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by Rosemary Lee Potter
Special to Tropical Breeze
Most of the Saturday garage sale ads list
a number of collectible items or categories which draw folks to
that sale. Logical! However, one of my favorite findings when out
garage sailing is to come on a sale where there's a Whatzit?
table. Sure to attract attention, I almost always wind up buying
something from that pile of stuff -- even if not the actual Whatzit
-- somewhat eagerly when I'm knowing there's somebody else also
"suddenly" interested. A bit of smug winning. You know the feeling
-- victory in the fray.
People planning to have a garage sale
might want to consider a deliberate move to provide some items
which arouse curiosity -- which may or may not be actually
identifiable by the seller. In this case, sellers have to be
thick-skinned when someone buys something and then immediately
hollers with glee!
"You didn't know what you had? Ha!
Ha!"
Something about the "Does anybody know
what this is?" seller statement magnetizes potential buyers. They
rush to see if they can be the expert one to tell the rest of us
what it is -- even if guessing -- and, of course, then regale us
with the story of how they happen to know. I often find out
collecting adventures to share in just that manner.
Here's what happened a Sunday afternoon
or two ago in a real garage sale. I say real because the sale was
actually held in the front driveways of the Eastport Exxon Service
Station in Newport, Tennessee -- as in "garage."
I drove in and found the "whatzit"
antique/collectible table smack in the middle of many others loaded
with nice, general goods. There were several sellers and a number
of buyers as well, these buyers rather spread out. The buyers
immediately flocked to that curiosity table when one of the sellers
casually called out, "Well, what do you think this is?," while
pointing at some metal gizmo on the table.
My husband Peter and I flocked over at
once. I hadn't a clue, but he said right off, that the device --
to me just a something loaded with gears, clamps, handle, what
looked like a stone on a spit, was a sharpener, like a knife
sharpener.
"I'll buy it," Peter said. To me it
looked like a very old item, no matter its use, which had
languished on some dirty barn shelf for a time. Something we
needed? Not really. Moreover, the price was not yet bargained. Yes,
the tag said $40, but husband quietly work out a deal with a seller
for $25.
Meanwhile, although already sold, the
device continued to attract other folks who shared information and
also identified it. While at the table, they became interested in
other items with good age on them -- and bought some of those.
Shows that focusing on something intriguing increases focus
period.. Also bought was then a small red stool of hand-hewn wood,
perfect, one buyer informed me for milking "like when I was a
kid."
While other buyers allowed me to take
photos of beloved items from time past, they made sure that all
watching knew these items were already purchased! Besides our knife
sharpener, there was a tin and wood berry pan, a portable sewing
machine with case which a man bought for his wife's quilting group
and numerous bottles, still dirty from retrieval in some ravine or
under an old house.
When I arrived home later, Peter showed
off some other Whatzit stuff he'd acquired both at that true
garage sale and at other stops along his workweek rounds. There was
the Model-T Ford coil. Non-functional now. A basement had yielded
some formerly very handy devices -- a wooden towel rack, a wooden
toothbrush holder and a tin matchbox, all apparently handmade by
some family long gone.
When I talked with other veteran garage
sale vendors both in Florida and Tennessee, they agreed that
relatively mysterious items do make great garage sale features or
draws. They get buyers talking and engaged in sharing their own
experiences. Sellers find that it's particularly helpful if the
item served a special function such as a tool and if it looks
complex. It's suggested that such items still be placed among
other more obvious antique pieces and with a high enough price tag
that they do not vanish home with someone before having served a
useful attraction purpose.
For example, even though Peter had
purchased the sharpener, he agreed to leave it there a little while
as an attention-getter while he browsed close by for other items.
Indeed, other shoppers kept remarking on the sharpener, even though
they now actually knew both what it was and that it was sold. Maybe
they appreciated it in the adventure of the day. As a friend
suggested, however,. they might also have been delighting in not
having bought it. That too at garage sales. Not remorse, but
rejoice.
Well-known appraisers in big cities such
as San Francisco and New York. make their livings and reputations
by identifying items and offering valuations for insurance and
possible auction reserves. The items they examine, say on PBS's
"Antiques Roadshow," may be misidentified by owners or might be
rightly identified, but through the experts, surprising new and
important details. Scrimshaw maybe isn't on whalebone, no,instead
carved on a hippo's tooth, that unusual fact heard recently on the
popular TV appraisal show. Such details might increase value... or
not.
Identification, especially with what is
called authentic "provenance" or a back story of details or
connection to historical events is both fascinating and
immeasurable as to pricing. None of those high goals take away from
our own collecting adventure paths as we look at both "whatzits?"
and "know-all-about-its" in those driveways, garages and yards.
Perhaps you will be the one person who knows exactly what something
is and it's worth -- far more than you'll cleverly pay. Just
don't holler your amazing, glorious fortune. That's so bad
form.
All this psychology is what makes it a
collecting adventure in the first place. Buyers, may you have many
such good-find days, even bewaring a bit. So too, sellers, may you
determine a special something which will be a buyer beacon and
bring in those big bucks! Should your ad perhaps read -- "also,
mystery items?"
© 2008 Rosemary Lee Potter. All
Rights Reserved.
Rosemary Lee Potter is a confirmed victim
of the collecting bug and can be reached by e-mail at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or write to her in care of Tropical Breeze,
P.O. Box 585, Safety Harbor, FL 34695.
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