So….I like barn sales. But I am discovering there are barn sales and there are barn sales.

I have gone to sales in barns where the barns are completely renovated and it plays host to a specialty store or antiques or antiques and collectible store. Those types of situations are where I expect traditional retail pricing.

The barn sales I go to normally are true barn sales, much like garage sales meet a flea market in a barn. These barns are former working barns now packed to the gills with all sorts of stuff. It’s a little dusty, and you have to dig, should bring a flash light….and you can dicker on price and sometimes barter. Things are priced to move. A picking paradise.

However, cropping up on places like Craig’s List and garage sale boards are this weird hybrid cross between the aforementioned. They call themselves a “barn sale”, but…..other than the barn or barn-like location are they really a barn sale?

I mean no disrespect to these folks deciding to hold sales in their barn, but $100 for a pair of not particularly large nor spectacular decorative pillows that might be $19.99 each in Home Goods is not barn sale pricing.

And I have never known a barn to grow an over-abundance of milk painted, chalkboard painted, chalk painted furniture. But then again, I just like the look of real wood, I am not a pastel princess. I can also gussy something up myself and don’t necessarily wish to buy a piece of grown-up furniture that looks like cotton candy.

Yes in Chester County we are seeing different shades of barn sales. I guess I am just a traditionalist and prefer the barn sales that really are barn sales. Sometimes a little dusty and dirty, places you can really find some amazing treasures.

And interestingly enough Merriam-Webster defines a barn sale thusly:

Full Definition of BARN SALE:

garage sale

First Known Use of BARN SALE

1953

Noun

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