yard sales, jan. 16.

We hit seven sales yesterday, five that I had found from ads on CraigsList and two more that I saw signs for and wildly swerved down sidestreets to get to.  I got a few things that are not really worth taking pictures of, unless you’re into potato peelers.

While we are on that, I now have three potato peelers.  I bought the third one because the first two suck.  Someday I will find a really nice one, but until then I will use the ones I have.  I went through three potato mashers the same way.  Me, I like potato-related utensils.  So I got that, some fabric scraps, a robe, whatnot.  Oh, and Josh bought books.  Because that’s what he does.

Anyway, it was a pretty ho-hum kind of day, what with the potato peeler being the most exciting thing.  I followed some signs into a sad little neighborhood.  The houses were either trailers or beat-up little starter homes.  The lawns were all overgrown.  I was having misgivings about any kind of sale that I might find in this kind of place, but that’s what yard saling in January will do to you – you’ll stop at any ole place with a junk-covered tarp lying on the lawn.

Generally, poorer neighborhoods do not make good yard saling.  Obviously, there will be exceptions, but these sales are mostly kids’ broken toys, romance novels, and tacky chotchkies.  To be fair, I’ll say that the yards sales held by rich people are also frequently disappointing.  They have lots of overpriced, recent, but still mass-produced stuff.  Actually, we went to a weird estate sale this weekend where we concluded that the people were incredibly wealthy rednecks.  They had actual antiques mixed in with tacky chotchkies priced like antiques.

So, anyway:  My expectations pulling up to the house were not high, despite the fact that it seemed to be the nicest house in the dilapidated little neighborhood.  We browsed around the tables a while, and I picked out a cute little ring holder shaped like a gnarled tree. 

Josh saw that there weren’t any books and quickly became bored.  I was giving things only a cursory glance, poking through some framed Norman Rockwell pictures, a pile of baking sheets, PMS-themed playing cards.  And then:

Pyrex mixing bowls. 

I’ve mentioned my budding admiration for these.  Lots of online thrifters collect them, and they are easy to find on eBay and at antique stores.  But I didn’t want to pay $10 for a bowl that I knew I could get for only $1 if I just waited long enough.  I don’t need to give myself an excuse to pay too much for things I don’t even need, not even a beautiful bakeware collection.

And now I have these beauties.  $2 for all three, my new Pyrex collection (one is an interest, two is a pair, three is a collection).  I calmly paid the lady, feeling a little bit like I was pulling one over on her, even though I was paying the prices she had set.  Then I walked down to the car, got in, closed the door, and started screaming in excitement.  This just goes to show that you really can’t judge a yard sale before you actually check it out, because you never know what you will find hidden among the crap.  Well, you’ll find more crap, but it just might be the crap you’ve been looking for.