Yard-sale haul 2022

Every year, it seems to get a little harder for us to find bargains at the annual town-wide yard sale. I don't think it's the sales themselves that are getting worse; this year we saw lots of good stuff, including tools, musical instruments, and clothing. The problem is that, first of all, there's just not as much stuff we need. We've been homeowners for about 15 years now, and we've already acquired all the basics (furniture, tools, housewares). We can no longer benefits from bonanza finds like our $70 futon and $10 kneeling chair, because we have all the chairs and futons we can reasonably use.

And second, of the things we do need, there are fewer that yard sales can supply. We still have nine niblings (three nieces, five nephews, and one who now prefers gender-neutral pronouns) to buy holiday gifts for, but most of them are teenagers now — too old for the outgrown toys, clothes, and books you tend to find a lot of at these sales. Even the youngest two are ten and eight, so they're no longer likely to appreciate toys like the marble run and jungle adventure tent that so delighted the kids on Brian's side of the family when they were little.

So this year, when we set out on Saturday morning, we decided to head straight for the one sale we knew was most likely to yield pay dirt: the local library's fall book sale, timed to coincide with the town yard sales so it would attract as wide an audience as possible. There were indeed lots of people there, and lots of books (two boxes' worth of which we'd donated ourselves to make more room on our bookshelves ahead of time). We found a total of eight that looked interesting, some for ourselves and some for friends and relations, and shelled out $16 for them. So we knew even if we found nothing else, the day wouldn't be a total loss.

Which is good, because that's just what happened. We spent a total of four hours roaming through the parts of town where the Saturday sales were thickest on the ground without finding one more thing to purchase. I was in the market for a new fall coat and (as always) shoes, and I tried on several items in those categories, along with a few less practical garments, but nothing fit. So when we eventually turned homeward around 1 pm, we had nothing but the books to show for it. 

Right before we reached home, however, we happened upon a table full of stuff marked "free" (one of several we'd passed that day, as a lot of people had apparently decided the money to be earned at a yard sale wasn't worth the time spent supervising it). On it were a couple of games, including one that we'd played before and enjoyed. Since it was free, we figured we had nothing to lose by popping it in our bag. We checked it out at home and were initially discouraged to find a slip of paper inside listing several pieces that were missing — but when we examined the set in detail, we discovered that all the missing pieces had been replaced. The new ones were marked up by hand, but the game was still playable. So that was a nice little bonus that helped make up somewhat for a disappointing morning.

After our lack of success on Saturday, we weren't in too big a hurry to hit the sales on Sunday. Based on past experience, we'd found that many sellers who signed up for both days don't bother setting up shop on Sunday, and the ones who do have only a picked-over selection to offer. So we took our time eating breakfast and tending to chores and didn't venture out until around 11 am, and then we headed for the areas on the south side of town where the map showed the largest number of Sunday-only sales.

But, to our surprise, we ended up faring much better on Sunday than we had on Saturday. We found several more books, this time including several that looked like nibling-appropriate gifts. We also found a toy sophisticated enough to make a suitable gift for our youngest nephew and a little kitchen gadget that looked suitable for one of our brothers-in-law. I also found a new Chico Bag, something I'd been specifically on the lookout for, to replace my old worn-out one. I even got a pair of rose quartz earrings for free from an acquaintance I ran into hosting a sale.

Some of the books we picked up were from free piles, so everything we acquired on Sunday came to just $15, which includes $1 for a lemonade I bought from a kid's lemonade stand. (He gave me a pretty good-sized cup for that amount, so it wasn't such a bad value.) So, all told, we spent $31 for 18 books, one board game, one pair of earrings, one shopping bag, two gift items, and one lemonade. All in all, it's a better haul than we expected, and a halfway decent return on the 7 hours or so we devoted to sale shopping. We may not have been able to get that much else done over the weekend, but we certainly got plenty of exercise.