Crowd Control
Alright ya’ll! We’re back in action. Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few weeks. The holidays definitely caught up with us and there was very little treasure-seeking happening.
This past Friday, Erin and I ventured out to a couple of sales that looked pretty good. One in particular, my mom had told me about the night before. It looked pretty packed in the pictures so we hit it first. When we arrived, I could tell it was going to be mass chaos. There were so many cars on the street. There weren’t a whole lot of sales happening on Friday–I think things slow down at this time of year for everyone. Anyway, we obviously weren’t the only ones who thought this sale looked like the best option:
I can’t even describe how crowded it was in this house. The pictures don’t even capture it. The house was small to begin with, but it was mainly filled with people trying to check out and buy stuff! I don’t know if it was already picked over or what, but there wasn’t much there that was worthwhile. You couldn’t even get into certain parts of the house because of the sheer quantity of people inside, and let me tell you, they were NOT happy about having to let other people walk by. Thankfully, nothing caught on fire. We all would have died.
That blonde lady is on to us!
Here are some of the offerings at this sale that we did not buy. This first one is something that was actually really awesome looking and decently priced, in my opinion ($125)…
Those are some very organized bulbs and towels.
I called my mom to let her know that it wasn’t worth her drive, and that I was about to have a panic attack from the quantity of people in the house. Our next conundrum was to figure out how the hell to get out of the house without having to wait in line. The line literally weaved throughout the front room, through to the back sunroom, and then looped back on itself into the front room again. Since we each only had like two items, Erin asked a guy working the door if we could just throw some cash money at him and leave. Thank goodness he said yes or we both would have had a meltdown.
I had found a bunch of greeting cards–all used and none of which were very great. Here they are:
He asked his wife how much the cards cost and she told him $.50 each. WTF?! I know those first couple look good but they’re deceiving–the rest were not nearly as awesome and they were all used! Anyway, I told him I didn’t want any of them, but then he ended up giving me a (sort of) deal. I got everything for $25. Here are the other things I purchased:
I’m not sure if that’s a tablecloth or a lightweight blanket but it sure looks awesome, doesn’t it? Erin found the exact same one at the house where I found that corpse picture. I’m not sure why she never posted a picture of it.
I also found this Joan Walsh Anglund figurine. Even though it’s a little “Precious Moments,” I’ll probably still keep it.
Next up was a sale all the way across town. It was also a pretty big dud. Every room looked like this (not good):
I ended up finding more greeting cards–this time, unused. Erin found a trash can covered in pictures of pennants:
I have a confession to make: I also found a sort of cool looking decanter but while I was carrying it around, the top of it fell off and broke. I felt guilty about this but was too scared to admit my wrongs. Also, the top was really loose, so this accident was unavoidable.
This sale was depressing because everything was cheap and old and polyester or plastic. Here’s a bunch of stuff we did not buy, but laughed about:
I’m pretty sure if you’re dressing like that dude above, it’s probably why you’re still single.
Erin also decided against buying this little Tigers guy for Timmy after he told her that it was clearly homemade (how she didn’t know this until he pointed it out, I have no idea!)
We did hit up one final place after this sale, but there’s a lot to say about it, so we’ll save that for another entry.
Thanks again for putting up with our holiday hiatus! It’s good to be back!
-Sarah
Update from Erin: WHAT THE HELL?! Of course I knew that tiger was handmade! I don’t know where Sarah comes up with these allegations. What I didn’t know was whether my dad would WANT this thing because it is homemade and one of a kind. Anyway, here is what I have to say to Sarah:
Sarah is right about one thing, and that is the fact that the photos above do not do justice to the mass of people at that first sale. I was outraged at the irresponsibility of the people running this sale. Pretty much everything in this house was glass, and here we are, a mass of people bumping into every surface area possible. Why there wasn’t some crowd control at the door is beyond me.
I knew from the photos of this sale that there was some high end stuff I was interested in but instead of looking for it, I spent my time repeating the phrases, “Excuse Me” and “Sorry, sorry, oops sorry” over and over again as I groped my way through people. At one point I bumped a lady in the kitchen and the look in her eyes was ferocious. Honestly, I would have taken all the money out of my pocket and given it to ANYONE in that house that didn’t bump one person. It would have been a feat.
I ended up buying this cool metal box for Zach. It’s an old souvenir from Washington DC.
I had been carrying around some Christmas plates, but put them down after I almost dropped them 4 times in the crowd.
The only other thing I bought this day is the tin wastebasket that Sarah mentioned earlier. I am going to sell it on ebay because old NCAA stuff is usually collectible. Plus I think it is made by Ohio Art, which made old tin toys. Which, now as I am looking at photos of Ohio Art stuff, I am getting slowly obsessed. I might need to buy some of these cute things.
-Erin