Shopping the town-wide yard sale (Part 1 of 3)

Saturday, May 2 was a busy day in Rensselaer. SJC graduated the class of 2009, sending scores of new alumni out into the toughest job market in two decades. And Rensselaer hosted its annual town-wide garage sale.
People could get maps for the sale at the fire station. To get their sales on the map, people had to pay $5, which supports the volunteer fire department. Someone there said that there were 104 sales, but in addition to those on the map, there were many others that were not on the map. Really, there were so many sales that it was impossible to visit them all.

Also at the fire station were representatives of the ministerial association handing out free donuts and bottled water. I took the opportunity to suggest a tour of churches. We see if that idea goes anywhere.
There were sales everywhere, and cars and trucks everywhere. This picture below is of Jefferson Street from the railroad tracks. There were about five sales in the area and a lot of traffic. Another area with a lot of sales and traffic was the Fleming Avenue area.
Some of the sales were very large. I asked the lady at this sale how she got all this stuff in her house and she admitted that it was not all hers. You can see lots and lots of clothes, and a chest freezer out by the street.
Here is another large sale, or maybe it was two large sales.
I took the picture below because I was impressed with how many rings were for sale. Ditto for the shoes at a different sale.
Some of the sales had more stuffed animals than this sale shown below, but they were not as neatly organized.
Most people priced items individually, but one sale I went to decided it would be easier to do the by-the-bag method. That is the method that some rummage sales use because they simply cannot price all the items they have.There were sales everywhere. In part 2, I will show you some of the bigger and more expensive items that were available.
The best story I have about the sales is a third-hand story. Some young man found a treasure at a sale and bought it for $15. Riding his bike home, he was stopped by someone from out of town and was asked about his purchase. The fellow who stopped him then offered him $150 for the item. Needless to say, a resale was made. I wish it had been me, but since I did not buy anything at all at the sales, there was no chance of something like that happening.