National Road Yard Sale keeps 'em stopping by

PLAINFIELD – Joyce Ann Haas' front yard was full of multicolored glassware and vinyl records Friday, but she hopes it'll all be gone by the end of the weekend.

Haas and her husband, Richard, sat in chairs beside the house, watching neighbors and out-of-town travelers browse their belongings.

"We enjoy it, talking with people and some people come back all the time," Joyce Ann said.

It's the sixth year in a row the couple has participated in the Historic National Road Yard Sale along U.S. 40. The multistate yard sale began Wednesday and ends Sunday afternoon, but some vendors said the largest day of sales is typically Saturday. Now in its 10th year, vendors set up shop along the highway and across state lines hoping to make sales to passers-by as the sale stretches from Baltimore, Md., to St. Louis, Mo., along the historic road.

Joyce Ann Haas said the couple began participating to get rid of extra things in their home.

"It got out of hand, our collecting," she said. "And, so, we had stuff we needed to get out of the house."

Now the couple is known for their glassware sales from the Great Depression era. The front yard of their Plainfield home was lined with tables of dark blue, green, pink, and red glassware. Some of their customers come looking for a specific item, trying to complete a set of dishes or replace a broken item.

Joyce Ann Haas said some customers weren't able to afford the glassware when it was first made and the dishes bring a sentimental value. She said the pink and green glassware has been the most popular.

The couple finds most of their items at auctions and try to buy items they know their customers are looking for. They said they've had customers come from as far as Pennsylvania.

Richard Haas said they've given customers their phone number so they can prepare for the summer sale.

"If they're looking for something in particular, they can call us," he said. "People come looking for specific colors or sizes."

Maureen Buskirk bought a Haviland luncheon plate that matched her grandmother's set of dishes. Buskirk said it was a sentimental buy for her first time at the National Road Yard Sale.

Farther down the road, Scott Burress set up a table of vinyl albums, cassette tapes, compact discs and eight-track tapes. A Plainfield native, Burress said he paid $10 to set up his table along U.S. 40 in front of a small flea market.

Most of his items are inexpensive, including albums for as low as $1, except well-kept Beatles albums that remained in plastic covers in a separate box and were selling for just between $8 and $12 each.

"Right now, rock 'n' roll music is the thing they're looking for the most," he said. "There seems to be kind of a comeback, especially with the vinyl records related to that and they're looking for deals."

Burress, who has been collecting music since he was 8 and has had a table at the National Road Yard Sale for the past five years, said he has 15,000 records, 10,000 compact discs and about 6,000 cassette tapes that he doesn't even intend to sell.

"I'm a collector first and a seller second," he said.

Local small vendors aren't the only ones benefiting from the National Road Yard Sale.

Next door to Burress' setup was Gilley's Antique Mall. Jeff Hines, co-owner of the Plainfield craft mall, said he hopes the extra traffic at the yard sale will bring more traveling customers to his business.

"We hope people come in looking for the finds and find something here," Hines said.

Follow Star reporter Olivia Lewis on Twitter:@TheWrittenPeace.