Please note that there are 76 images beneath the cut. I thought about breaking it up into multiple posts, but I hate that. So just open the link, and give photobucket a moment to load everything up.
This week I'm doing something completely different. Rather than going garage sailing, buying stuff, taking it home, photographing it, and writing out the story, I'm going to tell the story every step of the way, writing and taking pictures as I go. This week I'm planning to go somewhere I've not yet gone, residential downton Puyallup. Though I'll do a little bit of looking around Sumner first, and possibly even heading down Orting Highway, since it has been so good to me in the past.
I've got some lunch I didn't finish yesterday, Thaed for typing, my camera for photos, extra batteries for the camera since it's a battery hog, no extra batteries for Thaed, because I don't have any, and a long day ahead of me.
Step one in being a good garage sailer is one I ALWAYSA fail at: start early. It's currently 11:40 and I'm just getting started. Whups! I never have any trouble finding good stuff, but I also miss out an the opportunity to buy anything which goes to earlier birds.
But enough exposition. Lets get started, shall we?
Here is my car, parked outside my parent's house, where I am currently living (though hopefully I can find a new apartment soon!)
Thaed is tucked into the nice laptop bag I got last weekend, and I've got my lunch...
...and the road ahead of me. Lets go!
This garage sale was also out last week. It doesn't look like anything new was there, so I didn't even bother to stop.
Ah ha! Do you see it? Over on the stop sign! There's a piece of paper! Of course, at this point during the summer, there are dozens upon dozens of signs which people lazily did not take down, but this one doesn't look particularly weather worn.
As I got closer, I could see that the only thing on the sign was an arrow. Mysterious! I decided to follow it.
Another arrow! Where could this possibly lead!?
There it is! Down at the end of the street! Finding garage sales is like finding buried treasure. Though pirate maps are often quite a bit easier to find and better clarified than directions to garage sales.
I asked the owners if they would mind if I took pictures, and they didn't have a problem with it. There was some very nice looking stuff there. I love really big mirrors like this one, and the frame was great! Course, I already have some mirrors from earlier sales, so I passed on it.
WOW! That is a ton of books.
I was pretty tempted by this lamp. The ability to create whatever lighting situation I want in my environment is important to me. That said, though, I've already picked up two lamps while garage sailing, another would be overkill until I have a better idea of what my housing situation will be in the future.
Here, we see LS looking at books. He likes to do this. Lets observe!
This bench, while not something I can imagine having in my own home, is pretty awesome.
Now, this I could imagine having in my home. I bet you I could even rig up some fold-out legs to turn the slide into a bed. Damn...that would be awesome. I should have bought that!
The fact that I don't have any place to put this beautiful $30 couch is absolutely tragic. Sure it's a little worn, but it looks astoundingly comfortable. And since I tend to sleep on my couch rather than my bed (I'll explain later, newer friends) this could be really good for me.
But currently every possession I own is in a big pile in my parent's garage. Bringing home a couch isn't really feasible--even if you ignore the logistical problems with transporting it with my '94 Ford Escort.
All I ended up getting here were books. Below is what I chose. 11 books, mostly in the 'trash science fiction' genre. Nerdy as I am, I really don't read enough science fiction. I grew up on Star Wars (who am I kidding, I'm still growing up on Star Wars) but I've never really adventured outside of that literary mythos. I spent $2.25 total.
Okay, that sign is placed really awkwardly. I couldn't see it until I was halfway into the intersection. Fortunately the streets were completely empty, so I went ahead and backed up, and made the turn nice and slow so I could get a picture while I did it.
There's an odd, otherworldly quality to sales like these. It's kinda bizarre, ya know? I've passed this house literally thousands of times during my life--it's on the same street where I went to Elementary school, as well as the same street as the middleschool gym where my old fencing club was held. Now all the sudden the stuff from inside the house is piled up and displayed in the driveway, and I'm invited to walk around a part of their home.
TOYS! =) =)
I really like toys, but toys which aren't in horrible condition are very rare to find at garage sales, so I usually don't look too closely. I didn't actually find anything here I wanted, but there was some stuff that was at least interesting.
