I think the one I screwed onto my sewing table was bought at Walmart. My favorite one is one given to me by a sweet lady (now deceased)...it's actually an inch square in diameter and can be used for a walking stick or club!!

I picked up a bunch of them at a landscape/growers convention. I also was able to get a number of reusable bags for free also. (The best part with the bags was that they were all different sizes, from small to extra large.)The vendors were using them as advertising.

We collected them as we moved around the country. Good memories of businesses and places. Ours were all free.

The free ones now are easy to bend and usually bowed. I have a few of the free ones from my grandmother's house and they are thick and solid with metal tabs on the ends. Most of the yardsticks I see now are plastic rulers. That said, the bright yellow metal ones at Lowe's are exactly 2 1/2" wide. They are labeled as straight edges not yard sticks. Best thing ever to mark straight lines on a quilt top. I have the 4ft and 6ft length. Inexpensive too!

I have a yard stick that I did buy from WalMart when I first started
quilting. Really like this yard stick because it has the 1/8, 1/4, 3/8,
1/2, 5/8, 3/4 & 7/8 fabric markings.

My Janome dealer gave me a free yardstick when I bought my 6600. It's the "bendy" kind, though - probably made from sawdust and glue and mostly held together by the bright yellow paint that covers it!

I have a metal yardstick and a metal meter stick that I bought online, I think they were both pretty inexpensive. My niece and nephew thought they were great for "playing swords" though, so they're kind of beat up on the edges now. *sigh* LOL

I still have a few laying around here too. Some in my workshop and one or two in my sewing room. Don't use them but they're there if I do need them. I've gone to the plastic or metal rulers these days as they last longer and don't splinter as the wooden ones do.

Sometimes they give them free at home shows. Still have a couple we were given years ago.

My local TruValue Hardware store sells wooden yardsticks for $.99 with their name on them. Not too bad considering the price of them that I've seen elsewhere. Wish I had of started a collection of them back when.

I have a wooden one that I bought in expensively at Walmart, that I have hanging horizontal on the wall, so I can measure fabric quickly when/if I forget how large the piece is. DH found me a metal one but no sure where or how much, but I do use both for different things.