Mama Says…

Forget Christmas – garage sale season is, in my opinion, the most wonderful time of the year – a sentiment I’m willing to bet Bruce Littlefield, author of Garage Sale America, shares. Packed with interesting facts, tips on hot states to hit for specific finds and droolworthy sales and Do’s & Don’t lists for buyers and sellers, Garage Sale America is the quintessential handbook for buyers and sellers alike, for those who wake up before the summer sun to hit the streets in search of bargains; the incurable collectors.

People like me.

I was at a sale this past Saturday morning when I spotted a table full of children’s books. Although the sign read “Books 50 Cents Each”, the ones I was interested in had $2 stickers on them.

When I asked the lady in charge how much the books were she jumped out of her lawn chair and hustled over to me, hands stuffed in the pockets of her money belt, jingling change. “Two dollars,” she announced upon examination.

“Two dollars for the lot of them?” I pointed to a pile of two, maybe three books on the table.

She sucked in her breath. “Oh, no,” she breathed. “These are board books. They’re two dollars each.”

Number seven on Bruce’s handy Do’s and Don’ts for Sellers list: Don’t ask “new” prices for used things – including well-worn board books. Clearly this seller should have brushed up on her garage sale etiquette before having her sale. I mean, who pays two dollars for a used board book?

Garage Sale America is a quirky cross-country tour of, as Bruce puts it, “the mostly off-the-book industry estimated to be around $3 billion a year.” Brimming with stories of great sales past and tips for buyers and sellers, the book also spotlights some of America’s more ‘famous’ garage salers and has corners devoted entirely to popular hunt items – from Hot Wheels to Tiffany, Bakelite to bottle openers.

The old saying is true: one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. There’s just something about rooting through other people’s junk and finding that diamond in the rough – whether it be a bag of marbles, vintage vinyl or a dusty Limoge vase – and paying for it with the change you found under the couch cushions. But, as Bruce notes, there’s always the sale you don’t get, the one that “haunts you for weeks like a bad dream, eats away at your psyche like a termite on softened wood.”

He’s absolutely right. The two boxes of records some guy grabbed from right under my nose last Saturday morning are still eating my husband’s psyche for breakfast – and probably will for a long, long time. To say he’s sore he didn’t get his paws on those records is an understatement.

Bruce saves the best for last, when he opens his doors and invites readers to take a room-by-room tour of his home furnished with his fabulous garage sale finds. While I drooled over his Hoosier-style Kitchenette, his collection of Franciscan Pottery Starburst dishes and general sense of style, the burning desire to hit the sales grew hotter and hotter within me. Look out, weekend…here I come.

Mama Says: In a nutshell, Garage Sale America is a very cool book.

(Bruce also has a great website where you can list your upcoming garage sale, scroll through garage sale listings, read his blog and take a peek inside his fabulous home. Like I said…very cool!)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 6:05 am and is filed under Books.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.