I had a tooth taken out this week,
and since I couldn't do any work-work, I thought it was the perfect
time to finally post my finds from the World's Longest Yard Sale last
weekend. Our first stop was at a sale miles before the real one
started. The woman worked at a daycare center and put out a lot of
their stuff.
Everything here was $1 a piece. The
Fisher Price school is just like the one I had when I was a kid,
except mine had a missing door. The shelf is already hanging in our
bathroom, and the vase was a roommate pick. The lady actually giggled
and said she wasn't even going to put it out because she didn't think
anyone would buy it, but he loved the colors.
I'm always on the lookout for
vintage Tupperware, and both these pieces came from a sale at a
church. It was part church sale/part flea market with individual
vendors set up, and both came from one of those vendors. The funny
thing is that my mom sold Tupperware back in the day, and when I came
walking back to the car she said, "how much did you have to pay
for the ham keeper?" Yeah, I had no clue what the biggest one
was. I just knew it was big and we needed some big containers. The
ham keeper was $3 (I think, or $3.50) and the pie holder was $2.50.
The base snaps off, which makes it super easy to store!
Two more pans for my collection!
The woman was closing up for the day and had these priced at $5 each
early in the day. By the time we got there, she let me have them both
for $1.
All four of these came from the
same sale. The Pyrex custard cups are newer but will let me feel
better about displaying my older ones, and all four were $3. The pink
aluminum creamer and sugar dish were 50 cents, and the crock pot
(which my roommate bought) was $3. I saw one of these mushroom dishes
in a thrift store and couldn't find a maker's mark. Turns out that it
was made by Corning. I'll have to swing by the thrift and see if the
others are still there! There's something about the 70s colors that I
love.
Can you tell my roommate loves
Mickey Mouse? I think he paid 50 cents for the book, and I know the
plastic lunchbox was $5 and has its original thermos and the metal
one was $10. Funny thing is that I collect lunchboxes and the lady
with the plastic one also had a Voltron one that I loved. She wanted
$15 for it, and it didn't even have its thermos!
The Shiny Brites at the top are the
same one the woman wanted $5 for, which I thought was too high. Her
husband offered them to me for $3, and she whined and complained that
it was too low for something that old and that the box was worth more
than that. We could still hear her snapping at him when we left. The
Corning meat platter/dish thing was $5, but I never, ever see this
with the metal piece still on it.
I'm not sure who makes the white
mixing bowl. It's not Pyrex, but it does go with a mixer and came
with the smaller bowl for $4, which my roommate couldn't resist. I
have a similar one that I use as a water dish for my menagerie, and
he still gets upset when he sees it on the floor. I collect the
Spring Blossom pattern, so there was no way I was leaving behind this
little creamer for 50 cents. The green chip and dip set was another
roommate buy. We keep seeing them in thrift stores, but they're
always missing one piece or another. He got all three pieces for $5.
I also picked up three vintage
board games with all the pieces. The Alvin and the Chipmunks game at
the top is from the 80s and was 50 cents. The other two were on a
table at a big parking lot sale with no one around. We kept checking
back and no one was ever there. We checked one last time before
leaving and the seller was finally back in his booth. He said the
games were $6 each, I asked if he'd take $10 for two, and he grumbled
a bit before agreeing. The Popomatic Alvin and the Chipmunks game is
all mine (big surprise!), and the other is for the roommate. I wish
now that I had grabbed his Miami Vice game too!
I bought the Corning piece for $2
because it's small but super deep, which will make it great for dips.
The Tupper Silent Partner poker chips were $1 and are the most
amazing shade of pink, which just so happens to be my favorite color!
I snagged these three magazines from the 70s/80s to look at the ads
off of a free table. And I have two funny stories about the others.
Literally an hour after my roommate
got his chip and dip set, we came across this one. It came with the
large bowl, four smaller matching bowls, and a bracket for $3, so you
know it came home with me. Sadly, the silver flaked off all over our
hands, so I'm not sure I'll actually use it. As for the pink Three
Way Dispenser, I pointed it out to my roommate. He bent down to look
at it, saw a $7 tag on it, and was deciding what to do. The seller
said he'd take $2 for it. Before the roomie could even stand up, I
had my money out and was paying for it. He claims it should be his
because it was in his hands, I say not only did he snooze and loose
but that I'm the one with a pink kitchen LOL.
A vintage hamper has been on my
wishlist forever. This one was only $10 and is in almost perfect
condition. It literally looks like no one ever used it. Plus, it's a
Redman! It took up way too much space in the car, especially since I
bought it at an early stop, but I love it oh so much. We came across
another one later on for $3, but it was a fairly ugly shade of blue
and the inside was pretty disgusting.
And of course I had to find some
Pyrex. A dealer had two sets of the bowls priced at $15 for each set.
I wandered around for a bit, came back, and asked if he'd take less.
He said yes and then just stared at me for 30 to 60 seconds before
finally saying $12. The roommate really hates the pattern and kept
calling them ugly, but I kind of like it. I also found the opal Pyrex
at a barn sale for $2! The dealer had Fire King and Glasbake stuff
priced higher than that.
