2016 Finds (So Far)

Since the first of the year, we've been putting in a lot of time cleaning and de-stashing the house.  Keith is a pretty big pack-rat, and I'm, well, me.  He got to working on his stash in the living room, and ended up finding a bunch of booth stuff that I had put in there and forgot about.  Between that, the junk room, the shed and Sorrow Mountain (not to mention the Hillock), I'm not really needing to shop much right now.

I am down to the last of my banana boxes from the Dixie move out last year in the shed.  I have figured out how to fit yet more shelves from the Mount of Sorrows into the booths, so I'll be moving most of the boxes over soon, plus the last of my religious books from the Hillock.  Our goal is to close the Hillock in March.  To do that, I have to make space in the shed for the camping stuff Keith has on the Hillock, then move the last bits of my stuff over to Mount Sorrow.

I want to have Mount Sorrow scaled down by the end of the summer to the point that it will fit in a smaller unit.  I've realized the convenience of having a storage unit for stashing shelves and some furniture, but I don't want to keep paying for such a large one.

In other words, I'm doing more pricing and prepping to stuff I already have, instead of buying more.  As long as I have this backlog, I'm only going to be hitting the kinds of sales that have a good, proven track record with me where I can get the kinds of things I need.

Like the Big Flea from New Year's.  It was a little disappointing, as one of the vendors I went especially to shop from was not there.  Not that I didn't find other stuff.

I made a new friend.

How cool is this ash bin?

It came with the box!

 A couple of weeks ago, I found a bag of stuff at the Peddlers Mall for a dollar.  It was mostly school supplies and such, but I also saw these:

That's the word stencils and magnetic letter tray for a 1970's Fisher-Price play school desk.  Kids could use the stencils as guides to write the words on the chalkboard surface of the desk, or they could spell the words with the magnetic letters.

I have found three or four of the desks over the years, but none have ever had the supplies with them.  (It's even harder to find the letters that go in the tray.)  I bought the bag, so I could stash this stuff for the next desk I found.

A few days later, I was hitting up Unique Thrift on half-price day, and guess what I found?

Serendipitous, I tell you!

I also got a real school desk at Unique that day.  With two at the booth and one on the Mountain, I really didn't need another one, but I cannot pass them up when they're only $2.50.  Plus, I like it when my shopping has a theme.

Let's talk about that Mazda shot now.  I tried to limit myself on Saturday to just the sure things, which would have made three stops, but it was so nice and I was so stir-crazy that I ended up adding an adoption fund-raiser sale at a church.

The white bag on the left in front is full of comics from the nerd herd comic shop sale.  They had a bunch of graphic novels (including hardcovers) and bundles of certain series on sale for a buck each.  my comic section is pretty hot right now, so I can't afford to pass up a sale.  (In the past two weeks, I've met three of my regular comic customers when I was working the booth.  One guy told me he comes by twice a week.)

The Barnes and Noble bags come from their 75% red dot clearance sale--one of my favorite things.  They had a lot of cool super-hero stuff this time around.  I even got a Batman just for me.

The cider kit in the brown and green box is also from BN.  It was a little more than I normally spend, but I think I'll get a good return on it.  Now, I just need to wait a couple of weeks until the prices drop to two dollars and hit them up again!

There's a guy not far from us who holds monthly sales in his garage.  He's also a vendor at a couple of flea markets, so he always has good stuff.  The green chair and pink cabinet I got last year that made a few of you all bonkers came from him.  I can always count on him for large pieces at great prices.  Also odd things.

I'm in love with this sign.

A couple of you all identified this as part of a bookshelf, but it's really a bunch of bamboo poles and three table leaves.  I dug a bamboo pole out of the trash at the Peddlers Mall a while back and put it in my booth, where it sold.  I bought a couple more bamboo poles, and one of them sold.  So now I have some more!  I love the darker color on these.

I got all three table leaves for a buck.  I just kind of thought, "Why the hell not?"  I'm thinking someone might like them for a project or something.  I always find odd stuff like this at his sale, and I usually can sell it too.  One time I bought some (HEAVY) broken marble counter slabs off him.  Could not keep them in the booth.

When I put the bag from the church sale in the back of Mazda, an item rolled out.  I was going to put it back in, when I realized it would look great in the Mazda shot, but I forgot and put the BN bags on top of it.

Here it is in all its glory:

SUMO BUTT!

I swear that it fell out exactly like this!

There are actually two of them.

Sumo Nipples!

They also talk, or rather make unintelligible grunting sounds.  You'll be seeing more of them soon, he said rather cryptically.

This turned out to be one of those church sales where the adult volunteers brought their kids with them and allowed the kids to run loose around the place while they ran the sale.  I hate those kind of sales, because the toys always get mobbed and trashed.  Or else you have to fight some little person to get to them.  Not that I'm above doing that, mind you.

I already had one of these babies in hand, when I realized there were two of them.  I was pushing the second one back and forth to make sure it still made the clicking noises that these lawn mowers do, when a little girl--maybe 18 months old--toddled up to me and just pushed it away across the room with her.  I looked at Keith and said:  "That little girl stole my lawn mower."  He just shrugged and said:  "It's not yours any more."

So I stood there kind of casually browsing stuff and keeping an eye on where the lawn mower was heading.  I mean, c'mon, she's not even two!  She'll lose interest in about thirty seconds.  Sure enough, BINGO!  She lets go of it and wanders off.  I shove the other one in Keith's hands and SWOOP in and grab it before she turns around.  SCORE!

Yes, I stole a toy from a child.  It's not like she had money to buy it.  No, I'm not proud of myself.  Yes, I would probably do it again.  Yes, I am pathetic.  In my defense, I did not make her cry.  She had forgotten about it as soon as she let go of it.  I'm sure she already had one at home and didn't need another one anyway.

You ought to see how I deal with old ladies.

Finally:

OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!

OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!

Best curb find in a while, wouldn't you say?  I stalked this baby for a week, believe it or not.  What am I saying?  Of course you believe it!

I was walking to the bus last week, when I saw this totally awesome cabinet sitting in the yard of a house at the bottom of the hill.  It was sitting by the trash cans, so I was pretty sure they were tossing it, but it was also the day after garbage day.  I thought maybe they had gone ahead and gotten it out of the house in prep for junk day.

That night, I made Keith drive past the house to see if it was still there.  (Like none of you have done that.)  I continued to keep watch on it, twice a day, like that for a week.  One day there was a guy in the yard of the house.  I almost asked him if he was tossing it, but decided not to, because I didn't think I could get it back up the hill by myself, plus I was late for the bus as it was.  He probably would have asked for money to boot.

Monday, we're driving home and there it is!  Sitting out on the curb with the trash cans.  It was a bit of a wrestle to get it in Mazda, and Keith kept asking if I really wanted it.  (He thought it was too run down looking.)  I'm hoping it's a good omen for the rest of junk set out this weekend.

The trash people would not have taken it anyway.  They would have left it for the junk truck.  I figure the folks in that house must be new in the neighborhood and don't realize how stuff works.

When I first told Keith about it, he wanted to know why I didn't just knock on the door and ask for it.  I told him that too many of the neighbors had seen me going through their junk and carrying bits of it off.  I don't mind being thought of as the neighborhood hobo, but I draw the line at having people think I stalk their garbage!

Even though I totally do.

It's a living!