Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Hunting For Bargains

Thank God it’s Monday, again. I always look forward to Mondays, as they’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you! Therefore, happy Monday.

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#BargainHuntingWeek

This is, among other things, National Bargain Hunting Week. People hunt for bargains in a wide variety of places. Mom loved to hunt for bargains year-round, especially in any department store’s purse department. However, throughout mid-spring to mid-fall, yard sales (or garage sales) are what most bargain hunters covet.

This past weekend, where I live in Michigan’s “Thumb Coast” area, there was a massive, annual yard sale event – the M-25/M-29 Antiques Yard Sale Trail. It’s a highly anticipated event, around here, that has grown by leaps-and-bounds, since it first began in August of 2012.

By the way, Saturday was also National Garage Sale Day, which is always the second Saturday in August. Likewise, the Antiques Yard Sale Trail is also always held on the second weekend in August (except for 2020, of course). On a side note, M-25 and M-29 are connecting state highways, running the gamut around “the thumb’s” beautiful shoreline.

I found several bargains, Saturday, while shopping part of the trail, from St. Clair to Algonac. Mom would’ve been especially proud of the $1 deals I got on purses. I also got 12 Christmas village buildings for my metropolis at about $6 each.

“The Trail” is over 150 miles long, with an endless amount of communities, on and off the beaten path, involved in the event. It wraps around the “Thumb Coast”, from Sebewaing (on M-25), near the southeast end of Saginaw Bay, in Lake Huron, to New Baltimore (on M-29), along the north shore of Anchor Bay, in Lake St. Clair.

They connect in Marysville, near where Mom and Dad once lived. I’m conveniently located less than a mile from where “the M-29 trail” passes by my street. In an event like this, detours of a mile or two are likely to attract the more adventurous “trail shoppers”, especially if they’re signed well.

Good signage should have bold, legible print and eye-catching color(s). Over the years, I’ve found that creative signs entice many “bargain hunters” to stop-and-shop. I’ve shopped different parts of “the trail”, myself, as well as hosted my own sales, during it. Personally, I prefer shopping it – but the traffic can be hectic. Like I said earlier, it’s a big event.

There’s an old adage that claims, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” I have a lot of both. Thus, I’ve recently been going through every room, trying to simplify my life and slim down my belongings, as I enjoy collecting a lot of different things.

I divide everything into five categories: “keep”, “sell”, “donate”, “toss” , and “recycle”; inspired by a short-lived, unique, renovation series on TLC, called “Clean Sweep” (2003-2005). It focused on purging a room that needed re-organization and a makeover. It was hosted by Tava Smiley, with carpenter, Eric Stromer, and organizer, Peter Walsh.

The process included a bit of “hoarder therapy” for the homeowners, from Peter, as to why they hang on to certain things and how to best let go of some of them. Everything was divided into four categories – keep, sell, donate, and toss – being a crafter, I added a fifth category, for myself – “recycle”.

After sorting through all of their stuff, while the “Clean Sweep” crew made-over the homeowners’ room, they held a one-day-only, “prize-winning-competition”, yard sale with all the stuff that went into their “sell” pile. It was a lot of fun to watch the whole process. As a psychology lover, I found the “therapy sessions” enlightening, too.

There are many different terms for a garage/yard sale, including rummage sale, jumble sale, tag sale, white elephant sale, fire sale, (living) estate sale, moving sale, treasures sale, and more. Flea markets are large open places where various people rent space/table(s), from which to sell their “treasures” in a group setting.

Market places are also convenient for shoppers and sellers, alike. There was a time when yard sales and the like were often advertised in local newspapers. These days, though, everything is moving to digital form. You can even have a digital yard sale or flea market. You can also bargain hunt from the comfort of home, now.

#GloriaPitzersCookbook

https://www.balboapress.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-001062253

A wide-variety of interesting information about garage/yard sales can be found at Encyclopedia.com. Similarly, The Evolution Of The Yard Sale infographic at DailyInfographic.com also offers an interesting picture, showing the origin and evolution of the classic American yard sale.

How To Set Up A Garage Sale, by Dave Kushner (June 8, 2021), offers some more great advice; going into details about starting with a clean sweep, making a game plan, setting up shop, pricing to sell, and reaping the rewards. He makes it sound so easy.

FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

As seen in her syndicated column, No Laughing Matter…

HAVE A GARAGE SALE IN ONE EASY BREAKDOWN!

By Gloria Pitzer – Recipe Detective^TM

UNTIL YOU’VE HAD a garage sale, you just don’t know what you’re missing. I’ve just had one and I know! I’m missing three garbage cans, my husband’s workbench, a swing set, four lawn chairs and our station wagon. Actually, those items weren’t for sale, but you can’t refuse a good price when it’s offered to you.

