My new pasttime

I scored these cute feathered friends last weekend for 10 cents for the pair!! I LOVE them. I can just imagine them on a future Thanksgiving table. Mark hates them and said that there was a reason they were put out for 10 cents. What can I say? He has more modern taste and I have more 80-year-old lady living in a retirement community taste. :)



Rummaging has become my new favorite hobby. Every Thursday I start checking the paper for sales. Then on Friday I snag the classifieds and circling in red all the ones I hope to stop by, usually the ones I know how to get there. I've learned to avoid county sales because usually it takes too long to get out there, losing precious, prime saling hours and once you actually find the sale there's never anything to make it work going out there for. So I stick to the city neighborhoods. Neighborhood sales tend to offer the best selection.



While I've been rummaging for the past few weekends I've come to make a few observations. I consider myself an expert rummage sale host. I price EVERY single item. I group like items. I make sure everything is displayed in a pleasing manner. If there is dust or dead bugs collecting on something I make sure to wipe or clean item off.



However, everyone does not possess my expert talents for turning a profit.



If your sale has NOTHING priced. I will leave. Usually this means that the asking price is too much anyway. I want to quickly be able to scan the sale and see what I like and exactly how much it costs. I do NOT want to waste time negotiating with you or asking you 10 times how much something costs. I recently stopped at a moving sale that had tons of cute holiday decorations (Fact 1: I look for holiday decorations while I'm out rummaging. Cute Halloween pumpkin for 25 cents? Yes please) Not a single decoration was priced. AND the one track suit I saw with a price tag was priced so high it might as well have been on the Macy's clearance rack. I moved on. So price your items.



If I look over your glassware and EVERYTHING is dirty. Not water spotted or old. I mean filled with dead bugs or dirt. I won't buy anything from your sale. If this makes me a snob so be it. Yes I could take it home myself and wash it but seriously turn said item and dump out contents. I might be rummaging but I don't want actual junk. NOW if said item is SUPER cheap I could be persuaded to do the cleaning myself. But if it's filthy you better mark it cheap.

Now if I walk up to your sell and there's an odd old odor coming from your items then I will turn my butt around and get back into the car. Yes this has happened. No I don't know what said odor was but I didn't stick around to find out. And that goes for the sale that definitely smelled like adult poop. I couldn't even bring myself to purchase a book that I had REALLY been wanting because the smell of human feces was so bad.



Another thing. Just because I'm obviously pregnant doesn't mean I want to buy your old baby bedding, stained onsies or expired car seat. And I definitely don't want your Doppler with ear buds that were stuck in your ears. I don't care if you will 'Make me a good deal.' I have a baby theme picked out and it's NOT sports related. I've started telling people I don't know the sex of the baby so I can't buy their gender specific items. I'm not rummaging for baby items just because I'm pregnant. If I happen to find something I want in good condition I'll buy it but please don't bark at me like you are a carnival worker.




So what you may ask does a rummage sale snob like me look for when out rummaging? Lots of things. Cheap things. I mainly only take a few dollars and a bunch of quarters, nickels and dimes. As noted above.....holiday decor. I've gotten the above turkeys, a few Frankensteins and other misc. items. I look for good condition children's books at a cheap, cheap price. I've been buying really good hardback ones for 25 cents. Sorry if your child has scribbled in it, torn off the cover or stuck stickers on it then it's out, even if it's one that I've been searching for. I don't shop for clothing. But I have broken down and bought some maternity shorts because have you seen the price of decent maternity clothing??? CRAZY!! But they have to be cheap. :) I mainly just buy housewares. Last summer I was on a planter kick and bought a bunch of those so I'm trying not to do that this year.



So yes I'll fully admit I'm a rummage sale snob but I still LOVE going and seeing what's out there. Who knows what's waiting out there this weekend. But it better be priced!