I'm a swap meet junkie

[austinado16]

Okay, I have to admit it.  I love going to swap meets.....and well, yard sales too.  Over the years I've scored some fantastic deals on the cool items, saved a boat load of money, and had fun doing it.

Of course now that I'm a PUP owner, I have a rejuvenated sense of purpose!  In the last month or so I've found a super nice 2 lamp battery powered Camper/RV ceiling light for a buck, a really nice gas Weber "Go-Anywhere" grill for the PUP, and a portable fluorescent folding Eveready "Illumalamp" for a buck.  Those would total about $100 if new, and I paid $10.

Anybody else love finding treasures by rooting around in other people's "stuff?"  If so, share some of the best finds you've made!

[AustinBoston]

Anybody else love finding treasures by rooting around in other people's "stuff?"  If so, share some of the best finds you've made!

I once picked up a torque wrench (for checking the torque on my aluminum camper wheels) for $1.  It has a slighty bent indicator arm (which does not affect it's function...mostly). In one direction (tighter with 1/2" sockets), it reads 5-ft lbs. when idle, so in that direction I will add 5 lbs to the reading (torque to 105 ft-lbs when spec'd to 100) and in the other I subtract 5 (torque to 95 when it's spec'd for 100).

Austin

[austinado16]

You can tweek the indicator arm back straight and have it zero'd out.

[Trailman]

Coleman stuff....can't resist it, if i see a yard sale i walk through it and scan for liquid fuel Coleman stoves/heaters.

[austinado16]

Nice! The table too?  That big stove is in incredible condition.  Those are all over our local swapmeet this time of year.  I was holding out to find a really clean one because my PUP didn't come with it's original take-out stove.  But then the camping gods smiled upon me, and I scored a free '83 Starcraft 19' Starflyer that was rotted to the gills, and the guy had kept the stove and the dinette table in his garage all these years.  They were in great shape.  I was also missing the original dinette table.  So a double score there!  Not to mention the Dometic fridge....and then I cut off the camper and pulled up the rotted floor and made a fantastic little utility trailer.

[Trailman]

Nice! The table too?  That big stove is in incredible condition.  Those are all over our local swapmeet this time of year.  I was holding out to find a really clean one because my PUP didn't come with it's original take-out stove.  But then the camping gods smiled upon me, and I scored a free '83 Starcraft 19' Starflyer that was rotted to the gills, and the guy had kept the stove and the dinette table in his garage all these years.  They were in great shape.  I was also missing the original dinette table.  So a double score there!  Not to mention the Dometic fridge....and then I cut off the camper and pulled up the rotted floor and made a fantastic little utility trailer.

Good one, i wish i could find a Dometic 3-way for my apache, had one in a previous TT (Boler) that worked well.
Re the table..no the table/kitchen was not bought at a yard sale, it was sent to me by a fellow Apache camper owner after i had inquired about one similar in a pic, it was kicking around in his garage, it now goes on all my camping trailer outings   :-()

[ScouterMom]

I, too am an admitted resale 'bargain' junkie.

I'll take it further, though - I hate to see things go to waste and will make every effort to reuse, refurbish and recycle.  I have picked up stuff that other's have put out on the curb for garbage, and either recycled it for my family, given it away, or refurbished it and sold them in my own garage sale.

I like to refinish furniture (when I have time!) and have picked up many items from curbs or garage sales. one curbside find was a 8 HP Toro snowblower!   Now THAT was a find - a neighbor a few blocks from my brother's house in St. Charles. It looked to be in great shape - almost new! The guy said it leaked gasoline, and put it out at the curb 2 yrs ago @ Thanksgiving. I asked if it had gas in it - and he replied, 'no, it all leaked out last spring and I haven't used it since. I don't want to mess with it, I'm just going to buy a new one."  so Jon and I loaded it into my van, and took it home.  I figured that at the very least, the boys could take it apart and learn about motors.  $10 worth of carburator parts fixed it, and the boys now have the biggest snowblower on the block for their yard business! (and I get my drive done for free, as I let them use MY snowblower!  LOL!)  Similar snowblowers at my store sell between $500 and $600!

EArlier this summer, my store had 4 screen houses that were returned as damaged, missing parts and marked for destruction.  My manager gave me all four - told me to see if I could get one full screenhouse out of them and scrap the rest.  I'll also be using some of the aluminum parts for the camper's awning and screen room.  What do you think?  Nice screen house for free!

