REI Garage Sale!

The bi-annual REI garage sale is held to sell off defective & damaged products that have been returned to REI throughout the year. It's usually a great chance to pick up some quality equipment for super-cheap.

Since great deals are to be had, you'd better get there early. We went to another REI garage sale last year, arrived soon after the doors opened, and the stuff was pretty well picked over already. This year we decided to get a better jump on things. The doors opened at 9:00 am, so we planned on arriving at 8:00 am. We made it by 8:05 (not too shabby!), and got in line behind 70 or so people who were clearly more motivated than we were. Just an example of how serious some people take this, the first few people in line were in tents. Considering we still had to wait out in the cold for nearly an hour, we were content with our place in line.

We didn't have any big items we were looking for, we had discussed a few things that if we found a good deal on we might pick up, but for the most part were just checking out what was available. We ended up getting more than we thought we might, but most were pretty practical for some great prices.





Check these shoes I got. Nice huh?




The tags all have a description of why they were returned or defective. The shoes have an especially fun tag.

I lost my watch somewhere a couple months ago, so I found this watch for $25. The description of problem: Worn ? Works

It gets better! It has a thermometer, barometer, electric compass, altimeter, and stopwatch. Fancy!




I also lost/misplaced/unknowingly donated to charity my headlamp, which I have found to be very useful camping in the past. It even makes you look intelligent!