Eight birdhouses, $1 apiece. Red and yellow bench, 8′ long, $20.
AT THIS MORNING’S ROUND OF YARD SALES, I made out like a bandita, and I owe it to my friend Ada. She wanted to schedule our Saturday morning walk for 9AM, about an hour earlier than usual, so I had to get my yard-saling ass in gear earlier than usual.
Photos/postcards of local scenes (some repro, some old), $1 each
Normally, to a sale slated to start at 9, I roll up no earlier than 8:45, but today, since there was only one 8 o’clock sale listed in my yard sale oracle, the East Hampton Star, I swooped down on the 9AM openings well before the appointed hour. Thus, I was first, or close to first, at two or three of them (I found only one closed to “early birds.”)
Hand-painted, double-sided, plywood fish, already hanging on my kitchen wall, $1
With grim determination, a steady hand on the steering wheel, and my handy laminated map by my side, I squeezed in five or six sales in an hour, scoring bargain after heady bargain. Everywhere I went, I heard comments in my wake: “Wow, she got a deal,” “Why did you sell them so cheap?” “If only I had dusted that table, I could have gotten more,” “Why didn’t you show those to me first? I would have taken them.”
Signed, framed watercolor of old houses in Rockport, Maryland, $20
Gloat, gloat. From now on, Labor Day weekend looms in my personal mythology as the absolute best for yard sales. I vow to set that clock earlier, down that coffee faster, and skip the lipstick.
Moroccan (or Moroccan-style) painted table, $10