Will you be looking for anything specific at yard sales this season?

[Fowler]

I had never really paid attention to spring/summer yard sales until last year when I was visiting some friends and we spent a beautiful spring Saturday stopping by several yard sales in their community. I found it to be really interesting and even found two French copper pans for $10!

This year I am going to try looking around some more. Will you be shopping the yard sales this season? Anything specifically you will be looking for?

[TraderJoe]

Left handed smoke shifter
Bacon streeeetcher
Antique meat cleavers

TJ

[slowshooter]

I will probably go look for another toas tite.

[elenacampana]

Love mixing bowls, like I need more bowls in my life. Why are they irresistible???? I found a 4-piece set of them, turquoise blue with sailboats flying around the rims - heaven.

[wekick]

I have a serious addiction to bowls too-- pyrex, ironstone, mixing, serving and my favorite are square ones.

[latindancer]

Always looking for fabulous table linens...tablecloths, napkins.

It's amazing how people, literally give them away because starching and ironing, to them, belongs in the dark ages.

[coll]

I've found all different type of lace tableclothes, because everyone (including my husband) thinks they're too old fashioned. I think they're beautiful.

[wekick]

1+
I recently saw somewhere where they dyed some old napkins and tablecloths deep rich colors to cover discolorations that made them otherwise unusable.

[kaleokahu]

Hey, wekick:

Keep watching... their clothes will all look like the napkins after the first wash!

Aloha,
Kaleo

[wekick]

Haha!

You do have to be careful!

[latindancer]

I do too :).

I love white linen, starched and crisp...
To set a table with roses and candles and beautiful dishes and stemmed glassware, to me, is exquisite.
It's definitely difficult to maintain but well worth it.

[slowshooter]

+ 1 to that.

[gingershelley]

I regular cruise through several thrift stores looking for cookbooks and kitchen items I might use. Not big on gadgets, but have had my eye out for any le Crueset, a terrrine mold, copper bowls, blades I don't have for my Cuisinart (and a spare blade stem). Vintage 60's glassware.

In a nother month, I will check garage sales for these items as well. Love to drive to a couple of the more exclusive neighborhoods in warm weather and cruise the 'divorce' sales...

[sunshine842]

gingershelley, we should work out a deal.

The supermarkets here in France sell their empty terrine dishes for a couple of euros all the time...Only reason I haven't bought one yet is that really -- who needs 3 kg of terrine at a time?

...hmmm....I smell a mail-order business.

[coll]

I was thinking of visiting estate sales and thrift shops, and selling stuff on eBay, turns out thousands of people thought of it before me. Not that it will stop me from trying! My neighbor had a whole bunch of Shelley English bone china in her basement, from her great aunt, and was almost going to throw it out, but I'm selling it piece by piece and handing her an envelope every week. I mean, look for yourself first, but keep an eye out too! Just put your terrines on eBay and make some pocket money.

[pdxgastro]

I had been looking for a used Food Processor for the longest time. Almost found one at an Estate Sale but it looked like it might be missing pieces, and had no manual, so I gave it a pass. Got a brand new one for Christmas.

I would look for copper pots this time around.

[goodeatsgal]

I will be looking for a glass lid for the vintage slow cooker I recently bought. It's from the 70's and has a Lexan lid. It works okay, but I'd prefer glass if I can find the right size. I'm also looking for old Pyrex beakers and Ball jars. And the old Revereware and copper pans & pots that the Chowhounders talk about!

[thinks too much]

I live in a college town, so the best sales are right after the semester ends. They don't always have the greatest kitchen ware, but I am sometimes surprised.

I am always looking for something to add to my le creuset collection.

[Omeghan]

I will be looking for .....
Old stove top perc or an electric coffee perc
Old Baking glasswares or Corning ware
Potatoe Ricer

[CindyJ]

I THOUGHT I'd be hunting yard sales, but I happened to find what I was looking for at a thrift store just last week. West Bend's The Poppery -- a vintage hot-air popcorn popper which, some say, is considered the "holy grail" of popcorn-popper-turned-coffee-roasters. It appears to never have been used. I paid $12.50 for it. Compared to those on Ebay, I got a bargain.

[sueatmo]

I cannot remember a recent kitchen find from a thrift store. I just have no luck at all. Kudos for finding something you can use.

