Saturday, May 12, 2007

West Plano yard sale report: on the road to becoming a coffee hound?

By Claire Hoffman

PLANO — Mission: Still looking for rug for my sister.

The trend I’m noticing in West Plano is that a lot of these subdivisions do neighborhood sales. They’re not all alike. I've been to ones that were organized, with 20-30 people participating. This one had 4 people, and they weren’t really near each other. The funny part of it was that two other people were browsing for yard sales at the same time I was. When I went to leave, they'd follow, as if we were in a caravan.

The first place I went to, the guy didn't have a lot of stuff. Maybe 3 folding tables, kitchen paraphernalia and a couple tools. No rugs. It just so happened that he had a couple of things I wasn’t looking for but wouldn’t mind having. One was a toaster. It was all filthy. It wasn’t shiny – it had that greasy film you get after a few years. But the cord wasn’t frayed, and there were no scratches. I could tell it wasn’t destroyed.

The coffee grinder, I don’t have one. I never bothered with that because it wasn't that important to me -- not until a friend made coffee and I tasted how good it was. After drinking that coffee made with fresh beans, I got spoiled. I wouldn’t go out and buy a new grinder. But for a couple of bucks, I’d give it a shot.

The phone just looked cool. It was silver and shiny which seemed good for my sister, who collects old phones. I figured, if she doesn't want it, I'll keep it.

Only the coffee grinder was marked, for $5. So I went up to the guy to find out the prices. Unfortunately, I got stuck behind this woman who was buying a vaccuum cleaner. He was spending forever with her: she wanted to plug it in, see how it worked, attachments. He was like the vaccuum cleaner salesman. She bargained and got it for 10 bucks. He even helped her put it in her car.

I was still standing waiting to find out how much the phone was, but when he got done, he started talking to someone else. I said, HEY over here. I had the three things in my hand, and I asked, "Can I give you $10 for these 3 things?" He goes, "Wellll..." But I stood there. So he sold it to me. Then, I was leaving and he says, "Oh wait, this headset goes with that phone." I said, Okey dokey, and left before he decided to charge me for that, too.

When I got home, I used this soft-scrub cleaner and cleaned all the gunk off the toaster. I like doing that kind of thing because it’s immediate gratification. It's a pretty basic toaster. Simple. But I’ve been using my broiler the few times I’ve made toast. I’ve already made a piece of toast.

Today's take: Coffee grinder, shiny phone, shiny toaster.

Total: $10.

This story was submitted by a member of the Pegasus News community.

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• Antiques and Collectibles

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