Cool garage sale/estate sale finds

[nearwildheaven]

@Balthisar

I’ve never really gotten anything cool

(snipped)
Oh, avoid “private sales”; if they’re not run by an estate sales company, they’re usually garbage.

While not a cool find, my best find is my dining room set. It’s an approximately $10,000 set that I picked up on a half-off Sunday for a cool $1200. With two extra leaves, it extends from the dining room into the parlour and seats 14 people on those special occasions that demand it.

I hope my kid can get $1200 for it when we die.

I think that’s pretty cool! For me, whether a private estate sale is “garbage” is like any other garage sale - it totally depends on the people, what they have, and whether they know what the sale’s real purpose is.

There’s one estate company whose sales I avoid because they so massively overprice everything. Mass-produced silverware for $2 each? 1960s paperbacks for $5 each? Nope. There’s another one that specializes in higher-end neighborhoods, but if I Google the address and it’s a condo, I avoid it because it will just be furniture and clothing, which are things I don’t buy at these things.

My absolute favorite is a company that specializes in middle-class estates, and yesterday, I filled my trunk for $15 at two different sales. It didn’t hurt that when I walked into the first sale, this was on the radio:

followed by this:

When that song was popular, I was about 10 years old and thought it was about a bar down the road from my grandmother's house called The Oasis. It was just a dive bar in a quonset hut off the highway, and this is why I remember that it even existed.

I’ve walked in at the end of their sales, and they know I will make an offer on things nobody else wants (in yesterday’s case, vintage women’s magazine) and haul them out, so they don’t have to.

[StGermain]

Not a yard sale find, but a few weeks ago I was at Goodwill and scored an Allclad 6qt saute pan for $7.99. It was a little warped so I wrote to Allclad, since they have a lifetime warranty. They sent a call tag and I sent it in. They sent back a brand-new $300 pan with lid (I didn’t find the lid). Same store, different day, I found a like-new Pendleton jacket lined with Thinsulate for $6 that fits perfectly.

StG

[Xema]

At a yard sale in Idaho, I bought a copy of this book, by “Grizzly Man” Timothy Treadwell. Price was 50 cents.

I later saw that it was inscribed and signed by him. I eventually offered it on eBay, where it fetched $65.

[nearwildheaven]

Those are both terrific finds!