Would You Buy This or Not (having our own sale, 2009)

Perhaps you wonder what it is Janie and I do with all that stuff we buy at yard sales. 

We do keep a lot of it - all our clothes and stereo equipment and furnishings and cookware - anything that is just as good or better bought used than bought new.

Other things we resell whenever we get enough to make it worth the trip.  This would include books, scrap metal, and records.

Then there are all the things that people just aren't asking enough for; things that we know we can resell at our own yard sale.  But since we live on the 15th floor, we don't have any place to hold one.  Instead, we have a sale once a year 1,200 miles away in Colorado.

Some things are light and bulky enough that it makes sense to ship them.  Below are some of the packages we sent out in July.  I made use of a couple rolls of "stucco tape" we picked up for 50 cents a roll.  I don't need stucco tape, but it was great for reinforcing boxes for shipment.  I also can't help pointing out the fabulous Milwaukee hand truck I got for $10.

A couple days later, we had even more packages to send.

 But some things are just too heavy, valuable or fragile to ship.  These include vintage power tools, old bottles, my new guitar (I go nowhere without it), and small window hangings resembling stained glass, that are called "sun catchers".  Some of these things my mom can sell in her gift shop, and anything she doesn't want to sell goes in our yard sale.

It's relatively expensive to drive a carload of goods out to Colorado, so we make darned sure we cram in all we can.  Here, for your amusement is what you can fit in a Saturn sedan if you take out the back seat:

Once we got out in Colorado, we picked a nice Saturday to host the sale.  Of course, it rained, but this wasn't so bad, because lightning caused the pool up around the corner to be closed, emptying a couple hundred persons out with no alternate plans.  We got a couple dozen extra buyers this way.

Things that really flew off our tables: circular saws from the 50s and 60s; DVDs, CDs, comic books (sold every last one), other tools (hand and power).  An antique dealer with a very small shop bought a couple hundred little bottles.   Matchbook cars didn't go so well.  Weavings and other wall hangings didn't get snapped up like I'd expected.  But we're just getting started.  We're ramping it up each year, and pretty soon it's going to be one of those things people mark on their calendars.  I know.  I mark my calendar for numerous yard sale events.  I know I'm not alone.

Oh, that power wheelchair in the previous picture?  We bought it in brand new condition at a yard sale.  $200.  By far our best buy ever.