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Yard sale mania: You can find treasures here in the coulee

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Yard sale mania: You can find treasures here in the coulee

For many families, the dog days of summer have arrived. And as time flies by, as it always seems to when the month of August is here, now come a few weeks for getting ready, getting organized, getting your acts together, or, as a corny saying spied on a T-shirt spouts, “Get Er Done.” What is this column’s rant about? Getting ready for the yearly back-to-school event, that’s what. Going through the back-to-school process is a big deal for some families or students and this early fall event might put a strain on your budget, so shop smart, shop sales in the Coulee.

There’s always a carload of bargains in somebody’s yard, just waiting for buyers to grab them up, and last weekend’s sales were a feast of sorts for anybody shopping in GC, EC and CD. With the sunlight beating down relentlessly, heating up the stuff piled up on tables at a couple of sale sites, where metal things and glassware were hot to the touch — shoppers shopped on and on. Oh, for shade trees, a pair of sunglasses and a sip of cool water!

Getting to the yard sales in the morning, early before the heat takes over, has other advantages, such as being on-site first, before the goods get picked over. This tactic allows a buyer perhaps a few seconds or minutes to look closely at some things of interest. Also, early birding is perhaps the way of avoiding crowds, grabbing, and parking hazards. No matter. The bottom line is what’s going on just for you — the hunt, the find, the purchase. How much fun is that?

For many of us, shopping the yard sale circuit for school-related stuff is a given, and searching for clothing, shoes, furniture, small appliances, bedding and rugs and even entertaining games, takes a lot of effort. And, like everything else, this can be fun.

Here’s another reason why. What’s so great about this activity is that you can outfit a college-bound student on a shoestring budget with quality, useful and nearly new items with ease and for pennies on the dollar, saving on that initial, huge cost to get a student set up in a home away from home.

The outdoor sales held in the Coulee last Friday and Saturday featured some of the yard sale standbys: clothing for big and little people, shoes, toys, games, DVDs, electronics, household things, plus camping gear and tools for the guy buyers.

Talk about shopping early, a two-day sale in Grand Coulee, as advertised in The Star, went through the roof with traffic. Or should I say through the tops of the shade trees? Here’s the story. This sale started (really) early on Friday morning when a couple of shoppers showed up at nearly the crack of dawn (before 7 a.m.) and hung around until the sale really opened. So, they milled around, bought some stuff and left. Then, the wheeling-dealing started over an unusual item, a (brand new) stainless steel sink, originally purchased for an outdoor kitchen, which caused a bidding war, with the eventual buyer paying a good price and showing up with friends to load it up. When he paid for the sink, he said the yard sale slogan, “This is a great find.” By 5 p.m. on Friday, the tables at this local sale were practically empty. Such a deal.

 

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