Yard sales also social events

We went to our first yard sale of 2010 last week and picked up a fridge for 40 bucks.

It seems yard sale season has begun.

These sales just seem to flow and go with the seasons. In the winter there are few if any sales. As spring gets closer, yard sales start to emerge like the iris shoots popping up around our backyard pond.

By summer, yard sale season is in full swing. Moving into fall there are fewer and fewer sales so that by Christmas and New Years a yard sale notice in the classifieds seems to be an oddity.

I go to yard sales looking for that uncommon vinyl LP, CD or cassette I don’t have in my music collection. I look for bicycle stuff too. Both The Lady of the House and I look around for stuff we can use around The Stucco Hacienda or our bike shop.

It seems yard sales fall into four categories. There’s the “Buy My Stuff” sale. This is where someone just throws everything out on the driveway with no signs or tags, leaving it up to the buyer to haggle with the seller for the price.

Our favorite is the “Jettison Sale.” This is where prices are low and bargains are to be had. This is where the seller wants the stuff gone. You see folks leaving these sales with armloads of things.

The “$100,000 Sale” is where the prices are high but if you want something bad enough you’ll pay it.

Then there’s the “Million Dollar Sale” where people come and go, generally buying nothing. The seller may be heard saying, “I can get twice that price on eBay!”

Yes, it’s another season of “yard-sale-ing.” If you go, I’ll bet you’ll run into a few of your friends. That’s why I call it THE Saturday morning social thing around here.