I actually already have this toy. It's from the old Micro Machines star wars playsets. This was the first one I ever got, even. It's C-3P0's head, and when it opens up, it's the Mos Eisley cantina on one side, and Docking Bay 94 on the other. Yeah, I know the number of the docking bay.
Most of these laptop toys were stupid...but...spider man! >.>
These are just fucking creepy. Girl toys are weird.
Clothes...BORING! Move on!
They had a small collection of DVDs here. They were priced quite a bit higher than DVDs at most garage sales, but it's not like they would really know that. And hoenstly, $3-per-movie is a very reasonable price.
I managed to haggle down to $2, though, and walked away with a copy of The Search for Spock and The Prestige, with $4 less in my pocket.
Wait a second...what's this?
The kids who live here are selling popcorn, that's kinda cool. I go over to buy some, then I notice the bags.
Me: "Wait...is this the machine Maple Lawn had?"
Kids: "Yeah."
Me: "...When did you get it?"
Kids: "About a year ago."
Guys, when I was in 1st through 3rd grade, every now and again, on Friday, the elementary school I attended sold popcorn at recess for a quarter. Popcorn Fridays, I think they were called. This was a HUGE deal to us kids. We absolutely loved it.
And this is the same machine, and the same bags, that I used to get popcorn from over 15 years ago.
Fuck. yeah.
Remember Garage Sailing II, when I got that cool picture of a ship at the garage sale with a bunch of antiques, from the lady who had owned an antique shop?
She was doing another one, with some new stuff, so I made it my third stop.
This is a really boring picture to open with, don't ask me why I took it.
This picture should give you a better idea of the scope of this sale, and the impressiveness of this property. This really, truly, is a very lovely home. I'm extremely envious. And I honestly love this lawn. A lot of empty space to move around in, and privacy provided by bushes. That's the most important thing.
I took pictures of a lot of mirrors throughout the day. Dunno why. I really do like them.
This is the dresser I mentioned in Garage Sailing II. If it was actually in my price range, and I had a place to put it, I would SO buy this thing. I love it.
One of these days, I need to improve my sewing skills.
I stared at the letters for five full minutes trying to think of something interesting I could spell with them if I bought them, but nothing worthwhile came to mind. Have I mentioned I suck at anagrams?
If you've ever had doubts that going to garage sales pays off, this ENTIRE box of LPs was $20. Seriously. I didn't even take pictures of all the good ones, there were several more that were equally awesome.
The Rummager's Handbook? I needed to get that, if for no other reason than to commemorate the five weeks I've spent doing this. And really, if this is going to be a hobby of mine, it couldn't hurt to hear what someone else has to say about it, right?
This was just too cool to me. This painting of a ship? There's actual rigging attached to it. The painting is covered in strings. That's fucking awesome.
And THIS painting of a ship? It's actually a 3-dimensional, working ship, which is not a painting!
Before I move on, I wanna say that the lady who runs this garage sale is SUPER cool. She's extremely friendly, and recognized me when I first showed up. Part of the benefit of dressing in the dramatic, unusual manner that I do, is that I'm an extremely recognizable person. But to be greeted cheerfully with "Hey, your back!" isn't something I experience as often as I am recognized.
We spoke at length about my project, and she actually gave me some advice on how I could keep this up after summer was over, and really turn it into a year-round pursuit. Something, she seemed to think, I could even turn into a business. She even gave me the book I was going to buy for free, to "help me get started."
I'm a little conflicted, actually. She made a lot of excellent points, and I think it's possible that if I worked at it, I could make this little project into a "big deal on the Internet." Then, through advertising, I could start pulling in a nice side-income.
At the same time, this is already a lot of work, and the writing and photography I do for these posts is hardly what I would consider "up to par" with the work I've done that I would consider professional. Doing the legwork, taking the pictures, and writing the post, tends to take up my entire Saturday.
Then again, an unwillingness to do work outside of my job is the kind of attitude which will keep me in the kind of employment I'm in now. My job is great, but I'm not very good at the whole 9-to-5 deal.
It's something I'm going to have to think seriously about. Strong arguments can be made for both sides of the issue.
