A Garage Saling Type Of Day

Garage saling is something that we have really not done a lot of lately. Well, we do go to garage sales but it is usually an afterthought .The number of professional Tag Sale Companies has grown so much in recent years and new ones seem to pop up every few weeks. So many of them have their own websites and, even for those that don't, there is Craigslist which lets them advertise for free. Not as many people even donate their loved one's worldly possessions to Thrift Shops any more. They hire professional Tag Sale Companies to sell off the estate. There's money to be made! And, of course, garage sales are very, very hit or miss! With tag sales and estate sales, you can sometimes see the pictures and read more detailed descriptions and hope for the best! 

On Saturday, Monica's car was getting an inspection which meant that we would have to be back at our mechanic by 2 pm at the latest. This would restrict our travels to a certain extent normally but there really were not a lot of good sales listed anyway. We decided to choose a few, get back to get Monica's car and then cruise the general area for garage sales. 

Our first stop of the day was at an estate sale. It was run by a Tag Sale Company that we did not know at all. We think they were new because they did not even have any signs out front advertising the name of their company. It was a fun house to rummage through and we got a few records and some glassware at a reasonable price. 

 Our second stop was also an an estate sale run by a company whose sales we have not visited in awhile. They are nice people and they are reasonable but they just don't hold that many sales. We had a nice time talking with them and searching the house and we came away with a few good items and a couple of great items, all at a very reasonable price. 

Our next stop was, well, for breakfast (which we always do on Saturdays) and then off we went to the third sale which was about 30 minutes away. It was an outdoor garage sale that advertised many vintage items. Our stop was pretty quick, as there was not a lot there, but we found a few great things. 

We had one more potential stop which was about 30 minutes away but we only had about two hours to pick up Monica's car and chose to drive home and pick it up rather than feel pressured to rush through the next sale. It was on the way home that we decided not to make the trip to the fourth sale (about 45 minutes away from home) and to just cruise around for garage sales in the neighborhood. So, we picked up Monica's car and, on the way home, found a garage sale at an old house that looked interesting...and it was! The people were funny and, we suspect, hoarders, and we found a few amazing things...two vintage magazine racks with atomic bases, a package of old Valentine's Day stuff (a pin-the heart on the Cupid game and 4 vintage Valentine's Day cards), some small vintage Easter Bunny die-cuts in their package and an old kid's musical pocketbook that still played...and all for $5! 

We spent the remainder of the afternoon, cruising for garage sales and even stopped at the local Salvation Army and came away with a few nice things. It was a nice afternoon together!

On Sunday, normally a day to run some errands and do some housework together, we decided to go to an estate sale that had a pretty good description..."50 years of accumulation" and "digger". We went!

Three signs...two on each side of the driveway and one posted on the pickup truck just to make sure you knew you were in the right place!

"Take It Away" is the name of the Tag Sale Company

There were things all over the place and we had to wait on line to get in but the wait was only 15 minutes.

The creepy plastic baby in the baby carriage looked shocked to see so many people at her house!

The sale was definitely as advertised. Lots of old stuff (though not necessarily our style) and a real digger! We were covered with dust by the time we were done. We got some records and a lot of holiday die-cuts here.

Here are some of the things we got this weekend:

Some records

Some more records

Some books; mostly cookbooks and appliance guides

Some vintage greeting cards, gift tags, mini die-cuts and a cardboard Halloween mask

Playing cards, glasses, mugs and googly eyed shot glasses as well as an old musical kid's pocketbook, whistle swizzle sticks and a rubber Fred Flintstone

Some Christmas stuff including a set of Mr and Mrs Claus mugs whose covers are ashtrays (made in Japan)

Some Christmas die-cut decorations

Some Thanksgiving die-cut decorations. The one at the bottom is a honeycomb Turkey

George Washington and Abraham Lincoln die-cut decorations. Remember when their birthdays were celebrated separately instead of as a combined President's Day?

A few more die-cuts, a vintage birthday card and a photograph envelope when astronauts were big news!

A pin-the-heart on the Cupid game for Valentine's Day

A pair of old magazine racks

On Friday night,  to start the weekend, we went into town. 

We had dinner at a newer cafe-style restaurant called Swell Taco. It has a surfer theme but they played reggae music which we liked and the food was pretty good! We each had a marguerita with dinner

We walked around town after dinner. This is our favorite sign in town because it is so old!

Rob posing with the wooden Indian outside of the town's cigar shop. Rob is one-sixteenth Cherokee Indian so this was "his people". 

It was a beautiful weekend and the evenings were nice and not too humid. Perfect for walking around town, hand in hand, and enjoying our life together amongst the ducks.