Treasure Hunt Bargain seekers find variety, low prices at regional yard sales

Roger Bartow still remembers the best deal he ever got at Trade Day, even though it was 25 years ago.

Now the town manager of Winter Harbor, Bartow was working at a garage at the time, and he traded two mopeds, once used as rentals, for a handgun and a 1947 Chris Craft boat.

“I spend more time fixing it up than I do using it,” Bartow said, smiling. “I’m thinking of trading it.”

Who knows what Bartow – and countless others from the Schoodic Peninsula and points farther flung – will find Saturday at this year’s Trade Day, part rummage sale, part country swap. The same can be said for Caribou’s Citywide Yard Sale, which takes place Saturday and Sunday throughout the Aroostook County town.

“Some people are just yard-sale-aholics,” said Pam Wyman, who works for the Caribou Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “People just love ’em. We get ’em from all over.”

For the last several years, Caribou’s sale has been listed in Country Living magazine, which lures in bargain-hunters from Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania and beyond. This year, 193 residents will participate in the sale, and the Chamber has printed maps for visitors.

“People from away find some real treasures up here that people who live up here maybe don’t notice what a treasure they are,” said Wyman, whose best find in the sale’s 12-year history was a claw-foot oak dining room table. “These are not antique-shop prices, but sometimes you can find some really wonderful antiques.”

The Schoodic Trade Day is a bit less organized – people either have a yard sale or they don’t, and there are no maps – but longtime treasure hunters have their favorite haunts. The closing of the Winter Harbor naval base in 2002 left a void in terms of exotic or unusual items, often purchased overseas in a tour of duty, according to Bartow. But there are still plenty of options.

“It’s always been a busy day, but with the Navy gone, we don’t have quite as many new or different items that they usually carried,” Bartow said. “They came back from overseas with all sorts of trinkets. It was a chance for locals to get a little international flavor.”

When the Navy moved out, new people – some local, some “from away” – moved in, and they have extra couches, furniture and glassware to sell, too. This weekend, the town will hold an open house in one of the former naval housing units, as well.

“Now we have a lot more antique dealers and people interested in flea-market finds,” said Megan Moshier, president of the Schoodic Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a totally different group of people.”

But the lure is still the same.

“They want real good deals,” said Pete Drinkwater, proprietor of the Winter Harbor 5 and 10. “They want bargains. One time I had a pair of boots out there for a dollar.”

Someone tried to talk him down.

“They were brand new,” Drinkwater said, laughing. “They sold.”

So did a men’s-room urinal, which Drinkwater calls the “strangest thing” ever sold at Trade Day. And it probably sold for a song. But for area merchants, the event means more than bargains. While many businesses open on Memorial Day weekend, Trade Day is the unofficial start of the season.

“For us as merchants and businesspeople, that’s kind of the kick in the pants that says summer’s here,” said Moshier, who owns a Prospect Harbor bed and breakfast that’s slated to open in June. “Everyone’s gearing up for summer. They’re putting up window boxes, putting paint on the [storefronts]. It marks the beginning of summer, a time to really open your doors and dust off your sign.”

In Caribou, the citywide yard sale isn’t only a chance for homeowners to unload furniture, cars or a lawnmower, and rake in $700 or so in the process. It also marks the end of a long, cold winter.

“It’s a gathering of people you might not see all year till this event,” Wyman said. “It’s a great social event.”