This was probably the find of the
day. My roommate started collecting this pattern after finding a few
pieces for $5 each at a thrift store. The dealer had the top two
smaller dishes priced at $5 for the set and one of the larger dishes
for $5, so it was $10 for three pieces. When he went to pay, my dad
popped up and, ever the flea market guy, asked for a discount. The
dealer dropped the price to $8 and threw in the dish on the bottom.
He ended up getting four pieces of Fire King Candle Glow for $8! I'm
a little jealous that I can't find such great deals on Spring
Blossom!
This was my first year doing the
127 yard sales, but it definitely won't be my last. Between my dad,
my roommate, and myself, we ended up filling the trunk of the car and
pretty much had to cram in some small stuff between us in the
backseat. I think we may need a much larger car next year! We left
Dayton at 8 am, stopped at a small yard sale in Eaton, and got on 127
around 9 am. We made it just past Greenville by 5 when we turned
around to come back, which was just over 40 miles. That's insane!
While I don't yet have any pictures of my finds, I thought I would
post a few quick observations.
(1) Someone(s) definitely got the
message about Pyrex being a hot seller! The first booth I found with
Pyrex had antique mall prices, which wasn't surprising given that the
seller left her tags on her bowls. The cheapest thing in her set up
was a divided dish with its lid for $18. The same seller had a set of
Fire King mixing bowls that the roommate loved but not for $55.
Despite that, I did pick up a few finds. I found a smaller opal
casserole with lid for $2!! I also snagged a set of mixing bowls for
$12.
(2) Barn sales were usually the
worst. There's something about this route that seems to make anyone
with a barn think they're a secret antique dealer. One sale had
antique furniture marked anywhere from $200 to $1,000+. Did I mention
that those "dealers" left things uncovered in the barn, or
even worse, just sitting outside? There was so much damage to that
stuff that I just had to walk away.
(3) "We had more stuff
yesterday" seemed to be the mantra of several off the beaten
path stops. One lady had a ton of overpriced "collectibles"
and kitchen stuff. Stuff like $10 for a worn down pair of shoes and
$15 for a newer Halloween figurine. She said everything was half off
and that she had a lot more yesterday but sold a lot. Another vendor
said he sold so much on Friday that he had to go gather some more
stuff for Saturday. Yes, I'm sure that your crappy stuff sold out
while people with cool stuff didn't.
(4) Old=expensive. While on the
hunt for some cheap mouthwash, we wandered through a setup of sellers
and found a woman selling mouthwash, toothpaste, shampoo, razors,
etc. She also had a table of older stuff with a box of Shiny Brites
sitting out. When asked how much, she said she wasn't sure. She
wanted "to look things up" and "ask some other
dealers" before pricing it. She suggested $5, I said it was too
much, and her husband popped up, handed me the box, and said $3. When
I said I would take them, she flipped out about how "those are
old" and "the box is worth more than that," which led
me to point out that the plastic was damaged on the box. While she
kept moaning and crying about selling the box so low, her husband
took my money and grabbed me a bag.
(5) Where were the bake sales? We
spent 7+ hours on the road and only came across one bake sale, which
was run by cheerleaders and severely lacking in the brownie
department. Everything they had looked like something bought in the
store. Found another sale advertising baked goods, but all they had
left were two pies: blueberry and peanut butter pie. The roommate
loves peanut butter pies but balked at the price. They wanted $2.75
for a single small, tiny, oh so tiny slice. I don't care if those
pies are homemade, that's insane!
(6) I learned (again) that I need
to buy something on the spot. I still regret walking away from a
green Pyrex serving dish for $5 and the electronic football and
basketball games from the 60s that were priced at $10 a piece and
came with all the parts and pieces.
(7) I need a much larger car or
truck for next year! My dad bought a very large picture at one of our
first stops, and I picked up a hamper at another sale. While we did
manage to stuff the hamper full, those two pieces took up quite a bit
of space. I saw so much stuff that I wanted to buy, including a
mid-century modern bookcase for $10 and a set of three mid-century
modern wood living room chairs for $5 each! There was just no room in
the car.
(8) Prices were all across the
board. At one field sale, a woman had a few tables filled with
miscellaneous junk. Most of it was kids' stuff, but she did have one
stand ashtray for sale. I had one years ago that got lost during a
move and have been looking for a replacement. It wasn't the best or
in the best condition, but I figured I could use it as a temporary
solution. As soon as I asked, she said, "oh, he said that's
really old so the lowest I could go is $25." For a metal ashtray
stand missing its ashtray with pitting along the base and some
serious rust issues? No thank you.
(9) Field sales are dangerous! We
were walking through a field/barn sale, came around the side of a
barn, and my dad almost went down hard. There was a huge hole
probably 16 inches deep right next to a sale. As it was covered in
grass, there was no way to see it. If the roommate hadn't been there
to grab him, he would have gone down.
All in all, we had a lot of fun and
were seriously tired by the end. I'll save my pictures for a future
update. Until then, I'll leave you with a shot of this little Fire
King bowl I picked up for $1.50 at an antique mall recently. Even
though I "don't collect Fire King," I have a hard time
leaving behind anything in this pattern!
