Saturday, May 19, 2007

West Plano yard sale report: end table redux

By Claire Hoffman

PLANO — Mission: Show the West Plano yard sale drill to my friend visiting from out-of-town.

My friend Cheryl is visiting from Florida this weekend, so I brought her along on my yard sale excursion. We got up and out early. She likes to stop and put on makeup and have coffee, but I said nope nope nope. So we were out by 7 a.m.

I'd already looked through the list for sales that started on Saturday; I usually skip the ones that start on Friday because, by Saturday, a lot of stuff is gone.

I saw that a question had been raised about the use of "yard sale" versus "garage sale." From what I’ve observed, it’s regional. If you’re from the north, it’s called "tag sale." When I lived up north, I would go "tag sale-ing," but now I go "yard sale-ing." Down in the south they call them both garage sales and yard sales. The reason they call them garage sales is that they put their stuff for sale in the garage, as opposed to yard sales where the stuff is sitting in the front yard.

One so-called phone table, "antenna" included, with 3-out-of-4 legs perfectly functional.

Cheryl found something almost right away. She bought these hanging clay pots. They look like little circular mugs but without handles. The first one has a short string, the second one has a longer string, and they tier down. You hang them out on your patio.

These were a mess, and the rope was all decomposing. The woman wanted $2. Cheryl offered $1. The woman said, "I’m firm at $2. If I don’t get $2, I’m just going to keep them." So Cheryl gave her $2. She said, "How come everybody else can bargain people down and I can never do it?"

We were headed for the next sale on my list when I saw a guy putting out a sign, so we detoured to where it was. It was an older couple with their son and his wife, selling all kinds of stuff. The funny thing is, they had 8,000 end tables. I spent months looking for an end table, and they had end tables in all different styles and shapes: Glass with metal bottoms, wood tables with drawers.

But they had this one table that caught my eye. It was a narrow table with an iron bar that arcs out from the back of the table and over top of table. I asked them, "What is this? What is it for?" The lady said, "We think it’s an old telephone table." She wanted $7.50 for it. It was in pretty good shape, but one of the legs was broken off. I said, "Can I give you $5?" And then before the lady could answer, Cheryl started bargaining for it. She started saying that she'd had a yard sale where she had these pillows and someone offered her $3, and she didn't take it, and then later in the day had to give them away for $2. The lady still didn't say anything, so I took out some money and said, "I’ll give you $6." The lady said, "OK."

Even though the leg is broken right off, I think it’s very cool. It shouldn’t be too hard to fix.

We were just about done when we saw another sale, where I bought a book of poems. It's a huge book of poems that you can put in your bathroom, and you can open to any page. I like having those around. It was 50 cents.

Today's take: Clay pots, telephone table, book of poems.

Total: $8.50.

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

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• Antiques and Collectibles

Comments

twisteddog Anonymous

Whaddaya need a book of poems in the bathroom for? Maybe some antique expert can weigh in on what this iron bar is?

2 years, 5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

twisteddog Anonymous

I usually just drag my ass on the grass. It makes me feel closer to nature than Walt Whitman ever could.

2 years, 5 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Sherry Miller Verified

I'm wondering if Cheryl's de-bargaining effect cost you an extra $1 for the table.

I score you highest on the poetry. If it's good poetry, 50 cents is a solid bargain. If it's bad poetry, you performed a good deed removing a public nuisance.

1 year, 2 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )