I live in Dayton, Ohio (or at least
I do for the next few months – long story!), which is around 30
minutes south of the town of Tipp City, which hosts a BIG community
yard sale every year. The first year I went was back in my eBay days,
and I bought $10 worth of New Kids on the Block memorabilia from a
woman selling her daughter's collection. I kept a few things and sold
the rest for over $100. Sadly, I've never come across any other deals
like that, but I think I did pretty good this year!
Since the boyfriend and best friend
had to work, I hit the sales with my dad. This little baby was just
waiting for me at the first one. As a Notre Dame fan, I'm definitely
not passing up a car magnet still sealed in the packaging for $1. As
a side note, we later went to the flea market where my dad has a
booth and someone had the exact same magnet for $9.99.
I have another blog (one of
several) where I recap young adult books from when I was a kid. I've
picked up a few Nancy Drew books here and there, but I found THREE
for $1.25 at one of the sales: 50 cents each for the hardback books
and a quarter for the paperback.
I have a hard time passing up
Corelle bowls. They are the perfect size for cereal, soups, etc. I
snagged eight of these bowls at a church sale for $2. Half are this
pattern and half are Woodland, both of which I have in other pieces.
At one of those random "let's
throw everything together and see what sells" sales, I picked up
these two candles. I absolutely cannot get enough of anything
cranberry scented.
The prices at this sale were kind
of crazy though. I spotted a collection of table lighters from across
the garage and made a beeline over before almost going into sticker
shock. The cheapest one they had was $10 and the first one I picked
up was $25. They also had some of those reproduction cast iron banks
that they had priced at $25 to $50+. Ridiculous.
Josie and the Pussycats is one of
my guilty pleasure movies, and I was happy to grab the soundtrack for
a buck. The seller and I spent a few minutes talking about how much
we loved the movie. I'm pretty sure my dad hates it though,
especially after having to listen to it on repeat all day! LOL
These movies came from the same
crazy priced sale. They had a ton of movies for $2 each. The Disney
one is one I don't have in my collection, the classic horror set will
one day serve as reviews for one of my other blogs, and the Garfield
DVD was for the boyfriend. Apparently some of the Garfield DVDs are
now out of print, and we were just at a used movie and game place
that had one priced at $40.
I'm really curious (or maybe
shouldn't be curious!) about where the movies came from. Some were
still sealed with the store tags on the front. The dad got The Outer
Limits Season 1 for $5 still sealed with a $45 price tag from Meijer
on the front.
I have a piece of Glasbake in this
same pattern, but I walked away from this dish a few times. My dad
was still standing on the porch of the sale and buying a digital
camera (for $5!) when I yelled up and had him grab it for me. None of
my Pyrex works well for brownies, but this little $1 pan should do
the job.
We went back to the church sale at
noon when they dropped everything to half price. Despite wandering
around the kitchen area multiple times, I didn't see these until
hours later. Both are Taylor, Smith, Taylor mugs that match the
dishes I collect. Each one was priced at 5 cents and were half price,
but I just gave them a quarter.
These were also half price at the
church sale, so $1 for eight mugs in the Woodland pattern. My dad
made out much better at the sale than I did. He got multiple dish
sets, snack sets, some tools, and who knows what else for around $10.
This sale made me so sad though. They had this amazing little
mid-century modern green industrial desk chair for $15 that was still
there at the end of the sale. I wanted it so bad, but there was no
way it was fitting in the car.
There is this charity sale every
year that doesn't price anything. Last year, I picked up a few small
things, gave the lady $5, and she got a bad attitude about how it
wasn't "enough" of a donation. It turns out that my dad hit
the same sale last year, got the same woman, and got the same
attitude. This year, I gave the woman working $2 for this piece of
Opal Pyrex, and she was so excited! Her exact comment was, "you're
giving me $2 for that?"
Yes siree bob.
My
dad got the find of the day though. He paid $10 for a vintage 1966
telescope in the original box with its original wood stand. The only
ones I found online go for $100 or more. Trust me when I say that
sucker was extremely heavy, given that I was the one stuck carrying
it three blocks back to the car.
I
need to get a few of my cats spayed and only have one carrier. The
places around here charge $10 for a little cardboard carrier, but I
got this one for $3, which will come in handy when we move. I passed
up on one earlier in the day for $8 before finding this one. The
funny thing is that the man running the sale gave me a higher price
for it before I pointed out the sticker on the top. He wasn't too
happy that his wife priced it so low.
The
Winnie the Pooh cookbook was $1, but I loved the graphics inside.
This one is from the early 70s and is a reprint from the 60s book.
The cover says it's a companion to a Pooh party planning book, so now
I must be on the lookout for that one!
This
set came from the church sale too. I can't remember if it was $1 or
$1.50, and I'm not sure if the lid on the sugar dish is the right
one. It fits right, but it's made of plastic...
This
is what I am most excited about. I love the movie ET so much. It was
the first movie I saw in theaters, I went back and saw it when it was
rereleased, my dad got me the fancy DVD box set for the anniversary
edition, and I have a ton of merchandise and memorabilia around my
house. The church sale had this priced at 10 cents, but I didn't see
it until the half price sale. I showed it to my dad and he promptly
bought it for me. It's a poster advertising the ET ride at Universal
Studios and is dated 1991. That is right around the time we went to
the park and I went on this exact ride with my dad.
I
managed to pick up some stuff, but the sale seemed a little
lackluster this year. They divided the city into different zones and
gave out maps, but some of the zones had no sales at all. In previous
years, we could park and hit 10 or more sales in a few blocks. We did
a lot more walking this year and didn't come home with nearly as
much. Hopefully this isn't a sign of what the rest of the summer
holds...
