Child’s play.

Last Wednesday I was lucky enough to get the day to myself – sure I had to go grocery shopping, but since we get our fruit & veg in town almost an hour away, I like to make a day of it. An opping day, of course.

Before I even left though there was a park smack bang out the front of the oppy on the main road; fate, obviously.

I often skip this particular oppy except when they have $2 or half-price sales, they are the most expensive thift shop in town & rarely have anything I have to have, so I didn’t have very high hopes. Walking in I took note of the “All toys 1/2 price” hand-scrawled sign tacked to the window, so that’s where I headed first.

Nothing, nada, zip. Ugly, naked dolls, boring soft toys & copious amounts of tacky plastic junk. I turned to leave when something altogether different caught my eye; a Ferris wheel. An old, dusty, entirely adorable vintage toy Ferris wheel. Of course I grabbed it like I was a drowning sailor grabbing for a bobbing life preserver, but even as I did I was thinking “God, this is going to be expensive…”. $2.

$2 minus 50% = (insert thinking music here) $1.

The manageress was putting some other junk on the toy shelf as I was leaving that section & said “Oh I didn’t see that!" & came over for a closer look. I told her it was luck that I’d seen it too, out of the corner of my eye & demonstrated how it merrily plays a tune & rotates, very, very, slowly. She held it for a long time before she gave it back, muttering again about how she hadn’t seen it & how nice it was, I just smiled happily.

When I took my things to the counter the assistant started to add them up when the manger came rushing down the aisle. “That REALLY shouldn’t have been $2.” I looked at her; what did she want me to say? “Sorry, I’ll give you whatever you want for it”? She said to the assistant, also standing silently, “I’ll have to tell *insert old lady name here* not to do this. I can’t believe she put that out for $2. It should NEVER have been $2. NEVER”. The assistant just said “Oh”. I smiled & paid $4.50 or whatever it was for my bits & bobs & left. HAPPY. What would you have done?

Now I know opshops sell donated items to raise money for charity. I get that & I never, ever, ever, as I see some people do, try to haggle or begrudge them their money; if it’s too rich for my blood I just don’t buy it, & I try not to visit “trendy” opshops that have prices more inline with a proper second-hand dealer, but in this case I was lucky. That’s what opping is about after all, there is no skill in finding great things at opshops, just luck & persistence.

Luck struck again later that day when I found this old “game” for 50 cents. The instructions say that one player reads the story while the others read out their random cards to fill blanks in the story, so that lines like “…for safety, he sewed a             into the lining of his coat…” becomes “…for safety, he sewed a plucked chicken into the lining of his coat…”.

Have a lovely Sunday!

More finds here.