On the way to the bowling alley on Friday, we stopped at two rummage sales. One was a fund raiser for a church preschool and you were supposed to donate what you thought the stuff was worth. It's the first time I've seen a sale like that and I've got to admit that I had a hard time with it.
What's stained old embroidery worth? I think it'll clean up, but at the moment it smells funky and is having a time out on my porch. How about old poker chips in banged up wooden holders? An old cross stitch kit that has a price tag on it from someone else's garage sale where it obviously didn't sell?
There was a young couple in line ahead of me who were interested in a wooden table and chairs. How much is that worth? (Remember that St. Vinnie's was asking six hundred for the twin of my awful set.) I didn't see what they paid, but the lady in charge suggested ten or twenty dollars. I came up with what I thought my box of dirty linens and random stuff was worth and doubled it, because I assume that the church preschool I know absolutely nothing about must be a good cause.
Stuff at the other sale was three dollars a bag. That's easy, until you only find a couple of little things that you want. I got a couple of old paperbacks from the 1940s and a stack of cloth napkins that are unfortunately pink, but should be useful.
And the cross stitched poodles! I saw them out of the corner of my eye as I was debating whether to put my meager bag of stuff back.
Aren't they the most adorable thing ever? They were in a frame with glass and the glare made it impossible to see the details of the stitching. I think they look older than 1981, which is what was written on the back of the frame, but the edge of the stamped cross stitch says 1977 so that date must be pretty close.
There was another rummage sale a couple of weeks ago because the local pool is raising money to replace their hot tub. The ladies there were urging people to stuff their bags as full as possible. No wonder I'm confused about these fund raising sales!
What I'm actually looking for are old boxes or trivets to use for finishing cross stitch projects, but I haven't found those yet. If you want to see everything that came home with me, it's in the video below.
A friend of mine has a "pay what you want" sale each year which benefits Cure SMA (spinal muscular atrophy, which her son has). Because it's for a very good cause, I generally write a check for $25 no matter what I've found. One year I had great luck (like a set of excellent knives and some good organizational stuff for my sewing room) so I gave $50.
ReplyDeleteAt a church sale, I'd probably do what you did -- figure out what I wanted to pay and add some more on that because it's a good cause.
Yes I know what a skate key is and I actually have used a skate key. In the beginning we wore shoes made of leather with soles girls white or saddle shoes boys brown or black our skates were metal wheels attached to adjustable metal frames the edges attached to the shoes with a metal lip over the soles of the shoes to loosen or tighten to grip on the edges of the sole of the shoe you need a skate key or you dads wrench
ReplyDeleteThe crocheted "doilys" where for placing on the table then the tea pot on top and for placing your servings dishes on on your dining room table. Like a hot pad to keep the table safe from the hot dishes.
Skate keys for me are like
Shoe button hooks were for my mother