My new favorite hobby: garage sale shopping

As some of you know, I've become a total garage sale junkie. Highlands Ranch has some of the best garage sales ever and I've found some great steals since moving here. It's hard for me to buy anything for Inara at stores any more because between garage sales and consignment sales, I find everything I need for her dirt cheap. However, shopping at garage sales can be a major disappointment at times as well. Last Saturday, Shawn and I hit up a couple sales and found one that was a gold mine. The couple are moving to Arizona and just sold their house. The husband is a stager (one who goes in and stages a house that's on the market for sale). He was selling a ton of the items he has used for staging, so items that are pretty much brand new and very nice looking. I totally wanted to buy a couple of the bedding sets they had because they were super cute and really well priced. I saw 4 framed pictures that I thought would look fantastic with the look I'd like to go for in our dining room, but thought $80 is a lot of us to be spending right now. I then grabbed a couple other good finds, but kept looking at the pictures. Just then Shawn comes over and says, "hey did you see those pictures over there?" I enthusiastically said, "Yes" hoping that meant he liked them too and thought we should get them. TOO LATE! At that exact moment, another shopper was making a deal for them. JACKED!! I was so bummed. All weekend long I just kept thinking how perfect those pictures would have been in our dining room. Then today I go out garage saling and find the Radio Flyer wagon I've been looking for. Too bad I missed it by seriously 30 seconds. The woman who pulled up at nearly the same time I did bought it right in front of my eyes. Then to top it all off. The last house I stopped at today had the perfect work bench for Shawn. A Craftsman black metal table with a couple drawers and a slat wall to hang tools on. I run up to see how much it is and am shocked to see only $50 written on it. Too bad there's a SOLD sign too. Feelers down! Guess I've gotta keep looking for more great finds in the coming weeks before garage sales die down in the winter months.