Yes, it's spring, and it's garage saling time once again! After a whole year of studying and stress at school, I am happy to hit the sales for bargains.



This is a picture of one of the math books from Introduction to Analysis, one of the hard math classes I took this spring semester (and I got an A in it!).

In fact, I already hit a couple of sales even before the school year ended!


Saturday, April 5, 2008

The first sale I went to was on Saturday, April 5, 2008. It was a few weeks until my college finals, but this sale could not be missed. It was the church rummage sale at the Grace United Methodist Church. Mom and I wake up early on that Saturday morning and, at 7:30 AM, arrived at the church to stand in line. The sale would not open until 8 AM, and the line kept getting longer and longer. Mom talked to a very nice older lady about me (her favorite subject to talk about) and how I was doing in school. I took pictures of the line and eagerly waited to go inside the church.



My Mom and I went to this rummage sale last year (if you all remember from one of my 2007 Garage Sales Adventures articles), and it was one of the best sales we had ever been to. We could not imagine it could get any better.

Guess what - IT DID.



So many toys, stuffed animals, books, and VHS videos! One could almost find anything at that rummage sale - furniture, Christmas decorations, VCRs, puzzles, toys, kitchen ware, books, etc etc etc. for very cheap prices. As soon as I go inside of the church, I immediately went over to the toy section and pick out two little Care Bears for 50 cents each.

I also find a Clarissa Explains it All board game for only $.75!



Here's another cool game I didn't get but I saw:



I also got a TON of videos there - Muppet Babies, Berenstain Bears, Care Bears, the Magic School Bus, Donald Duck, the DuckTales movie, etc. etc. I got these videos for only $.50 or $1.00 each.



The best of these videos was the Muppet Babies videotape. It was a home-recorded video cassette. It had three episodes of the Muppet Babies, the movie Dumbo, some news coverage, an episode of Small Wonder, another episode of Muppet Babies, an episode of Super Mario Bros Super Show (with Inspector Gadget as the guest) and part of an episode of Family Ties (with guest star Geena Davis) that was taped off of Fox 32 in 1989 with all the wonderful 1989 commercials included! I knew it was from 1989 because there were commercials advertising the November 1989 release of a "new" movie to theaters called "The Little Mermaid". It was awesome to watch.

And, just for fun, I got a bag of Disney mini figurines for a buck. It was a mixed bag of Mickey Mouse, The Little Mermaid, Goofy, Donald Duck, McScrooge from Ducktales, Pluto, and Charlie Brown characters.



I also got tons of Winnie the Pooh books, Muppet Babies books, Arthur books, Babysitter's Club books, Golden Books, Sesame Street Books, and Mercer Mayer books.



Here's some other doodads I got at the sale also:



I got this Space Jam picture for only a quarter!

I did also buy a lamp for a couple of dollars, but discovered that part of the lamp was broken. I returned the lamp to the church and they nicely gave me back the money I paid for it.

And how much did I spend on my goodies? Only $28.50!! My Mom did worse than I did (a rarity) - she spent $32 on various knick knacks, books, and photo frames. The church people told us they made over $3000 last year in sales - I told them I wouldn't doubt it if they made much more this year.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

It was the weekend before finals, and I should have been studying, but this village sale was way too enticing to pass up. It was a beautiful and sunny day, and I could not spend the whole day studying! I've never been to the Shorewood Sales before, but from now on I will make these sales an annual event.

Over a hundred houses signed up for this year's village sale. Of course I didn't get to go to all of them, but my Mom, my friend (who met us at our house), and I went to a whole bunch of them! By the time the day was done, our car's trunk was filled with tons of good stuff.




Some of the houses' sales were a bit pricey, but I did get a few good deals. For instance, at one of the houses, I saw a huge Wish Bear as our car pulled up to the driveway. My friend leaped out of the car and raced to the Care Bear, teasing me about getting it first. But she let me have it because of the good friend she is (she knows I love Care Bears!). I asked the woman in charge of the sale how much the Care Bear was. Now, I was expecting her to say something like 3 dollars. Nope -she said 50 cents was a good price! So I gladly paid the 50 cents for that huge Care Bear!



I also got a cute Winnie the Pooh lamp for only $2.



