Would You Buy This or Not? April 7th, 2012

I've been away, not physically but, how do they say - "unavailable" for the better part of a year.  All of the sales have still been gone to, the photos taken, and there's a big backlog of Would You Buy This or Not? episodes waiting in case there are gaps in my future saling activity.

Life is good, but I needed some time.  Okay.  It's time.  Thanks to Sophie S. and Sonia M. for their mild prods.  The smallest efforts in the kindness arena have great power.

This week's episode covers two weeks actually, and normally there would be no posts this time of year because "it's too early" for yard sales.  Not this year.  Since the beginning of March I've been seeing a few here and there.  Also, this winter I've made a point of going to estate sales, and have learned they're not that expensive, especially on half price day, especially back down in the dusty corners of the basement I dash to. 

[A little background for first time visitors to these posts: Janie and I have the yard sale bug bad.  We live in one of the best yard sale cities there is - Minneapolis/St. Paul, and we buy almost all our clothing, cookware, electronics, furniture, etc., at a fraction of actual value.  We resell to used book stores, retro stores, the scrap yard and people I just happen to know are looking for something in particular.  A lot of what we find goes into our own mega-garage-sale we hold every year in Ouray, Colorado on the 4th of July and subsequent weekends.  Some things we buy just because they're so fun they have to be in our sale!  The true gems we set aside for the opening inventory of our own shop.  And, we have one heck of an Ebay-someday box.]

BEST OF SHOW (formerly "Find of the day")

A 48-inch Crick mason's level

Price - $5; sold

It was when I was holding this that the phrase came to me.  I said to myself, "I love owning these best-of-show sorts of things - the kind of thing where it just seems like it couldn't possibly get any better.  I see on Ebay they're asking around $100, not getting necessarily, but it bodes well for me getting $25 or $30.  With that sort of markup, I'm signaling I'd kinda like to keep this.  Also shown is a metal 4-footer, which set me back $3 and is itself a gem.

Other things we did and didn't buy

(Even on the days Janie doesn't come along, this is all about "we".  She likes yard sales when she can go, but on most Saturdays she's out making money I then get to spend on yard sales.  Add to this the fact that our house is packed like a hoarder lives here, and she is due a whole lot of credit.)

A "woofer", I think

Price - free

This was among a couple hundred dollar's-worth of items I selected from the discards by our building's dumpster.  It's relatively small, but I've cleaned it up and  it has replaced the two huge Fischer speakers I had hooked up to our stereo.  I'm now looking for some really good small treble speakers.  For now, this little 18-inch-high box is amazing us to no end.

Two big cans of tomatoes (15 lbs. between them)

Price - $4; sold

I'm not at all above buying food at garage sales, especially if it's in cans, but I've also bought produce from people's gardens.  Yard-saling is a way to cut living costs, and the more angles you work, the more prosperous you will be.

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Stainless lazy susan

Price - $4; sold (lemme 'splain)

We're paying an arm and a leg to have our condo kitchen converted to an all-stainless, commercial-looking kitchen, complete with 102-inch three tub bar sink.  With all that stainless going on, and my appreciation of rotating circular ready access storage devices, I couldn't help but pick this up for about a third of retail.

300-piece poker kit

Price - free

Also from the pile of goodies next to the dumpster (this reminds me, I need to get back down there in case the carnage continues).  I opened the bottom, and it hasn't been used; all the chips and cards are still in plastic wrap.  Wisconsin Tourism Federation?

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New Clark's

Price - $3; sold

I know, I know, but really, used shoes should be scared of my feet.  I was going to cut them into the world's best sandals anyway, but Janie exercised her right to claim them, and they're now safe from me on two different fronts.

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Big, American-made radio tubes

Price - $1; sold

They were in an old radio - actually just the radio inards - the outside had been repurposed I suppose.  The tape said "$1 - needs parts" which I read "vintage tubes, free for all practical purposes."

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Medium-size Wilson's leather motorcycle jacket

Price - free - 0_0

It's too small for me, but if this didn't cost a couple hundred bucks new I'd be amazed.  It goes in our own yard sale this summer.  Damn, why couldn't it have been a large? but hey, I didn't even have to beg, so I choose what I can get.

