Yard Sale: Success?

It's all said and done.  I would call it moderately successful.

6:00AM - Alarm goes off.
6:10AM - I stop pressing snooze and drag myself out of bed for some coffee and open up the garage.
6:15AM - B gets up and heads out to post a few more signs, and check on the ones we put out last night. (A few were torn down. Who does that?!)
6:30AM - Our first visitor... and thankfully, at least first sale.

Yes, our signs and Craigslist ads had the time - as 8-2 - but whatever.  At least she wasn't creepy right?

Oh wait, she was INCREDIBLY creepy.  The general conversation and my thoughts went something like this...

Crazy Lady: You're so pretty, you don't even need make up.
S: Um, thanks *sips coffee* It's 6:30am, I'm hardly awake lady.
Crazy Lady: Are you excited to be having a yard sale?
S: Sure. *sips coffee* I will be at 8am when it STARTS.
Crazy Lady: How did you meet your husband?...Oh so you like him?...What kind of vacuum do you use?
S: Um, I think its a Bissell. *sips coffee* And no its not for sale...
Crazy Lady: OH aren't those the best? Bissell's are great. I have an Oreck. My boyfriend doesn't like it but I think its great.  How old are you?
S: Uh, 25. *pretends to sip coffee because cup is now empty* Please B, come home...
Crazy Lady: Wow. I'm 56, look at these wrinkles. You don't have any wrinkles.  Why are selling... (insert any random item we had)

It continued like this for at least a half hour. And just as she was done, my parents arrived.  Thank goodness.  She bought some gloves and a little "Believe" book or something - ya know, the kind you get at the Hallmark store - Total: $5.25

The rest of the day was a little less weird... who am I kidding, it was all weird.  Such as the man in a bathing suit and wife beater that did not cover his pregnant looking stomach enough...if it all.  He bought 3 fishing poles ($1 each). And his Asian wife (g/f?) found a stuffed toy of mine from when I was little.  It was one of those dogs that have a hard leash thing that you push, and it makes this barking/yipping noise.

I explained you push it, and she did.  And she then let out a totally joyous giggle and shoved it in wife beater tummy man's hand and made him push it.  Bigger giggles, "How much?", we tell her 25 cents.  She breaks out some change - we see quarters... she says hold on, runs back to the truck - giggling the whole way, and brings us a different quarter.

Whatever does it for you I guess.

Also, who knew there was so much butt crack at a yard sale? Just sayin'...  We only had one incident of attempted translation, so that was nice.  And no car accidents. Almost, but not quite - thankfully.

We sold a fair amount of items, but a lot of the big stuff - like TVs, oven, my parents cameras, a Thule rack, etc - didn't sell, for whatever reason.  I thought we had a pretty awesome selection, but I guess everyone didn't agree.  We were also shocked in how little some people haggled...

Shopper: "How much?"
S: "$20...?"
Shopper: "I see..." Walks away and gets in the car.

Just offer me $10...please?  I'll probably counter $15, and you'll end up getting it for $10 anyway if you try again.  Really, I'm not good at this, take a shot!


We sold the air conditioner for a little less than we wanted, but the women was recently put on disability and seemed to really need it.  We offered to let her take anything else she needed for her new apartment - and she  took like 1 pan.  Oooook, at least we offered.  Then there was the couple that bought a few VHS tapes to bring to the nursing home... I wish they had taken more, we would have just given them away at that point.

Unfortunately it did rain... hard... for about 45 minutes.  I think that hurt us some, but we were lucky to bring in most of the items that wouldn't survive in from the driveway.  And people did come after it rained.

Last customers - around 4pm?  Yea... our signs said 2.  But again, ooook. One couple bought some videos, candles and an adding machine, Total: $10.  Another couple came and looked around, and left.  Thanks.

For the big stuff, to Craigslist it all goes, hopefully we can get some more cash out of it.  And yes, there's a pile of 'Free Stuff' at the end of our drive way right now.  Otherwise, the small stuff remaining like glassware, housewares, etc will probably be passed on to younger family members just getting their own places.  We'll donate the books, and anything else that's left unwanted we'll donate - maybe some comforters to the animal shelter, housewares and clothes to goodwill...etc - you know the drill.

Between our stuff, my parents, and B's parents, we made around $300, which really isn't that much, but we've got a few bites on Craigslist, so we'll see where we end up.  I'm definitely motivated not to buy much stuff for a while now...it accumulates way too much.

B said it best...

"Well, I guess you don't get rich from yard sales"

Yard Sale: The Day Before

Since we decided last minute that we'd be having a yard sale, a lot of the organizing and major work had to be done today.  Earlier this week B picked up some boxes from his parents, and Friday my mom made a few trips over.  We've made several exhilarating Craigslist posting with thrilling photos such as:

Makes you want to come by and spend lots of money, right?  That's what I thought.

