Do you smell that? Yep, it’s the smell of wet cardboard, and moth-eaten sweaters–yard sale season has finally returned!
If you’re new to Cool & Collected, I should warn you that the next few months are likely to be filled with posts like this one, where I show off the treasures I find at the yard sales here in Virginia. This year, my prospecting may be a bit spotty due to the fact that I am now a soccer dad and Saturday mornings are spent on the sidelines watching kids run around and occasionally kicking a ball.
This Saturday was just such an example–on the ride home, after my son’s game, we saw a sign pointing to a yard sale, so of course we made a quick detour. We didn’t find gold in that garage, but I did find these old bumper stickers in the FREE bin…
This guy was a collector and probably had a hundred stickers, but I picked out a few of my favorites. I gave hm a quarter since I felt badtaking his free stuff and not buying anything. Here’s where I steal a feature from Pawn Stars and American Pickers and tell you what I paid and what the i feel the items are worth, based on recent eBay sale prices…
Spent: $0.25
Value: $0.00 (but I like them!)
We only stopped at one more yard sale on the way home, but it was a good one! It was already 11:30, and I thought anything worthwhile would be long gone, but fortunately, I was wrong. Raise your hand if you played with one of these when you were a kid…
I have long known that vintage Fisher Price Little People are worth their weight in gold on eBay, (You doubt me? Go ahead and click that link, I’ll wait.) and this castle is the playset everyone wants. I sold one of these not too long ago with a bunch of figures and accessories, but there was only the castle this time. It’s in pretty good shape, but one of the stickers is torn, and a rainbow sticker was added to the roof, but I should be able to remove that. (TIP: Always be on the lookout for the pink dragon from the castle set, and Snuffleupagus from the Sesame Street set. They’re easily worth $20+ each.)
Spent: $2
Value: $20-25
I bought this huge bag of Construx parts, mainly because I saw a Darth Vader figure in it. I was hoping there might be more Star War figures so I took a shot.
You never know what you will find in a bag of old toy parts. I was happy to find a Ziploc bag filled with Construx instruction manuals and decal sheets…
And these awesome Masters of the Universe and Transformers inserts…
And there were a few Star Wars items including these pieces from the Ewok Village…
And a couple of action figures and Micromachines. Oh, and it looks like the rope from Zartan’s sled!
My kids and I are absolutely going to try and assemble those Construx sets before selling them.
Spent: $6.00
Value: $50.00
I found a box of Western/Indian Playmobil toys with tons of pieces, and this practically new 4-CD Star Wars Soundtrack box set was just a buck!
Spent: $3.00
Value: $60.00
These next two items were purchased for our own enjoyment. My kids love Battleship on the iPad, so I thought I’d show them this old school Electronic version, and that Spacewarp roller coaster looks like a blast. We’ll play with them until we get bored and then sell them to someone else to enjoy.
Spent: $4
Value: $30
If my sons behave at a yard sale, I give them a quarter to spend. This is what my first-born bought with his quarter…
That frisbee is actually a 1973 glow-in-the-dark Wham-O and sells for ten bucks–It must be in the genes!
Spent: $0.25
Value: Priceless (have you ever seen a 4-year old boy with a whoopee cushion?)
All in all, it was a great omen for this year’s yard sale season, and I am already excited to head out next Saturday. Did you find any treasure this weekend? Let’s hear it!
I picked up one of those FP castles with all the parts at a garage sale last summer. Thought I would put it up on ebay and make a little money off a $2 purchase… Now it sits in my living room. It is my youngest favorite toy.
The great thing about having kids is that they get to play with all the yard sale finds! My boys LOVE going to yard sales for this reason. Then, once they get bored with the toys, you can unload them on eBay (the toys, not the kids). Win-win!
Great finds Brian! I will be hitting up the sales in my area very soon too.
Good luck, John! Let me know if you find anything good. 😉
My son and I also hit a few lawn sales. I didn’t find much that I was interested in but he got this amazingly cool Buzz Lightyear telephone for $2. We plugged it in and it works! When the phone rings the rocket Buzz is strapped to lights up.
http://www.oldphoneworks.com/the-buzz-lightyear-telephone.html
Great find! There’s quite a bit of Toy Story items out there that are always tempting. At $2 that phone is a steal!
Oh man, I love my FP Castle! Thanks for the tip on the dragon. My parents brought up some of my old toys a couple years ago and there was a lot of misc stuff from the castle. The royal family, dragon, knight, carriage, horse and accessories. Will tweet a pic, just went and dug it all out =)
that’s great, Dex! I don’t know if I ever owned this castle or played with a friend’s, but I certainly remember playing with that dragon. Every kid had FP Little People, and they are easy to find at yard sales and flea markets. I always scoop them up and have made a tidy profit selling them in lots on eBay. The fact that they are small and easy to ship is also a bonus. 😉
Dude, yes I played with that Fisher Price castle. SO AWESOME. And I have that 4 cd Star Wars soundtrack set. It’s amazing. But I paid retail. Nice grab for $1.
I’m looking forward to burning those CDs into iTunes so I can listen to them while mowing the lawn–after listening to the Nerd Lunch podcast, of course. 😉
Brian,
Those Playmobile, Fisher Price castle and the MOTU poster are sweet. You should frame that MOTU figure poster. I love it!
It is tempting. Seeing all those MOTU figures on the wall would be pretty cool.
My hand went right up at the office (luckily no one cares what I do) when you asked. I loved the FP castle as a kid. Great finds. My most recent rummage find is here:
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e251/kngfu/IMG-20120421-00247.jpg
Nice! Some MOTU, Thundercats and even Chuck Norris! Surprisingly, I almost never come across MOTU figures around here, but they seem to plentiful everywhere else.
I loved that FP Castle. Since I never got a Death Star Playset as a kid, the castle filled in nicely. Loved dropping Luke into the drop floor into the dungon without closing walls.
Oh yeah! It was always fun to see how many action figures you could crush behind that staircase! 😉
nice. these are always my favorite posts. you find the best stuff. I saw that spacewarp thing somewhere this weekend too. I wanted it just for the font on the box, but I passed on it anyway. I ended up with a 1982 CGL table top video game instead, one called Galaxy Twinvader. I begrudgingly paid $9 after I couldn’t get the guy to go any lower and was convinced myself it wouldn’t work, but it turns out it does, and it’s probably worth $30-40. So, not bad.
That Twinvader is cool looking! $2 for countless hours of pleasure+totally worth it.
Man, I’ve missed doing these posts. You, me, and Will West should get together one of these days at a flea market — the thrifting/picking world just might implode. 😉
Another great haul! I tried finding some sales this weekend, but didn’t find any(I think it was because of the real gusty wind we’ve been getting). I can’t wait to see what else you find in the coming months. You know that I will keep you updated on my findings. 🙂
The hunt is on. Good luck Jason!
Aw yeah garage sale season! Wait, I live in California. Every season is garage sale season! 😉
Nice haul! I pulled in a huge rubbermaid of Legos (with about fifteen minifigs including gems like the glow in the dark ghost, R2D2 and the first Han in Carbonite) for only 20 bucks last weekend.
Nice! Legos are tough to come by these days. I used to find them all the time, but the secret is out.