We Had... A Yard Sale....

We are selling our summer place and unfortunately the nearest charity donation center is a very expensive ferry ride away, so we says to us, " us, why don't we have a yard sale ? ". Oh so many reasons.......

Surely our neigbors will want all the crappola we don't want.......a myriad of late night teevee plastic kitchen gadgets, screwdrivers with rounded ends, end tables with multiple moisture rings, puzzles with missing pieces, tea sets with mismatched corresponding cups to saucers, unopened white elephant office party Christmas gifts, lamps with broken switches, moldy boat cushions and frayed lines........

.....and then of course the junk........

Ad placed in the paper, one day, hours ten to three. Borrowed a bunch of folding tables, laid out and priced all our excess crap, err treasures. Truthfully we did have some groovy stuff, dressers, fishing gear, nice china, tools, and seating.

Day of........first " professional yard salers" showed up at 8:45 perched at the end of the driveway before our first cup of coffee even kicked in. They circled like vultures around the mailbox for the first signs of life in our house and then landed as soon as I let the dog out. These folks were in and out after circling our treasures in less than five minutes, picking up china, some tools, and a couple picture frames. Everyone else was kind enough to wait until the stated start time.

So after five hours, meeting most of the neighbors, one of which stole a full set of dishes, and dickering over whether the twenty five cent flashlight really worked we came out the other end with $278.00 primarily made on a fifty dollar rug, a fifty dollar bedroom dresser set, and a fifty dollar outboard engine, but mostly the reinforced conviction that we would never do it again.

Anyone else do yard sales, or go to them ?

 

I used to tell the early birders the price was double....LOL

many eons ago we had yard sales when the urchins were young...
it was amazing the people that would show up and actually buy
the kids used training diapers.... of course the the toys sold also..
my brother and i would sit there drinking beer and laughing at the madness
and would put out things like a single cinder block for 25 cents and someone
would actually buy it...

those were that days my friend....we thought they'd never end

 

I have done a few. Never again! Too much work for very little profit.

Funny, but true story:
A friend of mine had one earlier this summer. After 2 exhausting day of bickering over a nickel with crazy people that offered $.20 for some piece of junk marked $.25, a couple of college age girls showed up and offered to take everything that was left for $100! My friend asked if they were serious, and they said they resell stuff at flea markets and it helps pay for college. She said it was all theirs! They backed up a pickup truck and loaded it all up!! After all the work, she would have paid them to clean it all out of her garage!

 

Ahhh this brings back memories. My parents live in a very large home and my mother over many decades bought my guess would be hundreds of pairs of shoes, purchases, lots of kitchen stuff, china, etc. I financed some of my early trips to Vegas in my 20s by doing the yard sale with her and splitting the profits. My parents had a LOT of really nice things. It was not unusual to clear 3-4k so 1500-2000 in my pocket for Vegas was SWEET! But yes, it was a lot of backbreaking work as with making that kind of money you can imagine how much there was, including furniture items, large electronics, books, etc. but I kind of enjoyed doing it, got a good workout, got to meet folks and learn things at the same time.

Some wonderful summer memories.

I now live in an apartment in Manhattan that is a decent one-bedroom by NYC standards and yet it is smaller than my parents' living room. I did some "half" Kondoing of my apartment last year and now either consign or donate what what I don't use cause I just don't have the space. In fact, I'm doing some pre-fall cleaning right now and am taking to a consignment shop suits with price tags still on them (proceeds going to my Vegas BR) and donating the rest.

 

"Never again." I said that a few times, now I really mean it. I'd rather give something to charity than dicker with some jerk. Lots goes to charities.

 

I know you dont want to go where well off people live, they think their shit is worth big money, lower to middle class people price properly.

 

We don't seem to have Garage Sales over here, what we have instead are 'Car Boot Sales'. You put your junk in your car and drive to a local field or car park where the local sale is (usually the same time/place every week) and then setup your table with everyone else to sell your junk.

