For the first time so far this year, there were a good number of sales listed for Saturday! Karl wanted to come along so we all met up bright and early at 8:00. Two sales near us started that early, both in the same direction, so we started heading that way. The truck ahead of us was driving super slow and Karl recognized the drivers as sale regulars, so when they turned right toward the estate sale, we went left to hit the garage sale.

Meghan recognized the house as the same place where she’d made her mindblowing Aveda score back in this blog’s early days. This time around, there were a few beauty supply type items (hairstyling books, bottles of haircolor, etc.) but only one lone Aveda item, which Meghan grabbed, maybe just for old time’s sake. I bought a vintage hairstyling head for $2. I already have three of these hanging out in my spare bathroom and lord knows I don’t need to add another member to the flock, but c’mon — two dollars! How could I not?

Meanwhile, it didn’t seem like we missed much at the estate sale. We did spot these elaborately hand-crafted chairs, but nothing much we wanted to buy.

After a quick coffee stop we headed to what we considered the day’s main event: a sale whose ad filled us with both anticipation and horror:

“Big time collector/horder must purge……..too much to list. We have not priced much because there are floor to ceiling boxes FILLED with things… Please enter at your own risk. There is not much light and there is stuff everywhere. CASH ONLY. LOTS OF MISC.”

We got there right about 9 and people were already crammed inside the garage. Stuff was everywhere, with shelves and tables leaving only tiny walkways to get through. Moving around was a bit challenging.

Sorry the photos came out so blurry, but at least you can get a little sense of the chaos.

The stuff was actually overall pretty cool. My guess is that the stuff had been purchased by someone trying their hand at reselling, who bought way too much stuff and then for one reason or another just gave up. Everything was vintage (or at least vintage-looking), and there were multiples of some items … like a big stack of velvety sombreros, or four vintage toasters sitting on the floor. Some items had antique mall price tags and others still had thrift store tags. There were also tons of clothes in just about all sizes (including a bag of crusty vintage baby items) and cool pieces of fabric. I snagged a big geometric print barkcloth curtain out of this bin.

The thing that was annoying was that along with all the sale-worthy items was stuff that was just plain junk. Boxes filled only with crumpled newspaper, or full of bottles (and not cool vintage ones). I could totally understand not wanting to go through and sort/price everything, but if they had gotten the obvious garbage/recycling out of there, it would have given everyone a little more breathing room. As it was, it was a little nuts. The sellers also refused to let anyone leave a pile up front (no room!), so people had to carry their stuff around (or buy an armful, dump in car, and repeat). A few times we saw people set things down, then freak out once they realized someone else had picked one of “their” items up and walked away with it. It was definitely every shopper for themselves.

We all paid for our stuff — nothing was marked, but they were pretty cool on prices. The sellers said they would be having “part two” for the inside of the house soon, which I’m sure we will try to hit. Meanwhile, the trunk was already starting to fill up! We then backtracked a little to hit the rest of our list. At one of these sales, Meghan made me take a picture of this pony whose hair had turned into dreadlocks.

At the next sale, Karl emerged from a box of records with a stunned look on his face. Turned out he had uncovered one of his holy grail records: an original copy of an album by pro wrestler turned musician Beauregarde! He was flying high on that score for the rest of the day.

We hit a few more unremarkable sales, then decided to end with what had been advertised as a huge fundraising sale. It was pretty big, but mostly had kid clothes and really boring housewares. Then I realized we weren’t all that far from another estate sale, so we decided to drive a little further and hit that one. On the way there we saw an unexpected sign and made a detour — to a different estate sale that I hadn’t even seen advertised. And it was full of stuff! I did overhear the sellers mention they’d brought some things in that weren’t part of the house, which explained all the “collector-y” stuff up front. The rest of the house was more typical estate randomness. Meghan mentioned there were some ancient toiletries in the bathroom so I went over to investigate.

Then I looked down at the bathtub, which for some reason was the location chosen to place these ancient unopened sample packs of feminine hygiene products.

My mind was blown by seeing a box of Rely — the tampon that was notoriously recalled in 1980 due to its association with Toxic Shock Syndrome. I had to buy that one. Left behind (and not photographed) was a box marked “Colon Tube.” Ick.

In one of the upstairs bedroom we found this handcrafted dog plaque that we all sort of loved, but no one ended up purchasing.

Meghan got sucked into a room full of clothes for a while and I ventured down into the basement. It was full of guy stuff – tools, crusty books, and a few wacky old signs.

There was also this shelf full of various adhesives and cleaning products that didn’t seem to have been touched for some time.

After what had to be about forty-five minutes we finally dragged ourselves out of there. Then we continued on to the original sale we’d planned to hit, which was a total bust! It was lucky we stumbled across the other one to cap off the day.

Now, would you look at this trunk full of junk?! For early March, this is pretty dang good.