A good share of the yearbooks that I have been scanning over the last few years have come from estate sales. The (1935) Hour Glass that I wrote about yesterday came from a sale near Victor. It was in a house that had been closed up for about 10 years without any heat. The roof leaked and the house was in such bad condition that it was going to be torn down. Seeing as the house has been closed so long, everything in the house smelled musty. I have had the yearbook sitting in an open bookcase for three years but it still has a slight musty smell.

The yearbook that I am working on for next week came from a house on “the flats” in Irondequoit. It appeared that the former owner had been an antique seller at one time. There were a lot of old newspapers; some in frames and some just lose. I think I bought 4 or 5 yearbooks there. Just one was in the house and the rest were in the garage. That garage was an adventure in itself. It was full of books but many had fallen on the floor and I had to step on books to just walk around. I briefly talked to a lady in the garage. She said that she been sorting through the books for a couple of hours.

I bought a couple of yearbooks at a sale last week in a house in Webster. That house looked like had been added onto at least three times as it had a really strange floorplan. The estate sale people have to put tables out to display some items and that left very little to roam around the house without bumping into other buyers.

Some of the houses are really nice too. Occasionally at some sales you have to remove your shoes to enter the house.

Some buyers at sales get there hours before the sale. Occasionally some even come the evening before. Some are looking for jewelry, others old toys, and still others earthenware. At one sale two ladies were buying “vintage” clothing that they said they sell on eBay. A few people are looking at books but they usually have a set-up on their phone that tells them what it is selling for on eBay. I call them “book blippers” as they are scanning the bar code on the books. They have very little interest in old books that don’t have a bar code. Hardly ever is anyone else interested in old yearbooks.

On the first morning of a sale you have to take a number. The number of people that they let in the sale is determined by how much room there is to move around in the house. Seeing as Covid is still around they are letting even fewer people in at a time. I’ve waited as long as 2 hours to get in a sale. Sometimes after waiting I don’t even buy anything. Usually the second day on a 2-day sale items are 50% off. One of the estate sale companies is known for pricing higher than the rest. For their sale I wait until the second day and even then some things are still overpriced.

If you have read this far maybe you also want to see what is for sale. I use Estate Sales (.net). You put in your zipcode and you can see the sales near you.