Feeling the pinch: Champaign woman masters garage sales
CHAMPAIGN – Some women treat themselves to a weekly manicure, but Sue Richardson's end-of-the-week indulgence comes on Friday mornings, when she points her Subaru Baja toward a trail of open garage doors.
Ceramic table lamps, Barbie cash registers, bowling shoes size 8, barely used scented candles, Santa tablecloths, Pfaltzgraff meat platters, Perry Como cassette tapes, motorcycle helmets and gently used golf bags litter the driveways she scouts from the street.
Plaid shirts and taffeta blouses wave to her in the breeze, promising name brands.
The Subaru nosedives to the curb.
U-turns? Not a problem.
Sue rehearses the line she'll give if stopped for an illegal turnaround: "Sir – do you realize I'm headed to a garage sale?"
Sue Richardson uses The News-Gazette classifieds to find the garage sales she wants to hit, looking for name-brand clothing when she arrives at this one. By Vanda Bidwell
It's serious business.
Christmas snowmen are to be had, Coach purses to be bagged.
Two cereal bowls for 50 cents. A small wicker basket, again two quarters. She'll spray paint it and use it for goodies in the guest bathroom.
A man once asked why she was buying a urinal. She chuckles at his naivete.
"If you can put flowers in it, I can find a use for it," she says.
For 42 years, Richardson has filled her home and perennial gardens with treasures she has found lurking beyond the sunshine-yellow garage sale signs. She began at 18, as a young bride who wanted to furnish the apartment with things that she and husband, Bob, couldn't quite afford. And a little gentle prior use never hurt any sink drainer or mixing bowl.
Then came a daughter and a son, and a constant need for baby things. Now her children are grown with children of their own, but Sue and Bob's empty nest still needs "things" – like a mailbox to hold tools in her potting shed, or a baby's plastic bath tub for the turtle in the back yard.
They have a lovely three-story home in the Rolling Acres subdivision of south Champaign decorated inside and out with her recycled goodies. And though she can afford to shop stores and does when sales are in full bloom, she loves the Friday morning hunts.
Many of her sentences start with "I collect ..."
The list includes wagon wheels, chamber pots, miniatures for her granddaughter's garden, Christmas ornaments, antique water pumps ... and so it goes.
And then there are the practical finds – yard and garden tools, toys and bikes for the grandchildren, canvas tote bags, plants. Her weight fluctuates, so she looks for ladies' clothing to fit her current size. She loves to find name brands for a few dollars. Jewelry, purses, watches. Shoes.
She picks up a pair of smallish copper-sequined flats marked $5. "Would you take anything less?" she asks.
The answer is yes, so Sue pulls $3 from the Ralph Lauren purse she bought at a garage sale last year.
The little shoes get tucked into the back seat of the Subaru. "For my granddaughter," she explains. "Play clothes." Sue has a trunkful.
She rarely passes up picture frames, needed for the grandchildren's photos. Plus, Sue and her husband decorate the graves of 19 relatives each Memorial Day, so she seeks all colors and sizes of silk flowers for arrangements.
"I buy a lot of baskets," she said. "A gift always looks so much better in a basket."
She has bought gag gifts and Halloween costumes. Cozies for water bottles. An antique oak bedstead that reaches nearly to the ceiling. A church pew.
She begins her quest the night before, mapping out her route after reading the ads in The News-Gazette. Different colored magic markers highlight the times and addresses. She numbers them according to location and writes down directions. She carries a Realtors' Association street map of Champaign-Urbana. "It's a lifesaver," she says, especially in the newer subdivisions.
Sometimes if she goes garage saling on Saturdays or the evenings, Bob will go with her.
"He goes, and he grumbles," she said. "He says, 'Where are we going to put this in the house?'"
But he found a couple of American Flyer wagons that she filled with plants in their yard. And his favorite find is a 3-year-old Honda Hawk motorcycle that he's still driving.
Neighborhood sales are her favorites. She'll travel to St. Joseph, Mahomet and other area towns for their community garage-sale days. But one of the most delightful sales for her is the Humane Society Garage Sale each Memorial Day weekend at the Champaign County fairgrounds. St. Matthew Catholic Church in Champaign puts on a great garage sale, too, she said, and it's worth paying the fee to shop on early bird night.
This season, she has seen more people prowling for bargains in garages.
"I think it's the economy, and also, people no longer have this stereotype about going to garage sales. Maybe 'Shabby Chic' has made it more appealing. I don't know."
She believes there has been an increase in the number of sales this summer, too.
It's hard to tell if that's true, according to News-Gazette advertising director Tom Zalabak. While the number of ads doesn't indicate an increase, he said there is a definite trend for more neighborhood and mult-family sales. So more people may be participating, but sharing costs of ads, he said.
The down side of Sue's addiction is that she often opens drawers and finds things she has no idea why she purchased.
She and Bob don't have garage sales themselves to lighten their load, but they do make frequent and large donations of items to the Humane Society garage sale and also to A Woman's Place. And she does have more interests than garage saling, such as dancing and riding her motorcycle, as well as belonging to two garden clubs, a Red Hat Club, a sorority and a coffee club. Also, she works part time for her husband's company, Illini Plastics Supply.
Over coffee recently, she talked about her upcoming plans to visit a resale shop in Springfield that was having an end-of-season sale. And later in the morning, she planned to head to Bergner's for their 20 percent off day for senior citizens.
"I do auctions, too," she said.
Sue laughs unabashedly at her penchant for sales and bargains. "Yes, some people would probably say that I'm cheap or something." But she flashes a devilish grin. "I choose to think of myself as frugal."
Richardson's garage-sale tips
— Plan a route. Number them in order and highlight times and interesting items with a colored marker.
— Take a street map along.
— Pay attention to the hours.
— Carry change and small bills.
— Don't be shy about offering a reduced price. Most people would rather get rid of the items.
— Be respectful when parking. Keep off lawns.
— Be polite. "People have reached right in front of me and taken something I had my hand on."
— If you go through clothes, put them back neatly.
— Lastly, buyer beware. "Sometimes you get something, and when you get it home, it falls apart."
