Treasures, treasures everywhere! Wahooooooooooooo!! Two weekends in a row now shopping up a storm, and I must say I feel like a 13 year old again when I used to rock the sales w/ my mom back in the day (awwwwwww). Not only did she instill the love of a good bargain in my genes, but also the adventures of it all no matter where lived :) And being a military brat, we’ve hit up yard sales all across the world from California to Korea – with each one being just as exciting as the last cuz you never know what you’re gonna find!!
To me, it’s like modern day treasure hunting :) And if that picture up there is any indication of what’s to come the rest of this yard sale season, you can bet your sweet ass I’ll be one happy blogger over here. It’s amazing what people don’t want anymore!
Here’s a list of all my steals over the weekend:
- Realistic FM Concertmaster Stereo ($15.00) – This one I actually got at the Salvation Army after hitting the yard sales (which is why it cost a bit more), but it totally blew the pants off me when I plugged it in. For something that’s over 40 years old – and from Radioshack actually (hah!) – it sure does fill a room up :) And it fits nicely on the shelves of my new library – replacing the $150+ stereo I WAS gonna buy instead for it. Check out this awesome ad for it at the Radio Museum which shows it used to sell for $70 bucks…. which was probably like $200 back then!
- Old school books for my library ($10.00) – Love these!! Especially since I got them all bargained down from $3.00 a piece :) Here are the titles I picked up:
- The American Claimant by Mark Twain (1897)
- Stories From Dickens by Walker McSpadden (1924)
- Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (1940)
- Travels With Charlie by John Steinbeck (1962)
- and Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (1962)
- Redskins onesie! ($0.50) – Gotta make sure my boy knows who the best team in the league is ;) And maybe by the time he’s grown up enough to understand football, we’ll actually have a winning season! Haha… praying that RG3 does his magic!
- Skull mug ($1.00) – From World Market, actually too – pretty sweet. I probably could have bargained it down a bit, but the Mrs. was giving me the evil eye so I had to hurry up and snatch it up before she told me not to… for some reason chicks don’t like skulls much ;) Which reminds me, I still have to pick up that skull bank we listed here a while back! Love that thing!)
- Indian knife set ($3.50) – This was probably my favorite find of the bunch – a hand carved knife set made in India back in the 60’s (I googled to find out) and each side of the sheath has either a knife or a two-prong fork thingie – with locks in place, and all. I was hoping it was worth more than the $20-$35 I saw it for sale online, but it’s still a nice piece to go on display for sure. Also in my library, haha…
And then here’s the awesome currency stuff I picked up!
- $1.00 Silver Certificates (4 of them for only $9.00 total!) – I know I know, they’re technically only worth $1.00, haha, but in reality you can sell them for anywhere from $7-$15 ;) Which I probably won’t anyways since they’re nice additions to my currency collection – even though I actually found one in circulation (aka my pockets) the other year – remember that?
- 1822 U.S. Penny ($12.50) – That thing is the size of a quarter! Haha… but pretty damn cool it’s almost 200 years old :) I found all these coins at this guy’s table that was set up at a flea market I came across while yard sale’ing. The guy had been collecting for 50 years now, how crazy is that?? Everything he had was marked down 50% off of “value,” but obviously no one really pays full price anyways. Was fun chatting with him for a handful of minutes though and learning too :)
- 1621 Spanish Reale/Copper ($7.50) – This was one of my favorite of the coins because of *how* they used to make them: they’d mold the circles themselves, and then stamp the two sides w/ the seals and info :) So they’re a lot more raised than the coins we have in modern day. But can you imagine? Holding something that’s 400 years old? I love this stuff.
- 1665 Spanish coin ($2.50) – I’m not sure if I believe it all the way, but apparently this thing had been found in an old ship wreck off the coast of Guam I wanna say (I think that’s what he told me?). I feel like they should be worth a helluva lot more than a handful of bucks, but then again I know absolutely nothing about coin collecting – just that it’s fun :) And since I don’t have any old shipwreck coins, I’m gonna stick with the story, hehe…
- U.S. Liberty Copper Coin ($5.00) – Nothing too special about this one other than it being 1 oz. of copper which I don’t own yet :) And a far cry from the $1,900 I spent on the 1 oz of gold last month! Haha… pretty crazy how metal can differ in value eh?
- 1904 Indian Head Penny (Free) – Since I bought a handful of his coins, he just threw this one in for me :) It’s only worth a few bucks at that, but another nice addition to my collection for sure. He was a really nice guy.
