REI garage sale

[tc1]

If you are thinking of going to the flagship store in Seattle on Yale, skip it. The parking garage is that insane new style, where you have to drive up and down each row to get anywhere, corners are tight, no way to tell if there are open spaces around the corner, and the walk ways aren't well delineated so cars and peds mix it up and everyone is cranky. If there was an REI with a big parking lot I would check it out.

[eofelis]

I think that half of my gear has a silver or black X on it from an REI garage sale!

My town has the smallest REI store in the country, and it's walking distance from my apartment!

They have a garage sale about every 2 months and I often try to go to them. I seldom *need* anything, but I go for the entertainment value and often pick up something.

The store is small and the crowd isn't so huge that they let everyone in at 10am and it's a bit of a feeding frenzy. It's usually outside in the parking lot.

The list of great stuff I've gotten for cheap cheap cheap is long. A few things come to mind: a NOS in box 13" Novara Randonee frame for $15 (it's my commuter bike now), two REI Taj tents for $30 & $40 (it's our favorite tent, we got one for spare parts, they don't make them anymore, $200 new), I got slightly used Pearl Izumi Quest mtn bike shoes for $11. My friend got a new K2 Twister road bike, built with whatever was around, including Ultegra 9sp shifters for $200. I have REI camelbak type packs for $5. I just got some PI winter booties for $3. We got REI zipoff pants with broken fly zippers for $2, a friend fixed the zippers for us. I got a North Face Apex jacket for $20.

We have gotten some things so cheap that I sell them on ebay for a profit.