 

I recently had someone give us a used Dometic refridgerator for the camper - it's not the little square one - it's a little bigger (maybe a 2.9 like my med size dorm fridge?) - but will still fit under the beds in my 'tall box' Starcraft.  It was taken out of a 70's Rockwood PUP they demolished for a utility trailer.  Don't know yet if it works - It's on the back porch waiting to be cleaned and tested.

But I think my best 'deal' was not for me, but for a friend; Henry.  

I used to help run a singles group at my church. Henry was really in bad shape financially.  A young man in his early 30's; no education, no family, probably borderline mentally disabled - Henry had a difficult time keeping jobs and reliable transportation, and usually rode his bike everywhere.  He was great with kids, and would stop by my house often and play with the dogs, or play board games with my son.  His car dying completely eventually caused him to loose his job, and he become homeless.  A few of us helped out by inviting him for meals and giving him rides, another friend of mine from the group - Steve, helped him sign up for food stamps & housing assistance in a furnished rooming house. Henry managed to find and keep a job in a restaurant - low pay, but steady enough to get him into a government subsidized apartment.  Henry owned NOTHING but some books and clothes.  What little he had was, literally, garbage. When we moved Henry from the furnished rooming house into the  1 bedroom apt.  EVERYTHING he owned fit into my little Olds Ciera, with room left over.  I gave him a double air mattress and an old sleeping bag to sleep on  - they were his only furniture aside from some ratty lawn chairs.  

The group put the word out, & I posted a notice at the bank where I worked, looking for any old furniture - a bed or sleeper sofa, any donations for kitchen stuff etc, to outfit his new apartment.

A few days later, one of the bank Trust officers called me into his office.  He had a deal for me and my singles group: A pair of elderly sisters in town owned a Duplex, and their estate was in trust at our bank.  They had planned to BOTH move into a local nursing home, when one of them unexpectedly died, so the other moved into the home early.   What little family they had was distant - great-nieces and nephews that were out-of state - the family had already been thru the property and removed what they wanted, and the Trust now had to liquidate the rest of the remaining sister's property.

If my singles' group would move EVERYTHING out of the property, We could do whatever we wanted with the contents of the house.  Give it all to Henry, sell anything he didn't want, or throw it away. Just completely empty the house so it could be cleaned and sold. The Trust officer said one bed had to go back to a medical supply place - it was a rented hospital type bed - but there was at least a couch and some other furniture.  They would place a dumpster in the driveway for the junk we didn't want (they had to re- roof the house before it was sold) and the house had to be emptied before the following monday when the cleaning crew was scheduled.  Our labor in hauling stuff out would reduce the hourly fee of the cleaning crew & save some $ for the lady's trust.

I accepted the key & agreed, not having any idea what was in the house - figuring lots of junk and a few pieces of furniture.  But, when you have NOTHING , Like Henry, I figured ANYTHING is good.

So I called Steve, and he stopped by Henry's work & told him (of course, he had no phone) and Sat morning we picked up Henry and took him over to the house to see what we could salvage.

I  remember some of what was there - much more than we expected, for sure.  What I remember most was Henry's face as he went from room to room - first in disbelief and then in joy - like a kid at Christmas.  He kept asking me if I was SURE the bank meant us to take the stuff - and I had to keep pointing out that they wouldn't have given me the key to the house if they hadn't meant it!

the living room had a large old couch - and a desk with a leather top! a console stereo, end tables, lamps, and two LARGE bookcases!  I think there were some armchairs somewhere, and maybe a small TV.  One bedroom was pretty well cleaned out of personal stuff, with a hospital bed in the center - but it had a large (empty) maple dresser  and nightstand - and the bed that matched the maple set was in the other room - with an excellent, firm mattress and box spring! It also had a maple chest of drawers, (full of old-lady clothes) & more bookcases. The bathroom still had the towels, rugs and shower curtains, the linen closet was full of towels and linens for the beds; even their toiletries and over-the counter medicines. There were knick-knacks, pictures on the walls, doilies on the chairs. There were still dishes in the dishwasher, an Ethan Allen maple kitchen table & chairs and (unfortunately) food in the refridgerator & cabinets! yuck! It seemed the owner had just walked away (and she probably had! MONTHS before!)

It was the kitchen that finally got to Henry, though - there was a full set of dishes and pots & pans, silverware, and a MICROWAVE.  I think it was pulling the waffle iron out of the cabinet that did it.  He held it in his hands, sat down on a kitchen chair, hugged it to his chest, & started to cry. He'd never owned his own appliances before!

