recommend one previous installment, it would be the first weekend in May, 2006. And that's what's coming up in a couple weeks again - the Bryn Mawn neighborhood yard sale. Don't miss it. We won't.
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Comments: 23
George, I do have fun recognizing that junky brass thing is worth $4. I have to watch myself though, so I don't recycle something a person would actually appreciate. Of course, I readily recycle all aluminum cookware. It's poison.
Garage sale tip! I do appreciate it if things are in amounts that can easily equal one, but on a big item I want a flat cost. I don't want to have to carry around two extra quarters when all I wanted was one item.
I'm a pain, admittedly.
At least that's all I've seen it marketed for. To sit upon when one plays nintendo
This wasn't a bad weekend Ron...
I spent mine at a conference, no bargain shopping. Withdrawals~
I would much rather use the rocker in another environment, but that's probably just showing my age.
I already keep a lot of books I buy, and in this case it would be the encyclopedia of geography. As for the Shakespeare, I think it would be very useful to someone learning Mandarin, so that's why I'm not hanging on to it, but getting it to a place where someone will go specifically looking for it.
Nicole, conferences can be a good time too. I hope yours was.