Garage Sale-ing for Gifts?

$60 worth of NEEDED stuff for $6

Okay, so I need to work a little on my photo skills! Anyway, behind the oil painting is a paper shredder, which I nabbed for $3. The woman having the garage sale said she consolidated her boutique office to her home office, and no longer needed two paper shredders. I looked up the cost of paper shredders, and a no-frills model like this one would be about $29.99. It works great, and I have been needing one for years. Also at this sale: A hip tee for Jonah, three tops, a pair of shorts, and a pair of pants for Phoebe, and a sturdy canvas, ready to hang on a wall. This last item is for my artist, Ez. It has a pleasing picture painted on it already, but it’s nothing I loved. Instead, for 50 cents, I’ll let Ez have at it, painting his own masterpiece over the existing depiction of flowers and fruit. The best part is, instead of saving his artwork til Kingdom come (and never getting around to framing it), I’ll pop this on our wall with pride as soon as the paint dries.

Beads, books, and tops--most of it giftable

My friend Holly had this garage sale and I made out like (say it together now) a BANDIT IN A BONNET! Oh yeah! For Princess Phoebe, I got a brand new book about drawing animals, a brand new hardcover journal, a bunch of beads and girlish craft supplies Holly and Grace never got around to doing, and a couple of tops, one for me (“Peace”), and another for my 10-year-old niece. Holly tried to give me this stuff for free, but I think I threw five bucks at her. Still, such a deal. Phoebe’s getting the book and journal as part of her Christmas present. 

Christmas gifts for my brother, my husband's cousins gift exchange, and at least one nephew

My fellow garage salers, let us consider Christmas when rummaging through the flotsam and jetsum of other people’s stuff. Seriously! My A-1, Honeybun favorite thing to buy at a garage sale is hardcover books. If I see a table laden with books as I’m cruising slowly down a street, I will slam on the brakes like an old lady afraid to hit a squirrel. At this last sale of the day, I cleaned up, and crossed a few Christmas gifts off my list, six months early! For Dan (if you’re Dan, don’t read this) I got three books, including “Up in the Air” by Walter Kirn (you know, the George Clooney movie), a nice trade paperback retailing for $14.95. $50 worth of books for $2. For Doyle’s cousin exchange (which makes it sound like we exchange cousins…maybe not a bad idea?), we are asked to bring a $15 gift for both a man and a woman for the zany ruckus of a pick-a-number gift exchange. Hopefully, one of the books will work for each category ($2, total). And I always get my nephews and niece an article of clothing and a book. They have come to depend on this like Santa Claus and the Sugarplum Fairy, so I don’t want to do anything else, now that half of them are grown up and married or engaged. My one nephew is itching to become a pilot, so for him, I got “Marine One,” which seems to involve a helicopter and the White House. It’s a $10 book, for .50! Yes, it may seem cheap to you to brag about how I am buying Christmas gifts with the change rattling around in my purse. It is cheap, let’s be frank. But why OH why would anyone pay full price for something, just because they were giving it as a gift? Will the recipient love it? Is it in giftable condition? If your answers are yes, yes, than I ask you, would it not be tackier still NOT to buy these gifts at garage sales, for pennies on the dollar?

I did nab a pristine copy of Nicholas Sparks’ “Dear John” at this other sale, and that, dear readers, I shall give to my beloved mother. Why? Because she loves Nicholas Sparks, the book is in perfect condition, and since I paid TWENTY FIVE CENTS my budget for her gift is wide open for more goodies, old and new, as I find them in the next six months. I like to call this maximizing my gift budget. If, say, my budget for my nephew is $20, that means I still have $19.50 to go, and I’ve already gotten him a wonderful book he’ll likely enjoy. See what I mean?

Try garage saling sometime with a view to gifts, and see what treasures you can haul home.

So, a word about the wine. As I was browsing the books at this fine woman’s sale, it occurred to me that she and her friends were having some sort of wine and munchies. When I commented on it, I was told they have “happy hour” every Friday at quittin’ time. Then I was invited to their subsequent gatherings (having proved myself as a kindred bookish soul), and poured a glass of nice red Shiraz. $80 worth of books AND a glass of wine? Best Garage Sale Ever!