Shoppers score quirky deals

City-Wide Garage Sale offers bargains from tins to statues

By MK Butler

Published: Monday, January 28, 2008

Updated: Friday, January 9, 2009

Photo by: Elizabeth Moskowitz

John Hudson awaits customers at the Austin City-Wide Garage Sale in the Palmer Events Center Saturday afternoon. The statue (center) of Saint Isidoro dates back to the early 18th century and was on sale for $4,600.

Three men analyze the purchase of an old record player, and a woman heaves a candy-ball machine onto a cart.

It's Austin's modern-day treasure hunt.

Considered by some to be Austin's best-kept secret, the City-Wide Garage Sale attracted crowds of bargain hunters to the Palmer Events Center over the weekend. The event opened at 10 a.m. on Saturday, though for five extra dollars on the $10 admission price, shoppers could start bargain hunting at 8:30 a.m.

Bargain hunter Sammie Dwyer, founder of the sale, had an idea to centralize garage sales when gas prices peaked in the 1970s. The business venture now belongs to Christopher Dwyer, Sammie's son, who was 12 at the first garage sale in March 1977.

"Austin has an eclectic taste, and because it is a younger, more savvy, artistic group, we'll get people selling things that they won't sell at the other shows," Dwyer said.

Like condom tins. One particular collector took advantage of what Dwyer calls the "city-wide search engine," a tool that bargain hunters use to announce their items. "That was a tricky announcement to make. I think I used the word 'prophylactic,'" Dwyer said.

Vendors, who must apply for their booths, tote everything from Hank Aaron baseball cards to old-fashioned Coke machines.

Exhibitor Judy Zipp, for example, sold old cuff links, Avon collectables, Hollywood cigarette holders and pipes and other antique trinkets. "My deal is passing on history while also making a little money," Zipp said. "I try to tell the story that goes with the items."

Even a false fire alarm that went off during the day could not kill participants' enthusiasm. Buyers and sellers evacuated then continued the day in good spirits.

"Gave me a chance to smoke a cigarette," Robert Alvarado chuckled as he returned to his booth.

Alvarado's booth included the most expensive item at this year's show, a, three-foot tall statue of Saint Isidoro with a price tag of $4,600.

On the other end of the price spectrum, tables at the "Booth of Miracles" were piled 5 feet high with old scarves, quilts, coats and vintage clothing priced at $10 and under.

"It makes perfect sense for us to find high-quality items for a fraction of what they would be new with the hard times in the economy right now," Barbara Nagel said.

Nagel, who is on her 12th year of selling at the show, remembers that most of the shoppers were students when the garage sale was held in the Austin Coliseum, between 1977 and 2002. Shoppers on Saturday ranged from

designers and prop masters to eBay sellers and collectors.

"I'm furnishing my apartment," said Ashley Brown, an Austin Community College student who just moved to Austin. "This is a one-stop shop that doesn't cost too much."