Last Saturday we ventured out of our usual territory to hit a huge rummage sale hosted by a Japanese community center. Karl said it had been great in past years, so we drove over, passing a ton of signs — now that the weather has finally gotten hot I guess everyone decided this is the time to have a sale! We met him at the rummage sale at 8:30, where people were already lining up for the 9:00 opening.

When they opened the door there was a little confusion about what was where — there were two separate entrances and different areas for clothing, books & records, antiques, housewares, etc. Meghan and I went through the main building and decided to hit the clothing out back first. We were practically the first ones in.

There was a ton of stuff, all neatly arranged in sections. And things were cheap! Meghan started to clean out the vintage clothing while I dug through the purses. I kept finding stuff that was almost cool, but not quite. I had picked up a tiny little Coach purse priced at a buck (!), but then I noticed it had a big rip near the zipper that I knew I wasn’t motivated enough to get fixed. I finally gave up on the clothes and headed inside. There were three different rooms and they were really starting to fill up.

Meghan eventually made it inside and proceeded to find the world’s largest superball in the housewares section — it was the size of a grapefruit. She said it was taking all of her will power not to bounce it in there near all the glasses and dishes. Next we hit the books area, which still had a lot left (even though we’d heard it’d been a madhouse when it opened.) Eventually Meghan and Karl each had so much stuff that they had to make a run to the car before coming back to finish up. We made another pass through the clothing area and each grabbed a couple more items.

All in all, we were there for about an hour and completely filled the trunk.

And there was overflow in the back. I think that tiger picture would go really well with Karl’s tiger rug from a few weeks back!

See that little paper bag on the floor? That’s all I got – a few books, an older Vera scarf with dice on it, and a tablecloth/picnic blanket. Even though I wasn’t buying much I had to agree it was a swell sale. I think Meghan and Karl each spent less than $30 for their hauls and you can see how much crap they bought (even if you can’t really see what it is — that’s the downside of everything being crammed into bags).

Since there was almost no room in the car and we were close by, we decided to leave our stuff in back of Karl’s house while we cruised around to more sales.

Karl had made a list of a few sales that sounded worthwhile. This one ended up being really strange — lots of bellydancing outfits and not much else. (That thing with the colored squares was labeled “ART” — in case you weren’t sure.)

Next we went to a moving sale and drove by a sale that had a big crazy add mentioning lots of vintage and kitsch — kinda too good to be true, and when we got there it looked lame and there was nowhere to park. After a half-hearted attempt to find a spot we decided it didn’t look worth the trouble. I had to be back home on the early side, so Meghan decided we could hit some sales on the way back, then she and Karl would continue on. We soon spotted some prominent signs which led us to this.

Yeah, there better be more! And there was, around back.

It had a weird perma-sale vibe — not being our usual stomping grounds, we weren’t sure what the deal was. Some of the stuff was good, but some was just scary.

Both Meghan and I thought this puppy was real until we got close up.

Most of the stuff was priced high. Karl asked how much the records were and when the seller said “twenty-five,” I really thought she might mean dollars. Thankfully that wasn’t the case. I think he bought one or two.

We hit a few more sales, including one where I bought three squirt guns. Hey, it was a hot day, they called to me. (I’ve already more than gotten my fifty cents’ worth!) Then on to an estate/moving sale … which always seems questionable. Which is it?? Thankfully this one seemed much more on the estate side.

There wasn’t that much stuff … but they did have this “headchair.”

Kind of awesome, no? I am sort of regretting not purchasing it, but I think I’ll live.

It was almost time for me to get home, and we kept seeing tons of signs! It was hard not to pull over. Finally we drove right in front of a big sale , so we made a quick stop. We shouldn’t have bothered.

Meghan and Karl went on hit some more sales — including one that she recognized as the sock guy’s sale, then was crushed to learn that he was no longer in the sock business. Finally, they went back to the rummage sale for the end-of-the-day special, “fill a bag for $3.” They each got a bag and later on, Meghan found $9 in the pocket of a dress that she’d stuffed into hers. Nice!