8/25/2007

It's been a long time but I found....

It’s been a while but l@@k at what I found on the corner of 8th Avenue and 15th Street (in Brooklyn town) lying on top of an electrical box! Is this HOT or what?! I KNOW this is from the 1950’s and made in Japan but I love anything that looks like it could be airbrushed on the side of a 1970’s van. I LOVE kitschy sunsets (as well as real ones!)

Anyway. This made me happy because a few minutes before, I stopped at a stoop sale where the proprietresses forgot they were outside in the sweltering sun and thought they were working at a high end Manhattan vintage clothing store. My eye fell upon a red and white polka dot western style shirt. A simple question “How much is this?” received a long winded reply about how she got it in a vintage western clothing store in Sante Fe and she never wore it blah blah blah. My interjection “Would you take five dollars?” was received in shock. She would take no less than twenty dollars!

Good Luck with that sister!

You will be sure to be hauling that back up the stairs, along with everything else you got for sale. The people that drop that kind of money are all out of town at their summer houses (I love it! I’m enjoying their absence!)

I’m turning into one of those old cranky hagglers that are regulars at stoop sales! I’ve held plenty myself and I pride myself on my people friendly prices. I get rid of it CHEAP and you know what? At the end of the day, I’ve got nothing left! Partially the reason for that is if I like you I usually tell you to "just take it" (that's why I am poor). I‘m finding that more and more stoop sale holders think they are selling the crown jewels. Last week I stopped by one on Clinton Street in Carroll Gardens and this chick wanted fifty bucks for a beat up pair of shoes! Yes, they were Sigerson & Morrison but HELLO! It’s a stoop sale!

As I mentioned before I have held many a stoop sale myself. The record collectors are the WORST but those are “my people” so I am entertained by them. If you say it starts at 10 they are literally pounding on your door at 9 am. I find that they use the annoyance factor to the 10th power. You just want them to leave so you can set up!

There are these two guys in particular that I see all over Carroll Gardens. I call them “good cop, bad cop”. One is friendly and distracts the proprietor and the other is dead serious and has this certain coldness in his eye when he demands a better price on that coveted “Dusty Springfield” album in your bin.

It’s all a part of my movie you see. I am writing “Moonstruck 3” where Cher turns into a community activist when her boyfriend’s (Nicholas Cage) bakery is threatened by a condo developer who wants the new building to have a “Patisserie” instead of a bread bakery.

Everything is affected. The stoop sales go high end, the price of pizza slices go up and it becomes law that an “Area” emporium of some sort is on every street corner.

I am writing this movie with no irony or sarcasm what so ever.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

how much do you want for the Japanese Mt. Fuji??!

Lisanne said...

just take it.

Anonymous said...

best review of stoop sale ever & one a long time coming, although in the post- ebay era, the delusional stoop saler is not uncommon, nor their lame twin, the 'upscale' 'thrift' store. btw, did you ever read this before--

http://nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=11263

Q: now that she's gone, did you ever get any good stuff from that place at Smith & Union? seemed they were too expensive but i will also admit she wasn't by bag so... maybe i missed something?

wwib

Lisanne said...

No I never EVER got anything there. If you are talking about the place that is now a restaraunt. I think she is by Atlantic Avenue now.

Unless you are talking about that place with the 700% markup with the initials called "A.T" (hint: fake grass). AND in that case I never EVER got anything there either!

Speaking of thrift stores, there used to be a few pretty good ones in the C.G area. I was really sad when that one on Court turned into another lame-o restaurant. i got a lot of excellent clothes there plus all the people who worked there were really sweet. There was also that other one which was run by a tyrant but you could get some good stuff...it is now a copy shop (used to have the live rabbits in the window! animal abuse?)) I went to the Sal Army on Atlantic recently after staying away cause it just got nasty in there, they've cleaned it up and have actually LOWERED their prices. (!) I half expected it to be closed when I headed over as that is the way of the world these days...