The apparent lack of legs stems from the fact that I "adjusted" the wall between our main room and the hallway.  There are "windows" that let light into the hallway, and above that are big mirrors I bought, that reflect the rest of the light back into the room.

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Euro-Pro Shark Steam Blaster

Price - free (I know)

If there's anything I've learned haunting the secondary economy, it's that there's almost nothing someone won't sell for a dollar, give away or - in this case - throw away.  Like the jacket and the poker kit, this is in the box, a little dusty, but otherwise unused.  I fired it up and cleaned the tough spots in the kitchen floor.  Works okay as far as I can tell.  That does it.  I'm taking a dumpster break and I'll be right back.

Okay, nothing there but a pane of glass for a picture and some good packing material for shipping old fruit jars.

Animal alarm whistles for your car bumper

Price - 50 cents

There are 4, and I'll sell them for 50 cents each.  I remember when these were all the rage, but have no idea whether they work.  I love the "Don't be fooled by imitators" on the upper corner of the card.

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Navajo dolls

Price - $5 for the 6; sold.

They're a bit tattered, but they're the real deal.

 Sand paintings

Price - $1 each; sold

One is signed, and as usual you can't really read what it says, but there's enough there so anyone familiar with the makers would go, "Oh, yeah.  Wilson Begay" or some other name.

Talk about a great item to sell to Colorado tourists in my own yard sale, eh?

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Demi-John

Price - $2; sold.

This was at a house where there was a lot of Argentinian stuff so I, thinking I'm all smart, said "This probably isn't really old" - since people in some parts of the world blow bottles to this very day - and she said "No, it is old.  It came from my husband's grandmother in California."  Score.

Mexican and Peruvian weavings

Price - $3 and $5, respectively; sold.

I'm just sticking these away, as an investment.

Cassettes

Price - 25 cents each; sold.

This is a typical price, because who listens to tapes any more, right?   Lots of people, and they're happy to pay a buck each for some Bob Marley, Count Basie, Rush, etc.

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Scrap

Price - $3.25

Part of this came from a rummage sale on $2-a-bag day, making the rest of the bag free.  Then I paid a buck and a quarter for the pot and the copper thing.  This part of the posts is potentially boring, sorry, but I need to document my business activity, and you can't ask someone at a yard sale or rummage sale for a receipt : )

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Chimenia (sp?)

Price - $30; sold (and already resold for $40 to a friend)

Christmas stuff

Price - $25; no sale.

Heavy-duty DeWalt drill

Price - $25; sold

I may get no more than $35, but I need this in my sale to drive word-of-mouth.  In other words, this isn't "cost of goods", but rather an advertising expense.

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Chef skillet and pipe wrench

Price - $1 each; sold.

Both hot sellers for me.

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Small food processor

Price - $1; sold.

They offered to plug it in, but I said "No, this is Minnesota.   I know it runs."

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Fancy tumbler and (wow) half-gallon Stanley thermos

Price - $1 each; sold.

Set next to a microwave and cup for scale, the thermos is truly the biggest I've ever seen.  Both of these came from a school rummage sale.  I used to shun rummage sales and estate sales, but I'm learning.

Warm shirts

Price - free

These all fit in the $2 bag the scrap paid for.

They're popular with hunters, construction workers, tourists - just about anybody but the office workers who get them for Christmas and put them on a yard sale rack the following spring.

So, that's it for this week.  Whadya think?  Pretty good for 5-hours work, eh?

Talk to you soon and yes, there will be another post next week of Would You Buy This or Not?

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Ron Hall (that's me).  I'm a major gift fundraising researcher and writer of federal grants that bring isolated populations their first access to public radio.  I write this weekly yard saling blog "Would You Buy This or Not?".  My tutorial How to Split Wood has 25,000 views and counting.  Writing dysfunctional love songs and posting them to Gather also keeps me amused.

Janie is a guide and floor staff at the Minnesota Children's Museum and Minnesota History Center.  She also has become a celebrity of sorts among Twin Cities children aged 2 to 7.

If you'd like to read more, just google "would you buy this or not".  Don't forget the quotes, and tell Google to ignore what it thinks are duplicate results.  You'll find scores of earlier episodes.