All I really wanted to sell was a few odds-and-ends like seven dozen Ruby Bee Jelly glasses, a Coke bottle mosaic of my mother-in-law, a transistor radio guaranteed to crack plaster when operated by a teenager, an illustrated guide book to Disneyland and my husband’s bowling ball.

Of course, if the truth were known, I just had to do something about the closets before we were cited for contempt by the Pollution Control Commission. The kids were cleaning out their rooms and dragging out microscopes that had only examined curdled milk.

There was an electric train with which only their father had played, a guitar that never played a tune (but made a neat tennis racket), socks that scratched and even their old report cards. But I drew the line when it came to selling their toothbrushes and underwear. I mean, a person has to be reasonable about these things!

I had heard that garage sales were successful, but I didn’t believe it until I saw 23 cars double-parked in our drainage ditch, a pick-up truck on the back porch and a dune buggy in the furnace room!

It takes a garage sale to prove that a woman will buy anything, if she thinks it’s on sale. After all, what can one do with a dead philodendron plant – a plastic one, yet?

I also learned that there’s no exercise so efficacious for the upper arms as standing in the midst of a group of mad women and trying to keep them from taking the rafters apart while trying to get at our storm windows (which I’ll have you know were NOT for sale) but little did they care.

One woman offered me a dollar for the dress I was wearing, and I had to run half a block to catch up with the lady who gave my son 50 cents for the sheets on the clothes lines. Did she care it was my laundry and I had to make the beds before the day was over – and where would I be without those sheets?

I finally had to administer first aid to the two girls who fought so bitterly over which of them was going to drag off to their car a plaid CPO jacket and a pair of blue, worsted, men’s slacks!

Mind you. I wouldn’t have cared under any other circumstances, but my husband was still in them AND he didn’t want to go with either of them. He wanted to stay home and watch the ball game on TV! By 6pm, they had bought everything that wasn’t breathing, barking, or encased in concrete.

As I sat at the kitchen table, counting up the profits of the day, my husband came staggering in, bruised and breathless. ‘You know that guy with the flat-bed truck, who’s been hanging around all day? Well, he just gave me $50 and drove off with our garage!’

It all goes to prove, if I had put a price on those kids of ours, I might have sold them – but, who could afford to feed them once they got them home?

According to an article by Lauren Hamer (Oct. 16, 2017), Items That Bring In The Most Money At Garage Sales, big-selling items include small kitchen appliances & dishware, tools, exercise equipment, jewelry, coats & clothes, camping gear, hunting/fishing gear, artwork/frames/décor, furniture, and games/toys. My yard sales include most of those.

‘Knowing your audience is the key to raking in cold hard cash.’ – Lauren Hamer, Items That Bring In The Most Money At Garage Sales (Oct. 16, 2017)

Correspondingly, these items attract a lot of bargain hunters. However, if they’re not priced right (and you’re not willing to dicker), they probably won’t sell. For a successful yard sale, you can’t just attract the masses, you also have to be willing to sell the stuff cheap.

There’s a “golden rule” for yard-sale-pricing, suggesting about 10% of the retail value, depending on its condition. An item that has never been used and is still in its original packaging can sell for significantly more but not for its full retail value – maybe 40-50% of it.

I get a lot of compliments on the set-up of my yard sales, as I organize things into departments, like a store: “Clothing, Shoes & Accessories”, “Outdoor & Sporting Goods”, “Automotive/Tools/Hardware”, “Home Goods”, “Media & Electronics”, etc. I use eye-catching, tabletop signs, that can be made easily from colorful poster boards and wire hangers.

I combine all my clothes, shoes, and other such wearable accessories together, under one large “bargain” sign that says, “$1 each”. I place and price the coats separately, asking up to $5 each, depending on their condition and the season. Many people don’t want winter things in the middle of summer, regardless of condition, unless it’s priced right.

There are many variables to consider, when pricing – the items age, popularity, and condition, as well as a half-dozen other things. I discovered that Angi.com’s Ultimate Garage Sale Pricing Guide is very similar to how I price my own yard sale “treasures” – reasonably, for my area, so they’ll sell. I ask myself: “What would I pay for that, at a yard sale?”

LAST THOUGHTS…

Enjoy your week – whether it’s hunting for a bargain, finding a bargain, or selling something for a bargain. Celebrate by posting pictures of your treasures on social media, hash tagged with #BargainHuntingWeek.

Thanks for visiting! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my memories of my mom, her memories, and other related things. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at [email protected]. You can also find me on Facebook: @TheRecipeDetective.

IN CLOSING…

In honor of this week, being National Kool-Aid Days, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for “Kool Aid Jelly”; as seen in her self-published cookbook, Secret Make Alike Recipes – Revised (Secret Recipes^TM, Marysville, MI; May 1997, p. 20). As always, I’m asking only for proper credit if you care to share it.

#KoolAidDays