The Great Glebe Garage Sale

I’ve recently developed a crazy devotion to explore as much of Ottawa as possible this summer. So this Saturday I decided to finally check out the annual Great Glebe Garage Sale. Surprisingly, I’ve never gone before despite loving second-hand shopping. My initial assumption was that it was just a day where everyone in the Glebe sells their old knick-knacks, but I was impressed to find it was a lot more than that.

I was also impressed with the amount of people that showed up for this event. I had heard on the radio that many people show up at 7 am despite the actual sale not beginning until 9, and now I understand why. Bank Street was filled with crowds of people either walking to destinations or shopping the sidewalk sales. Any street that happened to have a church was also packed with crowds of people, since churches tended to have the best selection of second-hand items.

My friend Corey came with me to check out the sales. We were fortunate that I have a friend who lives in the Glebe, so we were able to get easy parking in his driveway. Corey showed up looking well dressed for no reason at all, so of course I teased him relentlessly about it. Even better, countless men selling their items also poked fun at his style and offered him discounts on their hand-me-downs. Corey, being a good humored musician, was unfazed by the teasing.

The weather was unfortunately a little cold and really windy for the Great Glebe Garage Sale. It was definitely coat weather. However, we made the best of it by grabbing some coffee and eating treats regularly. We came by a Beaver Tails stand that was set up in someone’s driveway and we couldn’t resist the dessert; it was almost like fate that we stumbled across it.

In terms of good finds, I only bought a few items. I went to the event with the intention of finding some really good second hand PS2 video games, as well as some rings or jewelry. Unfortunately, I didn’t find any jewelry I liked besides a dorky $1 plastic ring (it’s a fish). I think the best find of the day was a DVD of Zombie Strippers that someone was selling. I didn’t buy it because I had a feeling it was an awful movie and the owner was asking for a lot more than I was willing to spend.

Finds of the day: Memoirs of a Geisha ($3), Dirge of Cerberus ($5), wooden engraving ($2), goofy ring (not shown – $1).