Garage Sale Finds

I attended my first garage sale of the season on Sunday. It was being hosted by a community centre that offers inexpensive used goods to the less favoured. As I expected, most of the offerings were junk, but my watchful eye found a beautiful wrought iron coat hook, which I snapped up. Encouraged, I continued to comb the tables and, five tables later, found another identical coat hook!

In my opinion, one can never have too many coat hooks. I've been carrying the same three oiled bronze ones for ten years and have used them in almost as many homes, screwed to the inside of a closet to make a place to hang my purse or on an inconspicuous wall to hang my broom. As I headed to the cash with my treasures, I saw a small MasterCraft(TM) speed clamp that just needed a bit of oiling. I work a lot with my hands and have a fully equipped workshop, so such a tool is very useful to me.

I put the three items down in front of the cashier and she looked at them for a moment. "A dollar?" she asked, obviously expecting me to barter her down. If she had been selling things for herself, I could have countered with seventy-five cents. But the money was going to a good cause, and I was getting a really, really good deal, so I smiled and replied that a dollar was fair, forking over a shiny gold coin.

THAT to me is what garage saling is all about--finding treasure you'll use, not treasure that's a bargain but whose use is dubious.