Last week I finally had a good excuse to go to Cincinnati and while I was there I stopped in at the Salvation Army. There was a bunch of craft stuff but it was mostly yucky acrylic in atrocious colors. But then there was a collection of knitting needles all wrapped up in a bundle. Since the Salvation Army is a big fan of bagging things and stapling it shut, I couldn't see exactly what was in there. But the price was only $2.99 so I grabbed it.
I couldn't even wait to get home and opened the package in the car and look what I found!
The grand total was 10 pairs of vintage plastic single-pointed needles, 11 pairs of aluminum single-pointed needles, 22 plastic double-pointed needles, 13 aluminum double-pointed needles, 10 steel double-pointed needles (judging by their weight and rust), 2 aluminum stitch holders, a plastic crochet hook, a very long-handled (10") wooden crochet hook, a plastic stitch holder, and a plastic thing that appears to be for holding embroidery thread (one tab for each color).
The needle sizes vary, but are mostly smaller than about a size 5, particularly the double pointeds which are mostly around a size 1. The double-pointed needles rarely make up a complete set, at least not a set of 5 like modern sets are. Some were duplicates for my collection, but many are sizes I was lacking because I have yet to venture into the small-needle stuff.