The "$1 each" box
Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI
>This weekend was White Pigeon garage sales weekend. I didn't realize it until Friday after work, on the way home I saw a number of garage sales, but was late enough that some were already shutting down. I mentioned tools to a guy and he directed me to a sale where he had seen some. A great old barn, full of rusty old stuff, and I ended up finding a Keen Kutter saw for $5. So I figured it was a good weekend. Saturday was our work day at my parent's house, so I couldn't just peruse all the sales, but took off around 8 in the morning figuring I'd be a little late to my parents but insisted on at least a few garage sales. It was pretty much like I figured, with people just getting up and around, and most sales having absolutely nothing that was worth a nickle. But there were a bunch of sales in a small area. I finally came to one where they were obviously cleaning out grandpa's shop after he passed on, probably a few years back. I looked through a number of boxes of miscellaneous bolts, and did find a square in good shape for a buck and a geniune "Vice Grip" pair of locking pliers for $2. While paying them I asked if they had any more tools they'd be selling, and they said they would be cleaning out the little barn out back but were waiting for their nephew to price stuff. I asked if there was any way I could take a glance at what they had, and was turned down. So I figured I missed out on the best deals of the weekend.
I went on down to my parents house, and about noon we ran into a snag where my dad didn't have the right router bit to do what we needed, and I would have to run home and get one. It's about 40 minutes drive , and I figured here was my chance to stop back at that sale. I pulled in just as the nephew was leaving. Unfortunately I saw nothing spectacular, but they did have a cardboard box full of rust and marked "$1 each". It was pretty intersting as I was obviously the first person to go through the box, and these tools hadn't been touched in years by anyone except the nephew pulling them out to get rid of them. I started sorting and setting stuff aside on a pile, and found some pretty good stuff. Nothing spectacular, of course, but it is a very good feeling to be the first tool hound going through the box. When I was done I had a pile of $21 worth of tools, which included a spoke shave wtih both straight and radius blades, very nice little adjustable wrench about 7" long, marking gauge, and the rest was mostly chisels and carving tools from small to large, but did include a very neat little 1/8" morticing chisel. A very good day.