Meghan let me know that her mom and aunt were coming down to hit sales on Saturday. I’d missed out on making the rounds with them the last couple of times they were here, but it certainly wasn’t deliberate! Guest stars are always fun.

There was an outdoor church rummage sale right up the street, so we stopped and checked it out. I couldn’t believe the “S’mores Maker” appliance – isn’t the whole point of a s’more that all you need is a flame and a stick?

They had a lot of stuff and were pretty organized. For example, someone had carefully laid out a wrench section.

Meghan gasped when she found these boxes of patterns, since we’re pretty sure they’re same boxes we saw at a different church sale a couple weeks back (which are in our video)! Not sure if there’s some church-to-church rummage-sale-leftover donation system going on or what, but it seemed kind of strange.

Next we hit a fundraiser sale at someone’s house. We each picked up some books, and the guest stars bought a few odds and ends. I was intrigued by these robot earrings (but not in a “wanting to own them” kind of way).

Then we headed up to the Blue Ridge neighborhood sale, which claimed to have over 30 houses participating.

A lot of the sales were pretty generic, but a few stood out. This one had a bunch of vintage furniture …

… and this one had a bunch of fun funky junk.

At one sale they mentioned that the sales had started at 7:00. The ad I saw had said 9:00. Hmmm, maybe this is why we weren’t finding a lot of magical treasures …

I noticed this Seattle romance novel and had to take a photo. This whole box seemed a little like “library of a bored housewife.”

We had all bought a few items, but it just seemed okay. Things got exciting when we headed into a different section of the neighborhood and I got to listen to Meghan AND her aunt AND her mom all snarking at the bad driver ahead of us at once.

Finally we got to another sale. This woman had a TON of clothes for sale.

I’m not sure how much clothes you have to own to be able to sell this much of it at your sale. And it was nice stuff — lots of Anthropologie labels and other high-end brands. Most of it was pretty tiny, but I pulled out a few things that seemed like they’d fit … then decided they just weren’t my style. Meghan grabbed a couple of items, then completely fell into the zone and filled up a gigantic bag of stuff. I think it was that thing where once you decide to buy one or two things, it suddenly gets really easy to just keep throwing more stuff in. But not in a bad way — she got some really nice stuff and if anything said she wished she had bought more, since the lady gave her a really good deal.

At this point the trunk was fairly full and Meghan was out of cash. Since we were close to home we decided to do a drop, hit the bank, and make a snack run before continuing on.

We headed to a block sale that was mostly boring, even if one house did have a bear costume out front.

They were getting creative with their labelling …

… and not just on the bear suit.

We drove away without having found much, then had to stop the car in the middle of the street to take a picture of the wackiest item on the block.

We decided to head out to a new area. This is where things got a little strange.

In front of this turquoise house were boxes and boxes, mostly containing packaged sheets from the ’60s to the ’80s. They were all either twin or full sized, and there only seemed to be top sheets. The woman explained they had been her mother’s and she didn’t like fitted sheets. Okay then.

I was about to give up when she mentioned there was more stuff inside. How into turquoise do you have to be to use it for the outside and inside of your house?

There were dishes, christmas crap, and a huge mound of more sheets (and scarves, fabric, and god knows what else).

There was a guy looking through a pile of maybe 50 records. Meghan started to grab a cool stripey ’60s LP holder, and the guy told her that was his. He was with the ladies running the sale, but had apparently claimed it for himself. Then he told us he was putting the records in alphabetical order — why, I do not know. Then I saw another LP case (with polka-dots!) and asked if that was his also. “No, but I don’t think she’ll sell the case without the records,” he said. This seemed strange, since they had seemed eager to get rid of stuff. I took the records out of the case and he grumbled about having to alphabetize those now too.

Meghan pulled out a few gems from the fabric mound, and I took my lone item, the LP case, outside. The woman asked, “Did he say he’d sell just the case?” I told her he said to ask her. “I don’t think I want to sell it without the records,” she said, explaining that then they would have nothing to hold them in. Like any old box wouldn’t do? I asked how much they wanted for the records, thinking if they were cheap enough maybe I’d buy some just to get the case. She wanted $2 each for the crappiest records known to mankind. I walked away empty-handed and annoyed.

Next up was the “Wallingford Yard Sale Tour.” They had put tons of sandwich boards up, but it turned out to have only six sales. It was a fundraiser for a school and the sales we hit were heavy on the kid items. And the just bad items.

Then we were happy to run across a sale that wasn’t part of the tour. It had a burning man kind of vibe. Partly due to the stuff, and partly due to the booming dance music blasting from the porch.

Things were cheap, and their boxes were funny.

And we saw the second bear suit of the day.

Meghan’s mom bought this huge purple glass ball, then when we got to the car she noticed a scrape on it and said she wished she hadn’t bought it. “We’re right here,” Meghan said. “Do you want me to go get your five dollars back?” Her mom nodded, and her aunt chimed in “You should tell them she’s senile!” I think this is the first time I’ve seen someone go back to a sale to do a return. But it worked, even without using the senility line.

It was time to head home, but we saw signs for one more sale. We were greeted by this elegant young man.

He was not for sale, but they had some good stuff. Interesting books — nothing I needed to own, but a cool mix of oddball stuff. Meghan bought a handful of books and some weird electronic items, including a robotic rabbit that can tell you the weather and wave its ears around — I totally made fun of her for buying this, then it turned out they actually sell for a lot of money. Who knew?

We started to drive away, then had to stop at the corner to take pictures of some of their excellent signs.

Having all of those up in one spot is probably overkill, but I guess an excess of signs is never really bad.

And here is part two of the trunk (with a big bag already removed).

Not the greatest scores ever, but all four of us bought stuff and had fun!