At around 11 AM we all got hungry, so we stopped at Burger King for some Original Chicken Sandwiches and Cheesy Tater Tots (YUM). Then we got back to the garage saling grind. We drove around neighborhoods looking for as many sales as we could go to in a day.

I remember stopping at one older gentleman's sale. He had a lot of knick knacks, clothing, and books, but a couple items of his interested me. The first item I saw that interested me was a Sears Wishbook from 1992. It had so many items in it that I remember playing with, wearing, reading, or seeing on TV. I flipped through the book at the sale and I immediately saw a California Roller Baby, just like the one I had when I was six! I knew I had to get the book, so I asked the older man in charge of the sale if 50 cents was a good price - to my pleasant surprise, he said it was!



At that same sale, I also found two Garfield glasses. I had seen these exact two Garfield glasses at the Milltown Market antique store for three dollars apiece. I had been eye-balling them for about a year now, but everytime I was at the antique store I would always come up with another excuse to not buy them. I thought the older gentleman at this sale was going to charge about as much, but the older gentleman told me that he would accept three dollars for both of the Garfield glasses. Awesome! I immediately scooped them up! Just goes to show how garage saling can save me money versus shopping at antique stores!



I got a ton of books at these sales, but one of my greatest book-finds of the day was a Calvin and Hobbes Treasury. This is the second Calvin and Hobbes Treasury volume I have found at a garage sale. I was walking away from one of the sales when, in a last second look in one of the boxes of items this particular seller was selling, I spotted the Treasury. I immediately ran back up and paid the seller $2 for the book!



Here's pictures of all the other books I got at these sales. I got a lot of Winnie the Pooh books at these sales!



I got the Apples for Teacher book (the red one) for my friend from school who wants to become a math teacher.

I also got, of course, a lot more VHS tapes of cartoons to add to my collection! I got Arthur episodes, Fox and the Hound (which Mom thought I had but I did not), some Care Bears movies, some Winnie the Pooh movies (of course!), and some rare Diamond brand videos that certain users (wink wink) talk about. Most of these videos were only a buck each.



Another interesting item I found was an Arthur Memory game. Memory was one of my favorite games growing up, so I'm trying to collect them all. I already have a Winnie the Pooh Memory game I found at a thrift store.



I certainly did get a lot of "finds" at that day's sales (including a butterfly pillow for only $1)!


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I also went to the Milltown Antiques store in April and here are some of the items I saw (but did not buy):



I remember having a play camera exactly like the one in the first picture above when I was a child. I also know I had a Cabbage Patch Kid with a horse when I was around 6 years old. My Mom does not like them much at all.

And here's pictures of items I did buy!



My find of the day was the Garfield bank for $8. I also found Care Bear stickers and a Winnie the Pooh plush with a book about Easter.

That day, I also got some Winnie the Pooh and Tigger miniature globes from Walgreens.



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Friday, May 9, 2008

On April 30, 2008, my last college final was over and summer vacation had begun! I relaxed for about a week, but then on Friday, May 9, 2008, Mom and I went garage saling together. We went to two garage sales in our neighborhood

At the first garage sale, Mom and I found a lot of nice shirts for $1 each, and I found a Berenstain Bears book called "Comic Valentine" (which I believe I got for 25 cents). It goes right along with the video of the same name I had gotten at the Grace United Methodist rummage sale.



My Mom and I also went to another garage sale that day -and, if any of you remember by the yard signs, it was a sale I went to last year. It disappointed me a bit, because the prices were a tad high, but I did find some nice books for 25 or 50 cents each. Mom found some nice shorts and a couple of shirts.



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Also, earlier that week (Tuesday May 6, 2008 to be exact) I was downtown in my local city and spotted this Winnie the Pooh bank in the window of a local furniture store:



The man running the store charged me $15 for the bank, which was not a bad price for the condition it was in (only minor chips in a couple of places). I looked at the bank closely and found it was made in Mexico. It did not say which year it was made in, but it does not look recent. I think it was an awesome find.

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Whew! All that garage saling (or, rather, reminiscing about garage saling) has made me tired. Until next time, I will leave you all with an updated glimpse at my "Retro Room". I (with Mom's help) have added bulletin boards, more shelves, and, of course, much more "stuff" to my collections! This includes a Care Bear framed picture I got at Haunted Trails a couple of weeks ago when my parents and I went.