Saturday, April 21, 2007

What I Have Learned from Hosting Garage Sales

1) People will buy the darndest things. Especially if it's $1, half off or an otherwise reduced price. And my darndest, I mean: a half used bottle of shampoo, opened wart remover and out of date vitamins.

2) People are suspicious of expensive looking items with a cheap price. I'm trying to sell my stereo system for $10 (with an i-Home, i-pod and i-tunes, i-don't-really-need-it-anymore). This has drawn some attention as I'd hoped, but mostly in the 'What's wrong with it?" category. Hum.

3) People will gyp you at your own garage sale. (Wait, do I really want to go after her for .50??)

4) Garage sales are great ways to get to know your neighbors, especially if they're looky loo's and nosey nellies.

5) Garage sales bring out a special breed of cheapskates who will a) not only buy used out dated vitamins, but b) also try to haggle with you for it. (!) Also, the kind of person who would look at a $1 computer bag and say "I'll buy it if you throw in this calculator" (wha?!? FYI - I KEPT the calculator...)

6) One person's junk may be another person's treasure, but more often than not, it's just "another person's problem", now! :)

7) Garage sales are great for little kids because they get more with their $1 allowance than they would at Target...

8) True friends will show up unexpectedly to sit on your porch and watch total strangers paw through your junk, and help you make wicked fun of them.

9) Also, even though it's junk and you don't want it anymore, it still kind of hurts when people leave without buying anything...

10) Even if you don't make as much money as you wanted, there are worse ways to spend 5 hours on a beautiful Saturday......!

1 comment:

Beth Young said...

I have to plead guilty to garage sale looky-loo-ism. I hardly ever see anything I want. I only buy if I find a great deal like an i-stereo for $10. (substitute espresso machine to create fact)