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Do you ever buy something you don't want just to help someone?

My car should have a warning sign on it saying, "This car stops at garage sales and flea markets." It has a mind of its own and will suddenly veer off the selected direction.

Whether the car saw this cow or whether I saw the cow is debateable but it did screech to a stop at this garage sale near my office. It was probably 95 degrees and all the junk was in the sun.

My husband, in addition to being a golfer and a frustrated farmer, is also a "cattle man." You can't buy presents for him because he just goes out and buys what he wants. So sometimes I get him a little gag-gift of a cow. I saw this cow on the table.

When I got to the cow and picked it up it was just a Made-in-China plastic cow with a wood-grained look. I didn't want the cow.

BUT!! This lady came OUT of the house into the hot sun because she was checking her customers. She was hoping she would sell something. SO!! I bought the cow. It cost $2.00 and I didn't even offer less. I decided that she'd worked hard to put that stuff out, I'd made her come out into the sun, and I wasn't going to disappoint her.

Do you do that too? Do you sometimes buy just to help someone? It can't be an all-bad trait but I sure have a lot of junk at my house. Now if the price had been $20 we'd have had a walk-away non-buyer!!!!

Posted by Barbara S. Duncan ABR, CRS, GRI, e-PRO Searcy AR on 07/06/2009 07:10 AM

Comments (19)

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19 Comments on Do you ever buy something you don't want just to help someone?

JUL

I often joke that the next growth of trees on our golf course will be made of plastic with silk leaves. and this wooden look-a-like plastic cow now has me double convinced I am right. (we have a lot of ash trees and the Emerald Ash Beetle is doing its damage there.)

Just last Friday I stopped-in at a new re-sale store. I had leased the building to a woman who was most excited to be starting her first retail business. Though most of the merchandise was "woman-centered", I did make a small purchase - a pair of earrings - supposedly for my wife. I'm sure my wife would never wear these earrings but I wanted to lend my support to the fledgling business.

Mary, plastic does seem to be doing over-duty in this world today. I find myself hating all the plastic flowers and greenery that people put in their homes. They just catch dust. And the flowers in the cemetery that change colors! Ugh!!

Tom Boos, we are the same. I'd have done the same thing. Besides if you leased her the place, you owed her one!! Thanks for comment.

Yup, I've done that. I was showing a home to a buyer a while back when the seller was having a garage sale. I arrived early to turn on the lights, etc. and got to chatting with the seller. I felt obligated to buy something. So I paid $1.50 for a meat grinder, the antique kind that clamps on a table edge, thinking it may make a nice present for a future client. I still have that stinkin' meat grinder. My husband said when he saw it, "What did you buy THAT for?" I dunno.

Liz, it's a collectible! That's why you bought it. Just clamp it on the cabinet in that beautiful new kitchen that you just did. Gift for a client?? Make it a gift for Adam and then he'll HAVE to appreciate it. LOL

Hey that cow looks great. What do you want for it?

Just joking! I try to avoid garage sales unless I want something real cheap like a crock pot to boil quartz crystals in oxalic acid for cleaning. Got two for a few bucks.

Be sure and do a follow up about Rodger's reaction to the gift.

We did a joint garage sale with our neighbors and I bought several things from them and they bought from us. Really funny.

Barbara,

I have and often, afterwards, I feel like a chump too.

No I have NEVER done that but I know who did once. A Washington guy named Steven L. Smith felt sorry for a neighbor who could not get rid of a squirrel in the attic. But being the gentleman he is, he did not want to offend the homeowner or make him feel badly that a worthless creature had taken up residence in his home.

So to boost the self esteem of his neighbor, Steven offered to buy the pest. But once he got home with the squirrel, he slapped himself across the forehead exclaiming, Ah nuts, what have I done!

The name stuck and so did the squirrel. Even though The Boss is a really nice guy, when it comes to Nutsy, he still feels like a chump today.

Excerpt from Bellingham Historical Gazette

The meat grinder that clamps on the cabinet is, indeed, a collectible......I have one and it is used to grind roast beef and chicken to make home-made hot tamales. My mother-in-law was famous for her hot tamales. She was a school teacher and some of her students, whose parents grew corn, would bring her the corn shucks - to roll the hot tamales in. We still use her recipe, but have to resort to bought shucks in the groc. store. We've also ground up rabbit and squirrel. With the proper seasoning, who is to know? Sorry, Nutsy!

