ook the kids to an estate sale early on Saturday, but neglected to grab my camera. And I should have.
It was held in a large concrete garage with a loading ramp. The industrial windows were pitched open an large fans kept the room moderately comfortable. This left plenty of space for the finds: large, well organized collections of tools, furniture, cameras and even some toys. The original ad hooked me with the idea of getting a metal lathe and I fully expected to find nothing but old tool hounds there, but every kind of kicker, picker, hack and chiseler were there. Prices were reasonable to high with a lot of items untagged. The Little Miss wandered through the toy section with detached interest while Enormo the Man-Toddler hung off my arm and played shy. She tried to get me to buy one of the innumerable cameras for sale, but I had to explain that these were film cameras and could only take a few pictures before sending the film off to be developed. I don’t think any invention has spurred the instant gratification mentality quite like a digital camera.
What I did find was this:
A stamped metal tractor seat for a fiver. It was encased in fossilized grease (Purple Power to the rescue!) but it’s the final component I’ve been looking for in a long lingering project of mine (photos coming soon).
I’m new to the estate sale scene and decided to call the auctioneer running it shortly after I left the sale. Turns out the number went directly to the lady running the door, so I played dumb (an easy part for me) and claimed I couldn’t make it this weekend but what would happen to all the items if they didn’t sell. Between discussing prices with potential buyers, she told me to call today (Monday) and ask if what I was looking for was still there. Off to the phones!