By the way, I also told Catt (the woman who put on the sale) that I would give her a plug in thanks for the free book. So, if by any chance anyone reading this lives in the greater Tacoma, WA area, keep an eye on 313 Wood Ave, Sumner WA, 98390. Sometime in the next month she's going to have one last sale, with many items which weren't out this weekend.
Also, she's going to be selling that beautiful house soon as well. It's called Maple Lawn Farm, it was built in 1882, and it's one of the biggest properties left in one of the nicest parts of town. If you've got about a million dollars, check it out. Seriously, the House is worth about of $800,000-$1,000,000
MOVING ON, here's another sign already! Just after I pulled away from the previous stop.
This sale was pretty barren. Talking to the woman running it, it sounds like there would have been a lot more available if I could take my own damn advice and get an early start. Showing up around noon is too late to get the good stuff.
I had a rather long conversation with this woman, but I don't think I'd really like to talk about it here. She was very nice, and had the very best of intentions, but many of the things she said didn't sit well with me. I'll just leave it be.
She did give me this sexy leather bag:
And she had BINDERS, for 10 cents each! I gave her one dollar for the seven binders and the leather bag. I love organizational supplies. I do SO many projects, that having different places to store them is a huge help.
Another sign? Seriously? Would be believe that I've been trying to drive to the store ever since the second garage sale? I'm thirsty, damn it!
The lady at this garage sale seemed to think I wanted to take pictures of her. Once I explained that was not the case, she was cool with it.
Not a lot here. Mostly women's clothing. Sure, I look good in it, but it's not really my style. I'll let the pictures carry this one:
Total investment? $3.50
Didn't get any pictures of the sixth garage sale. They were set up on Main Street, and I didn't see them until I'd driven past. There really wasn't much there—some PS2 games that were mediocre, and a flatscreen LCD monitor which was far too small for my tastes.
They were nice enough to give me a tissue to help with my nose bleed though. I always get those in hot weather.
After #6, I finally managed to make it to the store.
There's a very bizarre sensation one experiences after spending hours at yard sales, and then walking into a real store. Everything seems extremely expensive. I can't help but think "A dollar fifty for this jug of juice!? I spent less than that on a leather briefcase and seven binders!"
Got some extra pocket money while I was here, since I was running a tad low. I also took this opportunity to sit in my car and eat the food I'd brought with me this morning. Om nom!
Garage Sale seven , off Orting Highway, was big, but boring. The Yu-Gi-Oh costume kinda made me giggle though.
Also, I did buy the transformers/deceptacons binder, because Steph might kill me if I didn't.
Sale number 8 was annoying. I followed them for quite some time, and was starting to get pissed about people who leave their signs up after their sale is over, when I finally found them, selling out of some kind of fenced-in storage facility or something. As I've done at every sale, I asked politely if I could take pictures of the items. They immediately became suspicious of me, asking me questions like "Who do you represent?" and ultimately told me I couldn't take pictures. To quote one of the guys there:
"This is really our stuff. It would be easier to market it as someone elses, but this is really ours."
Um...okay.
I did find a hammer which is pretty nice. Normally I would have tried to get it for 2 dollars, but they were "covertly" watching me while I browsed, so I went ahead and just paid the sticker price of 3 dollars up front rather than deal with any inane bullshit from them.
I parked next to some equine creatures on my way to #9
Once I found #9 (being held in the BACK yard, for some reason) they had some seriously cool stuff. Like this $200 Harry Potter chess set which they claimed to have purchased for $500.
Even if I didn't find Harry Potter unpalatable, this chess set wouldn't be worth that much.
They had some fantastic, and expensive, furniture though.
And some more!
All I left with was a blender I spent $5 on. It works great, actually. I'm excited to make some take some heterogeneous mixtures and turn them into homogeneous mixtures.
Garage sale 10 had one of those super nice ladies running it. We had a great chat about how garage sales and lemonade stands do much better when they know how to display and market themselves. It was pretty fun! I picked up a copy of Top Gun for two dollars. Not a fantastic movie, but a good one, and two dollars is worth it.
Garage sale 11 was fun. They also did not want any pictures taken, but they were a great deal more polite about it than the last guys were.
