On any given Saturday

MONTROSE — An 18-inch tall stuffed snowman sits on a table alongside used boom boxes and 1980s vintage ceramics. Through the darkness, its glassy eyes gaze over racks of gently used clothing, rows of dusty old books and piles of miscellaneous junk. The garage door opens, allowing the rising sun to glint off the snowman’s “ice” pendant, and the sale begins.

This is the hand-me-down snowman’s fourth appearance in a yard sale. Every time children pass by, press its magical button and hear “Stop, collaborate and listen...” the snowman swivels its head to Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby.” All the kids have wanted it and all of the parents have told them, “no,” said Patty Sheehan. She is having a yard sale at her home on Manchester drive  Saturday. Hopefully it will be the snowman’s last showing.

Sheehan usually has one yard sale each year. This year she combined forces with her two daughters, Janine Suppes and Jennifer DelTonto, to get rid of excess stuff. “Some people think this is fun; we do it to fund a project,” Sheehan said. They are raising money to send Sheehan’s 15-year-old grandson, Brett Suppes, to Europe with the Colorado Ambassadors of Music. Sheehan’s recipe for a successful yard sale is simple; good stuff at a fair price. “If you don’t put out junk, people will know that and come back,” she said.

“Sentimental value has no value at a yard sale,” Jeanie Suppes added.

Residents along Manchester Drive enjoy the sense of community that the summer’s yard sales foster. Sheehan’s was only one of four sales on the block. Deanie Steinbach, who lives up the street and forced her daughter to empty the garage, is new to Montrose. “It’s a good way to meet people,” Steinbach said as she prepared meat for a neighborhood barbecue planned later in the afternoon. “We don’t expect to sell much but when everybody’s doing it, it’s more fun.”

Page Burgener has a strategy for shopping at yard sales. “I’m very eccentric,” she said. “I like to find unique or weird stuff at yard sales to use at home or make art out of.” Burgener recommends shoppers bring along the newspaper and a notebook to group the sales. “If you go early, you get the best picks. If you go later in the day the prices are marked down and sometimes even free.” Burgener said. “You have to bargain.”

Burgener got into yard sales about 10 years ago when she had one of her own. “I had a bunch of really cool things that I needed to get rid of, then I went to the antique shops and saw all of my things.”

A man who goes by an alias, “Slim Pickin’s,” is one yard sale shopper who resells to local antique shops. He often buys and resells items in the same day, earning enough money to support himself through the summer. “It’s the thrill of the hunt, finding treasure among the trash,” Slim said. “I like to buy from people who don’t know or don’t care what they have.” Slim has three degrees but says that he’ll do anything to stay out of an honest job. But it’s not easy work, Slim has to run long and hard in his small, vintage automobile to get good stuff to make his living.

Most yard sale shoppers in Montrose are far less professional than Slim Pickin’s. “We went all last summer and had a blast,” said Carolyn Reed, who was shopping for books with Carole Blanchard on Manchester Drive. Reed and Blanchard easily hit 20 sales a day, though Reed’s personal record was 43 in one day.

When the heavy neighborhood traffic dies down and the sales come to an end, the leftovers are packed up. Some will be sold some other Saturday. Others will be donated to charitable organizations or placed on the curb with a sign that reads “Free.” As for the snowman, Patty Sheehan gave 50 cents to a friend to take it away.