Charlie Burnett stood by a table, talking to potential customers as they looked over his wares. He had dozens of baseball cards, NASCAR driver cards and other sports items on the table.

"I had my own baseball card shop back in the early 1990s," Burnett said. "This is part of it. The sports memorabilia business isn't as strong as it used to be."

He and his wife, Teresa, were among 42 vendors at Saturday's garage sale at the RiverChase Recreation Center. The tables were loaded with a wide variety of articles — dolls, cards, golf balls, books, shoes, old computers, dirty and rusted gardening tools. Just a hodgepodge of stuff on sale for a dime, a quarter, a dollar. Many were from inventories from long-closed businesses.

"This is the sixth year we've had this," RiverChase Recreation Supervisor Kate Buemi said. "It's cold outside, so we decided to bring the garage sale indoors. It's done well over the years. Other than paying for the table space, the vendors keep all of the money."

And for some, a few extra dollars help.

"Times are tough," Teresa Burnett said. "Maybe we can make some money to pay the bills."

While the Burnetts, who have been married for 25 years, hope to sell a lot of old stuff, there's just one problem. Charlie, 67, just loves to buy more stuff to replace the old stuff. His family keeps an eye on him.

"When he goes for a walk, we follow him," said Teresa with a laugh. "We keep tabs on him."

Charlie nodded. "Yeah, it's true. I just find it hard to give some stuff up."

Dozens of people milled around the tables. Although the prices were cheap, the shoppers weren't careless with their money. They cast a discerning eye. An occasional sale was made, but there also was a lot of browsing.

A woman bought a packet of hair barrettes for 25 cents from Fenton resident Barb Lueders. She wasn't particularly worried about making a profit for the day.

"I just want to get rid of this stuff," she said. Her table ran the usual gamut of garage sale inventory. In one corner, three pairs of women's dress shoes stood next to a padlock.

This was the second time for her to take part in the Fenton garage sale. It probably will be the last.

"Everybody's got one opportunity to buy," Leuders said. "After this, it all goes to Goodwill."

A stroll brought back some teenage memories — Mouse Trap game, Six Million Dollar Man cards. One vendor had a box full of record albums with music from The Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkle, Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass, The Commodores. Just seeing that many LPs of any kind of music brought back some nostalgia.

Affton resident Gary Duvall, 70, was pleased to buy a St. Louis Cardinals Mark McGuire 62nd home run commemorative baseball and a 1982 St. Louis Cardinals World Championship drinking mug.

"These things would have cost me a lot if I had bought them when they first came out," Duvall said. He was an ardent Redbird fan, wearing a Cardinal warm-up jacket over a Cardinal T-shirt. Duval and a friend decided to go the garage sale to try their shopping luck.

"I've come to these things every now and then," he said. "I'm happy with what I got."

Speaking of the Cardinals, there are some things that Charlie Burnett won't give up. He has a large collection of Stan Musial memorabilia, including an autographed bat.

"I can give up everything else, but not his stuff," he said.

As for the Burnetts, they still have over 2,000 comic books at home.

"Those are the next things that go," Teresa Burnett said.