Put down the dog statue: Lessons from a yard sale
Posted
Jun 23 2008, 11:55 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
As yard sale experiences go, Saturday was just about perfect. The weather was beautiful and I not only found exactly what I was looking for, I scored a killer deal on it. While the low prices I saw all day were thrilling, they were also an object lesson as to why yard sales can be as dangerous as dollar stores: Things are so cheap that it's easy to overbuy.
Prime example: the foot-tall statue of a bull terrier, priced at a quarter, that reminded me of the classic "His master's voice" ads for RCA-Victor. There was something very appealing about the pup, yet I had no real need for such a thing and also no place to put it. Why in the world would I consider buying it? Because it was only 25 cents.
I put it back.
For the rest of the day I kept reminding myself that there's a reason things end up in yard sales. It's because they seem like a good idea at the time, but quickly become clutter.
Stretching those dollars
My daughter and I spent about four hours browsing. Abby had made a list of promising sales from Craigslist and plotted the most fuel-efficient driving route. Yet we kept veering off that path as we saw signs for other sales. In all, I drove 14 meandering miles on Seattle's famously nonlinear streets.
I wondered if the price of gasoline would cut yard sale traffic this summer. Then it occurred to me that the higher gas goes, the more people might need to shop at garage sales. It could be the only way for some folks to clothe themselves and their children and still afford enough gas to get to work.
Clothing, especially kids' clothing, was available at every sale. When you see all those name-brand, scarcely worn rompers and teeny little rubber clogs offered for pennies on the dollar, you wonder why anyone buys retail. After all, you could pay $12 for a safari-print bib from babyGap only to have little Hermione spit a mouthful of strained beets onto its organic percale adorableness.
Or you could luck into the same bib for 25 cents at a yard sale. Hermione still may not like beets, but it's less painful to have two bits' worth of something stained with red splotches.
My kind of game
One of my early discoveries made me laugh out loud: "Discount: A Consumer Math Game," for grades 5 and up. According to the box, "the winner is the player who saves the most money on purchases and whose financial record is 100% accurate!" Still shrink-wrapped, it bore the original store price tag of $22.95. I paid a dollar. It will help my niece, an elementary school teacher, teach basic math -- and, I hope, basic consumer skills.
For $7.50 I obtained three book-and-toy combos, a "Brain Quest" trivia game, a couple of stocking stuffers, a "Calvin and Hobbes" anthology, several boxes of aluminum foil, a long-sleeved cotton shirt, a children's storybook, two pounds of paraffin, a big box of sewing supplies and, best of all, two fat novels (school's out -- I can read for fun again).
Everyone has his own idea of a great garage sale find. Abby was on the lookout for a drying rack so she won't have to keep borrowing mine. She also sought, and found, some inexpensive picture frames with which to display photos of her recent wedding.
I was searching for canning supplies for my summer jam-making. And did I hit the mother lode: eight cardboard boxes of jars, lids and centers. As I was trying to peek into all of them at once, the yard sale host said, "I'll make you a bulk deal. Ten dollars."
Sold!
Later, I found that the boxes held 110 half-pint and pint jars, 37 new lids and 78 screw bands. (Also two dead spiders.) If I'd bought just the jars at a thrift store, it would have cost $31.90 plus tax. At retail, a dozen half-pint jars cost $9.79, and 12 lids with screw bands go for $4.99.
I gave three dozen jars to my sister who, like me, enjoys making jam for Christmas gifts. Since thrift store supplies vary, she has spent as much as $40 per summer on jars. Not this year.
This was the kind of deal that reminds you why you go to yard sales. But the best was yet to come.
No, really -- take it
Ready to call it a day, we almost skipped the "leaving the country" sale. Just as we drove up, the hosts declared that everything left was free to whoever wanted it. It was midday, they were tired and they wanted all of it gone so they could move to Peru.
We're not talking a couple of limp paperback romances and some doilies. I saw items like a dresser, a kitchen table, linens, a double bed frame and headboard, kitchenware and a bookcase. Abby snared dishes, sheets and a saucepan for a friend who's moving into an apartment. I obtained a set of flannel sheets, two bath towels, a hand towel, a long-handled barbecue fork, and a serving platter in the same pattern as the dishes I already own.
I had to remind myself not to take things just because they were free. Someone else needed them more than I do, and I'm trying to pare down possessions, not acquire unnecessary new ones.
How much stuff does one person really need? Yard sales can tempt even the most monastic among us, especially if what's being sold reminds you of your childhood -- or, worse, if it's so cheap you feel like you're losing an opportunity. After all, you might someday need the complete works of Charles Dickens, or lose enough weight to fit into that classy little black dress. It's only a dollar.
That said, I'm glad I bought everything I did. The toys and stocking stuffers finished off my birthday and Christmas shopping for three family members. It will be a treat to read "The Red Tent" and then donate it to my church's library. The canning supplies were a terrific find; I'll be set for a couple of seasons.
The only thing we didn't see all day was a drying rack. There's always next weekend, though.
