SUMMARY:
Got up around 7:20AM, made it out driving by 8:00am and went out until 1:12PM. Subtracting the 20 minutes we spent in BJs, this worked out to a a total of 4 hours, 52 minutes. [Driving time was 3hr21min [69%]. Saleing time was 1hr31m [31%]. More time spent driving due to the derecho storm making it harder to get from point A to point B.] DERECHO-DAMAGE PICTURES AT END OF THIS POST!
Spent $47.00 plus ~$11.09 gas for 41.2 miles of driving (11.0 mpg @ $2.96/G), for a total cost of $58.09.
We made 24 purchases (31 items if you count each piece of wood) for a total estimated value of $361.37, leading to a profit/savings of $303.28.
So in essence, we multiplied our $58.09 investment by 6.2X.
(Also, if you think about it, the profit counts for even more when you consider that we have to earn $333 on the job pre-tax in order to take home the $303.28 in cash that we saved here. How long does $333 of disposable income take to earn, vs the 4.9 hrs we spent here?)
Anyway, this works out to a *post-tax* “wage” of $62.32/hr as a couple or $31.16/hr per person.
COMMENTARY/ANECDOTES:
After storm yardsaling is crazy. We took lots of storm damage pictures.
Sleepy Hollow Road was completely closed due to a big tree and downed powerlines. Fortunately we know the backroads like the back of our hand around this area — so we got pictures from BOTH sides of the blocked road.
We were getting free cabinet-wood from a curbside (to use as sunblockers/attic flooring), when a random guy came and did the same thing. He was looking for a piece of wood to put his generator on because his ground was wet. He had just bought the generator last week from Costco for $600. What foresight!
We saw a woman putting up estate sale signs… So we followed her until she got back to the estate sale. Clint’s Dollar Store keychain-LED-flashlight came in handy: It was the only way to see in the basement. Looking through old tools in a pitch dark utility room feels very dramatic. We felt like emergency response rescue workers… Except we were rescuing old junk instead of people.
Neither Clint nor the general public realized “if the light is out, treat it like a 4 way stop”. Seven Corners was PARTICULARLY INSANE. It sounded like New York City. Constant beeping. Everyone was just going. That was around 9AM. By 12PM people were catching on to how to treat these intersections, and behaving better.
We stopped at BJ’s, which was having an open house. Spent 20 minutes or so and left without buying anything. The prices there didn’t really seem that spectacular. For the same cost, you can get 24 Yuengling beers in bottles instead of cans. Whoop-de-friggin’-doo.
THE BOOTY:
- $20.00: ping pong table, foldable, Pro-Action, 6’x3’x30″ (EV:$99.00) – Ideally we’d want one that could somehow be placed on top of a pool table, but be folded up when not used. Good luck with that. I’m not sure if that exists. This one is foldable/portable (need 2 people to carry it any appreciable distance), so at least it doesn’t take up a lot of space. It’s smaller than “normal” size, and we have no paddles or balls. But it also will make a great boardgame/card table, as it’s not so back-achingly low as our myriad of coffe tables.
- $4.00: storage unit, large plastic wheeled shelf w/4 drawers, Iris Wide Chest, 23.5x16x26.75″ (EV:$42.99) – Our utility room had built-in shelves we used for a decade. Last summer, we got some free bookcases from a curb and started using them to bring some order to the chaos. But there are still tools on the wall behind them, and they are kind of annoying to move. Well, these new ones have WHEELS and DRAWERS. Much easier to move around, much more organized. Replaced one of those shelves and moved it to another place in the house [between air hockey table and wall] that wasn’t being used much and could use some more shelves for stuff.

- $3.00: camera, Canon, A520, 4.0 mega pixels, Zoom lens 4x [but zooming doesn’t seem to work, lens kind of messed up], PC1106, No. 1122237588, no usb cable, no memory card, batteries worked. (EV:$29.99) – Takes a 2G SD (not SDHC) card. Carolyn’s claiming this as “Carolyn’s camera”. The zoom doesn’t work, though.
- $3.00: decoration, Halloween, Spider candelabra, covered in sequins, with spiders hanging off of it, can take apart and store flat (inside the HUGEST BAGGIE I’VE EVER SEEN) (EV:$59.99, though people have paid 74.95 for this[!!]) – for Britt’s birthday. She liked it.
- $3.00: toy, action figure, The Tick, Taco Bell balancing Tick with brick wall. (EV:$3.95) – We already had one without the stand, and didn’t even know the stand existed! Awesome! We managed to get BOTH of ours (this one, and the one we had) to balance on the stand at the same time. Win!
- $2.00: funnelcake maker, Carnival Funnel Cakes, 32 oz, includes 2 mixes (EV:$7.49 price tag, but some of the original mix was used so docking 25% to get $5.62) – almost bought this exact set from Angel/Susan’s yardsale for $3 last week, but I didn’t want it enough to pay $3. $2 however? Sure. Funnel cakes next party?

