Weekend Rummage Sales!

I probably shouldn't have used the exclamation point, because the rummage sales this weekend were far from exciting. The roommate now works third shift, so I figured he wouldn't be in the mood to hit a church sale with me yesterday. We'd never gone to that one, but they had tons of ads on Craigslist, so I thought it might be fun.


The parking lot was ridiculously full, but I have no clue what people were buying. The first room was full of new-ish Christmas stuff exactly like you'd see in dozens of thrift stores. When I made it to the main room, there was someone from the church standing in the middle of the room and auctioning off whatever he picked from the merchandise. I found a few unmarked things, but the people running the sale claimed they didn't know how to price it. Sigh, and I really liked that orange ashtray too!


I found exactly two things, and while on my way to get in line, the auctioneer guy started handing out boxes to people and randomly writing down a number. Then he would shout that these were professional pickers that were there to get all the good stuff so we better start buying. Yeah, sure.

I grabbed this little set because the larger soup style bowls on the bottom are the perfect size for snacks. When I flipped the bowls over, they were all marked Oneida. I never realized the company made anything but utensils! The little plates on top of the soup bowls have a completely different mark, and the two smallest bowls on top are Texas Ware. I know Texas Ware is melamine, but I don't know if the rest are melamine or plastic. I also found this: 

 

I was a huge Strawberry Shortcake fan back in the day. My mom still picks things up for me here and there, and she has a soft spot for the doll too because she still uses a vintage set of Strawberry Shortcake salt and pepper shakers in her house! One time, she even carried a kid's SS rocking chair all over this big ass flea market just to replace the one I had as a kid. It's marked 1980 on the bottom, but I think these actually came out around 83 or 84. Many of the American Greetings dates refer to the trademark on the characters and not the toys.

It even has space inside to store my dolls! Well, if I had any of the dolls LOL.

When I went to check out, one of the "cashiers" had me cracking up.


Cashier 1: What's that apple for?
Cashier 2: That's not an apple!
C1: It looks like an apple.
C2: Have you ever seen a pointed apple before?
Me: It's actually for the old Strawberry Shortcake dolls.
Blank stares from both.
C1: But you could use it for carrying berries, right?


Sure. Oddly enough, whoever priced this put it in the kitchen stuff, so maybe they all thought it was some kind of berry transporter. I paid 50 cents for this and $1 for the dishes. I totally need to track down some of the dolls now!


We then headed out to a "big sale" advertised in a former school that was turned into a business space. I have no clue where the stuff came from, but it was one of those sales where you walk in and walk right back out. They had everything from old hotel dressers for $100 to Avon bottles for $10. The two people working the sale sat on the opposite side of the room and kept yelling to make an offer on anything. No thanks.


We also managed to make it to a church "flea market." They call it a flea market, but they really just hold a big rummage sale. This morning was half off everything, so we got there as early as possible. I've found Pyrex for 25 cents there, and both my roommate and I bought these cool mid-century modern cabinets two years ago for $10 a piece. The church used them to store records and art supplies for their classes. I only picked up a few things though.

 
The roomie gave me one of those puzzling looks until I explained that they're the trays for the old Corning casserole dishes, of which I have many. One was priced 25 cents and one was priced 50 cents.

 
The little red fired on Fire King bowl was $2 and the blue flowered one was $1.

I was once a HUGE NASCAR fan. I've been to multiple races, met 10 to 15 different drivers, and even have a nice collection of autographed die cast cars and race used memorabilia. Even though I don't follow the sport as closely now, I still consider myself a Kyle Busch fan, so I have to love the M&M! The ex used to pick up M&Ms stuff for me all the time, but this is the first one I bought for myself.

This was another weird pricing thing. One was 25 cents and one was 50 cents. These aren't super old, but I have a Santa one that my grandfather gave me before he died in 84 or 85, so they're probably early to mid-80s. I can't seem to leave any behind.

Not old or cool, but I want to try my hand at making a wreath this year, and these were only 50 cents. There's something on the side that says these were made "exclusively for K-Mart," which is funny because we live five minutes away from the only K-Mart left in Dayton.

 
I really couldn't resist this little guy! The roommate had no clue what it was, so I explained to him that it's for making whipped cream. Turns out that it's actually an egg beater. It's marked Federal Housewares on the bottom, and I found another one priced online for $18. All in all, my total came to almost $8, they cut that down to $3 something, and I gave them $4 and had them keep the change.


Not only were the sales disappointing, but I was so looking forward to some homemade brownies. This church sale always, always, always has a huge bake sale every year. This year, they had some store bought donuts sitting out, and the lady working the sale told us that they were serving breakfast.


There were three sales going on on the same street, but all were a bust. One was run by a woman who had a bunch of clothes and books and was sitting in a tent in her yard. Every time someone came close to her house, she would hop out of the tent and run up to this comfy chair and take a seat. We didn't even bother walking up the driveway to another. As soon as we got close, we heard the sale guy screaming at his neighbor and his neighbor screaming back at him. Fighting in the middle of a sale probably isn't a good idea.


