Shopping and junking in the coulee

A famous baseball player named Yogi Berra made some hilarious comments on his view of life and everyday activities, using the English language and word combinations to get his points across, so here’s a Yogi-ism that Detective Frankie D. overheard at a recent yard sale: “Cash is as good as money!” Now, that makes sense. The word cash has a nice ring to it. So, when you see an ad for an estate sale or a yard sale that states cash only, no checks or credit cards, remember what Yogi said. C-a-s-h!

Oh my gosh! Or as Robin said to Batman in those old, collectible comic books, Holy Toledo! Last weekend, the heat, the dusty roads, the traffic jams, didn’t keep the crowds away from a top-notch, two-day estate sale at Electric City, where early morning shoppers rubbed elbows as they checked out hundreds of collectibles and household items including some great older furnishings. A couple of treasure hunters, buyers who are also known as pickers in the world of buying and selling old stuff, raced through that sale, buying up vintage stuff right and left.

Detective Frankie D. found a hardback book in good condition about the life of Roy Rogers and Dale Evens, priced at 25 cents, and some 1940’s aluminum animal-shaped cookie cutters for 10 cents each. Just so you know, the cookie cutters are considered collectibles but not valuable because there are still so many of them available everywhere. Just a week ago, at the downtown Goodwill store in Spokane, some cookie cutters, as described above, were out on the shelves -- six cutters in a bag for $1.99 (plus tax, of course). So there you are; shop local first.

Kudos to Karen and Guy for hosting a downsizing yard sale at their beautiful Grand Coulee home last Saturday. Karen advertised her sale as an epic event, and that it was. She had hundreds of items for sale, all organized in boxes and on tables with furniture and larger pieces on the driveway. Get this. One shopper was overheard saying, “So much to choose from, so little time.”

Here’s a tip. If you can, make more time when you go to a sale advertised as epic. That way, you can get down to the nitty gritty, working your way up and down the tables loaded with treasures. You might have to fight off a few shoppers, the ones that I call long-reachers. What they do is reach over the top of a person’s shoulders or around elbows to grab up something they want, just as you are reaching for it. Those darn long-reachers are everywhere.

Time’s up here at The Star. Back in a couple of weeks or may be sooner. Happy Trails, shoppers.