Just put a big ol’ SUCKER sticker across my forehead. When I went back to the Springdale Salvation Army and they had not only one but TWO mystery pallets for sale, I knew I was going to be hauling a bunch of junk home. I just couldn’t resist. Here was my thought process, in a nutshell:
1. Though I am very poor right now, and $35 IS a lot of money, it’s a small enough amount that one or two good finds from the pallet could recoup the investment.
2. I got some fun old finds at this Sally over the weekend, so I knew they had old stuff being donated.
3. The boxes looked like stuff people had just dropped off, so I could believe that maybe they were untouched by Sally workers hands and just thrown, sight unseen, on the pallet.
Here’s what my pallet looked like before I hauled it all home:
It’s the mystery aspect of this that gets me! Even knowing what kind of crap was in those boxes, I still look at that and think, oooooooh, anything could be in there!
In reality, this is what I salvaged from that massive pile:
Yep, that’s it. After two car trips worth of boxes, necessitating a ridiculous amount of finagling between Justin and me since the last trip had to be sans babies and carseats to fit everything in; after an hour or two of sifting through the detritus; and after another hour of boxing it all back up and (for the first load) shamefacedly taking it to another thrift store, that’s the sum total of my “winnings.”
These birds are old and pretty but each has at least one chip, so I won’t be able to sell these.
I pulled these owls out, thinking I would spray paint them, but when I was setting them up to take this picture I thought — they’re kind of cute just the way they are. Do you think so?
This stack of old cotton pillow cases was pretty sweet, and should look better once they’re out of the washing machine. That fabric you see, all blurry, in the left hand corner of the photo is a set of curtain panels in a wild 1960s print. They’re in perfect shape, and MIGHT be of interest to someone who was looking for that groovy, crazy kind of 1960s color explosion.
This sampler is pretty sweet. One like it sold on eBay for $17 recently so I might be able to get a couple of bucks out of it at the barn sale.
A couple of frames to spray paint and a small clothes pin bag.
If the Great and Powerful Internet is to be believed, these are Murano glass fruits. They’re really beautiful. They had to be scrubbed down, because they were covered in grease (seriously, after going through the boxes, I was badly in need of a shower). They sell on eBay for either NOTHING or $100. One of those things where you really have no idea how much they’re worth. I think I’ll price them kind of high for the barn sale and be A-OK if they don’t sell because I wouldn’t mind having them for myself. They were definitely the highlight of the pallet. I kept a few rolls of off-brand Contact Paper, because I’ve been using it in the Silhouette, and a set of hair curlers (that’s kind of gross, I guess, second hand curlers, but they seem like they’ve never been used) and not pictured are three large frames and a couple of bushel baskets.
Want to know what I didn’t keep? Here’s a sampling: 43 gross Tupperware lids. Half of a coffee maker. Three sampler sized PERSONAL LUBRICANTS (if you know what I mean grossgrossgrossgross). About 20 half-used shampoos, conditioners, lotions, and deodorant (grossgrossgrossgross) bottles. Tons of plastic cups. Some of the weirdest DVDs I’ve ever seen. Books on tape. Pots and pans from the stone ages. A frog collection culled exclusively from the Dollar Store. Some weird clown paraphernalia. And just trash. Straight up garbage, peeps. It was disgusting. I’m going to try and take this second load to the dump but if I have to pay I’m going to have to drop it back off at another thrift store and the cycle will continue. I feel horrible about that. On the other hand, the Salvation Army CLEARLY is using this pallet thing as a way to get suckers like me to pay a fee to carry off their garbage: NOT COOL, Salvation Army, NOT COOL. I was afraid that it would turn out to be items that had sat on the shelf for ages, never selling, but instead, it’s stuff that they took one look at and knew they couldn’t even put on the shelf. Those fruits were in a separate, smaller box in the bottom of a big box filled with crap — that’s the only reason they sneaked through, I think. Even if those happened to sell for $100 on eBay, as one set did, I don’t think it would be worth it, because of the quandary of what to do with the metric ton of crap that you don’t want to keep.
Does anyone else’s SA or Goodwill do this pallet thing? In the 17 years I was haunting Chicago’s thrift scene, I never saw it, so I think it’s safe to say they don’t do that there. I would love to hear from someone who had luck with it. Although, I do not need any incentive to try this again, believe me. The second load was so much worse than the first, because I was still hopeful while loading my first trip in the car; for the second one, I knew I was hauling nothing but crap, crap, and more crap. Insert sad face here.
I did find a few things at the Goodwill in Springdale, though, which made me feel a bit better.
I love that bird, the Toby pitcher is kind of cool, and the yellow pottery and plate will stay with me for the yellow dining room I’ve got going these days.
This fish bottle has sold on eBay a couple of times, recently, for around $20. Except when it’s not selling at all or selling for $4. eBay is SO UNPREDICTABLE these days. He’ll be coming to the Barn Sale with me.
I love this Irmi switchplate. I’ve had one just like it for years and years; in Chicago, it was in the kids’ room, but I haven’t put it back up in the new house yet. I’ll put this with my vintage kids’ room stuff at the Barn Sale.
I need to stop buying and start cleaning and pricing.
by Lara Jo
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