Stupid People Should Not Have Garage Sales (except for my benefit)

I spent a bit o' cash this morning at a rummage sale. One that I drove an hour due to one word in their ad on Craigslist: comics.

Holy ****, Batman! WHATTA HAUL!!!

This guy told me why he had all the comics he did: apparently one of Marvel's first editors lived nearby and when he died, his family sold the comics and original art. The editor had quite some collection. HOWEVER--- the garage sale guy did not bother to find out anything about the comics, he just liked them. Eventually his wife told him to get rid of them and as they were having a rummage sale anyway....

So I spent $80 on comics this morning. And among my personal collection now lays pristine copies of Batman #36 (1946), Superman #56 (1949), Avengers #8 (1964), Captain Marvel #50 (1943), and 25 other early edition Silver-age classics (from the likes of Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers, Fantastic Four, Action Comics, Thor, and others).
29 comics for $80 = $2.76 each. The issues specifically mentioned are worth over $100 EACH.



All I'm going to say is that if you don't know how much something is worth, don't sell it at a rummage sale. 'Cause I'll buy it and laugh my ass off all the way home :D

State of Sales

I'm a yard-sale junkie. Yard sales, garages sales, rummage sales, you name it.


Estate sales are the most telling. Everything someone once owned at "name your price" deals. I enjoy them most because you can see how the former owners lived; it's almost intimate. You see their photos, taste in clothes, music, art, where they ate and slept, all the clues about their worldly life.

Plus there's usually a treasure waiting to be found. Something that makes me laugh or smile, or a child's toy I too once owned, or a book I've read- something that makes me feel a connection to these people. Sometimes a real find like an old book. My own tastes are so random that finding something is easy.

But there's something nasty about estate sales. That the possessions that defined someone mean so little and go for pennies once the people have gone. That all that they leave behind are knick-knacks and junk that people will haggle over. They sadden me because one day, this will happen to my things, in my home.


In a way, I look forward to that day and it makes me wish I believed in an afterlife where I could watch as a spirit or ghost. Watch people look an awe at my bizarre collection of curios, like a civil war cannonball next to a silver spoon (sooo waiting for someone to ask about that so I can say "there is no spoon"), next to a coffin nail with my age engraved on it. See people laugh a random object, like my photo album of B/W snapshots of Yellowstone Park from the 1950s. View people's eyes widen at my stairwell, mixed with mementos of my favorite films, music, and the like and weapons ranging from swords to axes to more exotic hand-to-hand objects de mortis. I wonder how many people will try to figure out who I was or what kind of person I was or whether they met me at some point.


Estate sales are why I stopped caring about my future. Knowing that everything I do leave behind will eventually be divided up and sold to the highest bidder? Ha, why worry about it?
I live for my amusement, my enjoyment, me. And right now, I'm laughing my ass off ;-P

Wednesday #9

OK, 2 things:
1) this didn't fall on a Wednesday, and
2) I'm using this to cover last Wednesday and today.

Saturday and Sunday, I hosted a yard sale. "Hosted" because I was the one who started the idea and I also had the only yard. My friends Powder and Lemon Drop also sold items there.
While not new, a yard sale is something I haven't done in a long, long time. In fact, the last (and only) yard sale I was involved in was when we moved from Wisconsin to Texas. I was 6, and my sister and I were in charge of making the signs. When I showed my dad the sign I had made, he pointed out there is no "b" in the word but "garbage sale" was probably more accurate.

We had a pretty good number of customers Saturday- one lady came back 4 times and bought more items on each trip. Sunday was very slow, with more people looking than buying. Overall, we each made some extra $$ and got rid of stuff we didn't really want/need. Although I found it funny that each one of us bought stuff from the others.
For myself, the best part was sitting around and chatting with my friends. On Sunday, I bought pizza and we sat there having a belching contest (still WINNER!).