I don't like to go to the local farmer's markets for the reason that I don't know whose produce to select. It is all beautiful, and lovingly grown. I'm told they "vie' for the stalls closest to the parking.....in a small way, that's the same thing as going to a garage sale. I feel obligated to buy something.

Good post, Barbara.

Anita Fuller

Don, the cow is almost yours. I'll give him the gag gift which he won't like and then I'll pass it on to you! Garage sale friends MUST be bought from or the friendship could be destroyed.

Steven, but we helped someone, didn't we.

Steven and Kate.....omg....what is going to happen. This love/hate relationship between Nutsy and you, Kate, has to be resolved. Kate, Steven LOVES Nutsy and has trained him. He didn't find him in some neighbor's attic. He found him lolling outside his bedroom window on a tree limb with a sign, "Job Wanted" in his little hand. Nutsy learned rapidly and has become famous as a certifried assistant! Quit trying to belittle little Nutsy, PPPLLLLLLUUUUUEEEEZZZZEEEE........

Anita, do you still use that grinder? Do you know who'd kill for homemade hot tamales? Rodger Duncan. He remembers when you could buy them somewhere in Searcy and they'd be wrapped in those corn shucks and he relishes the memory and the taste. You don't think your mother-in-law was the one who made them and sold them in Searcy, do you?

When he goes to Newport, I believe it is, he brings home a dozen because I think he can find home made ones there.

I bought PlayStation the other day at the farmers market because the look of excitement on the little boys face was more than I could stand. It cost me 10.00 for the station, power supply and 2 joysticks and the little man was a happy as anything I've ever seen. My husband called a softy and when I got home my 17 year old said no way, not for $10.00. Said he could use the joysticks, apparently they're 25.00 new. He plugged it in and everything worked.

Barbara - Nice looking cow. Funny, outside of real estate I don't really like to negotiate ...okay maybe, when it comes to a new car. And, I am a generous tipper too. I guess in this business I see first hand how money can make people act like jerks and I don't care to be that way.

JUL

Tell Roger the next time we make hot tamales, which will probably be in Oct. or November, I'll save him a batch. That is, if he'll wrap a few green tomatoes in newspaper at the end of growing season, and save them for me. My m-in-l didn't sell them commercially but I know two people who did: a man we called "old man Martindale" had a shack behind his house, he called it the 'molly shack" from where he sold hot tamales.......and one of my best friends' mother, Mrs. Curtis Hubbell, sold them from her kitchen. Their house smelled so good when she was cooking her hot tamales. I have a listing of "Board of Occupation" tax for Searcy: Mrs. Hubbell paid $2.50 to be able to sell for 3 months. Also found "Vernon Duncan Car Dealer $l5.00. Stott's Drugstore, which is still going strong: $l5.00.

Again, all you ever wanted to know about Searcy but was afraid to ask.

Anita Fuller

Suesan, you got a deal! You didn't buy to help the seller, however. You bought to satisfy a little bright eyed child! That is called buying "under duress." LOL

Carol, I didn't tip her! But since I didn't haggle, it may have been the same as a tip. Bet she would have taken a dollar for the ugly cow.

Anita, Rodger read the first sentence and flipped! He was so happy. The second sentence worried him since it means he'd have to battle deer for a long time yet. I think Martindale is the one he bought from and still tastes them in his mind. I love your slogan, all you ever wanted to know about Searcy but were afraid to ask!

Hi Barbara,

no, I don't do that sort of thing but my wife does...she's such a sap! lol

I do Barbara---but I would put my foot down at plastic cows:)

Tony, I guess women are just more sensitive than men. Would you argue that point? Let's do a what-if. What-if you walked up to a garage sale and the woman running it had on short shorts and a low cut halter top? How much junk would you buy? LOL

Charles, what's wrong with a plastic cow? It's a milk cow.

JUL

Many years back, I was shamed into giving a donation to this hara krisha....way back then. On top of that, the guy was a shortchange artist....really. After that I became this mean guy.

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