First Garage Sale Of The Year

It's been a while, and you might be thinking "this is old, garage sale season is almost over".  You would be wrong, this is new.  I haven't hit any garage sales this year, not even my town wide ones in June.  Last Saturday my sister took my mom and I to a Senior Center to a massive garage sale.  The appeal to us would be books, puzzles, and who knows what else.  This year has been a bit crazy in that I haven't been too motivated to go places or even do stuff.  I haven't felt like dealing with cards, watching movies, or even blogging.  I didn't decide to stop blogging, I just either haven't been motivated or felt like doing it.  I haven't even been motivated to read other blogs.  Overall, I just feel like I'm in a rut, but by going to this sale, maybe things are starting to turn around I mean it did compel me to write this blog so here we go.

Before we left I looked at the ad, and I knew my mom would be excited.  As of late my mom has been working on knitting projects, and this sale had yarn.  I didn't tell her, so she got excited as we entered the place.  She ended up buying a ton, and I think it will keep her busy throughout the winter months.  As for me, I was hoping to find better deals than yarn.  On the day of this sale, there was a popular music festival in town, and there was a lot of roadwork, so we didn't make it to the sale until just before noon.  When I read the ad, the good news was not only was Saturday half off day, but they'd have a bag sale starting at noon.  I was very pleased getting there when we did even if most of my finds were books (it seems only the books were included in the bag sale).

So let's look at the non book stuff first, which isn't a whole lot.

This was marked for 2 bucks, which wasn't bad to start with, but initially I passed.  It wasn't until later when going back through I remembered it was half price, and I figured it was too good to pass up.  I don't actively seek out diecast, but I do like having NASCAR ones even if I'm not too familiar with the drivers.  I remember Casey Atwood a bit, and in an odd turn of events, after opening the package (the cardboard wasn't in the best of shape and I don't plan on reselling it), I realized the only NHRA diecast I have is also sponsored by Castrol GTX.  So they will display nice by each other which I will show hopefully on a future blog.  I was really happy with how the last picture turned out with the flash making it pop in all the right places.  I can't go wrong with this purchase.

I looked at movies and music, but nothing caught my eye, and most the other items I looked at I didn't have much interest in.  The only other non book items I bought were puzzles.  I found three of them, and I hope to work on them soon (they are in the puzzle rotation right now, a bit backed up on puzzles).

It has been a while since working on 1500 piece puzzles, so I was really happy to find them.  I think 1500 is the largest I've worked on, but would love to work on larger ones.  The American Farm one seems like a perfect fall puzzle.  While Springbok and many other new puzzle brands are always fun to work on, I am always a sucker for Milton Bradley ones because it seemed like that's the only ones I worked on growing up.  I include Hallmark too but seeing the MB logo gets me excited.  The Big Ben one is from 1968.  I'm not sure if all the pieces are included in all of them, but working on a puzzle from fifty plus years ago sounds fun and I hope all the pieces are there.  Recently my mom and I finished one that was missing like 30 pieces.  That one we decided not to keep.

So the time was almost noon so I started looking at books.  After about 15 minutes, the bags came out, and it was fill a bag for two bucks.  A much better deal than 50 cents for paperback and a buck for hardcover (which I can't remember now was the regular or half price).  The books were mostly picked over and in the end my mom and I got two bags and probably could have filled them up more, but got about and average of 6 books for a buck, so I'm not complaining either way.  So what did I find?  Well most is sports, so that was good.

I've seen a lot of these Mizzou Sports Review books in the past, but usually passed on them for various reasons.  Once I can get a few for under 20 cents a book, I'm more prone to check them out.  The 2003-04 one is my favorite because it was when I remember a lot of the sports going on and because it has rare mentions of the new Paige Sports Arena.  Mentioned before the arena was to be named for the daughter of the mega donor who gave a lot of money for the new basketball arena- Paige Laurie.  Paige didn't go to school at Mizzou, but between the donation time and the finishing of building it, Paige got in hot water for basically hiring someone to do her homework while at college (I think UCLA or USC).  A big fiasco was avoided after the donors decided it was best to remove her name from the arena, and it was simply renamed Mizzou Sports Arena.  However some advertisements, articles, and even items like paperweights all with the name Paige Sports Arena were made.  A nice little reminder and makes me happy to find this book.

The other two are ones I've seen many times but passed because I don't remember much of the older sports teams or players.  At least until I opened the pages.  Inside names like Norm Stewart, Jevon Crudup, and more filled the pages.  I know these guys, and what's even better is is has recaps of some of the games of all the teams, including the game that got me to love college basketball- the 108-107 3OT thriller Mizzou played against Illinois which Mizzou won.  These books are awesome, and while I don't expect to find a lot more or even seek them out, it was a nice find.

That wasn't all the Mizzou stuff I found though.

