Garb Safari

06/02/2026

For reals!

Sometime around 1781, while serving as minister to France, Benjamin Franklin set his pen to paper to address an important subject. Not liberty, diplomacy, or trade relations — passing gas.  “It is universally well known,” the great statesman and polymath wrote, “That in digesting our common...

05/30/2026

Last night and tonight’s biddings on online estate sale auctions lots within the closing minutes.
Four wins and 4 distinct items (half happen to be ashtrays) which captured my fancy though there’s plenty more worthy stuff within these lots accompanying the spoils of victory.

05/28/2026

13 years ago we were in high anticipation of hopping onto season 4.
Little did we know…
**f

05/27/2026

Well, another holiday weekend has come and gone along with a requisite mark-down sale with marginal returns to show for it.
The type of one-offs that my mercantile curates aren’t conducive to summer shopping habits or any sort of pricing urgency, therefore our sales traffic is typically slower.
So it goes.
I’ve got a never-ending, backyard escapist project for distraction anyway.
Only one of these pictured items sold over the weekend but all six were bought from us within the month of May on (four of them were sourced and listed just over the last couple of weeks.)
These six items were acquired* by us for FREE (or for merely the cost of gas) and grossed over a combined $650.
This scenario is by no means a common one (our ASP is generally much lower) but when sales velocity gets a bit slow it’s nice to reflect on when things have gone extraordinarily well, profit-wise.

*This inventory came into our possession care of friend donations, FB Marketplace and free bins at record stores and flea markets.

05/25/2026

Revisiting this perennial fave and, note to self: damn- still gotta read that JOVE BOOK!

05/22/2026

It’s been a proud, momentous week for the family.
Our oldest graduated* from with Summa Cum Laude honors (now it’s off to .lausanne, Switzerland in the fall.)
The very next day my lovely wife received the Teacher of the Year award for her school (the 2nd such prestigious honor during her career) and was commended for her ‘Aloha Spirit.’
*even Bobby-Bob-Bob sent along his congrats

05/19/2026

Here’s some of the shopping that our customers did on and over the weekend; items that we put into today’s mailstream.
Of note (and relief) is Hillbillies From Mars.
“The Hillbillies From Mars have been rocking the contradance scene in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1982.
They combine their love and dedication to Celtic and American traditional fiddle music with a healthy dose of their own “folk roots” of rock ‘n’ roll, swing, Latin and African beats, forging a new tradition of dance music.”
😱This HFM lot had been listed and available for sale for 12 YEARS!
That’s right, first posted during Obama’s 2nd term, it took a dozen years to finally snare a taker. The shirt is highly rare so I wasn’t concerned that a buyer would come along… eventually (but color me surprised!)
As always, the purpose of this content isn’t to flip brag or give hard sell but to merely showcase the range of cool products that we offer and continually curate.
Who knows, perhaps there’s something in our store of interest right now that someone hasn’t bought out from under you… yet.
😉
Quick links to Trad’r Don Mercantile/ Garb Safari’s offerings on several platforms can be found within our bio or at garbsafari.com...

05/15/2026

“If I’m here and you’re here, doesn’t that make it our time? Certainly, there’s nothing wrong with a little feast on our time”.
I posted this timeless quote exactly a decade ago when I visited my son’s elementary school for his final Lunch With A Loved One.
Since I’m such a sentimental sap, today I ate in a similar fashion with my daughter (who still has 2 more years to go for such events)
🍕☀️💕

05/14/2026

When donating to the thrifts we’ll often use the opportunity to go right back inside and see if there’s worthy candidates for our inventory.
Such was the case yesterday when a 30% off coupon emboldened these grabs.
With luau season quickly approaching we didn’t hesitate to grab some bold aloha prints and vintage hard goods.
Terrific patterns don’t always equate to prestigious labels (& vice versa)

05/10/2026

Here, they don’t scalp you with their prices; you don’t have toupee a lot.