Garage Sale Goodies - 27 Jan 07

My wife and I love going to Saturday morning garage sales. It's like a treasure hunt. Every now and then you'll find a treasure amongst all that trash (like the time my father-in-law bought a rare, old book for AU$0.20 and sold it a week later on eBay for AU$364.00!).

I mainly look for stuff that interests me; books, games and anything I can use for scratch-building miniature terrain for my wargames. You'll go for weeks without finding anything, and then one week you'll hit a jackpot. That's what I love about going to garage sales - the thrill of the hunt.

Since having kids my days of getting up at the crack of dawn have pretty much ended. It's no fun waking up a toddler in the early hours of the morning and then driving with them from house to house around the local suburbs looking for bargains. It's no fun for them and its no fun for mum and dad.

These days my wife still gets to go to the garage sales while I stay at home and look after the kids. I don't mind too much, as Grandma, my mum, usually visits on Saturday mornings and I get to play board games with her. Unfortunately Grandma couldn't make our regular gaming session this week, so I just babysat the kids whilst my wife and her dad went to the garage sales.

I always ask my wife to look out for stuff for me. When she arrives home I'll always ask her "Did you get anything for me?" Unfortunately, 9 times out of 10 she'll shake her head. Not today though. First thing she said to me when she got out of the car was "I have some things you may be interested in".

Here is what she bought.

Battle Masters by MB Games - Only 84 of the 100+ miniatures were present. Looks like the Ogre Champion, Mighty Cannon & Crew and all the horses and wolves are missing. The battle mat was still sealed in the plastic bag, the card deck was still sealed, the dice were still in a sealed packed, the cardboard pieces were unpunched and all the remaining miniatures were still on their sprues. Not bad for only AU$2.00!

Rack-O by Milton Bradley - AU$3.00

Rally by MB Spiele - A German game - AU$3.00

Flip Flap Flop by Jumbo - Made in Netherlands in 1988 - AU$3.00

Schnipp Schnapp by Ravensburger - A German game - AU$3.00

Packrossli by Carlit - Made in Switzerland in 1995 - AU$3.00

What a haul! I was particularly impressed with her luck in finding the European games. German/Euro boardgames are extremely rare in Australia. She bought them off a lady of Swiss heritage so that explains how they came to Australia. Now I'll just have to see if I can translate the rules for them.

Not only that but my wife also bought me Ned Kelly - A Pictorial History for only AU$0.50 for my growing collection of books on Australian bushrangers.

What a wife!