Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Twelve Posts In Twenty-One Days: Episode Five - Five Sales, Three Duds

It's hard to stop momentum! Our plan was to catch up on our blog posting within three weeks of July 11th. This is the fifth "episode" and it is for the first week in June. 

Although Memorial Day Weekend was now behind us, it looked like many of the tag sales were still on vacation. Many of the tag sale companies were not having sales. Those that were back to work were not hosting our type of sales. We searched and searched and searched and managed to find five sales for our Saturday saling list. Two were run by tag sale companies. The others were not. Some of the descriptions looked great and we were hopeful that we might stumble upon some great sales anyway. All we could do was try so...off we went!

Sale #1 was a private sale which they described as "whole house contents" and "vintage purses". That second phrase caught Monica's attention. There were no pictures in the ad but we were hoping for a great sleeper sale. We tried to arrive right as it opened and that wound up being unnecessary. It was an outdoor garage sale and there was, absolutely, nothing of interest to us and nothing that fit Monica's definition of "vintage purses". Strike one.


Sale #2 was described as a "100 year old house" and had a really cool lamp in one of the pictures. When we arrived, we found some old, rusty junk in the side yard and that was the only place that anything was for sale. There was no sign of the lamp nor was there any sign of anything good. We found nothing at what we could only describe as "Fred Sanford's side yard". Strike two. 


Sale #3 was a very odd sale. It was a dual sale that consisted of the liquidation of an antique shop and the liquidation of the house next door. They were advertised together but the antique shop owners handled their store and a tag sale company (that we know) handled the house. The antique store, as its name would suggest, was filled with antiques which are not our interest. We did find an old tiki idol lighter and one old vintage Valentine's Day card here. The house had lots of vintage stuff but nothing that we really wanted. We found one pamphlet and they gave that to us for free. We won't call this stop a strike but we won't call it a great stop either.


Sale #4 was an easy strike three. Why? There was no sale here. It must have been cancelled. Four sales and three were duds so far. We had one more chance.


Our final sale was listed as a "picker's paradise" and a "loaded collector's state". It was run by a tag sale company that is primarily an auction house but that, occasionally, runs estate sales. It was our first visit to one of their sales.


There were three floors to search and that was a lot to uncover. This squirrel did not have to be uncovered. It stood, prominently, in the living room. It was interesting but it never had a chance to come home with us.


The basement was cluttered and packed...just the way we like it! 

We only took a quick look at this because we knew that this tape would self-destruct in five seconds!

We spent a good amount of time searching through this house. It was the only one truly worthwhile all day. We came home with some records, some books, a knee hugger elf and a few other things.

Since the last sale was in Monica's hometown and since we had plenty of afternoon left, we had a long visit with Monica's dad at her childhood house before heading home. 

The annual Greek Festival was in our town that night and we went, as always. Truthfully, it isn't very good but it's nice walking around there and we always get some food. The gyros are great and that became our Saturday night dinner! 

Sunday, we had time to get things done around the house and enough time to look at what we brought home the day before. It didn't take very long but, as always,  we enjoyed our saling adventures together. Here is what we found on Saturday:


Some records

Some more records

A couple more records

Some Christmas records and a knee hugger elf (made in Japan)

Some Peanuts books. All printed in the 1960's except for the cookbook which was printed in 1970.

An old Whirlpool pamphlet and a vintage Valentine's Day card

An old tiki idol lighter, an old Ronald McDonald doll and a Gurley Thanksgiving candle.

Three of the sales may have been duds but we didn't waste our time. Our time is never wasted as long as our time is spent together!

Note: this was our fifth post since our goal of twelve posts in twenty-one days. Now, we have seven more posts in the next eleven days. We are well on our way! 

4 comments:

  1. When you find a cluttered basement do you guys have a plan devised on how to search? Do you divide the areas to pick through so you don't miss a thing? It would frustrate me to know I was missing something great. That tape player would certainly be meant for you and Monica because you are the Mission Impossible team.

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    1. Ha Ha! Mission Impossible! In those diggable basements, we just sort of react to them and start searching separate areas based on what we see. There really is no spoken plan but we just seem to know how to divide and conquer together! (Rob)

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  2. Wooah nice finds, especially that tiki lighter and Ronald :D You're making me miss picking, I'm still barely allowed! haha

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    1. Thanks, Vanessa! Now get out there and find stuff! Ha Ha! (Rob)

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