Family run Estate Sale with 5 Out Buildings...

billjustbill

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Feb 23, 2008
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Texas
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About 10:00 a.m late Saturday morning, we went late to a family run estate sale. You know it's family run when you find Sterling salt and pepper shakers with round 25-cent stickers on them. It was just outside the city limits on a deceased grandfather that was truly a hoarder....

What was left behind was the Textbook Example of "You Can't Take It With You...."

See the pics below, but, "Me? No, I'm Not A Hoarder" spent $30 on another Square D outside AC/DC disconnect for my solar project...old and NEW Ridgid pipe wrenches, pipe vises and tubing cutter, and over Five 5-gallon buckets of stuff. After waiting for more than an hour in the pickup, I loaded up my finds, and took my patient wife home, got a quick bite to eat as I changed into cleaner and rougher butter-soft old bluejeans and a T-shirt, and "Me, No I'm Not A Hoarder" went back.... Spent almost 3 hours going into the house and garage, then 5 different outbuildings with side awnings. Underneath them, each side was stacked high and deep.

I had to laugh because on each building there was a sign nailed to the doorway that read:
"ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK"


When all was said and done, the lady came over and gave me a price. $40 more for more brass and copper fittings, a half bucket of old vacuum tubes, a real portable console vacuum tube tester complete with Instruction book, heavy-wall 2" conduit, new/dusty 100' roll of 3/4" flex conduit, old tools and a brand new 4" rotary drilling head, a tall thick plastic rolling trash container filled to the top.. and several buckets of much more,,,,etc......

New and Almost new tools: 2 Hardy Board specialized skill-saw blades, Ridgid pipe wrenches, Stanley Black Max level, small Pony table mount vise, Ridgid 1/2"-1-1/4" pipe vise, air powered buffer, 2 Lincoln 10lb sealed metal tubes of Lincoln 5/32 by 14" rods: one for stainless and one for general welding. Still on the same table: One explosion proof light fixture, two old "Walker" car jacks pat'd in 1924, an antique Crescent brand nail puller, an old rusty water well drilling bit and in a box, a brand new 3-3/4" rotary drilling head (green) worth $150.

Tubing cutter, flaring tools, 100' of 1/2" Armor flex conduit, about a dozen of "Kent" heavy brass water meters (shaped like old style copper floats), 4 sealed containers of solder flux, Short lengths of hardware cloth screen, half a roll of dual galvanized #12 un-barbed fence wire, aluminum/plastic radiator, Old garden tools, wooden basket half full of electrical conduit mounts, 16' of heavy chain, square aluminum and set of 5 square aluminum & titanium-roller casters (never saw ones like these before). Two half filled buckets of brass 90* elbows for plastic tubing, brass cutoff valves, copper fittings and ball & gate valves.

But at 3:35 Sunday morning, Thunder awakened me and bright flashes came through the curtains. Like being poked awake with a broomstick, I was reminded that with some bargains there is a price to pay. I remembered all those buckets of "treasure" were uncovered. So, with the lightening, wind, and beginning rain, using large leaf bags to cover each and every bucket, I finished and brought in the new items and old vacuum tube tester...

Went back on Sunday afternoon and spent another $10 for two more 5 gallon buckets so full, I had to carry each one alone..... Copper and brass fittings mixed in with dirt and leaves. But, there's just one letter difference, and yet, a world of difference between "Scrap and Crap".

It will take me until Labor Day to get all this sifted, sorted, and sold....:tongue3:

Bill
 

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Go!d&$ilver

Greenie
Jun 6, 2016
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Oh, man. My wife would kill me if I brought home all that awesome "junk."
 

releventchair

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May 9, 2012
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You need side awnings yourself! :laughing7:
Great buys. Can't argue with the prices for sure.
Those ball peen hammers make great tomahawk heads , if you know any blacksmiths into making them.
 

pat-tekker-cat

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Feb 23, 2011
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Hey! That almost looks like the contents of one of my sheds, right now! :icon_scratch: :laughing7:

"Me? No, I'm Not A Hoarder" LOL, these things have use! dang it...... :tongue3:

"You Can't Take It With You...." this is why I operate under the "use what you got first" rule, the 20+ yr old spare wire fencing came in handy just last week, along with some tin snips I haven't used in 15 yrs, and that old 16 guage wire I hoarded, errr, I mean, saved, came in handy, too. :notworthy:
Got a pipe cutting project coming up, hope I got the right size pipe cutter, outta the 7 I got stored...... :laughing7:

Bet I saved $50.00 bucks or more, if I'da had to go to Home Depot, for my supplies. :notworthy:

You are smart and thrifty, who said you was a hoarder? :laughing7:
 

randazzo1

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Feb 1, 2006
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What an awesome sale!
 

bigcaddy64

Hero Member
Apr 20, 2013
818
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Fullerton, CA
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They are the best sales! I'm going to one this weekend that was arranged from a previous sale. A whole afternoon digging in some dusty, dirty sheds with nobody breathing down my neck.

I love the tube tester! I've been looking for one for my brother but have yet to see one at a good price. He rebuilds antique HAM radios and always has to run tubes to a friend for testing. One day ill get him one.
 

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