I will never, ever, forget Henry's face that day!

It was a good thing Steve had a large pickup truck with wood rails!  we made at least three trips, maybe more, ( plus my Olds) to take it all to the apartment.  There was still ALOT that went in the dumpster - magazines, clothes, broken stuff, personal  items.  There was more furniture than even Henry could use with his 1 bedroom apt - and we each brought home a few items. ( I still have a small bookcase and a maple game table I kept) Steve got a new kitchen table for his apartment - there was a nice oak set, with chairs, in the basement, covered with a sheet.  They had ALOT of books - and lots of bookcases.  I'm sorry to say we got tired of sorting them all, and had a deadline - many were musty from basement storage & went in the dumpster.  We did take one carload of them over to the local library on Sunday. There was more furniture stored in the basement and a few pieces in the empty duplex across the hall. Anything the three of us didn't want, that was useable, we took to my house for a garage sale which later netted Henry about $200.

For years afterwards, Henry LOVED to invite us over for dinner - it turned out he was a great cook - in fact, his restaurant job got him interested in cooking, and he eventually got some kind of food service certificate at the local JR college.  a few years back he moved out of the area for a new job - I still get e-mails from him once in awhile.

But that 'bargain' will probably always be my best 'find'!

Laura

[Funrover]

junkie here also     and craigslist is the devil  LOL

[AustinBoston]

You can tweek the indicator arm back straight and have it zero'd out.

Yeah, but then it wouldn't look like junk and someone would want to borrow or steal it.  This way, I can say "It's damaged and doesn't read right."

Austin

[austinado16]

What a great story Laura!  Now that's what I'm talking about!!!

I'm just like you......always bringing something home and refurbing it to either use, hook up a friend, or sell.  In fact, I've gotten so bad about it...or should I say "prolific"...that I almost don't buy anything new any more.  I know that as soon as I do, I'll find it for penny's on the dollar either on Craigslist, the swapmeet, ebay, etc.

Love the snowblower story! What a score, and isn't that just so typical of how people are, and how people like you and I find stuff?

[ScouterMom]

Todd,

I think it's also that some people don't see the 'value' in 'old' stuff - that it is often of better quality than 'new' , even if it isn't as stylish or shiny.  

My mom and I once had a laugh over a young woman in her church circle.  (This young mom was actually close to my age - but the incident happened 10 or 15 yrs ago, so she must've been in her early 30's at the time)

Mom invited her ladies sewing circle to her house for their monthly potluck/ sewing meeting.  It was the first time many of them had been inside Mom's home, as they hadn't lived in the area long.  My mom's 'style' is Early American - and every generation on both sides of the family are creative and artistic.  As the ladies toured the house, many made approving comments on her decorations - many counted cross stitch pictures mom had done over the years, the hand stitched, award-winning wall & bed quilts my sister has made, Shadow boxes, lithographs and copper tooling I had done when I was young, watercolors done by my great grandmother, crochet work by my grandmother, handpainted porcelain my sister made, furniture we'd lovingly refinished together - my family is rich in handmade treasures!

 and this young womans comment on seeing the newly decorated  house? "It's really nice how you used all your kid's stuff until you get some REAL paintings!" :yikes:

I have seen so many (usually young) people turn down beautiful, old, maple, teak, mahogany, & cherry furniture because to THEIR eyes - it looks 'old & dated'  - don't they realized that so much oak & pine is used nowadays because it is so accessable & CHEAP? I have seen people my age throw out good things because they didn't know how (or wouldn't spend the time) to take care of them, or restore them, and spend WAY more money buying some cheap MDF & cardboard furniture from Wally World. (and as soon as that gets scratched up, it CAN'T be refinished, so it gets thrown away, too.)

It's this 'use it up & throw away' mentality that gets to me.

Combine that with a taste for anything that is unique or different  than all the cookie-cutter stuff that EVERYONE has - and I'll go for the old stuff with character any day!

LAura

[austinado16]

Great story!  Sounds like all the yuppie mom's that live in this area....everyone owns a brand new stucco'd home, 2 brand new cars in the garage, a house full of new furniture and nothing's more than 3 years old.

We get the same thing from people who visit us.......1903 Victorian that we moved and then restored to all period inside, from light fixtures to appliances, vintage cars, my old school Suburban that I rescued from the the donation lot at the Goodwill and on and on.

But like you, I live for it!  I hate new stuff and I don't want to be seen in something that everyone else has.