Inside one of the books was this bumper sticker from days past.  I would imagine the mid 90's at the latest, but possibly much later as I think even into the early 2000's they still made some.  But in the 80s and 90s these were everywhere.  I might have paid 50 cents for this if they had it on a table, but luckily it was inside a book.  A book already planned to buy, but even not, I might have got the book anyways.  I could have put it in another book but things worked out okay.  On the back is all the radio affiliates on the "Tiger Radio Network" which doesn't mention Learfield Sports (maybe it does, I forgot), which produces the show now and has for many years.  Its why I think its from the 90s.

There were more Mizzou books though that I got as well.

This media guide from 2007 I more than likely have.  But when the sale is fill a bag, I like to fill the bag.  I didn't go to any Mizzou games in 2007, but I know a lot of the names in the book, so I'm quite familiar with the team.  My friend gave me a bunch of these years back, and I need to find them so I can add it with them.  Even if I already have it and extra isn't bad to have in case they have a future autograph signing with some of the members of the team.

But, wait, there's more!  Not football, but other sports!

The first one is a media guide, and its possible I have that one as well (it looks familiar).  However, at this point it was getting a bit crowded and I had no way of knowing if I did or not, so I grabbed it anyways.  The next ones are all "gameday" programs.  I say gameday but I think they were sold for 2-3 games before a new one would be made.  As a former program seller, I always like finding these because they are more up to the minute (as opposed to the media guides), and they have advertising. 2004-05 was about the end of the Quin Snyder years, and at that point I was a bit burnt out of sports, but still know most of the names.  I did forget that Melvin Watkins son played on the team, so that was nice to know.

The bottom one is two programs, but they are the same.  If I noticed I might have passed on one, but then I thought about it at home I realized I could take apart one to scan, and still have the other, so I might do that.  I always feel bad taking apart magazines, but if I have a double, I don't feel as bad.  So maybe a future blog will be nothing but local tv and beer advertisements, I'm sure you can't wait!

While football and basketball always seem easy to find for media guides and programs, these next ones are as easy to find.

90s Mizzou baseball media guides aren't something you come across everyday.  I admit I'm not too familiar with many baseball players on Mizzou, but I was trying to think of some.  Phil Bradley was much older, Ian Kinsler too young, and so anyone playing after Kinsler would be a no go either.  I haven't looked at them extensively, but I did find a name I recognized.  Corby Jones was the star Quarterback for the football team, so seeing him was a nice surprise, and I was happy to have them.  I'm still not sure why a construction crew was a good concept for the bottom cover, but it at least catches your eye.

Beyond the Mizzou stuff, I didn't find a lot.  In fact I only found three other books, but that being said, one was one I've wanted for a long time and was not expecting to find.

Neither of these were the one I was longing for, but after bag sale prices come into play, they are a nice pickup.  The St. Louis one I thought was cool mainly for the advertising, and because a few years later I would go to St. Louis a few times a year when my sister had cancer treatments.  So this would remind me of those trips a bit.  I also like how they warned you not to take this copy, but someone still did.

The Beckett one I'd never seen before and wasn't aware they made publications without pricing in it.  I had to remember the year this came out and tried to guess who #1 would be on this list.  I assumed the 1927 Yankees would be at the top, but they were #2.  However the Yankees also was the #1 team, the 1998 squad was the best according to them.  Whatever, I disagree, and while I didn't look at it much yet, I was surprised at some of the teams that made it in, and others who didn't.  I might dive into a little more later.

So only one book left, and I almost let out a gasp when I saw it.  I would say I've been searching for it for 15 years (its not scarce, I'm just cheap), but have never seen it in person before this sale.  I could get it 4-5 bucks on Ebay plus shipping for many years, but I never did.

It was around 2003 or 2004 when I went to a conference for Full Gospel Businessmen when I first heard about this book.  It's been so long ago that I forgot if Mel Tari actually was the speaker or not. I am almost positive he was.  The stories in this book was about his time in Indonesia where he lead a revival.  Here is a synopsis from a website called Masterbooks.

Translated into dozens of languages, with millions of copies sold, Like a Mighty Wind remains a beloved classic from global evangelist Mel Tari. Recounting the incredible story of revival on the island of Timor during 1965 in the midst of political turmoil, the book is an amazing testament to the power of faith and the reality of God's power to work miracles in modern times.

On a recent search of his name online, it seems some question some of the things he has done and has even been accused (and convicted) of defrauding people.  Before just doing that random search, I have wanted this book ever since that day of hearing of the book.  I am hoping to start reading it soon, and despite many copies being sold and more issues being released, this one is rather old, the 5th release of the book, sometime in the mid 70s.  It looks great for the age so that's even better.  I really do need to build a bookshelf now.

So that was my first garage sale of the year and likely last.  However I have more stuff to show so maybe I'll have more posts coming soon.  I won't say definitely but let's hope.  That wraps it up for today, thanks for reading and have a great weekend.