Friday, July 27, 2007

In Which One Letter Says So Much

So most of you know that we started our garage sale today. OMG what a lot of crap we've accumulated in the last 4 yrs. :-P This, I think, is why it was good to move every 2 years. Even though, yeah, it was sucky.

Mollusc pointed out this morning that there is only one letter separating "Garage Sale" from "Garbage Sale." One letter, and maybe nothing else.

We did OK today. I was thrilled to sell a toddler bed, and equally unthrilled when it unsold again. :-/ My friends moved their big pieces and I got rid of some junk, too, though my kids made more $ than I did.

Surprisingly, it's been Mollusc who has been the taskmaster when it comes down to purging things. Usually, she's the sentimental one. But this time I heard her saying "One big elephant and three babies. We don't need three babies. One, or two?" And in reply to the immediate arguments from the peanut gallery, "Have you EVER seen a mother elephant with three babies?" ^_^

Once all the work of getting stuff ready is done, the good part comes - sitting with friends, chatting, and doing occasional math; drawing chalk outlines of the littles in the driveway to amuse them, eating together and hassling the bigs about bringing out more stuff if they really want to buy something from their friends. :-)

5 comments:

armalicious said...

I had 2 different garage sales last summer while we were trying to sell our house in Lincoln. I'm always surprised at what people will buy that I consider trash or junk. We had a used propane tank that was just sitting there (no price tag) and a guy wanted to buy it. So I sold it for a $1.00.

What also surprised me, is things people will steal from a garage sale. We had an "inventory" and there were a couple of things that were missing and not in our sale book. I guess if they couldn't pay 50 cents, then they needed it more than anyone else.

egan said...

Hey Candace, I hope the weather is cooperating and that you're selling tons of stuff. Seize the day!

C said...

Amanda - It really sucks what some people will do. X( But it's cool that folks will seemingly buy anything. ^_^ It's also cool what kind of people will drop in and strike up a conversation. I got great advice from the most unlikely-looking of characters today on pavers for our someday-to-be firepit and on killing snakegrass (99% impossible.) I also talked to a 70 yr old woman who used to work at the high school and wanted to chat about the new school. I didn't understand it all, but she was very enthusiastic, and a cool lady.

It's kind of surprising how people will try to talk you down from $10 for a $130 pair of skates (my friend's) or $4 on a brand new Playstation game (also hers.) But also how some people won't let you come down on something if you try, LOL!

Egan - Thanks! It really did. Good weather yesterday, thunderboomers half the night, good weather again today! Woo hoo! I seized some dough today. ^_^

Trundling Grunt said...

Round here there are some people who are pros at the garage sales - they get there right on the bell at the start and rifle through with their mental hit list. They may also come back round later in the day to see if people are desperate enough to slash prices.

Most of it gets put out at the next garage sale by the people who bought it at yours. It's not a sale, more recycling.

C said...

We had at least one of those. She has an eBay store, jusdging by what she was yapping about to her partner on the phone.