Pretty neat, huh? So it looks like I spent about $60 bucks this weekend on all kinds of goodness. All of which I could have easily done without, but all which also totally improves my life ;) Music, books, and money – what’s not to enjoy? Haha… oh! And football :)
To top it all off, we then donated 5 large trash bags of clothes and un-wanted goodies to the Salvation Army – which probably paid for all of this and THEN some when it’s time to write it all off next year. So it stays within my “one in, one out” minimalism endeavors too. Woo!
If you’re into bargain hunting and old collectables, I HIGHLY recommend joining the searches on Saturday mornings. It’s amazing what you can find out there if you look hard enough. And if you’re expecting a kid like we are? Shooooooooot… 80% of the peddled goods are kid stuff! Clothes, toys, strollers, beds – you name it. It’s the only way I got the Mrs. to actually go WITH me for once – she was in heaven w/ baby stuff! And if she was a blogger too, you’d see another post full of great finds she picked up at the same time :)
Any of y’all been having some good luck w/ them too? Anyone share the love of yard sales like I do?? If so, I wish you nothing but awesomeness this next weekend! The fun continues!
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PS: Always remember that you can ask for lower prices at yard sales – the sellers expect it!
PPS: Also check out this iPhone App – I use it every time: Yard Sale Tracker
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AWE, I want to see the baby stuff you got! Way cuter then that icky skull mug :)
Great finds, I have never seen those dollar bills with the Silver Certificate stamp, I’ll pay you 10 bucks for the U.S liberty Cooper coin and the 1665 Spanish Coin. Thats a return of $2.50 on your investment. LOL.
I share the same love for old currency. Old Spanish and Roman coins are definitely really cool – it’s weird to think about someone using the coin centuries ago to buy bread or…heh, pay taxes? Anyway, the haul is definitely cool. It’s funny to think a coin you own is as old as the country you live in.
Beg the Mrs. to share a baby stuff post!
Dude, it’s my favorite season for this reason (plus the fact that I’ll get to bike to work every single day and enjoy my ice cold brews on the back porch)! I looooove yard sales, thrift stores, SalVal, etc. I’ve decorated my entire condo pretty much with discounted/used/re-habbed furniture & accessories. I definitely adhere to the adage that one man’s trash is another’s treasure :)
Nice finds dude. I like yard sales also, normally I look for older tools that were made in the USA, the older tools are awesome quality. Once in awhile I will find a good hockey or football card to buy, but that’s pretty rare. It’s been like 40 degrees where I live so the yard sales have been kinda rare, they will pick up more in May though.
Congratulations on your finds! Yard sales are fun, but I tend to gravitate toward estate sales, though there are pros & cons. The main pro of an estate sale is usually there’s a lot more stuff, and in general better quality stuff. The main con though is that most estate sales are handled by a professional selling company, which means the chances of a real, underpriced gem surfacing are much lower than at a yard sale.
Nice work! The NFL onesie for 50 cents is sweet! Even if it is for the completely wrong team (fly Eagles fly…)
Think you could convince your wife to do a guest post? I’d love to see the baby stuff – not that knives, skulls, and old coins aren’t cool. Ummm, were you a pirate in a past life?
Love love LOVE car boot sales, as we call yard sales over here in the UK. The thrill of not knowing what you’ll find, then the thrill of finding something amazing. My best car boot find is this sunburst clock http://wp.me/pRYrv-3D – £2 ($3.5). I sprayed it silver and they sell similar in designer stores here for £80. I’m going car booting this weekend too – dontcha just love spring?
Sounds like you had fun. I usually don’t hit yard sales, unless they are the big community ones, then I can hit 10-30 houses early in the morning and be done by noon :). Haven’t hit any yet or seen any for that matter. Maybe it’s just too soon for everyone since school is still in session and lots of stuff to do with that.
I haven’t been to a yard sale yet, but have had one this spring and it was a pretty big success. Decluttered a ton of my craft junk!
HECK YES, that skull mug!! I can’t WAIT until garage/yard sale season is in full swing!
