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I had seen the ad in our city's parenting magazine for the giant consignment sale, and read the article promoting it as one of the best places to scoop up some great baby gear for a steal. I had seen the ads last fall and last spring as well - this sale is held twice a year, and is always given a lot of publicity. The pictures on their website show rows of strollers, racks and racks of clothing, and enough toys to boggle the mind of the average toddler. Realizing we still needed some items for this new baby, and being unwilling to pay full price for many items like last time, I decided I was going to make the time to visit this sale.

The sale began on Friday, and continues on through Sunday. Fridays are always free for me, so I packed Cordy into the car at 8:30am with the promise of letting her pick out a toy while there. It opened at 9am, and was located in a small town outside the city. I didn't realize just how far out it was, and we finally arrived after an hour-long drive. The sale was held at a community fairgrounds, so I figured it had to be huge if they were using a large community building.

It was packed, but I managed to find a parking spot quickly. Being only a half hour late from the opening, I hoped we would still get one of the "GOODIE BAGS" that were advertised to the first 250 shoppers on Friday. Sure enough, I was handed my "goodie bag" as I walked in the door. I quickly stuffed it in the stroller basket, figuring I could check out the freebies later.

First stop was looking for a double stroller. However, I could only find a small group of four strollers, all of them single strollers, and most of them small umbrella strollers. Where were the rows of strollers? Next to the strollers were racks of books, and Cordy quickly spotted a two pack of Maisy books. They were $1.00, so I said sure and let her have them.

As I walked further back, I then noticed the line. There were already roughly 50-60 people in line to checkout, arms full of clothing and toys. The line stretched down to the back of the building and wrapped around towards the front again. This made trying to navigate the aisles difficult, as the line was completely blocking the tables containing toys, and I had to wait for someone to let me cross through to the other side to look at other baby gear.

I was completely disappointed in the selection. There was one scuffed up bouncy seat. Two baby swings, both gigantic contraptions that looked like they were from the mid-90's. I did find a cute kitchen that Cordy would have loved, but they wanted $75.00 for it, and it didn't even come with the accessories. I bobbed and weaved through the crowd to look at everything, but in the end, I couldn't find anything I needed for the baby. All I had was two Maisy books.

Looking at the line again, which still was just as long and had barely moved, I sighed and put the books back. I refused to wait in line for an hour just to purchase two books for a dollar. Luckily, Cordy had lost interest in them by that point, so she didn't protest. I loaded Cordy back into the car and drove the hour back home, very disappointed at this over-hyped consignment sale. I could find better items in a neighborhood yard sale.

Today, I pulled out the "goodie bag", hoping that the entire trip and wasted gas could somehow be redeemed by a few good freebies. I dumped out the contents of the bag and began to sort: an ad for an insurance agent, an ad for a preschool, an ad for a pregnancy crisis hotline, an ad for a home developer...it was nothing but advertising. And not even good advertising, either - there was nothing useful in the bag, like a pen with the name of a real estate agent on it, or a notepad stamped with a politician's name. It was nothing but paper brochures and business cards! Yet this "goodie bag" was supposed to be some fabulous bonus to get there early. It was insulting.

So, lesson learned: don't always believe the hype. And I certainly won't waste my time on that sale again. I'll wait until the communities around me do their annual yard sales - I'll have to walk more, but at least I have a good chance of finding something interesting and I won't have to wait forever in an enormous line to spend a dollar.