Monday, November 12, 2007

We survived The Garage Sale!

Hey, guess what! I survived the Garage Sale. It wasn't that bad at all, but boy was I exhausted!

Overall we made almost $800, split between my friend Karen, my dad and me. Not bad for sitting around telling people "No, you can not have perfectly good blue jeans for 25 cents."

Here are some of our highlights from the event; funny, annoying, and sweet.

My Dad took care of the money, which was a real blessing. Pooh said he looked like a Tax Collector, sitting at his little table with his money box and notepad.

A mentally handicapped man rode his bike to our house about 5 times over the two days. He bought VHS movies, several every time. On Friday he was counting out his change and gave me a totally demolished dime. I gave it back and said, "That's okay. This is enough." On Saturday he gave me that same old demolished dime, and I just took it and handed it to the Tax Collector, who said, "Hey, who took this crappy dime?" I told him, "Just throw it away, the sweet guy wanted to pay with it."

A stray cat took up residence in our driveway Saturday and didn't leave until we packed up. He slept on the furniture we had for sale, and when it was all gone, climbed into a box of linens and went to sleep. We hoped He wasn't a She, looking for a place to have babies. Thankfully, nothing biological happened.

Some people ask you to take less for absolutely every single item, no matter how cheap it's priced! For example,
"How much these jeans?"
"Jeans are One Dollar." (This already down from $2)
"You take fitty cent?"
"No, jeans are One Dollar."
"Oh, come on, you take fitty cent?"
"No, jeans are One Dollar."
"Fitty cent?"
"One Dollar." BIG FAT SMILE

Same customer, different pair of jeans:
"How much these jeans?"
"Jeans are Two Dollars."
"You take One Dollar?"
"Sure."

I understand that some dickering is intrinsic to the Garage Sale Experience, but for goodness sakes, when I find something that is reasonably priced at a Garage Sale, I Just Buy It. For The Price That's Marked. Because that's fair! If I don't want to pay full price for it, I offer less. But to offer less just to be a butt? Ack.

So I'm a mean Garage Sale Lady. Because of you ask me to take less on every single item, I'm gonna start saying No to everything. But if you're sweet, and ask about some stuff, but pay my price for others, I'm gonna give you half of the stuff you've picked out for free. Because I like polite and not-so-pushy people.

I warned my friend up front that I'm Jekyll and Hyde when I'm running a Garage Sale. I sent one pregnant lady home with all my crib sheets and baby bedding, FOR FREE. But the rude people before her had to pay full price for everything.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how tacky do you think I am?

4 comments:

Milehimama @ Mama Says said...

When I garage sale, I try to pick up a few things and ask for a price all together. Like I got a salad spinner and two pots in my hand, the spinner is marked $2.00 and the pots are marked $1, I'll ask if they'll take $3 for all three.

Is that tacky? I've never HELD a garage sale so I don't know if I'm bugging people!

Jennifer said...

Um, I think maybe a 0!! Not tacky at all. You sound just like me. It annoys the crap out of me when they want to cut everything in half! And if it's a quarter, they want it for free! I'm the same way - if you're being a butt, no deals for you. But the nice, kind people get it for much less! I do the same thing the above poster does sometimes, and I don't think that's tacky at all. But most of the time I'll just pay whatever price is marked.

I can't believe you all made that much money! I am so jealous! You must have had some good stuff and lots of traffic!

Glad you survived. Have you recouperated yet?

WendyDarling said...

I don't think you are tacky at all. :-) Sounds a lot like us when we used to do garage sales.

I'm like you. If I have the money, and it is reasonably priced I'll pay the ticket price. ;-)

Roses Are Red, Violets are Violet said...

you're a negative 4.

I cracked up at the $2.00, will you take a dollar intercation...

good stuff! :-)