Basement Booty From Saturday's Estate Fail. What $6.50 Can Get Ya. Status: C'mon, I Was Still Broke From LAST Weekend!

So yeah, I was sorta broke (not really BROKE broke, just no real cash on hand broke) but I wanted to hang out with my new estate sale buddy Illuminate and try to help her score a lamp she had set her little heart on.
The last couple sales we have attended have seen us waiting out in front of the homes in the dark

for hours...waiting...and waiting...for the next buyer to show up. We've always been surprised at how

late some of the buyers show up. While this has ensured us the coveted first spots in line, I think it

kinda made us a little complacent. At the estate sale yesterday we had decided to show up at 6am

instead of like 4:30 or 5am. I got there first at about 5:40am but alas, there were already two others

waiting in the dark.

OMG, I think there's a phone under that pile of dirt!

As it turns out, they had been there since about 3am so even if we HAD gotten there at a ridiculous

hour like 4:30am we still wouldn't have been first! Ya see, there was a freakin' killer Danish Modern

dining set as well as a few other vintage modern odds and ends available at the sale. The only item

we were after was a pole / tension rod lamp that had three swagged lamps hanging off of it in

shades of blue, orange and white. Unfortunately it was also on number two's list of must haves as

well.

Not just vintage but useful as well! Haven't used it yet but I'm betting it'll be better

than my current staple gun.

The sellers had opened up the drapes and everybody had scoped out where their targets were so

when the door opened I headed toward the room with the lamp. Number two (just in front of me)

had somehow taken a slightly less direct route toward the room so I thought I was in the clear but

just as I moved in that direction number two gathered it up and made it to the room without further

hesitation, grabbing a cool orange shag rug as well as the lamp with amazing swiftness and

efficiency! All I could think was, "Wow! Good job!" I felt bad for Illuminate but what can you say?

They clearly wanted the goods more than we did. They paid the cost to be the boss!

The back of the phone and a $.50 roll of chair webbing. I'm sure I'll need it sooner or later.

So after the disappointment of missing the lamp we both just sorta milled about the rest of the

rooms which were full of run of the mill estate sale stuff. Nothing special as far as I was concerned.

Then I remembered The Basement! GAhhhh...how could I forget the basement? I got down there

to find a pair of Lane Acclaim coffee tables already snatched up by number six or seven, and at a

VERY reasonable price. They had their issues but both looked easily worth saving. I talked to the

buyer for a while and it turns out he's a reader of Mr. Modtomic! I hope he can save the tables and

enjoys them for a very long time. It's nice to actually meet a reader now and then. It makes me feel

sooooo famous! So anyway, all I could find (afford) was this dollar phone covered in filth, a five

dollar vintage staple gun kit (very nice!) and a fifty cent roll of chair webbing. Score? Fail? Retry?