The last sale could have been good except for two things. One was that the woman had two dogs, one of which barked and snarled at strangers. She (for some reason) decided to leave the door open so both dogs could run in and out of the house whenever they wanted, which left the dog barking constantly. The other issue was that she set up last night, it rained, and she didn't bother covering anything. She was literally moving stuff into her garage while we were there and made a comment about how she left her sign out in case people wanted to shop while she was cleaning up and that she's made some great sales that way.


Since I didn't want to dig through the box of soaking wet vintage Christmas decorations, the vintage cookware covered in rain, or the musty boxes in her garage, we just took off. She did have a vintage hamper that I liked, but she wanted to sell the linens she stuffed inside with the hamper. She had everything priced per piece too, but all I wanted was the damn pink hamper! It was an okay day all in all, but nothing too exciting.

Rummage Sale Busts!

This weekend was a massive bust when it came to rummage sales. I found three listed, and they weren't even worth my time. The first was for one right down the street from us, so we hit that one first. Other than the brownies, blueberry bread, and pumpkin bread, I should have skipped it.

Granted this wasn't the worst sale of the weekend. It was at a local church, and their online ad said that they charged $1 just to get into the sale. They must have realized that they didn't have enough to make it worthwhile to charge anyone! There were less than a dozen tables, which included a few (cheap) framed "artwork" pieces, housewares, and "Christmas items." I use that term loosely because it was mainly cheap Wal-mart stuff on the tables.

The only thing I found worth my time was an ice cream maker for $5 and a serving dish. The ice cream maker is something the boyfriend wanted, and I probably would have found it cheaper later in the season. I also snagged a serving dish from the 1950s or 60s that has a great turquoise interior with matching flowers on the lid. Two of the women working kept talking about it constantly while I was paying, each of them claiming that they really wanted it. Um, if you wanted it, why didn't you walk the five feet over to the table and grab it? The best friend found a Mickey Mouse Christmas toy from the 80s and a vintage knife sharpener.

Total spent:

Serving dish $3
Ice cream maker $5
Blueberry bread $4
Pumpkin bread $3
Brownies $1

Total: $16 (Is it just me or are bake sales getting expensive??)

The best friend (and my partner in crime) totaled in at $1.10 for his purchases.

The next stop was a church rummage sale in a fancy/wealthy area of town. I usually have good luck at sales in those neighborhoods and the CL ads made it look excellent. Apparently they took photos from last year's sale because there was nothing worth buying. The ad claimed that they had a wide selection of furniture. They actually had a humidifier from the 1980s, a few worn out couches, and an organ. Nice selection. We did one quick circle and left without buying a thing.

My pet peeve at this one was that they had two high school girls running a "pie fundraiser" to raise money for their school. The girls were actually selling pieces of frozen cheesecake. They didn't bother taking the plastic wrap off or even defrosting it before the sale started. There was one entrance to the sale and the two girls were sitting directly in front of it. I actually had to ask them to move just to get inside the sale. There were multiple sale workers who never said a word to them, and the girls were so loud that you could hear them from any spot in the sale.

My other pet peeve was the sale sign. They advertised on CL and in the newspaper, but just set one sign in front of the church. We parked on the side and had to try three different doors before we found a sign posted, telling shoppers to enter through the courtyard. After running through the pouring rain to find the entrance and the teenagers, I was less than thrilled.

The last sale was another church with a big online ad. Once again, the church had one sign in front and no other signs telling you where to go. We ran into a woman with her kids outside and our little group had to circle the church just to find the entrance. This was the kind of sale where you could find adult diapers, hundreds of craft supplies, and potty training chairs with little else.

Total spent:

Vintage Tupperware Shredder $2
Scissors $1 for 2 pairs

The best friend bought a garlic press for my boyfriend and a cute shelf for hanging near the front door.

After that was over, I decided to swing back by a library book sale at yet another church. The boyfriend and I stopped by on Friday and I snagged a few movies, books and a stack of Every Day (Rachel Ray mags). Ironically enough, one of the church sales were selling magazines for $ EACH, and the library sale had them 10 for $1.

Saturday was the last day of the sale, so they offered everything left for $2 per grocery bag. We picked up four bags when we walked in, and then we discovered that all of the leftover movies were also part of the sale. We had to fight our way through well over 100 people, but we made out like bandits! It got to the point where if we saw anything that looked remotely interested, we shoved it in a bag.

We had so many bags that a woman told us we were her hero on the way out. We had 8 bags, which came to $16 and I told her to keep the change. I had at least 150 movies, which doesn't include the movies that the best friend got. The boyfriend totaled it out, and I spent 13 CENTS on each movie. Some of these were almost new movies that had only been out for a few months. If I don't like something, I'll just trade it in at the used movie place.

Since I found no Pyrex, we decided to swing by a few thrift stores. I found a Butterfly Gold Cinderella casserole for $4 and the New Dots mixing bowl in yellow for $3. It was the first time I spotted either pattern in my area, so it was an exciting day.