Yard Sales

We had a yard sale this weekend. Every year we (my mom, sister, grandma, and I) clean out our houses and hope someone will buy our "junk" to make all the work worth it. We're saving the money to go to Hawaii. A big super awesome family vacation!

Actually, we do really well. We bring in $1500-$2000 every year. We're all shopaholics and even though the stuff we're trying to sell is now junk to us, it is nice stuff. Surprisingly, our best seller is clothes. My grandma loves to shop for clothes and she can afford to buy nice clothes: Ralph Lauren, Talbots, Claiborne, etc, and my sister is a freak for Guess. We price all clothes below $10, so not only do our customers make out well, but so do we.

This is our fourth year and we've developed a following. We have customers who come back year after year, just for the clothes. We're also told by a lot of people who are frequent yard salers that our's is one of the most organized and nicest yard sales they've ever been to.

Some yard salers are so funny and clueless though. We make sure to post prices on everything. Each table is a certain price, "$1 Table," "$3 Table," etc, and we put signs on the tables as to what the prices are. If something isn't on a table, we put a big price sign on it. We make a list of clothes prices and post it on the racks. Sometimes, I feel like I'm in that Dollar Store commercial though.

Yard Saler: How much is this?
Us: There's a sign on the table. Everything on that table is $3.
Yard Saler: So is this $3?
Us: Trying not to look at them like they're a complete idiot. That's what the sign says.

Then there's the yard salers who don't like the prices. We also have signs that read, "Don't like the price? Make an offer!" "All prices negotiable!" It is a yard sale after all. So it really bugs me when yard salers ask you the price, then look at you like you're a fool for expecting them to pay $2 for $75 item and instead of coming back with a counteroffer say, "That's just too much for a yard sale." And walk away. WTF?! Like I'm going to start my prices at $0.10? We have an agenda too. We are not having a yard sale because we like getting up at 5:00 in the morning, stand in the sun all day, deal with people like you, and only make a total of $20. We're definitely not against lowering the price if you haggle with us, but we're not going to start at the bottom.

My personal favorites are the yard salers who want to buy stuff not for sale. We use a ladder to block part of the driveway (we started this after someone decided to park ON some of our wares the first year) and we also post signs on it. This year someone wanted to buy it. We also have a roll of paper that we use for things we lay out on the ground. We've had someone offer to buy that. We use duct tape to hang out signs. This year some dude wanted to buy the half used roll of duct tape. My mom told him its sold at Lowes at a very reasonable price.

There are people who want to give us checks. Sure, because you roll your eyes at our super high prices of $2 and so we're going to accept a check from you. People who come to the yard sale, want to buy something, but then tell us they have no money on them so can we please hold the item until they can come back later. Who goes to a yard sale with no money? Try again. (We got burned on that one time, so never again. The guy said he would be back, we marked the items as sold (big items too), all day long people kept asking about the items, and then the guy never showed. The next morning we put the items back up for sale, the guy came back with a sob story, told us he, once again, had to go get money and pulled the sale signs off the items. We were already po'd at the situation, but his audacity in thinking we were going to continue to hold the items for him really set us off. We told him those items were still for sale until we had money in our hands, so put the sign back. That pissed him off, but whatever. Wouldn't you know it, 15 minutes later he showed up with the money even though he told us earlier his bank didn't open for another hour. Hmmm...)

The sob stories annoy me more than anything. I understand that you only have so much money and you believe that at a yard sale I should be willing to sell you everything you want for a total of $2, but I am not welfare and I do not want to hear you life "Woe is me" story. If you're that strapped for cash, then why the hell are you trying to buy an ashtray, a fuzzy shoe pouch, a dog collar, a tiny jar with a penny magically put in it and a box of assorted wedding cards?

I also think these situations are funny:

Yard Saler: Holding an item marked $10 Will you take $5 for this?
Us: $7
Yard Saler: Contemplating Ehh...I can get this somewhere else for $3.

Well then what are you doing at our yard sale? Go there and buy it for $3 instead of wasting your time talking to us.

Luckily, these crazies are in the minority. Most of our customers realize the value of the stuff we are selling and pretty much give what we are asking.

I told my mom that sometime I want to go to a yard sale and haggle up rather than down.

Me: How much is this?
Them: $3.
Me: I'll give you $5. I think its worth more than $3.

Give the sellers a little something extra for their time and effort.