[CindyJ]

It was funny... earlier in the week I had listened to a podcast of The Splendid Table where Tom Owen of Sweet Maria's spoke about using The Poppery for roasting coffee. I can't remember ever even being in a thrift shop before, but I had taken my mom to the bank, and while she was inside, I noticed the consignment shop right next door and decided to go in. Bingo!

[coll]

We have a nearby thrift shop that specializes in cleaning out older people's houses after they pass on. Not too many matched sets, but kitchen oldies/goodies galore. We have some great thrift shops around here, since there are a lot of "summer people"; one has a library of books, many signed by the author, another designer duds for $5 (or the last week of January before they close $1!!), they all have their niche. They all have a kitchen area with great finds, just lucky I guess. It's a fun hobby to checking them all out. It's a great way to collect antiques.

[sunshine842]

I have overwhelmingly found that if you go looking for something in particular, you won't find it.

If you look with "let's see what I find" -- you'll find things you didn't even know you needed...

[wekick]

1+++++++++++++++You'll know it when you see it!

[illy]

soooo true, sunshine! Last year, it took me about 6 months to find a replacement for my broken glass vessel for my Bodum. Now that I don't need it, (and before it broke), I see them all of the time!

I look for basically any Swedish/Danish/German etc. kitchen items.

[Fowler]

Probably true,sunshine.

[sueatmo]

My experience as well. You guys are enticing me to do garage sales again, after a hiatus of many years. The problem is, I don't need too much, so a lot of times, I feel I am wasting my time. However, I may give this a go for a few weeks.

[Querencia]

There have been online discussions of recent-vintage Pyrex being made in China with an ingredient that makes it explode sometimes when it gets hot. Older (second-hand) Pyrex seems more reliable. Also I find Corningware at yard sales plentiful at $1-$2 per casserole. Fancy baking pans (used once) always show up eg $1 for a train-shaped cake pan that was $35 in the Williams-Sonoma catalog.

[janetofreno]

Hubby came home from a garage sale yesterday with one of those two-cup sized Pyrex measuring cups. He considered it a "find" for 50 cents; it looked like it had never been used. I'm sure it was an older version...but we wouldn't use it in the microwave anyway.....

He also finds a lot of cast iron pans and casserole dishes at garage sales. I have good luck with wine glasses. And of course we are ALWAYS on the lookout for additions to our martini glass collection:-)

[coll]

Wish you were closer, we have an overload of martini glasses which I am always forcing on people that mention it.

[sueatmo]

I use my Pyrex all the time in the micro. I would never use it in a conventional oven.

[susancinsf]

my current favorite go-to wine glasses are a garage sale find, at 20 cents each or something like that...

[Veggo]

I'm on the lookout for another 12" seasoned cast iron skillet, similar to the one I bought in Cheshire CT, for fifty cents in 1978, when I bought my first house there. The skillet was my best buy ever. More recently, I'm looking closer to home in Florida for any of the stemware that walked away from my house. I'm willing to buy it back. I wasn't burgled; my friends take roadies. Too many.

[cleobeach]

Come north to PA for cast iron, most old rural houses have stacks of it rusting away in the basement, no joke.

Roadies! We have that problem too. In fact, I am on the hunt for a source for what I call bar beer bottle glasses, those skinny, thin walled glasses that bars offer when someone orders bottled beer. We use them at our cottage and all but 2 caught a ride home with friends and neighbors.

[pdxgastro]

Veggo, you should start a new thread about ROADIES. I bet CHers have lots to say on the subject. (Very annoying!)

[kaleokahu]

Hi, Fowler:

I throw out the anchor at nearly every sale I see. Good vintage knives are always on the list. Quality baking and pastry molds. A heavyweight copper tea kettle and Dutch oven would get my attention this year. Maybe a jamboniere?

Aloha,
Kaleo

[Querencia]

At an estate sale I opened a basement closet to find it full of restaurant tablecloths so thought "If they ran a restaurant let's see what's up in the kitchen". Found a drawer full of knives with sign "Knives $1". Picked out all the Henckels.

[pinehurst]

Ditto on the Dutch Oven. And always, good covered casseroles, and good cast iron pans.

[Fowler]

" Good vintage knives are always on the list."

I would love to find a good vintage Japanese knife. Probably quite unlikely in my area but that will be something I will seek.