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The pressure was huge.
Everyone’s been to a garage sale but this was the Big One, the Great Glebe Garage Sale, and given my extremely limited experience in the art of haggling, I was wary.
But with $50 of company money burning a hole in my pocket, I headed north from Lansdowne Park, hunting for bargains.
My eye was quickly drawn to a stand with hundreds of DVD movies at $2 each. Despite my Netflix membership, I was ready to go old school and scanned the titles. Within a minute my gaze landed on the purplish case holding ‘The Matrix’ – a classic among Generation X’s and Y’s. I broke my first $5 bill and dropped purchase No. 1 into my reusable grocery bag.
Walking up Bank, passing restaurants and other establishments setting up sidewalk stands to horn in on the pedestrian traffic, I reached Third Avenue, pretty much Ground Zero for garage sale tables.
Heading west, my brisk walking pace slowed to a Walking Dead-like shuffle as I joined the scores of pedestrians navigating between clothes, shoes, toys, books and CD’s strewn across tables and lawns on one side and cars parked bumper-to-bumper on the other.
I checked out a rubber bin loaded with CDs and, after about five minutes, scored Sting’s Ten Summoner’s Tales (from 1993!) and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ What Hits!? albums for a total of $4. Not bad, particularly since the Chilis are on the bill at this year’s Bluesfest.
A little further down the street, Walt Ryan was doing good business selling He-Man action figures, comic books and myriad old video game consoles.
“A lot of this has been picked up over the years from collecting and I’ve been selling a lot online. So it’s a lot of overstock that I have left and it’s a beautiful day to come out and sell,” said Ryan, who earlier sold two Nintendo GameCubes and a PlayStation 1.
“Some of my action figures are hard to let go of but at least they’re going to a good home,” Ryan said, between haggling with a customer.
Video games are cool, but then I saw the yo-yo. The nostalgia that I felt as soon as I looped the string around my finger made this toy irresistible. It works perfectly and has a great weight to it. The yo-yo, which cost me $1 will come in handy when there’s not much going on at the office.
“You don’t see kids playing with those any more,” remarked Beth Dalphy, as I handed her the loonie. A vendor at the garage sale every year for the past 10, Dalphy said that this year she’s getting rid of a lot of unnecessaries before she moved to Saskatchewan for work in the next two weeks.
Even with $43 remaining, the mid-morning heat was sapping my energy and the homemade lemonade, while delicious, was doing little to help.
Time to wrap up: I headed north on Lyon over to Second Avenue, then doubled back to Bank Street. On the way, I snapped up a dandy Rolling Rock pint glass, a Hard Rock Café shooter glass, a Chappelle’s Show DVD for $3, a teapot for the office and the Awkward Family Photos board game.
So, $20 in expenditures, but the experience was priceless: Wait until next year.
A shopper with his bargains at the Great Glebe Garage Sale in Ottawa on Saturday
Shoppers take advantage of the deals at the Great Glebe Garage Sale in Ottawa on Saturday
Shoppers take advantage of the deals at the Great Glebe Garage Sale in Ottawa on Saturday, May 28, 2016. (Patrick Doyle) ORG XMIT: GlebeGarageSale09
A rainbow bear and other toys on display at the Great Glebe Garage Sale in Ottawa on Saturday
How much for the heart? The Great Glebe Garage Sale in Ottawa on Saturday
Oliver, seven, shows off a jaunty hat he bought for a quarter at the Great Glebe Garage Sale in Ottawa on Saturday.
Shoppers take advantage of the deals at the Great Glebe Garage Sale in Ottawa on Saturday.
Shoppers take advantage of the deals at the Great Glebe Garage Sale in Ottawa on Saturday
查看原文...
Everyone’s been to a garage sale but this was the Big One, the Great Glebe Garage Sale, and given my extremely limited experience in the art of haggling, I was wary.
But with $50 of company money burning a hole in my pocket, I headed north from Lansdowne Park, hunting for bargains.
My eye was quickly drawn to a stand with hundreds of DVD movies at $2 each. Despite my Netflix membership, I was ready to go old school and scanned the titles. Within a minute my gaze landed on the purplish case holding ‘The Matrix’ – a classic among Generation X’s and Y’s. I broke my first $5 bill and dropped purchase No. 1 into my reusable grocery bag.
Walking up Bank, passing restaurants and other establishments setting up sidewalk stands to horn in on the pedestrian traffic, I reached Third Avenue, pretty much Ground Zero for garage sale tables.
Heading west, my brisk walking pace slowed to a Walking Dead-like shuffle as I joined the scores of pedestrians navigating between clothes, shoes, toys, books and CD’s strewn across tables and lawns on one side and cars parked bumper-to-bumper on the other.
I checked out a rubber bin loaded with CDs and, after about five minutes, scored Sting’s Ten Summoner’s Tales (from 1993!) and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ What Hits!? albums for a total of $4. Not bad, particularly since the Chilis are on the bill at this year’s Bluesfest.
A little further down the street, Walt Ryan was doing good business selling He-Man action figures, comic books and myriad old video game consoles.
“A lot of this has been picked up over the years from collecting and I’ve been selling a lot online. So it’s a lot of overstock that I have left and it’s a beautiful day to come out and sell,” said Ryan, who earlier sold two Nintendo GameCubes and a PlayStation 1.
“Some of my action figures are hard to let go of but at least they’re going to a good home,” Ryan said, between haggling with a customer.
Video games are cool, but then I saw the yo-yo. The nostalgia that I felt as soon as I looped the string around my finger made this toy irresistible. It works perfectly and has a great weight to it. The yo-yo, which cost me $1 will come in handy when there’s not much going on at the office.
“You don’t see kids playing with those any more,” remarked Beth Dalphy, as I handed her the loonie. A vendor at the garage sale every year for the past 10, Dalphy said that this year she’s getting rid of a lot of unnecessaries before she moved to Saskatchewan for work in the next two weeks.
Even with $43 remaining, the mid-morning heat was sapping my energy and the homemade lemonade, while delicious, was doing little to help.
Time to wrap up: I headed north on Lyon over to Second Avenue, then doubled back to Bank Street. On the way, I snapped up a dandy Rolling Rock pint glass, a Hard Rock Café shooter glass, a Chappelle’s Show DVD for $3, a teapot for the office and the Awkward Family Photos board game.
So, $20 in expenditures, but the experience was priceless: Wait until next year.
A shopper with his bargains at the Great Glebe Garage Sale in Ottawa on Saturday
Shoppers take advantage of the deals at the Great Glebe Garage Sale in Ottawa on Saturday
Shoppers take advantage of the deals at the Great Glebe Garage Sale in Ottawa on Saturday, May 28, 2016. (Patrick Doyle) ORG XMIT: GlebeGarageSale09
A rainbow bear and other toys on display at the Great Glebe Garage Sale in Ottawa on Saturday
How much for the heart? The Great Glebe Garage Sale in Ottawa on Saturday
Oliver, seven, shows off a jaunty hat he bought for a quarter at the Great Glebe Garage Sale in Ottawa on Saturday.
Shoppers take advantage of the deals at the Great Glebe Garage Sale in Ottawa on Saturday.
Shoppers take advantage of the deals at the Great Glebe Garage Sale in Ottawa on Saturday
查看原文...
