My dad and I went to the REI garage sale yesterday. It’s a big sale of used and returned items for co-op members. We didn’t make it right when the store opened but apparently there was a huge line and mad rush in as soon as the doors opened. Like Black Friday. I’m sure we missed some really great deals that way but I have no desire to get stampeded for camping stuff. We still managed to get a couple of great deals though. I got the REI Base Camp 4 tent ($300) for $43. The only thing wrong with it is that it’s missing stakes and guylines. Which I can easily buy for under $20. Otherwise though, it was brand new and never used. I set it up yesterday to make sure it was okay and it looked to be in perfect condition. It’s much better quality than my current Coleman tent so I can’t wait to use it.
My dad got a Sierra Designs Moken 4 tent ($500) for $15. There was no reason listed on its tag for being in the sale so we opened it up and found out that someone must have put it away wet because it was a little smelly. That’s easily fixed though, just needs to be aired out. We set it up and found nothing else wrong with it. He also got the footprint for that tent for $1.83. He got another tent, a $205 Armadillo one, for $1.83. The reason that was listed for that tent being in the sale was that it “leaks live a siv”. At less than $2 though, it was hard to turn down so we took it home and set it up and found out that the previous owners must have just set it up wrong because there are actually 3 layers of tent wall. Hard to leak into that. We did see that they had tried to seal the seams over a mesh vestibule area, which makes absolutely no sense since rain would go through the mesh 1 inch away. The tent looked like it had been used many times and I looked up Armadillo tents and saw that they went out of business in 2001, so these people must have just not wanted it any more and returned it after using it for years. REI does have a great return policy. When I bought my hiking boots there I was told that if I went on a couple of hikes with them and they weren’t comfortable or didn’t fit, I could bring them right back. Any other store wouldn’t even think of taking back used boots.
There were a couple of other really good deals, like some Swiss Army knives for a few dollars each, and $80 climbing shoes for $1.83. I wanted to get them so bad but they just fit my feet, which means they’re too big for climbing. It took me a while to accept that and put them back though since it was such a great deal. I might go earlier next year after all.