Section D·Page 4
The University Daily Kansan
Monday, August 21, 2000
Students find bargains, treasures at garage sales
A collection of masks was among the items displayed for sale at one summertime garage sale. Photo by Jamie Roper/ KANSAN
Xin Wang, left, and Jun Shang, Lawrence graduate students, check out some CD's at a local garage sale. Photo by Jamie Roper/KANSAN
By Karen Lucas
Kansan staff writer
Vintage tables, shower curtains, CDs, cars, and the odd double-decker bus are among the hodgepodge that draws KU students to local garage sales.
Many sales are held in late summer as students return to Lawrence. More than 60 garage sales were advertised for the last weekend in July in local newspapers
On their way to Kansas City one Saturday this summer, Carolyn Richardson, Hutchinson junior, and Steven Stewart, Leavenworth junior, stopped at a garage sale they spotted in the 2000 block of Massachusetts Street.
For $30, Richardson bought a red Formica table with chrome legs for her new apartment.
"I think it's a good deal," Richardson said. "We saw a similar one at another garage sale that was like $150."
At Cheryl Sharp's sale in the 1400 block of Maple Lane in east Lawrence, Jun Zhang, Lawrence graduate student, paid $2 for nine CDs, including songs by Lorrie Morgan and Diamond Rio. Zhang said that even though he had never heard the CDs, he would use them as background music.
The CDs were among the many odds and ends that seller Cheryl Sharp said she needed to unload because she was getting married and moving to Bermuda. She was asking $12,000 for a silver '98 Honda Civic with 42,000 miles on it. Two baskets of small miscellaneous items, including plastic drinking cups and a dust pan, though, were free.
Lauren MacPherson, Wichita junior, and her boyfriend also came to Sharp's sale.
"It's so neat looking at a different stuff because you see different aspects of people's lives," MacPherson
Nor did she leave the Maple Lane sale empty-handed. For $1, she walked out with a green velvet magician's hat and silver wand.
said.
While looking through the sale items, MacPherson raved about a '67 painting of the Sigma Chi fraternity house she got an earlier garage sale.
"It would be nice to wear it to the Renaissance
Festival." she said.
festival, site sale.
A KU student and his wife were the first customers at Janet Muggy's sale on 1300 Road North in Eudora. They bought dishes and a shower curtain, but they passed up the most unusual and most expensive sale item: a white '67 Bristol double-decker bus for $10,000.
double ducker blower Her husband, Bill Muggy, is owner of the Jayhawk Bookstore, 1420 Crescent Road. He said he used the bus for charter trips and to shuttle students from the residence halls to his store, but that it was no longer in good running condition.
"It has an engine problem that's going to take about $5,000 to fix." he said.
Janet Muggy said she thought someone might be interested in using the bus for a permanent standing business or for advertising.
In the 1900 block of Kentucky Street, Jennifer Casey, Wichita graduate student, and her fliance, Brian Olliges, St. Louis senior, had a garage sale with Casey's sister and brother-in-law, both KU alumni.
"Since we're poor college students, we're trying to be fair and make everything cheap." Casey said.
Among the sale items were a $5 AT&T computer, five-speed women's bike for $15 and a $1 Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner.
Yet a clay Corona beer mug, about 10 inches high. had a $25,000 price tag.
high, had a $25,000 price tag.
"It's a joke," Olliges said. "If anyone laughs at it,
they get it for free."
—Edited by Jim O'Malley
Local band hopes Web's information highway is road to top
Bv Chevonn Payton
Special to the Kansan
About an hour and a half before their performance in Hashinger Hall, Jason Green, Clint Kueffer and Chet Kueffer unload their minivan.
They drag equipment into the building, set up drums and sound systems and hook up electric guitars and microphones. After a few microphone checks, they perform practice songs to make sure their sound is right.
Ten songs and one hour later, the men reload the equipment, drive home and reassemble it in Clint's living room. They have practice again soon.
Before going their separate ways, the men discuss what needs to be done before next week's performance; Update the Web site; send out information about the next show; call the club to make sure everything is set.
This is the life of up-and-coming rock performers. They don't have a manager to book gigs and meet their wants and needs. They don't have special engineers to ensure perfect sound at each performance. They don't have anyone
wno arrives early to set up their equipment.
The ClintK Band does everything for itself.
The group — whose members hail from Baldwin City and Lawrence — writes its own music, maintains its own Web site, handles its own promotions and books its own gigs. Last February, it even produced its own CD. Here We Go.
The group would like to make it big someday, but it faces one major challenge: It needs a record deal.
Clint Kueffer, lead singer and guitarist, said that a small label had offered the group a record deal but that the group had not been interested.
"We didn't go with a record label at first because we felt it was too early to make that kind of commitment to anybody," said Kueffer, a University of Kansas alumnus. "We'd much rather do what we could do on our own so that we could do the kind of music we wanted to do instead of what someone else told us to do."
Nicholas Gordan, label manager at the Artist-Workshop in Lawrence, said Lawrence was one of the greatest cities in
the country for developing artists.
"It is very easy to get shows here if you're good," he said. "We have good publicists and good recording companies. Everything a developing artist needs is right here in Lawrence."
ClintK Band members are using that accessibility to their advantage. They perform at local venues, such as The Bottleneck and Hashinger Hall. They have played in Kansas City and have dropped CDs at local radio stations and record stores.
And now the group has found a faster and cheaper way to market itself: The Internet.
Chet Kueffer, ClintK Band bassist and Baldwin City sophomore, said the group sometimes got 30 to 40 e-mails a day. He said it was great being able to tell fans about the band's Web site.
Gordon said the Internet was slowly making life easier for lesser-known groups because it offered a worldwide audience and allowed record companies and interested buyers to click on the band's site and listen to its sounds.
"People will go there and find out when we play and find out other stupid stuff
"There's a whole new realm of exposure that exists now because of the Internet."
Nicholas Gordon
label manager
about us and, hopefully, want to buy the CD," he said.
Gordon said the Internet was becoming a huge influence in the music industry.
"There's a whole new realm of exposure that exists now because of the Internet," he said. "It combines airplay, live images of the bands, Web casts from clubs during performances, and the best thing is, it's free to get on, so millions of people will see it."
Brad Koehler, sound engineer at Mercy Record Studio in Lawrence, agreed. If groups want to make a buzz in the music industry, he said, a Web site is the way to go.
"There was a duo in Texas who was trying to get some record companies
interested in them," he said. "So they started e-mailing these MP3 files to all these different countries throughout Europe and Asia. Just by selling their MP3 files, they were able to sell 50,000 units of their CDs. They showed the record companies how much they sold on their own, and then they finally got signed."
Koehler said the Internet made it easier for unsigned bands to sell products without a record company because it offered alternative venues.
"All they really have to do is contact one of the Internet server companies, like the Ultimate Band List or CD Now," he said. "These companies will individually sell your product online for you, or they will link to your site, where you can sell it yourself."
The ClintK Band produced 1,000 copies of its first CD for about $1,000. In terms of profit, the group broke even. But band members said they didn't mind as long as they could continue to perform with the hope of one day making it big.
—Edited by Mindie Miller
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