By ADAM STEWART

News editor

Garage sales Saturday in Marion and Peabody attracted customers from near and far.

Vonnie Gfeller, selling decorations, dolls, and other items that belonged to her late mother, said many of the customers at her sale in Peabody were from Marion, Hillsboro, and Durham, although they had a pair of out-of-state customers. Dana and Viola Ostrom of Oklahoma City, came specifically to shop at garage sales.

Viola Ostrom said she had joked with someone the day before about finding a piece of Tupperware that had gone missing from her set. It was no joke, though, when she found exactly what she was looking for Saturday morning.

Jennifer Sisemore of El Dorado made a beeline for Eastmoor United Methodist Church’s sale, with daughter Alyssa in tow. Sisemore said she had good luck at the sale last year, when she found a bicycle trailer. Alyssa was thrilled by the musical instruments at the sale, trying a trumpet before picking out a toy electronic keyboard to buy.

Maggie Nichols began her garage sale Friday night, but the traffic was slow because of the rain, she said. Despite some early mist, business picked up Saturday morning.

“A lot of out-of-towners are coming in, people you don’t know,” Nichols said.

The reasons for the garage sales varied from one sale to the next. Shannon Cooper was getting ready to finish the basement in her new home, and she needed to sell things to clear out space. To meet that goal, she priced items cheaply to improve their chances of selling. Anything that wasn’t sold she planned on donating to the St. Luke Hospital Auxiliary Shop.

“I’m getting to that point I realize stuff is just stuff,” she said.

Gfeller had her garage sale because that’s how her mother had wanted her possessions sold, rather than at auction. Gfeller said snowmen and Santa Claus decorations sold very well.

“She decorated for every holiday, and I don’t think she ever used the same thing twice,” she said of her mother.

Eastmoor United Methodist Church’s sale was to support the church’s missions projects and local charities. Judith Priest said the sale raised $1,474 on Saturday the Marion County Emergency Food Bank, Circles of Hope, Central Station youth center, and church missions. Some additional sales on Sunday raised the total to more than $1,500.