Blog de Puree

In an attempt to get rid of a lot of old and useless junk around the house, we held a yard sale this past Saturday. We did our best to unload our old full-size wooden bed, an Epson computer printer, a golf bag, and a fairly decent amount of miscellaneous home furnishings/decorative accessories, sports equipment, electronics, books and music.

We started on Thursday with Randye doing yard sale research. How to sell and display. How to deal with many of the wackos and yard sale enthusiasts that would no doubt be visiting. How to price what we have so it will sell.

On Friday, Randye gathered supplies, such as posterboard, labels, etc. That evening, we consolidated everything that we wanted to sell downstairs so we could move it all outside fairly easily on Saturday.

On Saturday morning, we kicked things into high gear at about 7:30 after tea, coffee and a quick breakfast of cereal. We started with bringing the larger items. I brought the bed of solid wood out of the basement and we assembled it in the driveway. Then came two display tables and old sheets where we would display everything. Finally, I lugged most of our stuff out of the house while Randye feverishly priced, labeled and displayed them.

Our first potential customer showed up about 20 minutes into our setting up the sale at about 8:00 a.m. She was politely told that we were not ready yet and that we would be open for business at 10:00. “It’s ok,” she told us, “I was just walking by.” She then expressed her interest in the bed and asked if she could give us $20 to hold it for her, until she could come back with a truck to get it. Following rule #3, we politely stated that we could not. (If someone came by to buy it during the sale, we wanted to unload it immediately and we had no way to document our taking her money. All around a bad idea for yard sale business.) She said she would be back, but we never saw her again.

Once everything was just about set up, I jumped into the car and zipped to the end of our street on both ends and a few key intersections to post large yellow signs with arrows to shepherd in potential customers.

(The full view of our yard sale. We maximized on the space in the entire front yard and displayed the bed, fully assembled, in the driveway to draw customers.)

Then we waited. Thirty minutes into the sale, we saw our first potential customer. From that point until 2:30 in the afternoon, people came by in drips and drabs—a car here, a few cars there.

(The front view of the house and sale.)

At the end of the day, we pulled in over $100. A good haul as far as I was concerned.

We never did unload the bed. At $50 for the bed frame and $50 for the mattresses, or $75 for the whole lot, it was already a steal. But we did have many people casually inquire if the price was firm. Well, it sure is. Unless you show up with a truck and some hard cash in hand. Until then, yes, the price is firm. Amateurs!

(Randye sits in the shade and fans herself on what was probably the last hot day of the season. Cash only. All sales are final. She drives a hard bargain.)

With about half of what we intended to sell gone, all that’s left to do is call the Salvation Army to see about a pickup of the bed and everything else. I suspect that the tax deduction for donating the rest of our stuff will be worth more than another $100.

All told, it was a pleasant yard sale experience. We met some interesting people, made some diaper money and stayed true to the axiom, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”