End of Sale Season

I love fall.  The crisp air, the beautiful colors in the leaves, Halloween.  The bad thing about fall (other than adjusting to a freezing house in the morning) is that it's the end of garage sale season.  As the days chill, fewer and fewer people are willing to brave the weather to host sales. 

We've been fortunate to have an extended summer this year, particularly by Colorado standards, and so we were able to find a few yard sales today even though October is almost over. But they are becoming more scarce. Next weekend we will probably be looking at estate sales only.  Don't get me wrong - I love estate sales.  Well, most of the time.  I don't mind standing in line, even in the cold, as long as I score something good.  Of course, you don't know whether you're going to get lucky. Many times, you stand in line thinking you'll never get in, or you get in only to find that there are already 100 people in a 1200 square foot home, or someone knocks you out of the way to reach something first, or there's just nothing there that speaks to you. Or you do find that one great piece only to realize that it's marked at retail price. 

Estate sales generally have better finds than yard sales, but the fact is that you are going to pay more and you will likely have to go through much more hassle to get it.  So, like most things, there are trade-offs.  Your chances of finding those choice pieces at yard sales are slim, but if you find them, you will likely pay almost nothing for them.  Plus there's the benefit of being outside (not crammed into a packed house with a gazillion other people). And, in the summer at least, there's one on just about every corner. 

So, as we say goodbye to yard sale season for at least six months, we take comfort knowing that we can still get the fix we need as sale-junkies at estate sales.  They'll just be that much more crowded now that they're the only fix in town for other junkies like us.