I went to a huge yard sale today. Seriously, it was like 9 blocks long, and had families on a wealthy street in Seattle and yet…such poorly crafted sales.

Many yards were littered with things that no one in their right possible mind would ever consider buying.

However, there were a few gems that I found and things that were incredible.

I bought three of these incredible things. Here I am to report them….

Mad #33 The Non Violent World for fifty cents. This book from 1972 reminded me of when I found a dumpster full of porno mags and old Mad magazines. This one is hilarious, and I’ll make sure to scan in some funny clips for you guys. The book is in good reading condition, and has been read and used a lot. The interior is good though, and I love it. This is a gem, because it preserves comedy from decades past, and it proves how relevant Mad Magazine is nearly 40 years after the production.

The E-Project Volume 1 was found amidst a lot of current programming books. This book is a collection of the best web design from 2002. It is like an art book for web developers (like myself). It’s amazing to see how people were designing websites 6 years ago, and I’m proud to see that some of my early designs mirrored the great ones in the book. Sure the book is dated, but some of the simplest design elements are found in the interior, and it helps me break free of the creative block that I’ve been having recently. So much so, that I have already began a new website design and portfolio for my index page outside of this blog.

That about does it, I didn’t find a lot of things that were worth purchasing. I almost, and I do mean almost, bought two Poltergeist vhs tapes with the original packaging in mint condition! They were two dollars for the two, and I just couldn’t get myself to purchase them.

I love VHS. You guys might not, and you probably don’t understand what I mean. However, there are niche’s that are ONLY available in vhs. Those niche’s are professional wrestling, martial arts, anime, horror film, and foreign film. These niche’s are outside of the majority of copyright holders, and are not on dvd anywhere. Some films are so rare that they get up to $200 per vhs tape on ebay.

I love horror vhs. The vhs versions of a lot of horror movies are the original edits, not the dvd versions that end up getting cut and shelved with new artwork and newly edited musical scores and/or sequences.

The one thing that really made me think, was the fact that the houses in this particular area were really expensive. At the rate that I’m living, even with no debts, I could never in my lifetime own one of those houses.

Oh well.

I like going to yard sales though. I almost went back, to pick up a lot of programming books. I’m enjoying Mad #33 (it’s a book, not the magazine).