A couple of weeks ago my parents were in town and we wanted to go to some sales. Since we had my 3-year-old in tow we opted for one-stop shopping and hit a huge school-fundraiser rummage sale. This sale happens twice a year and you always hear people gushing about how great it is. It’s notable that these usually are not yard sale regulars.

I hadn’t been to this sale in years and didn’t really expect it to be great, and … it wasn’t. The sheer quantity of stuff was pretty impressive, and it was quite well organized, spread out into three separate areas in a multi-building school (the gymnasium and two other large halls). But it all just seemed so boring. (In fact, it reminded me a bit of what I imagine the Oprah hoarder sale would have been like, except for perhaps a slightly more diverse selection of goods.)

Also, it was crowded as hell (even showing up a couple of hours after it opened). I don’t mind dealing with crowds if there is good stuff, but when everyone is mindlessly shuffling through crowded aisles and trapping you in a corner just for stuff that seems it could have come from your average thrift store, it’s lame. I did spend some time looking around, and eventually came out with one book. One! (To be fair, there seemed to be a decent book selection — not super cheap, but there were a couple of things that I definitely would have picked up, if I didn’t already have copies at home.)

Since it was so uninteresting (other than the size and crowds) I wasn’t even going to blog about it, but when I looked at my photos they kind of cracked me up. Can’t you just feel the crazed shopper vibe? It almost seems like it should be from some rummage sale zombie movie.

Oh, one other thing: I saw a guy standing in the middle of the dish aisle, looking around through binoculars. That is definitely a first.