Junkin' rewards

Beyond the normal rewards found while junkin' in the south, I have added my daughter's joy to my latest reward list. Not only has she caught the "junkin' bug", but I have found that many people are sympathetic to children attending yard sales and estate sales. I'm not using her to get a better deal, so step off a minute. I just think it's cute to watch people try to barter with a little kid. It's terribly amusing, because someone that short shouldn't be able to rattle someone's cage with such a simple sentence. All she has to say is, "What's the best you can do on this?" and you see the inital shock, amusement, then the reluctant retort that often is a rediculously low price.
Apparently, some yard sale proprietor's have seen this same look of confusion on one's face and simply employ their own children to do the bartering. But, more often than not, it is some middle aged to elderly person caught in a personal struggle of offering a price that is far below what they would give an adult, and wanting to be a total ass to some little kid that may not have jack because they are being forced by their heinous parents to buy their own yard sale crap.
I find that this is a unique opportunity to teach my child about how to manage money, find the best deal, and not buy a bunch of junk she doesn't really want. Furthermore, it keeps her from begging me for every single piece of castaway toys she finds along the way. Sure, I could leave her home, and force her father to watch her, but then I feel obligated to either not go, get out at the crack of dawn with the militant dealers that mortify and annoy me, or just hit one or two close to home and call it a day. These options tend to suck, so I thought it over after the first trip, and decided that there are many ways to make this educational, and I get to have my fun too!
Now, Saturdays are even harder to wait for than when I was a kid wanting to watch Saturday morning cartoons. (As a product of the seventies, before all this cable and cartoon network, I couldn't wait for those few short hours per week!) Luckily, she can watch cartoons basically anytime, and she is ready to get out on the run for our junkin' days.
This blog is dedicated to all of you who give a rat's butt about what we might find in our travels, and tales that we have at the end of the day. Thanks for checkin' it out, and I wish you fun times with yours, and if you have kids, that they will find the same joy in finding the very thing you never needed, but want with all your heart!

This is one of our recent finds. A 40's-50's indoor telephone booth or cublicle. This crazy thing was made by Drexel! We were at a local church yard sale and I saw it hidden in a corner. It, of course, didn't have a price sticker on it, and I have been taught growing up that if it doesn't have a price and you have to ask, then you probably can't afford it, but I couldn't let it go. I walked up to the gentleman and asked how much. He says, "Ummmm....let me see...how 'bout five bucks?". I give him this "blink, blink" sort of look, and then excitedly almost yell, "SOLD!"

This gem is a 1969 Avocado green Easy Bake Oven! This particular house had loads of vintage toys which happen to be my obsession. Here are the other super cool retro pieces of Americana I unburdened from her...

I'm not aware of the facts of this pinball machine just yet, but it's a tabletop version that obviously is from the seventies.

Big Jim's RV! I have to say, I had no clue who in the heck Big Jim was when I got this, which is part of the reason I did, but it was too awesome to pass up since it was identical to the next item. However, some guy about the same age as me, (mid-thirties) was like, "You don't REMEMBER BIG JIM????". I said I had never heard of him. I don't know if he was pissed I was getting it or what, but I went with the FIDO approach (Forget it, drive on) and added it to my pile.

Next up was the 1970's Barbie RV. I had never even known Barbie to be big on the great outdoors, much less in Scooby Doo style. I remember her other huge RV (which this same lady had, causing me to raise an eyebrow about the level of outdoorsiness in this house, particularly when you look at the freaky substance clinging to Big Jim's RV) but it was more like Barbie was slumming for a bit, rather than going out into the wild. (That thing would only fit in the finest of "camping" spots.) It even still had a few accessories like pans and a spatula. (Ironic considering the only camping trip I have ever gone on, my ex-boyfriend forgot his spatula and had plastic utensils that melted into the eggs. I bailed on the whole thing and went to the closest McDonalds for a biscuit and headed home.)

Last, but by far, not least, was the Barbie Dream Boat from 1974. I about fell out with a seizure when I saw this! I had heard of it, but never see it in person. Now, I am a fairly avid Barbie collector, so I see quite a bit of this stuff around. Mostly a bunch of naked Barbies are found at yard sales, and the occasional estate sale will have an overpriced NIB Barbie, but the accessories are not so frequent. Especially these vintage ones! I scooped them all up, making a pile that I made sure to politely ask if I may assemble under the owner's protective eye, noticing that all of them were more than I normally pay for toys at a yard sale, but way below what I was willing to give for these. This sweet older lady looks at my daughter and asks if she likes to play with Barbie. My wonderful, and brilliant child replies, "I love to play Barbies". Whew! That little 5 word sentence had this sweet southern belle of a woman adding up my finds. The total should have been a mere $37. But she looked at my baby, then me and said, "Can you do $20?" Damn straight I'll pay $20 my dear woman!