There were some remarkable sales yesterday. Janie was able to accompany me to the first ones in St. Paul, and I then headed up for another 26 sales in a Fridley neighborhood.
First, I have enough pictures of things we didn't buy for an entire article.
The thing we least wanted to buy:
Boom box with anti-crush rollbar thingy
price - $100
no sale
The ad taped on the front says it cost $139.95 new, so this is wrong on two different levels.
1) It's a yard sale, and yard sale prices for such an item, in this condition at the current market - $25.
2) If you're taking boom boxes to a construction site, buy one at a yard sale for $5. If it gets crushed, pull out another $5 yard sale boom box.
Other things we did not buy today:
(runner up)
Tin can with green spray paint
price - 25 cents
no sale
4-gallon Red Wing crock (cracked)
price - $25
no sale
This was actually a good price, but we just loaded up on crocks last week - bringing the number of crocks in our 1,100 square foot living space to 19 - and now we can afford to be picky.
Sylvester and Tweety tea pot
price - didn't ask
no sale
Military justice/music book
price - $1
no sale
I already know everything I hope I ever need to know about both.
Ice lifter
price - $30
no sale
This is cool and all, for a museum, maybe.
Sewing table
price - already sold, so
no sale
My friend Mark J is looking for a typing table. I know that's not what this is, but this is the closest I've seen. I'm trying dude.
Vietnam army boots
price - $2
no sale
Apple on the sidewalk - not an apple tree in sight
price - free
no sale
A homeless person had just passed it up, and despite my taste for tree-ripened, homegrown apples - which this clearly is - I took that as my cue to leave it too.
Espresso machine for a business
price - $1,200
no sale
I want to set up a drive through coffee at the back door of my mom's gift shop in Colorado, but I wouldn't do any espresso. There would be hot pots, cups and a slot to put your buck in. People are honest, and the espresso business is more work and expense than it looks like (as this offering at a yard sale attests).
Trailer
price - $1,200
no sale
but I *LOVE* this trailer. I cut firewood for 5 years, and one of the fundamental rules is lift it as little as possible. I've seen people haul wood in dump trucks (seriously). This has about 8 inches of clearance, which may need to be raised a bit, but I just love the subversive anti-jacked-up message it sends.
Drum set
price - (what is it with $1,200 today?)
no sale
It's a yard sale folks.
1960s Drill
price - $1
no sale
I collect pristine 50s and 60s power tools. My guide for whether it's going to run well is to look at where the cord meets the tool; that tells the whole story.
1920 Singer Sewing machine (pristine)
price - $100
no sale
I know this is worth it, don't get me wrong, but I see these much older for like $20, and I don't have a truck to get them back to Colorado, where they'd go at a Telluride auction for $300 or so. Maybe some day I'll have a truck, but I need more reasons than that.
Truck (a dodge with new tires)
price - $275
no sale
Would this make it to Colorado? Do I want to be broken down somewhere between Sterling and North Platte with a truckload of sewing machines? Maybe when I was 20; not now.
Monmouth 10-gallon crock (no cracks or chips)
price - $50
no sale
Nice Raleigh bike
price - $25
no sale
I'm not in the market for a bike, unfortunately. Now there's an item I've seen a lot of this summer - great bikes for cheap.
Plush toy ugly stick
price - $1
no sale
I come from a place where people used to keep the real deal under their truck seats. Maybe they don't any more, but I don't need a reminder of that around the house.
(Silver?) necklace
price - $5
no sale
This might have been the find of the day, or I might have wasted five bucks. It weighed about half a pound, which at current silver prices would have been $80 scrap value. Did I blow it, or is this some sort of silver-plated nickel thing? How would I know? Can anyone tell me?
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Okay, as an added feature starting this week, we have a video, and the blue lettering is a link that will take you there.
price - $2
no sale
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Would You Buy This or Not is published almost every week whenever the weather permits yard sales. If you'd like to see more weeks of finds and non-finds, do a tag search for "garage sales" and scroll down the results.
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Comments: 25
Voting finally ends on Tuesday (thank God!)
Layla, that silver thing is a necklace, I hope. I know. Maybe I should have bought it, but I didn't want to run out of money if there was something else really great around the corner.
Corina, I used to live in a neighborhood with brownstone apartment buildings and lots of young adults with no cars. Whenever they moved, I'd find heirlooms and other gems in the dumpster - quilts, cookware, paintings, telescopes - it would have been quite sad if they hadn't been mine.
I still don't understand the whole crock thing as you well know, but am amazed just the same that you can fit what you do own inside your condo. Before moving to a house, my last apartment was 1790 sq. feet and 19 of those would have never worked in it ;) Keep these coming. I really enjoy them.
Shannon, we're of one mind on this stuff.
Sarina, the can was at a storefront that was vacant and available for rent. Five families were having a garage sale in it in the meantime. It was pretty picked over.
That was a pretty good-sized apartment you had. We're really happy with our 1,100. It's amazing what you can accumulate if you reject the whole anticlutter fad.
Jennifer, I think they put it out as a joke, really.
Teresa, it's hard to say whether expensive things ever get sold at a yard sale. I suppose everything comes to pass eventually.