Yard sale
2004-08-07, 7:49 p.m.

Weeelllll, my sister and I decided to have a yard sale. I don't know why I participate in yard sales. Everything I have I need, and any stuff that I can part with is utter junk that no one wants to buy. Well, except my kid's clothes. I hate having yard sales, though. I hate it when you have something priced so cheap and then someone comes along and STILL wants to talk you down. The noive!

"Wow, this is a very nice crystal vase you have here. I see you have it priced at $1.00."

"Yes, it's a $50 vase. Never used. Still in the original box. Just got it last month as a gift."

"Uh huh, yes, it IS nice. Will you take 50 cents?"

That just makes me crazy. I can understand if it's semi-crappy stuff, lol, but if it's an obvious bargain, just pay the freakin' dollar!!! For instance, my younger sister (who just moved & had lots of crap to put out, but couldn't be there because she's, well, moving) sent some junk over to sell. She had this...thing. People all day long asked what it was. We didn't exactly know. She had $2 on it. We didn't really know if it was a good deal or not, since we didn't know what it was.

"What is this? A food hydrator?"

"Ummm, yep."

Later,

"Hmmm, what exactly IS this thing? A steamer?"

"Uhhh, yep."

Later still,

"Huh. This a steamer?"

"I think so."

"You take a dollar for it?"

"Yep."

Now that's how it should be done. I really shouldn't complain, though, because I sold my kid's metal hunk of junk bunk beds. Got $10 for 'em, too, lol. So altogether I made $40, which is by far my most successful yard sale. I still don't think it's worth it, though. Maybe. $40 will buy a lot of school supplies. At one point, my lil sis, with her absentee self and her dusty junk, had $12 to my $9. I was highly upset, and considering charging her a fee for selling her junk. My older sister made out great. She made about $200. She just had better junk to sell, that's all. She had her son's bunk beds, which were really nice wooden ones, a Fisher Price ride-on motorcycle, car stereo, dresser, etc. You know, good junk. She was so relieved to sell the bunk beds, though, because she didn't want to move them back into her house. Her son had his new bed delivered today, so there really wasn't any place to put them. That particular sale went like this:

"These are nice bunk beds. How much are they?" (This from a nice grandmotherly type who had w/ her two nice little granddaughterly types.)

"Seventy-five dollars."

Comment from a really elderly woman perusing books nearby, "Well, you can't beat that price with a stick!" (Thanks, lady, you're on the payroll.)

"And the mattresses come with them?"

"They sure do."

Our newly hired really elderly salesperson chimes in, "Yessirree, that's a deal!" I charge her for 4 of the 5 books she's buying and mourn her departure.

"These mattresses are in great shape."

"The top mattress was really only used during sleepovers."

"Yes, they look nice. Do you girls like this?"

I don't know that they actually answered, but it was pretty obvious they liked them, based on the way they were jumping on the mattresses.

"Well, they sure are nice. My daughter could really use something like this for them. She lives in Virginia Beach."

(Uhhh, ok.)

"Well, I do like these. And the girls do, too. I'm not sure how I'd get them to my house, though."

My sister, really not wanting to take the beds back into her house, tells the woman that she will take them to the woman in her truck, if she's not too far away.

"Oh, I'm just behind the community college. (About 6-7 minutes down the road.) Wow, that is very generous of you."

"I don't mind, glad to help out." (aka Glad to get rid of them.)

"Well, that certainly is nice of you. I do like them. Will you take $70?"

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

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