Adventures in Yard Sales - Part 3

Oh thank goodness it's over!  It wasn't as crazy as the yard sale we had ten years ago and for that I am thankful.

A quick summation.  I got up at 4 and very slowly got dressed.  You'll remember that as soon as I'd finished putting my garage sale junk out yesterday I fell off my foot and sprained my ankle.  (And trust me, I had NOT been drinking ... yet).  I kept it iced most of the evening yesterday and slept with an Ace bandage on it.  When I unwrapped it this morning it is still grotesquely swollen and getting pretty colorful (see photo - trust me, my foot is not normally that puffy).  Anyway, I got dressed and put on my walking boot (a souvenir from the last time I sprained my ankle) and headed outside to finish setting up.

Our first customer showed up an hour early, at 6, with his flashlight.  He was sympathetic to my plight as I hobbled around setting out last minute junk.  Donny & Gena weren't out yet - when Donny said 7, he meant 7.  The man waited, peering through the slats of Donny's wood fence every so often to see what was back there.  Gena finally came out and we got things going.

There is a double driveway between our two houses so we were wandering back and forth from one to the other and it was easy for buyers to do the same.  It's funny how yard sales go - as I've said, last time we met some really strange folks, but this time we met lots of really nice people.  One lady even had an Army connection with Steve.  They'd been stationed at the same base at the same time.  They talked Army stuff for a long time and had a good visit.  She bought a lot of stuff from both sales and we ended up exchanging phone numbers before she left.

I guess the oddest customer wasn't really a customer at all, but a fellow driving down the street on his bicycle who wanted to know if we had an air pump for his low tire. 

It was hot as blazes out there and I spent most of the morning sitting in my lawn chair with my gimp foot propped up on an old 19" TV I was selling.  I thought I might get some pity sales but I don't think I did.  Feel free to hit the tip jar and contribute to my pity party.   One lady did regale me with tales of her friend's recent foot surgery which required seven pins in her foot.  I didn't feel so bad after that.

I sold a lot of DVDs, a few books, a couple of purses, some pots, pans, and skillets,  a weedeater, some minor knick knacks, some fish and turtle food, some weights, a couple of board games...by the end of the day I ended up clearing about $150. 

Donny and Gena did slightly better because he made a late sale of about $100 in albums.  I think they ended up clearing about $250 or so.

The worst part of it all was putting that junk back up.  Some of it I threw out, but most of it we just stored in plastic tubs and put back in the garage.  Steve thinks he wants to do this again in the fall when it cools off some.  I guess it'll be okay as long as I don't fall off my foot again.

Was it worth it?  I don't know.  It was a lot of work, it was hot, I've hobbled myself for several days (or weeks) to come, but I did meet some nice people.  I cleaned out a lot of crap I didn't need anymore.  We shared camaraderie with the neighbors (we all went out to Tacomania for lunch after the sale).  I guess it was worth it.  Do I want to do it again?    Not any time soon!

Adventures in Yard Sales - Part 2

We're still on schedule to have this yard sale tomorrow morning.  As I reported earlier, we've spent the whole week cleaning out, sorting, washing, pricing junk for the yard sale.

This photo is part of my spread.  Donny and Gena have theirs out too but I didn't take a picture.  I don't have all mine out yet because some of it will go outside the locked gate in the morning; what's out now is secured behind a gate for the night. 

And I sprained my ankle.

Yeah.  Tell me why this crap happens to me?  I'm working like a busy bee all afternoon in the 100 degree heat getting this mess set up and around 4:30 I rolled my right ankle and hit the ground.  It quickly puffed up to the size of a small orange.  The Teenager helped me into the house where Steve came and fixed me up with an ice bag. 

And here I sit.

This should be interesting.

Early predictions?  Donny and Gena will crush me again in dollar totals at the end of the day.  He has 300 classic albums for sale, a multi-component stereo system he's asking $600 for (and that's his bottom line), a $150 rug (never used), a $200 antique clock...plus the usual garage sale crap like coffee mugs and clothes.  They do have some nice looking stuff over there.

I don't have anything over $25 in my haul. 

Going to ice the ankle for a while.  Updates tomorrow.  Live blogging a garage sale.  How lame. 

Adventures in Yard Sales - Part I

My phone rang yesterday morning:  "Pat, we're going to have a garage sale this weekend.  Get your stuff out."  The dread in Gena's voice voice was palpable.

Omigod.

My next door neighbors have decided it's time for us to bite the bullet and have another garage sale, so Steve and I have been busy digging out, cleaning out, sorting, pricing, washing, and organizing all the junk we want to get rid of.  Between the combining of our two households, we have a lot of junk and duplicate items.

I like to go to estate sales and the occasional yard sale, as regular readers know, but having one is something I so hate to do.  It's not the work involved, or the prep.  Let me give you an example of how our luck runs with yard sales.

My neighbors, Donny & Gena (you remember them - Taz's parents), and I joined together about ten years ago for a yard sale.  We worked all week long dragging stuff out of closets and cabinets.  I sat on the living room floor for hours pricing clothes.  We set up as much as we could the night before - got clothes racks ready and tables.  Donny even mowed the grass so it all looked nice.  We put our signs out and I think we even put an ad in the paper.  We were to start at 6 a.m.

On the big day I set my alarm for 4:30 so I could shower and get my junk hauled outside and set up.  When I looked outside at 5 a.m., there were people poking around outside with flashlights.  There wasn't anything out there yet, but there they were, looking around the side of the houses and in the backyard to see where we'd stashed our stuff.  I called Gena and we got a move on.

Buyers come in waves at these things.  You either have nobody looking through your junk or you have twenty people at once.

We were doing pretty good early on.  Lots of customers and everyone was pretty nice.  Donny & Gena had some high ticket items and did really well; they had an oriental folding screen that he got $300 for.  I was jealous.  All my junk was $1.00, $0.50;  I think my highest priced thing was $5.00 and I got haggled down from that. 

As the morning goes on you get the lags between customers and then they all want to haggle.  I realize that's part of the deal, but when you're asking $5.00 for a lined, suede coat in great condition, and someone says, "Will you take $1.00?", you've got to wonder..."is this even worth it?"

About 10:30 a battered, rusted out car pulled up and two adults and a child got out.  The woman was in shorts and the man was in cut-off overalls with no shirt underneath.  The child was about eight and had nothing on but a diaper.  They all were covered in scabs and had dirt in the folds of their skin.  They browsed, visited a little, and seemed in no rush to go anywhere.  They bought a coffee mug.

By this time, not quite 11, it was already hot and humid outside.  I had refolded, straightened merchandise, rearranged things for the umpeenth time.  Gena and I got sidewalk chalk and drew arrows in the street pointing to our sale to drum up more customers.

A car with seven people pulled up, grazed through the stuff, complained because we didn't have drinks, and wanted a $0.25 ashtray for $0.10 because it had a chip in it. 

Then the lady drove up who wanted to know if we had any S&M items.

That's when Gena and I started drinking.

She bought an entire box of Donny's old Playboy magazines.  

By that time, the hagglers didn't bother me.  "Will you take $0.50 for this stack of albums?"

"Sure.  No problem."

In the end I think I made about $50.00, barely enough to cover my part of the newspaper ad.  Donny and Gena did much better at about $800. I think there's an art to pricing that I haven't figured out yet. 

Whatever we had left Donny just set out nice and neat on the curb with a sign that said "Free!" and we went inside.  By the end of the day it was all gone.  All of it.

Anyway, we're going to give it another go.  It took both of us about ten years to get over that last experience and we might be crazy to do it again, but here we go. 

Stay tuned for Part II Saturday.