On Sunday, I had a double blessing. It was both Mother’s Day and my birthday. My wonderful husband made reservations at a nicer restaurant for all of us, and I was pretty excited. After church, we had a little time before our seating, so we stopped by a local yard sale that was held over from the day before.
As you can imagine, the sale was pretty abandoned and picked over, but my father, who was with us, found a few treasures. There was a large stock pot that I admired. Something that large would allow me to do a lot of soup or stew at one time, enough to make several portions for the freezer.
But there was one simple thing I did that helped me decide not to buy the pot, although it looked like it was in excellent condition. That one thing was to simply lift it up, or actually, my husband lifted it up. Immediately, he could feel how light it was. Lightness might be good for running shoes (which I was blessed with as a birthday gift), but it certainly isn’t good for pots. Aluminum is heavy, while cheap steel is light.
That got me thinking about the importance of testing out yard sale merchandise before buying it. Flip through books for stains and missing pages, ask if you can plug in and test electronics and electrical appliances, hold clothing up to the light to look for stains and wear, and snap lids on and off to determine if an item is worth it. You can also stretch elastic on clothing to make sure it doesn’t have dry rot, look for frayed wires, bring batteries along to test battery operated toys, open and close furniture drawers, test out zippers, etc.
Usually, most yard sale sellers expect and don’t mind the inspections, but to be polite, you can ask. If you do find a problem but still want the item, you can always ask for a price reduction.
You can read more blog posts by Mary Ann Romans here!
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