Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Garage Sale Recycling

My parents offered to help out with a garage sale when they were in town, so last week my father spent some time clearing things out of the garage, and I spent some time pulling things out to sell, and pricing the things I'd pulled out over the past year or so. I've been looking forward to having a sale since I decided it was time to get rid of baby stuff over a year ago.
We decided to just have it on Saturday. Around 8 we started pulling stuff out of the garage, and a few minutes later the first shoppers were there. It was a bit chaotic at first.
Some of the things sold very quickly- the crib, for instance. We could have sold that about 6 times over the course of the day. Other things didn't sell at all. I had a bin of clothes for $1 each, a huge pile for .50 each, and a few pieces for $2, and people STILL tried to talk me down. First they'd talk me down on individual pieces, and then they'd try to talk me down on the total! When someone bargained with me at 8:15 I completely refused. I said the garage sale wasn't even starting until 8:30, and I wouldn't be bargaining for a while. I think the prices were pretty fair, and some things I was firm on. If they didn't sell at the price I wanted, I kept them.
People weren't always very polite, either. One lady bought some stuff and paid some money down, but had to come back later with more money. I wasn't there when she got back, and my mom said she complained that I hadn't given her any discounts. (I had, actually.) But she had been rude earlier- I priced one child's toy at $20, which sells for $50 new. Her comment was, "Get real." But since another woman had told me earlier that she had seen the same price at another garage sale, I felt pretty confident that my price was fine.
Our neighbors on one side brought some things over to sell, so we got to hang out for a while, and they took the kids to play at their house for a while. The neighbors on the other side bought some big ticket items- (Unfortunately, the items belonged to a friend, so I don't get the money.) Another neighbor up the street bought the mattress set- which I could have sold to a neighbor down the street as well. It's fun to meet people in the neighborhood and hear the stories of the people who come to shop. My dad really enjoyed it- he got to talk to all kinds of people. We spoke a lot of Spanish to people from all over- such diversity.
Now I need to put some big ticket items for sale on ebay- Breast Pump anyone?- and take the rest of the things to Goodwill.

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