Left over supplies from the kitchen remodel had to be moved, we took two trips to the dump, my parents brought over 3 more car loads of stuff, and everything had to be moved up from the basement.  It was fairly overwhelming, and I discovered B has never even BEEN to a yard sale, never mind had one!  Boy is he in for a treat tomorrow!!  There were some stressful moments, debating on the best way to tackle everything, but we had a good time getting organized for the most part.  Especially when my mom whipped out this beauty:

I know it says Tart... but really, that was a poor font choice...

Tonight, we've got a garage FULL of stuff, with tables and items that have to be pulled out tomorrow into the driveway, along with few items to bring in off the porch.  It'll be an early morning and a long day, but we're looking forward to it and hopeful that it goes well.

Ew. Uh yea, its a little fuzzy, sorry. But you get the idea.

Anyway, we get a bunch of signs out, in the dead of night. (Ok, it was 10:30, but still, we felt stealthy about it.)

The actual signs are a little more detailed (i.e. have our street name), but we'll put this one in front of the house.  I know its pretty obvious when people are having a yard sale, but we have a lot of people in the neighborhood who walk, run, and bike, so this way they'll know that they can come back a little later.

We'll be heading to bed shortly, up early to make another Craigslist post and get everything ready - prepared for the early birds!  Hopefully I'll be all smiles with some extra cash by tomorrow afternoon!

Yard Sale: Mental Preparation

First, thanks for the tips! And keep 'em coming!  I love the idea of boxes/prices/areas that are designated as one price, makes it a lot easier than pricing out each item.  And we'll be ready for the early birds - and I'll have to remember to get change - I didn't even think of that!

Second, this is harder than I thought.  It's not just making piles and slapping prices on stuff.

It's just stuff, right?  So why, when I looked up the Craigslist ad that B posted last night and saw "Disney VHS tapes."  I immediately emailed him at work. WHAT VHS tapes are selling?!

A friend tried to talk some sense into me:
K: "Do you even have a VHS player?"
S: "I think so. Maybe. We could always get one. We'll want those tapes when we have kids."
K: "You can buy your kids DVDs. They'll be cheap. You can get them at yard sales."
S: "But..."
K: "There's some little girl out there whose parents only have a VHS player and can't afford a DVD player. Those tapes could make her birthday."

Aw crap. Fine, we'll only keep the ones I *really* like.  This evening B was showing me the stuff he pulled together last night in the basement.  He pointed out a fire place screen with matching tools.  What did I say? "But I like those."

Um, HI, reality speaking, you don't even have a fireplace anymore! Get it together!

Then I was talking to my mom and she mentioned she had a box of stuff from old yard sales that didn't sell.  I relayed this to B.

B: "That's sad, they're like the misfits."
S: "Don't do that. Don't give them personalities."
B: "They're like the misfit toys!"
S: "No, stop!! I can't handle it!" *runs out of kitchen, cookie in hand*

Yesterday he asked if we could sell some bowls and utensils I had in college.  For a good 30 seconds my brain was in overdrive trying to come up with a reason to keep them.  Why? Because I liked them. Maybe we'd need them some day. You know, if we broke all of our real plates and someone dumped all of our utensils down the garbage disposal?

B has called me a pack rat about 40 times.

I try not to be attached to stuff, cause its just stuff, right?.  I mean, my life will not be any different if those bowls and utensils aren't in the under the bed storage in the 2nd bedroom.  The world will not come crashing down if I no longer have a fireplace screen, for a fireplace that no longer exists.  And my future children will not resent me if they don't have a 80's VHS tape of The Little Mermaid.

Really, I'll be okay...

It's Yard Sale Time!

We're having a yardsale.

This weekend.

And yes, today is Tuesday.

And no, we haven't been planning this.

See, we've been wanting to have one for a while, because with only two years in this house, we've got a lot of crap stuff we don't need or want.  And our plans for the weekend (a Brooks and Dunn concert) were rescheduled to August.  So, why not?

My parents will also be bringing over some crap nice stuff, so we can call it a multi-family.  And we literally having everything - including the kitchen sink - for sale.  Something for everyone, I'd say!

Hopefully not like some other traumtic yard sale experiences I can remember.... like when I three(ish? maybe older, I don't know) and my mom sold my little push lion. I chased it down the street crying.  And then when she went and sold an entire crate of vinyl records (ya know, nothing good, just some original Beatles albums and other classics) for a dollar! Yup, someone made out pretty good on that deal.  Then there was something about taking apart a computer for a guy, and I think my stepdad fell off/thru the chair? I laughed. He didn't. Not good. (Love ya!)

Anyway, we've decided on Sunday, even though the weather is supposed to be better Saturday.  We've got a two car garage so I figure even if its raining we should be okay.  There's two or three churches at the end of our road, and we're less than a mile from the center of town, so a few well placed signs, a couple days of spamming posting on Craigslist, and I think we should be good.

Any tips yard sale out there?  Should I even bother with prices, or just let people make offers? If I price should I over price since I know they'll talk me down anyway?