My wife found a giant sectional couch that’s in “great condition” at an estate sale. She couldn’t believe no one bought it for $900. She bid $500 on the last day of the sale and was shocked she won.

I sincerely doubt anyone else even bid on the thing. People with living rooms that large don’t buy used couches. We have a relatively large living room and it still sticks out funny.

My wife is so excited. I don’t have the heart to tell her that I hate it. So now I’m out $500, stuck with a behemoth of a couch with worn out cushions, and I have to give away the perfectly nice couch we already have.

So… that’s interesting.

A small bag that fits my ‘worlds tiniest usable bbq’, so it wont get soot all over other things when I shove it in the bag.

that’s the bbq. The bag is early 90s, all black thick double plastic, and has all different colored stitching. It was 1,- euro. I included a 0,50 metal bottle opener with minimal rust, so the bag is a complete kit bbq now, hahaha.

I found a Sunbeam Radiant Control toaster. That’s the one featured in an excellent video from Technology Connections. I can afford the $6 for toast that’s “Automatic Beyond Belief!”

I found a piece of medical quackery that gently electrocutes people while an operator twists and turns a dial until a piece of plastic feels not sticky.

I should probably make a post about it because it’s pretty fucking cool even though it’s completely and totally useless.

It runs on freaking tubes! And it has cool dials and shit! And a faux marble faceplate on top of bakelite that I’m 100% certain has asbestos in it.

An almost 100 year old analog clock that is still ticking. This thing was made during the Great Depression.

A really cute music box with a broken mechanism, but I was able to fix it and spruce it up with red suede linings and a mirror.

A really nice hammer that I cleaned and decorated for theatrical use. I named her Miss Scarlet.

My nicest furniture was found stooping. I found a set of antique bronze and inlayed are likely worth a few grand. All it cost was $20 of cleaning materials and two hours of labor.

I found some board games. I bought a Monopoly board game, and a Risk one for $2 each!

It hasn’t been great since covid, but before covid I would frequently find stuff worth over $1000 for like $45. I built my entire home theater system with top level gear from the thrift store.

I found the Palm Portable Keyboard I’m pretty sure I donated 10 years ago, didn’t buy it though gave it away for a reason even though it’s really quite neat

Portable stadium seat cushions. I just use it at home anywhere I need to sit or kneel on the floor to do something. I was also surprised to see dumbbells and kettlebells for $5 each. Also saw Combos snacks, which is so hard to find in my city.

Sheet metal panels I put up in the kitchen for a backsplash, and 4 stamped stainless steel panels we used for our terrace railing (pic before we painted it black)

A treadle sewing machine from 1908. I’ve been slowly breaking it down and cleaning the internals but it’s a slow process since it’s not a Singer with tons of documentation.

I don’t know why this exists.

I like to look at local estate auctions on hibid, the worse the pictures look the better. Although I get kind of depressed seeing all of the junk people have accumulated over the years and left for their kids to deal with. I find the best stuff the auctioneer doesn’t even give a decent description.

I picked up a singer 501a, better known as the singer rocketeer for 12 bucks. I need a new front cone, top plate, and power cable but honestly I may just 3d print the chassis parts and I’ve already got the cable.

A life sized gordon freeman statue with a headcrab