@sarah oneill – Haha… I actually drank tea from it last night, and it was freaky! I was sipping out of the eye socket!! :)
@Rich Uncle EL – Not when you factor in shipping/insurance! ;)
@Einstein – Oh man, yeah!! Didn’t even think about that – so so cool. One day we should chat about our collections :)
@Walnut – I’m trying! She’s hilarious too, so it would actually be entertaining :)
@The Happy Homeowner – There you go! We share a common love :) Btw, got your email – will ping ya back soon…
@DebtsnTaxes – Cool! I love cards too :) But you’re right, def. a lot rarer to find (at least any bargains). If you want to email me a couple of tools you’re on the hunt for, I could keep my eyes open for ya? How cool would it be actually if you had a site of what everyone’s looking for, and then you can help others at the same time they’re helping you??? Ooooooooh!! Shipping stuff and all would suck, but a local group might work?
@Kurt @ Money Counselor – I know, I hate that :( But I do love walking through an entire house (esp basements) looking for goodies! You do get some great deals every now and then from ’em. But agree, much better quality than your run of the mill yard sale.
@Good Cents Savings – Haha, you shut it ;) We’re gonna go again this weekend, so I’ll plant more bugs in her ear and see what we can do. She’s gonna be feeling the love after reading all these comments!
@Skint in the City – COOL!! “Car Boot Sales?” Never heard that term before – love it though! You learn something new every day :)
@LB – Yeah!!! We hit TWO community yard sales – was great! So much more efficient and exhilarating. Though I do get frantic looking at one while seeing like 10 others in my peripheral vision, haha.. I want to do ALL of them at once! :)
@This Aggie Saves – There you go! Good job :) I don’t have the patience for hosting my own anymore – now I just go dump whatever doesn’t sell on Craiglist to the Salvation Army. Used to have a blast doing them while younger though!
@Jenn – Yayyy! Finally someone here who likes it! ;)
No yard sales yet in my neighborhood. It’s still raining here. But hopefully I can pick up some nice garden tools for my new house. Maybe have a garage sale of my own to get rid of some apartment junk that I don’t need anymore.
You can get some great kids stuff, we troll around the rich areas with tons of yuppy mom for cheap high quality children’s clothes and gear.
Very nice J Money. The potential of finding something REALLY valuable makes yard sale hunting fun. Just be careful…I see a lot of hoarding shows which seem to point to people getting addicted to buying yard sales stuff.
@Jenna, Adaptu Community Manager – Yeah!! I’ll even help you if it aligns with whenever I’m there next ;)
@Brent Pittman – I was JUST telling my wife we should do that!! We ended up in a really nice area this weekend, and WOW did I want everything there ;) The problem sometimes is that it’s all crazy expensive too – even for a yard sale. I wanted like 3 antiques at this place that were all going for $400-$500 a piece, jeesh.
@BusyExecutiveMoneyBlog – I hear ya loud and clear! I will be careful! :)
Great finds with the coins!
Thanks! They were the ONE main thing I wanted to find over the weekend, so you can imagine my surprise when I did! :)
@J – Coming to PDX anytime soon?
I can’t even remember the last time I went to a yard sale, it’s been forever. I guess I don’t mind so much since I’ve been decluttering and minimizing. Nice finds by the way. :-)
My husband and son will be camping out at the annual Cub-o-ree tomorrow (rain at night, predicted-yowza!) so I will be romping around doing my Yard Sale thang. I am SO excited!
Nice haul. I have about 30 silver certificates, and some confederate script that’s pretty cool. Oh, and about 10000 wheat pennies, all HIGHLY circulated.
@Jenna, Adaptu Community Manager – Hopefully! I need to at some point :)
@Jen @ Master the Art of Saving – We’re going again tomorrow – can’t wait!
@Cathie – Coool!!!! That is awesome :) Tomorrow’s gonna be a great day!! Yard Sales all over!!
My favorite yard-sale anecdote comes from a friend whose sister was a super-saler, a Jersey girl who dragged her kids out every Saturday to buy.
One day her 4-year-old boy was looking at the “free box,” and picked out a little Happy Meals toy.
“Those are free, honey,” the yard-sale hostess said.
He looked at her and responded with what he’d heard his mom say so many times: “Would you take a quarter?”
Ahhaahaha…. gotta love it!
Great findings J.! I see you love yard selling and thought you might be interested in our new website: http://yardmama.com
Yardmama is a marketplace for buyers and sellers to discover one another. Sellers have a dedicated online presence to post and promote various sale listings including yard sales, garage sales, moving sales, and virtual sales.
Buyers can search for yard sales or virtual sales locally or across the country. All sales are done between the buyer and seller – no selling fees and sellers keep 100% of their money.
Cool! I’ll check it out, thanks :) Love the name…