Posted on Sep 18, 2009 - 09:31 AM

Treasures Abound at South Carolina’s Largest Garage Sale

By Christina Knauss

It's not every day you see a grown man walking around with a four-foot tall stuffed Scooby Doo dressed in a purple trench coat and leopard-trimmed hat reminiscent of Huggy Bear from the '70s show "Starsky and Hutch."

On Saturday, Sept. 12, Ron Rizzo of the Wampee community was that man.

Rizzo walked proudly through the packed aisles of South Carolina's Largest Garage Sale, holding the purple-clad Scooby doll, which towered above many of the other people he passed.

"Somebody a couple aisles over was selling him -- he was only $2," Rizzo said with a smile. "I just couldn't leave him. My son just had a new baby and I thought I'd bring this home and introduce him to Scooby!"

The Scooby doll wasn't the only treasure the Rizzo family picked up at the sale, which ran from 7 a.m. to noon at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. Rizzo said his wife was carting around "a boxful of stuff" she found at the sale as well.

Rizzo's one-of-a-kind stuffed animal find wasn't a surprise considering the huge array of items being offered by more than 230 vendors who set up outside the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, and were packed in next to each other row after row in one of the center's huge exhibition rooms. Just a quick survey of items up for sale included Halloween and Christmas decorations, ceramic chickens, beauty and personal hygiene products, stuffed animals, pet carriers, paper back books, towels and washcloths, carnival glass, religious paintings and '70s-era movie posters.

This was the first year the sale took place at the Center. For the first 20 years of its existence, it took place in the Myrtle Beach Pavilion parking garage, where buyers wandered from level to level like cash-waving ants in a cement farm. This year, however, city engineers said the structure was no longer safe to host thousands of roving shoppers.

In recent years, the Garage Sale has drawn crowds estimated at 10,000.

Bargain-hunters were lined up outside the Convention Center shortly after sunrise, wanting to be the first inside when the doors opened at 7 a.m. Myrtle Beach Police directed traffic on Oak Street as shoppers were quickly forced to park across the street, since the Convention Center lot filled quickly.

Shoppers came equipped with all sorts of equipment to make their treasure hunting easier. They pulled metal shopping carts, laundry carts, children's wagons, rolling luggage and other items to hold their finds.

Selling was a family affair for Kenneth Cribb, who was selling household goods, vintage comic books and books, toiletries, collectible glass, antique prints and other items with his granddaughter by his side.

Cribb, who also runs a side business as a bookbinder, said he has a small warehouse full of collectible items he picks up at garage and estate sales.

"I've been collecting the past 40 years, and we just enjoy doing this," Cribb said in between sales. "You meet all kinds of nice people at this sale, and you learn a lot from people you meet as well."

Frank Nesbitt of Myrtle Beach was using an old-fashioned street hawker style to try to get people to buy items from the table of old housewares, stuffed animals and garden implements he had set up. Nesbitt said the money he made for the morning would go to homeless shelters in the Myrtle Beach area.

He held up a cast-iron chicken, the kind you'd see out in a country garden.

"I'll give you anything here for $1! $1 for a chicken! You can't go wrong with a chicken!" Nesbitt shouted at one woman who looked at the items with interest, but kept walking.

Maquitta Davis of Loris took a break from her shopping halfway through the morning and proudly displayed a bag full of items.

"I love to go to yard sales! Love to come to these sales and find good things!" she said. Davis displayed a pile of bathroom towels and other home accessories, picture frames ("to display pictures of my daughter") and a nearly-new pair of pink roller skates for her daughter.

"And I got all this for under $20!"