Some nice things here. A big box of imaginext caught my eye. Ronnie loves that stuff, but I've only got $25 on me, and this box cost $20. Since Ronnie is broke and can't pay me back, I decided to pass it up, after they decided not to take $10 for it.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, right?
I got a copy of crash, and a tape dispenser for $1.50 total. I've wanted to see crash ever since I had a horrible job where I spent 8 hours a day putting copies of crash into boxes. And packing tape dispensers are handy for sending packages around! =D
Garage sale 12 had the most lovely desk I think I've ever seen. I wanted it SO badly, and if I thought I had ANYWHERE to put it, I would have bought it. But I really can't afford to buy things so huge when I don't even have a place to put the things I already own. Maybe once I have an apartment, I can make decisions to buy stuff like that. But right now, it's unreasonable.
Somebody remind me to do a proper post sometime soon about my devious plans to build my own desk, someday. I've got diagrams. Seriously.
I didn't end up buying anything at 12, but I did show two young boys my fencing equipment. They had some fun swinging my sabres around. It was really cute.
Garage sale 13 never was. They invited me in with this sign:
Which pointed directly to here:
Aaaaand a closer look at that sign?:
Yeah, not going in there. I can only hope that this was a prank, because you would have to be a complete moron to invite someone in with one sign, and threaten them with police and legal action if they accept the invitation.
Sale 14 had no of interest. The only thing which caught my eye were some books on web development and SQL management. But they were, of course, outdated and irrelevant. They also had a copy of "Mars and Venus in the bedroom" which...is just kinda sad. Didn't take any pictures here.
...Somebody decided to park in the middle of the street...I think I can squeeze out of here if I drive on the sidewalk.
Garage sale 15 was...fucking sad. Like, I honestly feel bad for the people who live there. They were trying to sell shit that the garbage man wouldn't take.
Seriously, #15 had like...half eaten bags of chips, broken audio tapes representing formats I can't even identify, framed military recruitment pictures...seriously. There wasn't even anybody there. Who would steal that stuff?
16 was nice. Not a lot of interest, but a large selection of DVDs. Unfortunately they were two bucks a pop, si I limited myself to Marie Antoinette, Flight of the Pheonix, Higher Learning, and Valkyrie for my dad.
Flight of the Pheonix I only got because it has Hugh Laurie in it, and I love him. Higher Learning I only got because it has Omar Epps in it. Now I just need to find movies with Chase and Cameron, and I'll have the whole original House team!
17 didn't have anything good either.
Lots of clothes, some auto parts, and some kitchen appliances that didn't look to be in very good shape. Oh, and super outdated printers/electronic typeing machines. I wonder if those ever sell.
I'm getting pretty lazy about taking pictures. Sorry about that. Not a lot to photograph at the moment.
Woah, what's that I'm driving past?
rofl, marriage.
18 was being held at a local Masonic lodge. The only thing which caught my eye is a copy of "Sneak King," which I've always kinda wanted, because I love stealth games, and the king is hilarious. I'm sure it's HORRIBLE, but at least it would be lulzy.
Didn't get it though. I don't even own an xbox.
Just as I started to drive away, I noticed #19 across the street.
I can never decide whether I love or hate mirror shelves. They're awesome, but they're weird. I just can't decide!
This scale was super awesome to me, I don't know why. I kept thinking to myself "Man, what if I had to use THIS at work instead of the digital one? That would be a pain in the ass. >.>"
Yeah, I think with emoticons.
I was planning to stop at #20, as it's getting late in the day. They tried to sell me a frog. I didn't go for that, but did end up purchasing a hardback copy of The Scarlet Letter for a dollar.
But THEN, #21 was across the street. They were closing up shop, as many places do at 4:30. They didn't have much left, but they did have a nice little corkboard that I got for a quarter.
And then I went home!
Here's a group photo of everything I picked up today. I have to admit, I don't feel like I really made any fantastic finds today, but I did find some GREAT stuff.
I really hope you enjoyed that, because it was honestly a lot of work putting together. More work than I think I'll want to do again for awhile. Something like this is really better handled by video, I think.
Thanks for reading, and if you got all the way to the end, please comment! The whole reason I bother to do these posts is because of the fantastic comments I've received on them.
