Would You Buy This or Not? (December 2, 2007)

Over the past two weeks, I've found a whopping one sale to go to, and it turned out to be an estate sale.   There are other estate sales, and being indoors they happen year round, but I'll miss the long walks up and down the blocks, hitting 80 yard sales in a single neighborhood.

Ah, well.   It'll only be a few months 'till we're out there again, eh?

Find of the week:

Amethyst candle stick

price - $3

sold

It is amethyst because, prior to World War 1, manganese was added to glass to make it clear.  Somehow adding a metal to the glass allowed light to pass through it freely (how I have no idea).  If the glass was in the sun for any period of time, it did however turn a light purple color, which is prized by some glass collectors. The war interrupted the supply of manganese, so other methods were found for clear glass, thus we can be pretty sure a glass item this color was made prior to 1915.

---------------

As I said above, it looks like this is it for yardsaling in the Upper Midwest.  Any of you who have been following the weather channel could have already guessed that.  So, this week I didn't go out at all.

 Last week I found only 3 sales of interest, and two of them were in the 'burbs.  I never go into the 'burbs for sales, and I guess this is a case study both in "never say never" and "never go into the burbs for yard sales."

The first sale I went to was way the heck over in Eden Prairie, about 20 miles away.  When I arrived there, I was stunned to learn the address given in the ad did not exist.  I drove up and down a 3-mile stretch of the road in hopes they had just gotten the number wrong, but in the end I blew the better part of an hour driving for nothing.

I then headed to my second sale in Mendota Heights.   This is almost in town, a mere 5 or so miles from the center of St. Paul.   That address did exist, but there wasn't a soul in sight.   That inner voice that is always right told me not to go knock on the door.

One last sale to go, right nearby in St. Paul's Highland neighborhood.

Zounds!  It really was a sale!

There I found two more items:

Pressed glass window hanging

price - $2

sold

Bug window hanging

price - $1

sold

All three of the above items will be sold in a gift shop in Colorado.

 --------------

So, there you have it.  The end of the season for Would You Buy This or Not.  But no, it is not the end.  I will be doing photo essays on things I've bought over the years: our collection of birds, Christmas ornaments, cookware, clothing (I know, that one sounds exciting huh?), electronics, and third world handicrafts, to name a few.

We'll see you again soon.   Don't lose the spirit.  It's only snow and it will go away.   It always has.