A mate of mine has a large sale in the next village to his and goes down for half an hour every Sunday and picks up a couple of pieces of retro memorabilia or ornaments for a couple of Pounds each and then cleans them up and sells them on eBay for £10-£50 each, things like ashtrays branded with beer company logos can be bought for next to nothing and sell for decent money. Pays for their vacations each year.

 

Here we call them garage sales.

I go to them.

Tried doing it once, never again. I just donate to Goodwill/Sal Army/Disabled Vets and take the deduction.

 

Amazing that someone stole a set of dishes---but you do hear that a lot .Usually it is the small stuff that walks away. A set of dishes is pretty nervy

 

Occasionally we sell things of actual value on Craigslist. Otherwise I would rather give to goodwill and claim a tax deduction.
My wife used to drive 30 minutes to trade in the kids old clothes at a resale shop, but she often spent more in gas than what she got. So she doesn't anymore.
We used to be able to leave our old junk on the curb with a"free" sign and it would be gone within an hour, but we moved to a nicer neighborhood where that is not acceptable.
I still buy a lot of used things when I need things, mainly on Craigslist.

 

The set was in a box........we had several people there at once, she asked " how much" and we said five dollars, she said she left her money in the car, toted the dishes over and drove off. I will give her the benefit of the doubt that she just forgot. Just seems odd.......

We had heard nightmare stories of people asking if their kid could use the bathroom, while inside they grab whatever they can as the sale is in progress. Have no idea if that sort of thing is real, but people can be weird.

All in all it was sort of entertaining, met some nice people, and our old dog had fun being pet by everybody that showed up. I think he was more tired at the end of the day from all that tail wagging than either one of us

 

Had one. we bought our first house from an attorney that was representing the owners, both had Alzheimers, anyway offered $65K for the house as is and planned to sell the contents. Took two weeks to clean and organize the place and made $5000 which we put half on the mortgage and tracked down the attorney and gave half to the help pay for the couples care.
We were 25 years old and the whole thing tired us out. Two lessons learned don't do rummages and don't buy a house as is

 

I've done a couple but as others say - no more! When I was younger, I loved going to estate sales & estate auctions. Some of my favorite things are from estate sales. We haven't had any good estate auctions around here in a while and I'm too lazy (with too full a house!) to venture very far away for them.

 

We used to do them when we lived in LA, as a means to raise some quick cash and for the entertainment value. Would do a Craiglist posting a day before.

One evening before our garage sale, I get a knock on the door and it's this guy with a serial-killer-style notebook filled with scribbles asking if we are selling any antique tools in the morning, or records. When I said no, he looked very disappointed and left.

And then during the actual sale, this mom had about four kids in tow, and was looking at a bunch of clothes/etc. She didn't seem to have much cash, so I gave her a bin of kid's clothes and other items for free. Then I look over to our tiny front yard and her one girl who was about five or six has dropped pants and is peeing on the grass. This was only 20 feet from other people. I yell NO and then get the hose out to spray the grass. If she'd asked to use our bathroom, I would have gladly let her! Good times in Los Angeles.

 

I go to them now and then but I don't really need anything. Had one. Once. My mother was a bit of a pack rat. My cousin's ex-wife showed up in her Jag convertible to pick through our stuff. That was awkward. It wasn't worth the time and effort to make what we made.

 

We did them long ago. Now I try to avoid buying the stuff that would end up in my yard sale.

 

I was helping the ex out with a yard sale many years ago. Everything was clearly marked to sell quickly. There was some sort of figurine worth about $5 marked for $.25. A lady looked it over about 6 different times and offered $.15. I picked it up and dropped it on the concrete and it smashed into a million pieces. The horrified lady screamed at me and told me I couldn't do that.
I asked her if there was anything else she was interested in. After she stormed off, my ex relieved me of all duties.
(We stayed married for another 8 years and I was never asked to participate again)

 

I would rather donate to charity or the trash bin than have a yard/garage sale.

 

...........she pissed on your lawn Dude, that lawn brought the yard together......