My wife won tickets to a giant yard sale (I'd guess there were a hundred sellers) held annually near Concord's state fair grounds and convinced me to go. Actually, I didn't mind in the least. The scenery is beautiful this time of the year, so it's an excellent time to go for a drive. I do prefer individual garage and yard sales over the really big group affairs with hundreds or thousands of customers. It's easier to dicker and the merchandise usually isn't as picked over. But today's giant sale was what it was.
She suggested we bring extra cash - just in case we stumble across a quality snow blower. That's the key thing we've been looking for of late. "Fat chance of that," I said. "Besides, where would be we put it? They're big and all we're taking is the minivan."
As it turned out, we stopped at two yard sales before reaching the fair grounds, and the second one had a snow blower that looked to be in okay condition.
"How much?" I asked.
"One hundred," the seller replied.
"What kind of condition is it in?" I asked.
"A-One," he said. He started it up and showed me that everything is operating as it should. "We just moved here two months ago, and I bought a new one since the driveway here is larger."
Honestly, his driveway wasn't that big. 40 feet, I'd guess. A typical suburban driveway. But he was a bit older than me and his explanation that he needed a bigger one was believable.
I thought about it and declined to buy it. I told him that I'd just moved here as well. "We're shopping for a snow blower, but my driveway is bigger than yours and uphill. Like you, I probably need a bigger snowblower."
"I'll let you have it for eighty dollars," he said.
And like that, I bought it.
As you can see, it's rusty. It's older and doesn't have an electric starter. Its 24" scoop is the minimum size I consider acceptable. 24" snow blowers start at $600 at Home Depot and run up to $900. The seller says he paid $700 for it when it was new.
This is a 5HP, 6-speed, 24" NOMA snowblower with 12" diameter tires. I think it was carried by Sears. At Lowes, today's 24" snow blowers range from $600 to $1,000. My guess is that the one I purchased is a lower-end 24" model.
Who cares? It works and was 80 bucks. I'll still be shopping for a bigger and better used snow blower. But having two snow blowers isn't a bad thing up here, and today's purchase totally lifts the pressure off of me to buy a big snow blower soon. (Also, I have a snow plow blade for the tractor. It's going to do the heavy work ... assuming I can figure out how to attach it.)
Photos follow.
Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months
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