If you have too much junk in your life, I have a great suggestion for unloading it on some unsuspecting sap who has not yet figured out that at some point he also will have too much junk in his life. Sign up NOW for the annual citywide garage sale being hosted May 2 by this newspaper. Get rid of all of that stuff and generate a little cash to boot!
Actually, you kind of need to hustle if you are going to be involved in the citywide sale. Friday is the deadline (5 p.m.) to hand me your completed form and your $10. The map will be printed in all three of our papers the following Wednesday. Extra maps will be available at local businesses (and at garage sale sites the day of the sale), and the whole shebang will be advertised in the Wichita Eagle garage sale section several days before our big event.
See? If you have stuff to sell, this would be the weekend to get it done!
The Mister and I always study the map, read the descriptions of what is available, and plan our “attack” on those sellers who have the very things we want. (And yes, we already have too much junk in our lives, but we just never know what valuables might be waiting for us at the next place on the map!) It is like being on an annual treasure hunt.
I admit that every once in awhile we snag a really nifty item that will sell well on eBay or that we can actually use. Usually The Mister finds it hard to walk away from hand tools. We have 471 hammers, 234 screwdrivers, 62 pipe wrenches, and a bajillion little paper bags and coffee cans of nails and screws. But hey, a person can always use a bajillion and one, right?
Some years back I got some dishes at a garage sale in Wichita — eight or nine pieces of a certain kind of 1930s or 40s pottery that I had never seen before. I just had a gut feeling they were unusual and would bring a nice chunk of change on an auction. I bought them for two or three dollars apiece.
Our son-in-law, old What’s His Name, listed them for me on eBay and they sold for more than $500. Not too shabby! I am still on the prowl for a few more of those pieces.
So get your name and your list of good junk on the map by Friday afternoon. I can’t wait to see what you pile on your tables!
— Susan Marshall