Thrifting With My Wife

OK, everybody, It's time to join Debbie, at Debbiedoos, I Love Livin in the Carolinas for Garage Salen
Where people are encouraged to show off their thrift store/garage sale/estate sale/rummage sale/junk sale/flea market/swap meet finds.


I had the privilege of going thrifting with Diann today. We set off to go to town, but only made it about 100 yards before we passed the first garage sale. We got another 25 yards before we had turned around and were parked.

First of all, this was a very cool garage sale. I see lots of garage sales where people have all the junk they they don't want, but they don't want to haul it all off to the dump, so they spread it out on tables put a sign on it that says, "Vintage Collectibles" and try to pass it off as valuable merchandise.

This wasn't one of those. They had things I could have used, and prices I was willing to pay. I actually walked away from some things I kind of wanted and kind of thought was a good deal, just because I knew we wouldn't fit it all in the back of our truck.

But I did pick up a few fun things. Most of them are still in the back of the truck, and it is raining right now, and quite frankly, I just don't feel like getting wet, but I did bring in a couple of things to play with, so I thought I'd show them off.

First I have to tell you, Bingo has an eagle eye, she can spot a penny from halfway across the parking lot, every time we go shopping, she finds at least one and some days she hits the jackpot and gets a whole handful.

When we get home, she is very serious about getting them all into her piggy bank, post haste!

She had a small pile of coins she had found, here at the camper, and we had been looking for a cheap bank for her to use here. I was amazed that they didn't have one at the dollar store. But I guess kids today are more interested in getting a cell phone than they are in saving their pennies...

Well, when we got to the first garage sale, the lady pointed out the "free" table, and of course that was where I headed first. I have two bags of free stuff in the truck, but this was on the free table,

and Bingo loves it.

I'm not sure if I dare tell her that she has a Vintage 1960 Raimond Silver Co. Silver Plated ABC Baby's Bank.

And although she put a handful of coins in it, even without the money inside, it currently has a fair market somewhere between $15-20.

Not a bad deal, for free, I thought.

And to think, I actually paid money for the bank I got for myself...

I have no idea how old this is, although my instinct is telling me based on the fact that it is all metal except for the combination lock dial, that it is an early 1970's bank.

Much earlier and it would have been all metal, and much later and it would have been all plastic. It is from the days when banks still tried to get customers, not like the trend today where they expect you to pay for the privilege of letting them use your money... but I digress...

Bank of Alma was bought out by Firstbank in 1985, so I know it is at least that old.

The combination lock works, and until some little two year old fingers got hold of it, it still had the combination on a sticker on the bottom.


Luckily I noticed what it was before our little sticker-picker got hold it.

This was on a table marked, "Everything this table 2 for $1 unless otherwise marked"

So, for 50 cents, I got two cool banks, and now Bingo and I each have a place to keep our spare change.

Stop by Debbiedoos to see what bargains everyone else got this week!

Be sure and join me each Tuesday for Tuesday Trivia Tie-in, where readers are invited to share trivia and show off their treasures. Read all about it here