Monday Musings – You Can Never Go Too Far

I knew Saturday was going to be crazy when I counted six church sales advertised in either Craigslist or the local paper.  In addition, there were several neighborhood yard sales, and a few multi-family sales that sounded promising. Plus, we wanted to go back to the Friends of the Library book sale mentioned in Friday’s blog for their half off day.

Running a few minutes late, we were out the door by 6:45 on the way to our first church sale.  I had the option of two different routes to the church, and fortunately selected the road that passed right by an unadvertised church sale (No. 1) (six sales now became seven … crazy, I tell you) that was supposed to start at 8 a.m.  Seeing as how it was still before 7 a.m., and the church volunteers were still putting stuff out, I did the only courteous thing and stopped anyway, despite Ella’s protests. 

I’ve learned that cash in hand makes up for being early 99 percent of the time.  So, a box of books and CDs, and one ugly Christmas sweater later, we were on our way to the second church sale (No. 2) of the day, which, fortunately, was only a few minutes away.  Unfortunately, though, it pretty much was a bust, other than a $40 new in beat-up box toy that I got for $1 (original price was $2, but since he didn’t have change for a $10, I got it for $1).

Next up on our sales tour of local churches was a church (No. 3) that always, always has good stuff, and we were about 30 minutes late by the time we got there.   The church always has its sale in a long, narrow mobile classroom building, and each room has a theme (i.e., media room, toy room, electronics room, etc.).  I always head to the book room first, and Ella goes to the toy room.  She came out with a box, and I came out with a box, and we got in line to pay.  I then realized that I hadn’t been in the electronics room.  So, I paid, and went back to the room, and came away with two Microsoft Office products for the Mac ($1 each), and several old fishing reels ($.25 each).

The next church (No. 4), which was close by, was a bust, so we headed to our fifth church (No. 5).  I found a few items, including a hunter’s GPS unit for $10, which is a little more than I usually like to pay, but it was worth close to $100, so still a tidy profit to be had.

Still another church (No. 6) beckoned, and downtown we went.  Lorraine over at We Are: Clamco (http://clamco.blogspot.com) mentioned in her latest blog about her husband selling modified Nerf guns at a flea market.  So, what caught my eye at this sale? Yep, Nerf guns, two rifles and a handgun, not modified, but working, for $1 each.  I figured someone would want to modify these in the popular Steampunk style. Don’t know what Steampunk is?  As Lorraine told me, look it up.

Ella also found a nice leather motorcycle type jacket at the church’s fill a bag of clothes for $5 section.  It barely fit in the bag.  Ella did manage, though, to shove in a couple of tops for herself.  She’s resourceful when she wants to be.

Because it was getting late in the morning, we skipped the neighborhood sales, hit a multi-family sale, where I snagged a box of Star Wars/Star Trek collectibles, and a box of McDonald’s Barbie toys, then headed home to unload the car before heading to the last church (No. 7) on our list.

Since it was so late, the church was fairly picked over, but we did snag a wicked witch cake pan, as well as a full set of Power Rangers sheets for a couple of bucks.

From there, we went to the book sale.  With only a couple of hours to go before the sale closed, the crowd was winding down, but there were still plenty of books. I took my time, and found a few gems that the horde of locusts (i.e., book dealers like me) had missed.

We walked out of the sale shortly after 3 p.m., exhausted, dragging our rolling crates behind us.

Upon returning home, I had to unload the car again, and realized that I had no more room to put stuff.  Every nook, cranny, corner, and free floor spot that could be used for storage was full.

It was at this point that I looked over the disaster that is my house, and wondered if this little hobby of mine had gone too far.

But, at that moment, the immortal words of Ferris Bueller snapped me out of my depression:

“You can never go too far.”