Would You Buy This or Not (October 31, 2008)

Janie went to the first two sales with me, and then she had to go to work.  I continued on with 5 more sales on the list.

The first sale of the day was outstanding.  I know this, because I saw a gentleman walking out with a HUGE bag of brass just as we were arriving.  Ouch. 

Was that you, kind reader?  If so, no problem, and congratulations.  Wow.  Those were some enormous candlesticks on top there.

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Last week Sarina commented her husband doesn't believe going to rummage sales for scrap would pay off.  If this week, with the current commodities prices, were the measure, he'd certainly be right.  Most weeks are more productive though, and we look for a wide range of things for resale and reuse - not just metal.  Keep in mind too the occasional windfalls, such as the brand new power wheelchair we bought for $200.  It had a retail value of $6,000.  Of course, the market for used wheelchairs is terrible, but Janie uses wheelchairs to get around, so that Saturday afternoon we saved a cool $5,800.

To better illustrate how this yard saling and rummage saling business works, I've arranged this week's post a bit differently, taking each sale one at a time - evaluating how we did at each one, and overall.

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The ad said: "EASTSIDE RUMMAGE & CRAFT SALE Eastside Community Lutheran Church 1212 Earl St. at Maryland Ave. Fri Oct. 24 9:00-4:30 Sat Oct 25 9:00-1:00 Saturday Bag Sale!"

As I said in the introduction, I was left picking the bones at this otherwise spectacular sale.

We did not buy this aluminum.  It's too bulky, and a bagfull would maybe be worth $1-$2.

Nor did we put this "brass" in our bag.  Always bring a powerful magnet.  This is steel.

Since our friend made off with all the best brass, we did put this 4 pounds of aluminumin our bag . . .

. . . and 2 pounds of brass he deemed too bulky to take up space in his bag.

One warning about brass pots and other containers:

Put your magnet up around the rim, because many have a large steel wire folded in that needs to be removed.

I bought one of those this time, because we needed to fill our bag, but prying these wires out are a real pain.  The scrapyard will not pay you brass price if you have steel attached.

Similarly, you need to remove nobs from lids and handles from aluminum pots.  Usually it just takes a screwdriver, but on some of the higher-end aluminum pots, you may need a good pair of bolt-cutters to separate the handle from the pan.  "But bolt cutters are expensive", you may say.  I bought a big pair of bolt cutters at a yard sale for $10.

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Another pointer about brass:

You'll notice my super magnet is sticking to the threads of this brass candlestick.  Don't let that worry you.  Heavy Indian brass items are typically very slightly magnetic, but the scrap yard is still going to consider it pure brass. 

A regular magnet probably wouldn't stick to it at all.  I like super magnets, because they're good at detecting steel components burried inside items, letting me know I need to disassemble them and toss that non-brass or non-aluminum part.  This would have saved me from trying to disassemble an iron for the aluminum it contained; don't do that.  An old dot-matrix printer with gold connectors inside; do disassemble that.

We also put these 3 stained glass window decorations in our bag.  We sell them to my mom for $1 each, and she sells them in her gift shop.

Janie got a pair of earrings.

I grabbed ½ pound of cheap pewter, which when the market is good brings 50 cents a pound.  Cheap pewter has some lead content, and is dangerous to recast into other items.

I'm hoarding better-quality English pewter in the hopes of finding a craftsperson who makes their own pewter figurines.  If it has English pewter hallmarks underneath, you can be pretty sure it's almost all tin, and has little or no lead content.

I also picked this jar. 

It's not old, and I have a lot of nicer ones, but, I needed to finish out the bag.

 Cost at this sale: $3 bag; resale $6.50 - $9.90

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The next ad said: "EASTSIDE Fall Festival Hope Lutheran Church Basement Rummage & white elephant sale. Clear & Hazel Sat Only 10/25 9-2"

We snagged this 4 ¾  pound pressure cooker.

I always buy pressure cookers.

They're remarkably easy to rid of their steel attachments.

Just put a screwdriver shaft through the end ring of the handle and turn.

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We save the wooden handles for my father-in-law's woodstove at the lake.

The steam port on the top is a little harder.

This one broke off when I tried to crank it out with vice-grips, but I put a pipe wrench on it and it came out without too much trouble.

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We also got this great retro wool shirt for a buck.  We grab these whenever we can, because we sell them to my mom for $2.50 and she sells them to the hunters and construction workers in the mountain town where she does business.

There was no bag sale here,

so we didn't buy any of these brass items.

They were all individually priced,

and the sale was one day only, so they weren't half of or anything like that.

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We liked this little pet couch, but we didn't buy it.  On our way out we saw a kid standing in the checkout line with it.

When I say I like working-class neighborhoods, this carpenter's box is a great example of what I mean.  This wasn't for sale, but hey, Sara Palin, meet Joe Sixpack.  He is *not* married to Soccer Mom.

We did not buy this pin.

Cost at this sale: $2; resale $3.80 - $5.30

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The next ad said: "St. Mark's treasure Sale 519 Oak Grove Thurs Oct 23, 4-8, $5 Adm. Fri 24th 9-4, Sat, 25th, 9-3, 1/2 price day & Sun. 26th, 9-1 Bag Day Designer Clothes, Collectibles, Home Decor, Books. and a Bounty of High Quality Treasures!"

