Since garage sale season is just getting started (here in MN anyway) I thought I'd start a thread asking you to each share your BEST EVER garage sale finds.

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Great idea! I have lots of favorites, but here is my most recent one. We were planning on moving my dd from a crib to a twin bed, but I was waiting for a good sale on a mattress set. The best deal I could find on a good quality one was $200 for the set. At a yard sale last week, there was a new twin set someone had bought last year for their guest room which had never been slept on. It was nicer quality than I would've gotten and only $20!! They even helped in get it loaded into the car. What a huge find and a blessing! It really got my husband on board with encouraging me to have yard sale time. I also found a new mattress pad on Friday, just after I bought one at Target on Wednesday - luckily I hadn't opened it yet, so it is going back. $1 vs. $15!!

I have 2 actually. 2 of our kids (Ds-3 and Dh's Dd-5) are going into twin beds, and they aren't always cheap. I got a "like new" set of bunk beds at a yard sale for $10 (I found mattresses on sale for $45 each!). The other thing is Ds (3) is very much into Toy Story. Well, we went to one a few months age and they had 3 high backed kids chairs (white wood) and they each had a character (Buzz, Hamm, and Rex) painted on the chair back (the pics are 3ft in length)from the chair part you sit on all the way to the top of the back ...the whole set? $10 (Did I mention they were BRAND NEW?!?)

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I got a gently used Barbie Dream house (they still had the box for it )- a bunch of barbies that were barely played with or in a box still and unopened playsets for barbie for $25- it was grandparents trying to get rid of some toys they had for their granddaughter that moved cross country. It was at the end of the yard sale and the hubby forgot to put them out! The best deal I ever had!

[/IMG] My best find was..............................LANDON!!!!!!!
(Need I say more?!?!?!) (Actually, I guess, yes!! My oldest and I went to a garage sale, where out of the blue the lady I asked if I babysat. I said no, and then said, well, maybe! Turns out she is a school teacher..and her schedule is the same as my own kids' schedule...and her little boy is like my seventh child!!! I've kept him since last July. He is now 16 months old, and I cannot imagine how the summer is going to be with him only at my house one day a week! )




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Shaking in my boots (well, if I was wearing them in the middle of summer!), but glad to be back!

2-3 times a year we have a big party here, 50-70 of our closest friends family and neighbors, we get a keg and hire a band and have tons of food. I like to provide the beer drinkers with a glass mug so I have been picking them up at yard sales for the past couple years. I get them all etched with a name so that each person has a mug. They are on display in the basement bar/poker room. Our guests love having their own mug....

Saturday I was at a yard sale, it wasn't even half over... I saw a table full of beer mugs 14 actually - they were all marked .25 and .50 each. I had every intention of buying every one - as I picked up one to look at it the woman said she would sell the whole bunch to me for a quarter if I would please take them all!!! I need only 11 more, I am hoping I find them before our first party July 4th weekend.

Last "season" I needed a crib really bad for my daycare kids and I got one that was in really good shape with a newer Sealy mattress for 20 bucks.....I also got a bunk bed(full on the bottom and twin on the top) with newer/new mattresses for 50 bucks.....It was marked 150, but they let my hubby have it for 50....Nike shoes for baby ds for a quarter...

This past weekend I found the Dreamsicle nativity set for $5 ( a great deal anyway!) and she offered to sell it for 2.50 when she saw me looking at it. I saved $75....plus they were all still with the original boxes!!

I don't know if this counts but:

This is not from garage sale but from freecycle. We live in an area where many people are well off. One lady was giving away a brand new juicer (the kind where you can do all kids of fruits and vegs) and a food dehydrator. Brand new, never opened. I couldn't belive it until I actually picked it up from her.
Last week we got an almost new, in-working condition DVD player.
I LOVE freecycle!! If anyone wants to move here, they could furnish a house, get food, clothing, any and all kids stuff for free!!
I am in MD, btw
Lena

Last year we bought an almost new oak bathroom vanity (with sink and faucet) and an oak 2-door, 4 shelf cabinet for $27! We have seen the same (but smaller) vanity in Home Depot for almost $150 without the sink! Also, a couple of years ago, I found an entire stack of quick cooking magazines for 10 cents a piece (I LOVE Quick Cooking). I was ecstatic!!!