Garage Sale, Part 1 – April 29, 2006
We had gotten a mailer regarding a community garage sale about two months beforehand, and we were thrilled to take part. We knew our community had a big sale every year, so we wanted to get in on it. Yes, I hate garage sales. If you remember some of the stories from our last garage sale (the best? the woman who wanted a set of towels, but only offered me $1 because they didn’t match her bathroom) you will know that I do not like to haggle. That said, I priced to get rid of stuff—and to haggle. The sale didn’t officially start until 7, but of course, people were out at 6. Things we expected to sell immediately never sold and crap we thought we’d be stuck with sold right away, proving you just never know what people will want.
So people are coming and going and someone says “So, did you know the official community sale is next weekend? It’s always the first Saturday in May.”
What?
Yes, folks. Someone else decided they wanted to have another garage sale, so they got in cahoots with a realtor (who paid for all the advertising, postcards, etc.) to set it up. And it happened to be the weekend before the official sale! We were ticked. I mean, we didn’t want to do this twice! Not that we’d HAVE to do it the following weekend, but from what we heard, it was a BIG sale with HUNDREDS of people attending.
Lovely.
Well, we did pretty well selling stuff (almost $300) but there were some things we didn’t sell that we really wanted to—plus we had forgotten to put out a few things—so we decided to put out a few things the following weekend…or, today.
Garage Sale, Part 2 – May 6, 2006
This time the sale didn’t officially start until 8am, but Tom had duty, so if I wanted him to help me set up, I had to be done by 7…so I was out there at 7. And let’s just say that it was a total waste of time—I never did see the HUNDREDS of people that we were told would be there. I did hear talk of how crowded the front of the subdivision was (the main street) but there didn’t seem to be too much interest on our street. Go figure. Anyway, I made a whopping $9 in the five hours I was out there. Three people came by and were interested in the couch we had for sale—and one guy even said “I have to have it—I just need to go get the cash and I will be right back!” but he never came back and we never sold it.
So come noontime, I had to haul all the crap back into the garage (minus the three small things I sold). And in doing so, I busted the corner off the big mirror we were trying to sell (now Tom has to make a frame for it, and we’ll probably hang it somewhere). And I was cranky, since it was hotter than blazes sitting out there in the sun, plus I’d been up since 5:30 with Tom. PLUS, my ankle started hurting badly, as I tripped coming down the stairs this morning (carrying that huge mirror) and I twisted my ankle. It was okay for awhile but it KILLS now.
Once again this year I say “This will be our last garage sale—ever.” But you and I both know that come next year, we’ll be doing this again.
Stay tuned.