Garage sale reflections
Well the verdict is in, and the garage sale yesterday was an overall success. The take was $460 which included a $200 elliptical machine. So, it's not a whole lot, but not too bad either. The best part of course was getting all the crap out of the garage. Hopefully our Bowflex will sell soon and then we'll have even more room.
Justin was a little trouper, and helped me out a lot. I had to pay him of course, but he had a pretty good attitude once we got going and was happy that he made an additional $50 cash on some of his own stuff he sold. Eric was kind of jealous as he missed out, but when he asked me when the next garage sale is I truthfully told him "a couple years probably" so he gave up on the idea of turning his crap into cash like the rest of us in the household.
Garage sale shoppers are funny. The ones that kill me the most are the little old men (or sometimes ladies) who talk me down to 30 cents from 35 cents. And it seems like the stuff you are sure would go, doesn't (like the tin Corvette signs or any of the multitude of football helmets) - but some of the weirdest odds and ends fly off the shelves (like the bag o' plastic wire caps, the bike inner tubes or the various hacksaw blades).
In my experience, you can't get fixated on the things that didn't sell, and you don't look back and try to resell anything unless it's really valuable (like our Bowflex, or the golf clubs and other sporting goods we can get credit for from Play It Again Sports). You have to figure that you (a) got rid of a lot of crap you probably weren't using anyway, (b) freed up valuable space in your home and (c) made some cash in the process.
It was a lot of work, it was exhausting, and I'm glad it's over. But it was time well spent - though I don't really look forward to the next one in a few years either.
Justin was a little trouper, and helped me out a lot. I had to pay him of course, but he had a pretty good attitude once we got going and was happy that he made an additional $50 cash on some of his own stuff he sold. Eric was kind of jealous as he missed out, but when he asked me when the next garage sale is I truthfully told him "a couple years probably" so he gave up on the idea of turning his crap into cash like the rest of us in the household.
Garage sale shoppers are funny. The ones that kill me the most are the little old men (or sometimes ladies) who talk me down to 30 cents from 35 cents. And it seems like the stuff you are sure would go, doesn't (like the tin Corvette signs or any of the multitude of football helmets) - but some of the weirdest odds and ends fly off the shelves (like the bag o' plastic wire caps, the bike inner tubes or the various hacksaw blades).
In my experience, you can't get fixated on the things that didn't sell, and you don't look back and try to resell anything unless it's really valuable (like our Bowflex, or the golf clubs and other sporting goods we can get credit for from Play It Again Sports). You have to figure that you (a) got rid of a lot of crap you probably weren't using anyway, (b) freed up valuable space in your home and (c) made some cash in the process.
It was a lot of work, it was exhausting, and I'm glad it's over. But it was time well spent - though I don't really look forward to the next one in a few years either.
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