Once before I stopped into the St. Mark's sale and got a dozen or more heavy wool Pendletons and Woolrich shirts in a bag sale, so I had my hopes up.  The bag sale was not happening until the next day, so I had to make do with a half-price sale:

Jazz records - (fine condition) - $1.25 for the two.

Sterling earrings - (1/2 ounce) - 50 cents

For now, I'm just stockpiling the sterling we find, and we've accumulated about 14 ounces. Sliver is about $18 and ounce; sterling is .925 silver.  Somewhere down the road I'll run into a buyer I can do business with.

1959 Richard Nixon biography - 15 cents

It was 25 cents, but the woman insisted on charging me 15.  She was of a certain age, and you could tell there was no love lost there.  This qualifies as kitsch, and it probably gives a great historical perspective, because it was written at a time when his star was rising, and frankly, if you lined up the last 4 Republican presidents to run our country, I'd pick Dick. 

I also picked up ½ pound of aluminum - 12.5 cents (no picture)

They had this exercise machine for $50, which I don't have room for.  Quite a deal though!

2 necklaces and a shell-inlay bangle - 50 cents each

We have a yard sale of our own each year, and we'll charge $1 for each of these.

I saw a fair amount of brass and heavy aluminum at this sale, and was tempted to come back on Sunday when they had their bag sale, but judging from the prices they were charging for some things, I expected the bag sale might not be entirely straightforward.  Consider:

Brass lamp - $75

No sale

It's a rummage sale, folks!

I did work my way over into the clothing area though, where I'd found all those warm shirts last year.  There were no good shirts at all, to my disappointment, but

Pants (Abercrombie & Fitch; Boulevard) - $1.25 each 

The Boulevards are 55/45 silk and cotton blend and fit me perfectly.  The A&Fs will need a hem.

Total cost at this sale: $4.80; resale value $22.65

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The next ad said: "South, Huge Sale! Fine art, vint & hand crafted jewelry, dsngr cloz, shoes, purses, costumes, furn, HH, books, vint, misc. Edgewater Church, 5144 13th Ave S. Pre-Sale! Adm $3 - Fri 10/24, 5-8pm! Sat 10/25, 8-4pm!"

I walked in and out of this sale, spending about 30 seconds inside.  I have only myself to blame of course, because nothing in the ad actually said it was a rummage sale.

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The next ad said: "MPLS 2901 38th Ave S. Bread of Life Church for the Deaf, lots of items + petite clothes from the estate. October 24 & Oct 25, 9-4"

I stopped by a thrift shop to drop off some things, and given that distraction I got confused and did not stop at this sale.

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The next ad said: "ST ANTHONY PARK INDOOR GARAGE SALE Sat. Oct. 25 9am-2pm Housewares books kids items antiques crafts and more. St. Anthony Park United Methodist Church 2200 Hillside at Como"

This is another sale I remembered being very good, but this time I saw not a single thing.

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The next ad said "Apple Valley High School Saturday Oct. 25th 8am-4pm 40 + Family Garage Sale & Bake Sale. Lots of clothes for upcoming Holidays and much much more! Come support the AVHS Dance Dept. as we raise money for dance trip to Chicago. 14450 Hayes Rd AVHS Dance Studio"

I went way into the suburbs for this, and I should have known better.  40 families does not make a good rummage sale.  400 families is more like it.  There was very little stuff, but to add to my humiliation it was all toys and not one item of adult clothing.  Girls and their teachers watched me warily as I made the rounds.  On the way out, being it lunch time, I went to the food table, looking for something healthy.  Sugarland.  The healthiest thing I saw, I bought:

Yellow Cake - $2

Retail value: 12 cents

Okay, here's some trivia for you.  Why would I say this cake was made by a nuclear family?  If you grew up in Southeastern Utah, and someone offered you yellowcake, would you eat it?

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The next ad said: "UPTOWN Sat, Oct 25, 9-4, Joyce Church. Packed full! 1219 W 31st St. Coffee, lunch, Consignment Shop"

10.5 pounds of compact, heavy aluminum pieces

1.5 pounds of copper and brass

Great knife.  I already have one of these, and it is by far my favorite knife.  If it had cost $5, I'd have bought it.  THIS - this was the find of the day.

Interesting coin bank.  I did not buy it, though I might have if it were eligible for the bag sale.  It was not. 

White-bread thing in the shape of a donut

My inner Jew went "Oy", but my inner Viking made him eat it (hey, it cost 50 cents). 

Total cost: $3 for the bag; resale $4.35 - $13.40

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All in all I paid $14.80 and I estimate I'll sell it all for anywhere from $36.30 to $50.20

The difference in resale range depends on whether I sell the metal now in a worldwide recession, or hang onto it for a year - or two or five - when commodity prices have recovered.

Now, I drove 97 miles total, which I'll agree is ridiculous.  Had I planned better and skipped that one suburban sale, I could have kept it to 60 miles, which in my car is two gallons of city driving.  On this day, I paid $2.23 per gallon for a tank of gas.

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I'm not going to let one "bad" weekend discourage me.  I'll be back out tomorrow, but,  pard, I'm not telling where I'm going : )

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