I think I've mentioned before that I am not a very good talker when it comes to talking deals at garage sales & flea markets. I just find the good stuff & Zach makes the offers. We're a good team.
Well on Saturday we ran into a nice, yet a little terrifying but totally awesome lady who ran a fruit stand slash yard sale thing. When we walked up, we were greeted by a terrifying Doberman who actually turned out to be the sweetest & well trained dog. (Big dogs scare me to death!) After some digging around, we found some cool stuff. Then Zach got to talking. Usually I tense up & pretend I'm not listening during this because I always feel pushy when trying to negotiate & Zach is always so confident.
We discovered that she has a lot of things she's getting ready to set out in the spring from her mother's estate. After a failed attempt at a preview, Zach asked if there were any other places we should check out while we're in town. She told us of a garage across the street owned by one of her friends full of junk. Zach lit up & I got nervous. Did I really want to dig around in someone else's junk? Would this really be helpful? We don't know these guys? But Zach got the contact, we went to get lunch, then Zach got a call saying that the guy was home & would open the garage.
After donning our work gloves & me sweating out of nervousness, we pulled into the parking lot of an old gas station/storage unit for this family. I was afraid we were going to find loads of dumb stuff...but we actually found some cool stuff (some of which I haven't photographed yet!):
This pretty cool
Dachshund planter type deal. I think it would look great as an herb planter or as a desk organizer. I was so tempted to keep it for myself! It's currently in the
vintage shop.
A groovy
mushroom wall hanging that seems to be made of some sort of foam. It's 3D & the detail is really cool. I cleaned it up a bit & the yellow just popped! I listed it today too along with another wall hanging
here.
We also found a wonderful Poloarid Land Camera in great condition even though the case was torn to shreds! Unfortunately the photos of that are still on my card! I guess I didn't take them off! I'll show ya later. We found a lovely milk glass lamp & Zach picked up a cool set of shot glasses in a little case, too.
Then we hit up the Goodwill because the person we asked said that they usually have cool stuff with good character. Since the town seemed small, we trusted that she knew what junk her neighbors would be getting rid of. While we dont' usually buy up things from thrift stores, sometimes we pop in to see if we can find any unique stuff.
We found a solitary
Merry Mushroom Mug from Sears & were sad to see that no other Merry Mushroom items were present. But he's a good little guy to replace a broken one or just to have a single cup of coffee. Lots of Mushroom stuff in the shop!
And these
diner style mugs that I want to drink shakes out of everyday were found at the Goodwill. Since we like story telling & memories, it's rather hard to justify things from the thrift store unless they are super unique. To me, thrift stores are the
retail store of vintage. They're fine for everyday items & I buy things for my own collection but t
he real gems come from digging & talking to people!
I guess you could say our first Picking Experience was a success & I'm more open to the opportunity now. I did open up & converse more about our brand and our venture with the fruit stand lady to see if that would help open any leads.....and I didn't feel too uncomfortable after it. But I still don't think I could do the haggling & negotiating!
Have you ever been Picking? Where do you find little gems for your collections?
