April 11, 2005
Sale of the Century
For the first time, we participated in the neighborhood garage sale over the weekend. Don't know if I'll do it again. For one, I'm not a morning person and lugging a bunch of junk out to the driveway at 6:30 a.m. is not fun. Then there's the special breed of yard sale shoppers who show up early and try to take advantage of the fact that most everything hasn't been displayed or priced yet. The first hour was a flurry of activity, the second hour had a few brisk sales, then we spent the final three hours of the sale sitting around noticing how the neighbor across the street was getting far more customers than us. By the end of the day, we had sunburned necks and a modest profit from selling roughly a third of our junk. OK, but not great.
Things that sold: new hand-embroidered towels from my grandmother, VHS movies, bottom half of a mannequin, fake Eero Saarinen tulip chair, old cell phone, '80s combo cd holder/halogen lamp.
Things that didn't sell: drafting table, '50s melamine dinnerware, VHS blank cassettes, glassware, complete Mac IIci system ($20!), CD jewel boxes, board games, fast food toys.
Posted by mhinrichs at April 11, 2005 11:07 AM
Hey--I'll make an offer on the Melmac--what ya got?
I beg to differ: The items we had for sale were not "junk"; rather, gently loved and much appreciated items that once helped make our lives a little better. Times change; people change. I think those intelligent people who bought our items will have lives more enriched and enlightened for the effort. (P.S. Don't forget that we also unloaded the bread maker. Whew!)
FQ Story yard sale competed with the Willo yard sale. Same day. The classified ad gave the general streets but didn't mention that it was the FQ Story neighborhood. Some of my friends who regularly attend sales didn't realize that FQ Story was having sales. Conversely, Willo's classified ad stated in large bold letters that their yard sales were located in Willo.
For my part, I spent all my time in Willo and never made it to your neighborhood. Bummer.
Lenore - I was gonna tell you about our yard sale, but I was so busy last week! I heard that the Encanto neighborhood was having their big sale last weekend as well. Too much competition, I guess.
Brad - for the plastic dinnerware, we had Boontonware, Branchell, a nice old picnic set, and lots of Miramar. Miramar was large avocado green and harvest gold serving pieces in funky shapes, the kind of stuff the Brady Bunch might have used. Still interested?
That unsold stuff sounds like sure sellers. Try another sale next weekend, or sell it on eBay. Bet you get more than $20 for the Mac, especially considering how many of us collect old defunct computer systems! (pointing to my Commodore 64)
