Pickers, dealers flock to yard sale

Some are looking to rake in cold, hard cash, others have their hearts set on snagging the Holy Grail of finds in soda bottles, clown figurines, old vinyl records, oil cans, bobbleheads, music boxes, tools, etc.

The U.S. 127 World's Longest Yard Sale, which runs through Sunday, has brought out hordes of buyers and sellers from across the United States to Mercer County.

At this point in his life, Don Muhlenkamp of Celina, one of many vendors set up underneath tents at Niekamp Farm Market outside of St. Henry, is looking to unload some of the odds and ends that he's accumulated over the past several decades.

Muhlenkamp, 81, has been hooked on collecting numerous things since he was 18, when his uncle gave him a license plate from the '20s.

"I love antiques," he said. "Anything old, I love."

Spread out on tables and within glass-topped cases are baseball cards, ashtrays, golf balls, election buttons, matchbooks, coins - all up for sale, for the right price.

"They call me the Variety Store," he said. "You got to see this scale … 1873. You know what that devil's worth?"

The price tag on the double plated scale reads $125 but Muhlenkamp said it's going for $325 on the internet.

Muhlenkamp also has an array of license plates for sale. At the height of his collection he had amassed 2,000 plates from every year between 1910 to 1976, but as he's now in liquidation mode, is down to around 1,200.

License plates and automotive signs have been hot items among certain collectors the last several years, Muhlenkamp said. Two years back he made a tidy profit on a porcelain Duplex Marine Engine Oil sign when he sold it for $400. He bought it for $35 in 1968.

He also recounted how a few years ago he flipped a Sinclair gas pump he had bought at auction in the late '60s for $5 to a buyer for $1,500.

Turning to his blue mason jars, Muhlenkamp said collectors look on the bottom for a number. No. 13 is a rare jar as many people back in the day destroyed the jars out of superstition, not wanting to have the unlucky number in their homes.

Blue mason jars are one of the items that Kenneth Eller of Victoria, Texas, is on the lookout for, as well as pocketknives, old tools and "anything that catches my eye."

He's also scouring for watering cans.

"We don't find them in our neck of the woods," he said. "Everything in our area rusts because we're close to salt water. It will not last for any length of time."

Kenneth and his wife, Vearlyn, are making the entire 690-mile trek of the The U.S. 127 World's Longest Yard Sale that stretches from Assidon, Michigan, to Gadsden, Alabama.

Farther down the road just north of Celina, a massive encampment of vendors is in full swing outside the New Start Church of God, a site Sally Burden for the last 10 years has hawked metal signs of all sorts and sizes - emblazoned with images of pop culture images and sayings - as well a vast assortment of toys, household products and other items.

"It is a perfect spot," she asserts. "People come here every year because they know the me or my dad, who sits up front - he has antiques - are going to be here."

"They have home-cooked meals and that brings in a lot of people, too," she added. "They can pull off (U.S. 127), get something to eat and walk through."

As of Thursday afternoon, shoppers from Texas, Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Mississippi and Canada had walked through her tent.

"I think the locals like to come early to avoid the traffic," she said. "And also, Thursday and Friday, people get paid."

The biggest event on Burden's calendar each year, the 127 yard sale finds her brining everything but the kitchen sink.

"I bring everything that I want to sell regardless of what it is only because I never know what people are going to buy," she said.

And like many purveyor of collectibles, Burden said she's willing to negotiate.

"I try to have my stuff fairly priced and if they want to buy a sign, I'll give them a dollar off two signs, she said.

The vendors, she said, all get along great with one another.

"There is no competition out here. Everybody just has their own thing," she said. "Everybody just brings what they want to sell."