Good:
Garage & rummage sale season is back. Yay! I went to lots of both this weekend – and a few thrift stores too.
Bad:
Long lines, small crowded basement rooms and throngs of bargain hunters & resellers.
Good:
Sometimes you find exactly what you need.
Bad:
Sometimes you should just walk away.
Ugly:
’nuff said.
Scenes from a Weekend
June 27, 2009
Record Covers of the Week
June 8, 2009
Shopping with Jessica on Saturday. Interesting selection of vinyl at a yard sale near my house – coloured vinyl, picture discs, hand-screened covers, etc.
Yard sale guy had the cutest polydactyl cat ever.
I bought:
A 7″ 45 rpm picture disk from Hong Kong of a children’s choir singing Christmas songs: Ding Dong Merrily On High, It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, Adeste Fideles, Joy To The World, Silent Night, Deck The Halls.
Side 1
Side 2
and:
Label, side B
Free Box
August 24, 2008
Brandon finds a bunch of “Whizzle Sticks” in the free box.
Matching bikes in the free box!
Thrifty Weekend
May 11, 2008
Many garage sales have music – a radio or boombox playing – but I don’t think I’ve been to a g’sale that had a dj before. Alex was spinning vinyl on a pair of Stanton turntables (covered in attractive woodgrain mactac) on a system he bought complete at a pawn shop. He’s not a professional dj but he does the occasional gig around town (he’s going to be at the Sugarbowl). Apparently he has a small but eclectic record collection. The music was mighty fine, as was the coffee from that big chrome perk. Sadly, no records for sale.
The next sale I went to – an estate sale in an old two story house – had plenty of records. Unfortunately they were of the Mrs. Mills singalong variety. Altogether I went to about half a dozen garage sales on Saturday. I didn’t buy anything but all were entertaining in their way. I also hit a few thrift stores at the end of the day. Since I know Value Village executives regularly scour my blog for marketing advice, I’ll offer this:
DON’T STACK YOUR RECORDS. It’s not good for them and it makes them very difficult to look through.
Garage Sales Suck
May 3, 2008
this one sucks communally
this one sucks Unitarilly
this one sucks 32 ways
Thrifty Weekend
September 3, 2007
Friday: Michael C’s garage sale.
Displaying restaurant china
Marlena’s garden art
shrine
Museums of Failure
July 8, 2007
That’s what McGill University professor Will Straw called garage sales on the CBC radio show Definitely Not The Opera a few weeks back. I think he was saying that g’sales function as sites where unwanted commodities are accumulated and displayed for public consumption (or something like that). He also called garage and yard sales “sites of second burial.” It seems we’re reluctant to discard our unwanted items directly – we need to distance ourselves from them first and so we relegate them to attics or basements for a time until it’s “safe” to sell or otherwise dispose of them. Interesting stuff.
In any case, I want to draw your attention to this yard sale blog I just discovered. Great name, no? I was thrilled to read this post as I’ve often thought about holding a midnight madness garage sale (though I’m a little leery about the kinds of customers that would show up).
Failure is the word to describe my garage sale adventures this weekend – I found nothing.
Weekend Thrift Roundup
June 17, 2007
audiophile garage sale
Michael C. with wiener at church rummage sale
Thrifting and Drifting
May 26, 2007
A Saturday that was forecast to be rainy turned out not bad at all.
discover
spooky yard sale
art deco school
Alice the snake (i forget the lady’s name)
