Co-chairmen Emmitt Warner, wearing a blue short-sleeved shirt, and Max Crowell, with the cell phone on his belt, talk to each other about items being unloaded for the Desert Skies United Methodist Church's annual flea market.

Photos by Benjie Sanders / Arizona Daily Star

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Harvest-gold refrigerators never die, they just go to the flea market sale.

Same for Christmas tree ornaments, ladies' wigs, kitchen sinks, and — would you believe it? — a donated $6,500 Wolf range and oven.

"It came from a foreclosure, and we sold it for $2,500," says Max Crowell, as he eyes two men hauling the stainless steel behemoth onto a truck.

The range, alas, won't be at the annual sale going on next week at Desert Skies United Methodist Church. But just about everything else you can think of will be — at what may be Tucson's largest flea market.

For the last three years, this flea market has made an average annual profit of $85,000, benefiting everything from local charities to church missions that send teens to Honduras and Costa Rica.

Gathered throughout the year, items are also given to charities or sold to individuals every Monday morning, toting up another $18,000 in annual profits.

So where does all this stuff come from?

● From empty-nesters who are downsizing and don't want to bother with their own garage sale.

● From tipoffs from Realtors whose clients are cleaning out their parents' homes.

● From — yep — other garage sales. "Our volunteers go to yard sales on the weekend and leave information with them that whatever they don't sell, they might want to donate to us," says Crowell, who is co-chairing this year's sale along with Emmitt Warner.

Thousands of customers, some from as far away as New Mexico, show up for the event. "We have one couple who arranges their vacation every year to come to this sale," says Crowell.

And why not, considering you're liable to find everything from cultured-marble vanity tops to cars, boats, motorcycles, even a motor home.

"We do those on consignment," says Crowell. "We get 10 percent of the sale with a cap of $500, and it's tax deductible."

Adds Warner: "We sold a motor home for $55,000, and all the seller had to put up was $500."

And to think it all started with a computer — or rather the need for one.

"Years ago we needed $250 for a new computer," says Warner. "So we said, 'Let's have a garage sale.' We made $500 and had such a good time we said, 'Let's do it again.' "

These days, it takes 150 folks — members and non-church members alike — to set up and operate the flea market.

And every Monday morning throughout the year, 25 volunteers or so also show up to sort, repair and price merchandise.

"They worked on Labor Day and when Christmas and New Year's fell on a Monday, they worked, too," says Warner.

Many of the volunteers are retired, though Boy Scouts and members of the Sabino High School football team have also helped out.

Items are stored in three warehouses set up on church property, as well as in Warner's barn, about a mile away.

"When we were buying all those warehouses we wondered if we were having a flea market to support the flea market," says Crowell, adding that the church spends about $5,000 a year to put on the sale, including costs for advertising and for renting Dumpsters and the all-important Porta-Potties.

The church uses 10 percent of flea market profits to pay down the mortgage, with the rest funneled into church missions and charity.

Volunteers are constantly fanning out across the city making pickups, including, says Crowell, "a bunch of 80- and-90-year-old guys picking up refrigerators and sofa beds."

Some pickups, especially when it involves an entire household, offer hidden surprises.

"In one little old lady's home, we found about six bottles of liquor, in various stages," says Crowell. "We couldn't take that. We called the son and asked him what to do. He said, 'My mother doesn't drink.' " Turns out, she did.

At the home of another elderly woman, volunteers found several pairs of racy underwear.

The final push for the sale begins as soon as the last "Amen" is said the Sunday before, with volunteers setting up all week.

After the sale, which ends at noon Saturday, volunteers swoop in to clean everything out and restore order before the next morning's services.

What doesn't get sold, usually about 10 percent of all items, either goes to Goodwill or to the Dumpster. "Last year, Goodwill took away four big truckloads," says Warner.

While the flea market has ballooned beyond everyone's expectations, it's the team building, not the money, that really matters, says Crowell.

"We get to know each other. And when we need to get something done, it's easier to get out and get the volunteers."

Amen to that.

Some 10,500 square feet of building space and 3.5 acres of uncovered space are needed to display all of the merchandise for sale at Desert Skies United Methodist Church's flea market sale.

Desert Skies United Methodist Church annual flea market sale

• When: 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Nov. 6-7; 7 a.m.-noon Nov. 8.

• Where: 3255 N. Houghton Road.

• Payment: Checks or cash, no credit cards.

• Food: Will be sold.

• Information: 749-0521.