- $2.00: storage unit, small plastic wheeled shelf w/3 drawers, Iris Mini Chest, MCS-003, 14.1875×15.375×27.375 (EV:$29.99 price tag) – the companion to the $4 purchase above

- $2.00: toy, action figure, The Tick, Sewer Urchin, Taco Bell edition, with submerging dolphin (EV:$0.99) – Okay, we now have 3 out of 4 of the Taco Bell tick toys!

- $2.00: game, Save The World!, Crown Andrews (EV:$15.99) – for 2017 Sagan?
- $2.00: toy, workbench w/wooden tools, 16x16x9″, includes wooden hammer/carpenter ruler/wrench/screwdriver/nails/screws/nuts/vice grip (EV:$12.99, but ours is slightly more lavish) – for present-day Sagan
- $1.00: broom (hand broom), 13″ long including handle, 8×3″ brush, EPI Inc 7920-00-178-8315 (EV:$12.99) – Carolyn wanted this… for cleaning or something

- $0.50: deck of cards, “The Batman” animated series, missing the 3 of clubs (EV:$4.99, however, 3 of clubs is missing, so we’ll dock it inn half to $2.49) – Carolyn’s purchase

- $0.50: action figure, Kung Fu Panda, McDonald’s 2011 (EV:$3.95) – why not?
- $0.33: tape measure, 10′, Lufkin W9210 (EV:$11.25) – we always misplace tape measures, so the new probabalistic strategy is to just saturate the house with them :)
- $0.33: 2-to-3 prong adapter (EV:$0.69) – we use these a lot, but they also get misplaced

- $0.33: roll of thin wire, about as thin as the smallest string on a guitar, at least 50′ of it. (EV:$9.00) – for picturing hanging and minor repairs … I also repaired our gutters with guitar string before; this would have been a lot cheaper

- $0.25: toy, top, flip-top, blue, Eastern Hemisphere map on it (EV:$1.25) – for our vast top collection

- $0.25: USB cable, 5′, with Type B connector type on one end (EV:$1.40) – good to have on hand for weird USB devices

- $0.25: flashlight with huge clip, small light, Nextel, came with new AAA battery (EV:$1.30) – the clip is really nice, this will be tough to lose

- $0.25: headphones, Delta Airlines, in-flight audio, pretty much useless because it’s a dual-jack headphone for an airplane (EV:$0.99 [found 10 for $10 on Ebay; lost link]) – oops. How the hell can we use headphones with 2 jacks? Carolyn purchase ;)

- $FREE: mason jar lids, Ball, vacu-seal, 10 bands, 3 lids (EV:$1.13 price tag, but the price was for 12 complete lids. Prorated out to the parts actually present, we get: $1.13*(13/24)=$0.61]) – a gift

- $FREE: cd jewel case, blacklight green (EV:$5.52 for pack of 10, so $0.55 for this one) – since it’s free…
- $FREE: hard hat, with adjustable knob, really a nice hardhat – found on the side of the road! (EV:$5.40) – Now I can have a hard hat designated for the 2nd attic (that we installed a telecoping ladder into)
- $FREE: wood boards, 1 board @ 60×34.5″, 3 boards @ 11×34.5″, 1 board @ 17×34.5″, 1 board @ 35×18″, 1 board @ 35×18.5″, 1 board @ 35.5×17″ (EV:we’ll arbitrarily value these $1.00/ea, so $8 total) – all of them are now residing in various windows, thwarting the evil sun from hurting is with photons

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* EV stands for “Estimated Value”, which I estimate by looking things up in Google Shopping/Google/Amazon/Ebay. I don’t always deduct for an item being used, unless it’s actually in worse condition in a way that matters. For example, I estimate books at the cover value. I also try to only count shipping if it’s the type of thing that would need to be shipped, and only if the price isn’t “fixed” (i.e. 1 cent items that cost $10 to ship would not be $10 in person). (more…)