I finally saw the light … bulbs

Ella and I went to an estate sale two weeks ago. It was being held at the home of a former executive of the Georgia Power Co., and was chock full of stuff, both in the house and out. I picked out a few items, but left more, due to the prices, which were fairly high for my taste.

I was most interested in the belt buckles.  They were Georgia Power safety award buckles, were new in plastic, and, in my opinion, had to be worth something.  Unfortunately, they were priced at $10 each, and I couldn’t find anything about them via my Droid.  Since I had already spent a lot of money that morning, I wasn’t ready to speculate at $10 a pop.

So, I was particularly excited when I saw that they were having a second sale this past weekend, thinking that everything would be discounted.  It was, but the buckles were gone.

Bummer.

Disheartened, but determined to find something, I wandered around the house, and found myself looking in a hallway closet at some bulbs, both light bulbs and projector bulbs.  I remember seeing them during my first visit, but I was in the dark, both literally (the closet had no light) and figuratively (I had no idea of their worth, if any), and ignored them.

The longer I stared at the bulbs, though, the more enlightened I became. From my experience at work, I knew projector bulbs weren’t cheap.  These were vintage bulbs, still new in box. Whipping out my trusty Droid, I did a quick search, and discovered that the bulbs were worth at least $10 each.  So, I grabbed the whole box for $11.

The rest of Saturday was fairly uneventful.  I picked up a bunch of Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse novels.  Individually, each isn’t worth much.  As a set, they’ll fetch enough to pay for the day’s gas.

I bought a new in package Star Wars toy worth about $10 from a couple of kids at their parents’ yard sale.  They sold it for a quarter.  I almost felt guilty until they tried to sell me a Nerf rifle that didn’t work.

At a neighborhood yard sale, with a grand total of two houses participating, both families were giving away a couch.  I thought that was kind of a weird coincidence.

In my weekend’s “what was I thinking?” moment, I purchased a tray of 45 rpm records.  I usually skip records, but these were box sets with multiple 45s per box.  I only paid $11 for the lot, including the sturdy plastic tray holding them. In hindsight, though, and without actually checking them yet, I bet that I should have left them alone.

Have a great week thrifting, listing, and, of course, selling.