The Thrift Monster: Retirement Community Sale and A Car Load Full of Stuff

I recently had the biggest thrift haul that I've ever had in my life! I think it was the first time that I literally stuffed my car full of yard sale finds all in the matter of a few hours. I'm talking stuffed, too! Every available spot in my car was filled to the brim and I couldn't even see out of my rearview mirror and only had a little peephole to see through my passenger side window. I guess you could say it got a little dangerous in that way.
I couldn't help myself. There is a large retirement community right around the corner from my house and they were having a neighborhood wide yard sale. Let me add, that these usually make for THE BEST yard sales. Not only are they conveniently all located close together, but they always have the oldest (true vintage) and most unique items ever. I hadn't even planned on thrifting that day, but when I saw their community wide sale, I had to go. And I'm so glad I did! Not only did I come away with a car full of great stuff for the shop, but I also met some really nice folks AND came home with a giant ocean painting for free.

-insert ocean painting here-

but i can't because i'm having technical difficulties uploading the photo.

damn.

I'll try again tomorrow.

But, I'll tell you, it's pretty great.

Picture a beautiful, blue and foamy white wave about to break, close to the shore, but no beach.

Just a few rocks in the foreground.

And a calm, blue sky with just a hint of clouds in the background.

Surrounded by a nice, golden stained wood frame.

Trust me, it's nice.

And big.

It's about 2 ft x 4 ft

And it looks nice in my bedroom.

One particular sale was an estate sale and it was ran by one very spunky lady with a great sense of humor. I enjoyed chatting with her just as much as I enjoyed rummaging through box after box that she was putting out. The woman who she was selling for was an avid country line dancer and she had the wardrobe to match. She had been collecting western shirts with the quintessential pearl snap buttons for years upon years. Some were of the simple plaid variety and others were adorned with detailed embroidery, contrasting fabrics and shotgun wrists. Some of them are beautiful works of art. I quickly grabbed every one that I could find along with some great 60s dresses too. The woman holding the sale asked me what I was going to do with all of the shirts ( at this time I had set aside 3 boxes overflowing with clothes). Normally, I avoid telling sellers that I am a reseller, because often times that leads to them jacking up the price, but I couldn't lie to her; she was too nice and funny. We haggled a little bit and she still gave me a great deal on the clothes and I took nearly the whole wardrobe. She let me add a few knickknacks in with the price, too. This was the first sale I went to and it proved to be a marker for how the rest of my day was going to go. Lots of stuff and lots of great deals.
Because of the close proximity of all the sales, I was able to walk from one to the next, but I quickly learned that I did not want my car to be too far away, because I was acquiring so much at nearly each sale. I was mainly shopping for the etsy store, but I found a good amount of things for myself, including, a few old board games with all the pieces included and some random kitchen tools that I've had my eyes out for. Oh, and an awesome 80s boombox for only a buck. It works, except the tape deck moves slower than it should and I'm pretty sure it just needs cleaned out with one of those cans of air for electronics. It's super dusty.
During my excursion, my phone died, so I wasn't able to take any pictures. I really wanted to, too. I especially wanted to get a picture of myself with the folks who gave me the free painting. They are from the same area in the midwest that I am from and we had a nice long chat about how the midwest is the best. I made sure to remember where they lived, because I plan on taking them a plate of oatmeal scotchies for Christmas. It's the least I can do for them giving me an awesome piece of art for free.
It was such a good day shopping at yard sales. Not only did I get some great deals for some amazing things, but I met a ton of great people. And lucky me, they are all sort of my neighbors, as they live right around the corner. I'm looking forward to their next community sale, but not just because they had great stuff to sell, more because they were all such nice people. Seriously, every single person was so wonderfully friendly. Like I said with the first sale of that day, I had just as much fun talking with the seller as I had rummaging through the goods for sale. And any thrifter will tell you that thrill of the hunt is intoxicating, so add to that a most pleasant human interaction and we're talking about the best day ever.
So, with the mountain of things I've had to sort through, launder, clean, organize, photograph and list, I've kept myself pretty busy for the last week. I haven't had time to post any new interesting blog posts. I've tried to force myself to finally write a good blog and stick to it, because it's happened far too often that I've neglected any blog I've ever started. One of my problems with that is that I always think I MUST have pictures to write a compelling post, so if I don't have pics, I won't do a post. I have to remember that's bullshit. I don't normally like to read books with pictures, so why do I NEED to have pics in my blog? I fucking don't. I'm a writer, first and foremost. Writing was the first thing that I was ever good at. So, I should always remember to write my posts even without the visual gratification for the readers. I should be good enough at writing to paint a picture in the reader's brain and that should suffice. At least, I hope.
Ahhhh, but as I digress into my own personal issues with how I should be a writer with skills enough to not be backed up with photos, I actually do have photos to show you. I'm going to show you some of my most recent listings that all came from my most wonderful and fruitful day of yard sale shopping. But, as I promised in my "about section" or whatever it's called, I will not make this a blog that only shows "shop updates" as my posts. That is, to me, a lazy fucking blog. I won't do it. I will give you some first looks and shop updates and blog exclusive deals, or what have you, but I won't make that what this is all about. I'll try to post some interesting shit for you as well as first dibs pics of new stuff I'm listing.
So, here are a few of my new listings that I've been feverishly working on and which I also purchased from all those incredibly nice folks at the 55+ community yard sale. The first photos will be of ones I have already listed, but the last ones will be ones that are currently NOT LISTED. This is where you get the advantage to reading this blog. If you see something you like here, you get FIRST DIBS. All you have to do, is send me a message or comment that you want that item and if you are the first one to respond, than you will be the new proud owner of said item. It's as simple as that. Keep in mind that my car was FULL of stuff and this is just a small fraction of what is to come. So, check back in a couple of days and I will be posting more.