1st Big Garage Sale Hurrah

Our citywide garage sales were this weekend. My sister (Emily) came up yesterday and her, I and my cousin-in-law (Teny) went around town and then to a town over to check out their community wide garage sales. We found out that the other town's sales didn't actually happen until today (Saturday) so I went back there with the boys today....boy was that a mistake. :)

This year the sales I have been too just seem like everyone is trying to get rid of their junk. We did find a few great deals and discovered that Teny is more of a jew-er than we thought. I don't think she bought anything for the sticker price. We were amazed at her mad skillz.

Anyway here are a few of my favorite deals from the weekend.

First of all BOOKS. I got these books for .25 each...the 1 hardcover book was .50!

A cool wood truck and wagon for .50 and there is a Mac computer game for him in this picture too, (remember the Apple computer we got last year for only $5? Simon loves playing it) and some free legos in the red thing. They must go to some kind of a set because they have some little 'guys' that he has been playing with since we got home.
Another 'playground'. This contraption was only .50 and along with the 'guys' has kept Simon entertained all afternoon. Plus there is a Buzz Lightyear movie there on the table too, that was only .25. I bought more VHS tapes this weekend than I needed to but Simon loves to play at the table and have a movie going. I got most of them for .25-1.00. I think 1.00 is too much for a VHS tape but when I averaged them all out they were probably about .50 a piece which isn't too bad.
This picnic table was a great find and I did a little jewing with a youngster to get it down to $3. It was nasty dirty and the neighborhood was a little very shady so I felt I was due a deal. Simon was estatic when I brought it home and wanted hotdogs, and cheese, and ketchup right away at his new table.
Emily was/is looking for a babydoll carseat/carrier thing for the billizion dolls that my niece has. I found this cute little thing, which I'm sure isn't exactly what she was looking for but I snagged the carrier and Cabbage Patch baby for .50. Aren't I a wonderful Auntie??!!
And I guess that's about it. Alex found a PSP Wresteling game for $1 so he got that and an Airzooka, which he has been wanting forever! He got it out to play with in the car only to find that the handle is missing, which makes it nearly impossible to work right. I embarressed him completely by going back to the garage sale to see if they might have the handle. They didn't. So I got 1/2 of my money back. I felt bad for embarrassing Alex and the boys who were doing the sale. It looked like they just cleaned out all the toys and junk that they don't play with anymore and were trying to make a little cash. But I'm not payin' if it ain't workin'.
All in all it was a fun weekend. I just hope I can get some more great deals this summer. I really thought that with the economy that everyone would be wanting to get rid of stuff, I guess not though. It's all been just junk. :(

Friday's Fabulous Finds

So we've got 9, 13, and 10 from left to right. Guess they all meet the age requirements. And to think I was worried that no one would use it. The younger 2 are all stoked about sleeping in it and even want Simon (2) (who I will mention this tent was bought for) to sleep with them. Crazy kids. This was my best deal of the day @ $5.

There really weren't any spectacular deals today. Got a couple of cookbooks, and a sheet to make into more aprons. I did spend about an hour talking to a retired gentleman about his antiquing history. He had a great deal of wealth to share and told me he could tell that I was interested in what he was saying.

Some of his most interesting points/stories were:

* He has over $300,000 in old baseball cards that he has bought.
* He is hoping to open a store where he can sell all his goodies from a pole barn type building and have a trailer right there that he can live in.
* He had all kinds of the old Nintendos and said those are going like crazy on ebay.
* He sold 13 Cabbage Patch Kid dolls to a lady for $20, and knew that she could get more than that for 1 of them. Sounds like she was trying to pull one over on him and act like she didn't know what a great deal that was.
* He has a Superman ring with the original Superman-George Reeves. He paid $9 for his.
* His buddy bought the tin/plate that stamped the Babe Ruth Rookie card for $.50
* And that same friend also bought the original glass negative of an early Detroit Tiger's team with Ty Cobb, also for $.50 and then had 1,000 pictures printed and numbered. Since they were printed off of the negative he was able to do this and call them originals.

The most valuable thing I learned today is that you will never know what someone might want to get rid of. He said auctions are wonderful places to get great deals. Every auctioneer wants to get rid of a box of "junk" for $1 or even 9 boxes for that matter. I've gotta get me to some auctions. He said he wished he knew at my age what he knows now because he'd have all kinds of money. I said, "I wish I had a hubs who would let me fill a garage with 'junk' that I could make a fortune off of." He obviously doesn't know the hubs because he said, "Oh, sure he will."

Oh, man I'm just all kinds of excited about next Friday's garage sales. Maybe I'll even hit an auction of 4.

