DALLAS, Texas -- On a warm September morning, they line up outside this North Dallas office building in a queue that has started to wrap around the building. If it starts to rain or it’s especially hot, they’ll be let inside the building, but otherwise, they have to wait until the doors open promptly at 9:00 AM. They don’t mind; they know the routine. They come from all over the metroplex and beyond, some driving as much as four hours to get here. Many have been lining up for this event twice a year for almost ten years, and they know it’s worth the wait to be one of the first to get inside.
The event they’re all waiting for is the biannual Crafty Neighbor Scrapbook Garage Sale. But this isn’t any ordinary garage sale. Held at the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas Joann Fogg Service Center, this sale is a crafter’s dream -- table upon table of stamps, tools, die cutters, punches and more, all to be had for pennies on the dollar. The deals are so good that it’s not unusual to see shoppers making multiple trips back to their car to stash the treasures they’ve found because they can’t carry all of it.
The shoppers aren’t the only ones anxious to get this sale started. The vendors have been anticipating this sale since the end of the last one, many of them emailing the organizer to plead for a spot. There aren’t enough spots to go around, and this time, the spaces have sold out in just one day. Now, 24 lucky sellers have set up their wares on two five-foot tables and they’re nervously rearranging a few items, hoping they’ll sell everything by the time the sale ends at 2:00 PM.
When the doors open at 9:00, the shoppers scramble to get to the deals, hoping to beat each other to that special item they’ve been waiting for. In the end, everyone leaves happy. The shoppers have found bargains they weren’t expecting, and the sellers leave with stacks of cash and fewer boxes of craft supplies. The lucky ones will sell everything. It’s been a good day, but the lingering question that will be on everyone’s mind is, “when will there be another sale?”
Crafty Neighbor will be hosting the next Scrapbook (and crafts) Garage Sale on September 7, 2019 at the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas Joann Fogg Service Center at 6001 Summerside Drive, Dallas, Texas 75252. The sale runs from 9:00 AM until 2:00 PM and entry is free for shoppers.