The Columns That Could Have Been- What we Learned From Our First Estate Sale

Let’s begin at the beginning ~

The First Lesson ~ 

Arrive early if your preview revealed a treasure you must have. Despite all the very best intentions to arrive 30 minutes prior to the opening, we arrived 10 minutes after and just missed our target item.  Let GPS be your friend!

Some of these sales are buried deep in old established maze-like neighborhoods. Be sure to park close if at all possible, while you may walk in empty handed, you will hopefully leave laden with unexpected and unwieldy treasures, which you, all by your little old self, must ferry to your car and load.

 The Second lesson ~

 Prepare for the smell! Dust, mildew, age, decay, possibly a faint whiff of urine. If you are lucky, that will be the extent. If you are not, the smell may hit you like a wall, searing the inside of your nasal passages and causing you to lose your appetite for the next full day.

The Third Lesson ~

If you see it and you think you want it, put your hand on it immediately! Pick it up! Don’t set it back down planning to ‘get it on your way out’. If there was a particular item you desired, find it – First! And quickly but firmly pick it up, tuck it in the crook of your arm and hold on. You are on the defensive here. Now, this does not mean you can’t act like a lady. Be sure to smile your sweetest smile at the mildly aggressive competition while securing the decorative French coat hangers. Perhaps even answer her query with ‘yes, they are lovely, I had just had to come back and get them’, then turn and with a slight wave, make for the sales table.

The Fourth Lesson ~

 If you are sitting below a card table, on a dusty, dirty carpet, creating a tripping hazard for other shoppers, and going through slightly grimy boxes of small plastic toys and parts, and your partner says, ‘I think these plastic columns may go with that fantastic metal doll house you found’, get them, even if you think your mother …I mean partner, may be wrong.   You do not want to find, while scouring the internet in an attempt to value said lovely doll house, that it is worth considerably more if you have the plastic columns and portico that she handed you and you firmly discarded. They were only 50 cents apiece.

The Sixth Lesson ~

Bartering, just try it. If you’re not good at it, take someone who is. A couple of things here, if your daughter…I mean partner, is trying to barter, and mutters that the stains on the vintage linen tea towel might not come out, do not reassure her you can get it out. That is not the time. She will shoot a look of daggers at you. On the way to the car you will be informed that ‘from now on you shouldn’t say anything while I’m trying to get the price down’.  More on bartering another time.

The Final Lesson ~

  Wet wipes and hand sanitizer.  Trust me, just please trust me.  You will not want to touch anything, until you’ve had a chance to remove a layer of… let’s just call it dirt. While my hubby, the Major, contends that the main ingredient in hand sanitizer is fear, it is still a must for this situation. If nothing else, it makes you feel better.