Skipping out on garage sailing was not an option for the very young Kim Buffum.
“Mom dragged me to garage sales all the time, starting when I was only 3,” Buffum said. “I was such a brat about it. I told her, ‘I’m never making my kids go to garage sales.’ ”
That couldn’t seem more ironic now. Buffum and her husband, David, residents of east Vancouver, have become regional garage-sale mavens and the owners of the Northwest’s Largest Garage Sale & Vintage Sale. That massive gathering takes over the Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds all day Nov. 4 — with upwards of 600 different vendor booths serving up a truly indescribable amount of used and handmade stuff.
There are just as many reasons why people sell and shop at this extravaganza of second-handedness. “I’ve heard every kind of story,” Buffum said — starting with what she didn’t realize until much later about her own mother: “It was the only way she could take care of us kids and provide what we needed.”