Sunday's first-ever STM vintage garage sale was a smash hit — selling more than $80,000 worth of metro signs and other transit memorabilia.
The crowds that turned up for the sale outside the soon-to-be-demolished Bellechasse garage rivaled those seen this week outside legal pot shops. Transit buffs waited up to three hours to pick up a piece of transit history — metro platform signs, light fixtures, doors from the recently retired MR-63 metro cars, and dozens upon dozens of old fare boxes from STM buses which served in the days before Opus cards.
The STM is turning the proceeds from the sale — $81,496 exactly — to four local charities: Centraide, PartenaireSanté Québec, the Quebec Red Cross and Réchaud-Bus.
"We are very happy with the garage sale," said STM head Philippe Schnobb. "We were expecting success, but not that much success. We're very proud to see our clients in Montreal were able to show the strong links they have with our metro system."
Schnobb told CJAD 800 News there may be another garage sale somewhere down the road, but for the moment, Schnobb reports whatever they had to sell on Sunday was all but cleaned out.
