Yard Sale Lessons
We had our very first yard sale this past Saturday. Mike and I were both a little excited and a little nervous about having one. We didn’t know what to expect and were hoping our junk treasures stuff would sell.
It was quite a first time experience. So, in honor of our interesting first yard sale experience I give you:
Top Ten First Time Yard Sale Lessons
1. People don’t care if your yard sale sign is up. Or, if you’re technically even “open for business” yet.
Our yard sale wasn’t supposed to officially start until 9 am. We didn’t put our yard sale sign up until 9:00. However, we had some people show up at 8 am while we were still setting up and bringing boxes out of the garage. There’s nothing quite like having people dig through boxes of your stuff chattering away in Spanish to each other. I actually felt kind of violated! I know that’s irrational since I wanted them to look at my stuff. I was standing right there and they were digging through my stuff , talking about it and carelessly throwing it back in the box.
Humph!
2. Old Hispanic women can haggle.
Let me tell you, the biggest deal seekers and hagglers of the day were the Hispanic women who barely spoke English. We had a couple of families come where the young son had to translate for his mom. One woman came and wanted to pay ” two dollah !!!” for my more expensive stuff. We were selling my old KRAZR phone and Mike’s 4 month old Blackberry (Sans chargers. We couldn’t find them!) We didn’t have a price on them but I was figuring maybe $10-$20 a piece. Maybe?? To be honest I really wasn’t sure! Well, the “two dollah!!!” lady came over and guess how much she offered for each of the phones?? You guessed it! Two dollars. I was appalled and told her son that no way we would sell the Blackberry for two dollars. He explained this to his mom. Then she offered “fy dollah!!” for both of the phones. And Mike took it! (In his defense the Black Berry was a work phone that his company gave him and then upgraded to a different phone and network four months later. We didn’t actually pay for the Blackberry ourselves.)
3. If it’s out, people will try to buy it.
I had my reusable water bottle filled with water on one of the tables and this lady picked it up, looked at it, then opened and shut it. I told her that it wasn’t for sale because I was drinking from it And she said ” Oh.” Shrugged,and put it down.
4. Yard sales invite “interesting” people on to your property.
Exhibit a) The religious nut who came and tried to un-convert Mike and then convert Mike again to Christianity. Apparently Mike wasn’t on the “right track” when it came to his salvation. Satan was going to draw him away from God. We have to have the Bible in Hebrew to understand it and we need to use a concordance. Have we studied Revelations? Our church needs to be teaching that. Oh, and the story of Adam and Eve is all symbolic and not quite like the Bible explains it. Satan seduced Eve to have sex with him. The whole “not eating from the Tree Of Life” is symbolism for seduction and sex. Therefore Cain was Satan’s son and Able was Adam’s son.
Yes, Mike patiently listened to this man and argued with him for about half an hour.
At the end of it the man shook Mike’s hand, thanked him for his time and told him he was impressed at how firm Mike is in his beliefs. However, he’s on the right track but needs to open his mind a little more to the truth.
Exhibit b) The older lady with the throaty voice who had the sides of her head shaved but the top of her hair grown out into a pony tail. However her pony tail was sectioned off into two parts with a shaved strip in between. She had heavily tatooed, muscular arms,needed a heavy upper lip wax, and had hairier legs than my dad. She loved our garage and the large work area and said she did word working for a living and loved tools.
Definitely not your typical granny.
5. If you don’t close off the gate leading higher into your driveway and to the garage people will wonder into your garage thinking you’re selling stuff in there too.
We have a long, sloping driveway that is sectioned of by a gate. We live on a busy street right by an intersection and if balls, or God forbid, kids start rolling down the driveway they’ll end up in the street. Behind our gate is also our huge garage that has a lot of Mike’s tools and equipment. The doors were left open because we had been carrying stuff out. We had to escort several people out.
6. Someone will inevitably want to buy something from your garage that isn’t for sale and you will inevitably ask them how much they are offering for it.
This is the reason I no longer have a changing table. A young women saw it and loved it. I told her that it wasn’t for sale and she went on and on about how it would go great with her decor. I told her they sell them at Babies R Us. ( It truly is nothing special. A standard, light wood changing table!) She offered me $50 and I sent her home with it.
7. No matter how much stuff for sale you have out people will still ask ” is this it?”
8. The elderly who come to your yard sale will want to chat for a long time.
9. People will buy anything.
Anything.
10. It will start pouring rain with two hours left in your yard sale and you will start rushing to put stuff back into the garage. People will stop by anyway and ask to look at your stuff as you’re putting it in the garage.
By the time we had everything put away in the garage we were SOAKED. It was kinda fun, though.
We actually had fun and plan on holding another yard sale soon! We also made some pretty good cash. If you’ve never had one you should do it!
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