Well, it's that time of day I love it makes me want to wag my tail, when it comes I want to wail....BEeeaahhhd TIME. {Sorry, too much Blue's Clues.}


Dear Mr. &/or Mrs. English Teacher,
Since I am exhausted I did not proof read this post. Please forgive me for any typos, run on sentences, or inproper word usage. :)
Thank You,
Heather

At the request of my favorite sister-in-law....

...I am posting about my garage sale fun today. It's Friday, and Friday is the best day to get all the goods. It was wonderful to go by myself today. Even though it's just garage saling, I had an enjoyable day.

Here's my favorite grab today...some yumm-o fabric (so be looking for more goodies at my etsy!)

I don't know if I can say this is Simon's favorite thing I grabbed for him today but he keeps asking about them

Here he is with a few other goodies

Got a few books (10 cents each) for Alex and 2 Carmen Sandiego games for his 'new' computer

I snagged a ton of t-shirts and shorts to help Simon get through the rest of the summer and this fall for 10 or 25 cents. All the t's are character shirts and he loved them and said, "Cool, Mom!" as I showed him them all. He loves his new guys, Bob the Builders, and stuffed guys. We are getting over run with his toys, but I can not help it. Today 4 stuffed animals for 75 cents, action figures and a Bob the Builder, 10 cents. The quality of the sales is starting to go down and today I ran across more that were permanent sellers all summer. There stuff just doesn't do it for me. I want family stuff, not junk!

I wish I could make a living going to garage sales and scoping out the good deals for others. Guess I could always buy stuff and then resale it on eBay....that just seems risky to me. What do you think?

Another Success @ Garage Sales!

I have become totally addicted to garage sales this summer. It's a nasty habit. I drag the boys out for several hours in the heat and force them to look through other peoples' junk so that it can become our treasure! Simon (2) has caught on very fast, and gets all excited and jumps up and down when I say, "Let's go to some garage sales!" He will reply, "Yea, SALE!!" Of course he knows this means he gets to look and play with tons of toys. And boy did he cash in yesterday...

Yes, that's 5 Buzz Lightyears. All from the same house, but for a grand total of $2 how can you pass this guy up? And who cares if the dogs Sammy gets him?

Alex also faired very well yesterday. He really didn't want to go because he is getting to mature to look through others' junk. As we were driving to our lunch destination I noticed a sale I wanted to check out, so I yanked carefully did a smart maneuver with the van, and noticed what looked like a computer monitor. I was the only one who wanted to get out and look around. After talking to the owner of the awesome sale and being talked into buying the computer for $5 (it was marked $10), I came back to the van to get my cash-o-la and this conversation took place:

M: Hand me my wallet, Al.
A: Why, what did you get?
M: A computer for you.
A: {hardly able to contain himself} What? No you didn't!
M: Yep! See that orange thing up there? It's yours.
A: Oh, Mother thank you so much, you are the best Mother in the universe!
(Ok, so maybe I exaggerated that last part.)

He was ecstatic! And only $5 and it truly does work! We just need to get some games.

We are loyal Bill Gates followers, so it's been tough getting used to the Macintosh way of operating, but Alex is so excited. He has been playing 'baby games' just so he can play his computer.

I on the other hand just came home with cute stuff that I couldn't pass up like this ice bucket
and this book

which actually so far has been very helpful. I can't wait to incorporate the diet plan to my workout. I can feel the pounds and inches just melt away as I sit here and blog!! :)

I couldn't forget my favorite little girl, Ali, so I picked her up a few ton of cute things. This is just a sampling (the rest is still in the wash)

I really wish I could find a jean jacket just like this Hello Kitty one, who doesn't just love a cute Hello Kitty jean jacket. I can't wait to hear how she likes it all.

Well, that's it for today's post. Hope everyone is doing well...and hey, leave me a comment so I know you were here! :)

Garage Sale Mania

Ok, not really mania, but fun for sure. Simon and I just got back from a 4 hour shop-a-thon at some garage sales. He came away with 2 'guys' (action figures), a ginglie baby car, a remote controlled type car, and a Hulk/Spiderman pj shirt.

I however came out way ahead with a ton of books and some scrapbooking goodies. I came across a sale where the owner has an online scrapbook store and does crops locally in the fall. This has me excited since there is nothing scrapbook related anywhere close to me!! Got lot's of goodies that are 'last year's' items, but to me they are super cute.

I'm a sucker for books. Out of the ones I got I've only heard of a few of the authors, but I thought I'd give them a try. The lady who owned the majority of the books is part of a book club where she reads and reviews books before they come out...so she had a ton of books and was helpful by giving out her opinion. Well, I'm off to read! {{All these books were only $8.95!}}