My Saturday

Friday of last week Hubby came home from work and said we should go garage sale-ing in Decorah.  I didn’t know there was garage sales and told him so.  I had checked the Facebook groups and hadn’t seen anything so didn’t think there were any.  He told me he read the newspaper and saw some.  UGH>>>I forgot about newspapers and that things were listed there.  How terrible is that?

Anyway Kalissa offered to watch the childcare kids and off we went.  Right about then it started to storm and by the time we got there two of the three sales had closed because of the weather.  We ended up buying a few things at that garage sale, hit WalMart and went out to eat….a perfect date.

The next morning Hubby went to work and I decided to head back to Decorah.  There was an estate sale and I planned to hit the garage sales we missed.

I decided to hit the estate sale first.  It was on Scenic road.  I plugged it into the GPS on my phone and headed out.  I was getting on very rural remote roads..some I would hate to meet another vehicle on.  They were so curvy.  The trees along the sides of the road entire shaded the road.  I got to almost where I needed to go but the bridge was out.  I turned around.  I went back through all those roads trying to figure out how to get to the place.  Soon I was back on the highway and on a new set of winding curvy narrow roads.  I was starting to get worried that I’d lose GPS connection.  I came to one point and crossing this very narrow bridge and immediately made a right turn.  The bridge and turn was so tight.  Up and down and around the road went.  I started to feel like I was in the Deliverance movie.  All along there were no signs and no indication that I was for sure on the right road.

Finally I came to a house that I thought was it.  The driveway was STEEP down to the house and I started debating about what to do.  There was a pick up there and car…GPS said it was the right place but there was nothing outside to indicate a sale.  I pulled over and the dueling banjos of Deliverance started playing in my head.  I man came out of the house and started towards my parked truck.  I got out and asked if the sale was here.  He said yes and I started walking down the steep driveway.  Then an alarm went off in my head saying “You left your phone in the truck.  What if this is a creepo?”  Oh my.  He started telling me that most of the stuff was in the house.  Again alarms were going off in my head.  Then he mentioned his wife was in the house.  I felt better.

The owners didn’t mark anything.  I would ask and everything was just a $1 to $5.  I ended up just picking stuff and putting it in a pile and told the lady to tell me what I owed.  It was easier than keep asking the price of everything.

I ended up going in the house….I bought a truck load of stuff….all for resale.

It’s mostly primitive things that needs some TLC.  This old water pump has a light fixture at the top….$5.

Old wonderful condition high chair…  $5.

Old tractor seat chair made from horse harness part…  $5.

Elephant door stop… $1.

This little shadow box with two “guns” in it….$1.  I ended looking these up on ebay.  The one on the right is a vintage Derringer cap gun.  The one on the left is collectible too.

As I was leaving I picked up this bow and arrows.  I thought they were old but had no idea if it was worth anything….  I paid $3 for it.

Here’s a close up picture.  It’s a Bear #50 58″ long.  I looked it up on ebay.  As we all know there are ebay asking prices but there is a way to see the real value better.  If I put in the information about the bow, bows like this come up for sale.  If I scroll down and look to the left I can click a button that says “Sold items”.  If I click it, I can see what bows like this actually sold for.

Well I hit the jack pot.  Imagine my shock when it said bows like this are selling between…..$110 and $280.  Apparently there are vintage bows made in the 70’s and they are collectible.

YAHOO!!!  I had no idea this might be worth something and if it was…I was thinking maybe $25.  So now we need to find a buyer.  I don’t really want to sell it on ebay as I don’t want to figure out how to ship it.  We’ll likely take it to our booth in Harmony.

Another item I found…This…It’s a step back cupboard.  Someone painted it blue.  We aren’t sure about the bottom lattice but we thought we’d likely just put glass in the doors or plain wood inserts.  The asking price for this…$20.  It’s a really nice piece and a new coat of paint or a good stripping and refinishing would give this old piece some life.

For now, we’re not doing anything with it.  We ended up contacting a picker and he is going to come and shop our garage.  We might let this one go if he wants it.  Oh I wish I had a place for it….The piece is pretty cool and it has a great story.  It’s wonderful to flip a piece fast though too.

The couple who was having the sale didn’t put out a single sign leading people to the sale.  It was off a main highway and they could easily have put the signs out.  I doubt many came.  One other person came while I was there and I was there for 90 minutes.  If people went around to wrong way like I did and saw the closed bridge, they likely gave up.

The couple having the sale bought the house with the contents.  The family didn’t want to clean it out.  They were tearing the house down and had plans to build a new house in place of it.  They didn’t care what they earned from their sale. They just didn’t want it to go in the landfill.  They said they hoped to retire there.  I sure would hate to retire there and deal with those roads.  They were SUPER curvy and narrow.  I can’t image the roads it the winter!!

I had a great sale day…which balanced off my not so good auction on Thursday…but that’s another story.