AKA:  yard sales


We have had some garage sales in our town but this weekend is pretty much the offical start of garage sale season here and we are planning to go to two events early Saturday morning.

We are not devoted garage sale people like some but we do like to go to them now and then.

My wife usually buys stuffed animals and I usually buy CD's.

And, they are a good excuse to get out of the apartment for a little bit ::)

Jerry

I ride by a lot of yard/garage sales on my commute.  Thursdays and Fridays are almost dangerous to ride thru some areas - every other house is having a sale and there are cars parked every which way (wrong way; sticking out of driveways, you name it!).  It is a sure sign of spring!

I used to do the yard sale route when my son was little.  Infant and toddler clothes and toys are great buys at yard sales.  I've not had as much reason to visit them lately, but I do look to see if there is anything interesting.  (Currently I am looking for Tonka trucks from the 50's and 60's).

I'm not the garage/yard sale type. But I do sell things at the local swap meet sometimes. It's a nice way to unload all of the crap that you no longer want/need since people are willing to pay for it. Then I donate whatever doesn't sell. It's a nice way to kill the first half of a day.

What cracks me up is how the extremely low-budget customers (people who basically live in poverty) all want Tiffany & Co. quality for $2.  ;D  

Our community had yard sales last month.  I didn't sell anything because I didn't realize it until late, but I usually sell my stuff on eBay or donate to Goodwill.  

I did visit a few houses though and saw a setee (sp?) that I was interested in buying.  It looked pretty old and rickety but it was cherry wood with dark red velvet upolstery.  It would've needed reupholsetered and the wood needed tightened.  My husband decided that they wanted too much money for all that needed done to it.  I think they were selling it for 300.00.  Anyway, I got home and looked around on the internet as saw something very similar for the same price, brand new.  Then, I decided that I no longer wanted it anyway. :P

When my mother was still alive our family had a yard sale which was supposed to start at 7:30am.

We were setting things out and people started coming at 7am asking stuff like how much is that and we would tell them the sale was not starting until 7:30am (and things were still in boxes) >:(    One guy tried to argue that our ad said 7am and he went to his truck to probably check the ad and I bet he felt like a darn fool when he read that it started at 7:30am ;D

And then during the sale it's amazing how some people want things for dirt cheap not realizing it is already a very fair price :o
Sometimes, while I am buying things I offer a little more and some people acutally do not want to sell it for more ::)

Last year I was looking at a vacuum cleaner which had $5 on it and I asked the lady who was selling it how it worked and she told me I could just have it :o   I figured there might have been something that needed to be fixed or something but when I tried it the thing worked great and to this day it sill works great 8-)


I can almost imagine what garage sales/yard sales are like in the really big cities.

Jerry

7:30 is a late start by our standards. We try to be on the swap meet grounds no later than 6 am. And people (mostly Mexicans here) will start mobbing your vehicle the minute you arrive. They'll start scoping you out before you even park, trying to get a glimpse of what you've got. And it's not uncommon for people to ask what sort of things you're selling before you even drive into the lot to sell. That's just how it goes.
   If you tell them to buzz off before you've set up, then you've just killed a sale. Most of the time, people don't come back. They'll just raid someone else's area. So we're quite used to digging stuff out before it's "set up" to show whomever is asking...because they may well buy it.


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And then during the sale it's amazing how some people want things for dirt cheap not realizing it is already a very fair price  :o

It's not amazing at all. You're dealing with a very low income crowd who have probably never paid more than $10 for anything in their lives. They have no idea how much things cost at retail. All they know is that they want the very best for the least amount of money possible. That's the part that I find amusing - beggars being choosy.  ::)

And giving stuff away isn't uncommon either. A lot of the time, people just want to get rid of something. They may have been trying to sell it for a long time without any luck or are just sick of looking at it...whichever. In the case of a swap meet, people sometimes just don't want to take things back home with them, so they just give it away or leave it there for whomever to take at will. And ohhhh the cheapskates love that! lol

We do have low income people and famalies here but most of the people living here would be considred middleclass (probably more lower middleclass than anything else) so people going to the sales around here are vary varied income wise.

When I say people want things for dirt cheap the best example was when we had our yard sale and my mom had something which she bought from a very good quality sportsmen's catalog (I think it was L.L. Bean or something) and she thought she put a fair price on it and one couple made a rude comment to her that she was overcharging for it.  They did not really look like low income people but maybe they might have been but just did not look it?

I suppose more low income people probably go to yard sales than anyone else but the people who are not low income should not be so picky about the prices and if they don't like them they should keep any rude thoughts to themselves.


Speaking of garage sales/yard sales, we did go to some today and found some things we thought we could not live without.  I found a 'Weird' Al Yankovic CD and a NASCAR DVD.  I also found a box of some old rock/heavy metal and Rolling Stone Magazine magazines which could be considered collector items to some.
My wife bought a few stuffed animals (one being a large Scully from the movie Monsters Inc.) and a few other things.

Jerry

Oh yea, I also bought two books.

Tim Allen, I'm Not Really Here

And a shark book by Eyewitness Books.

Jerry

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I suppose more low income people probably go to yard sales than anyone else but the people who are not low income should not be so picky about the prices and if they don't like them they should keep any rude thoughts to themselves.

Totally agreed. I can understand talking down a price or negotiating rationally, but if you mouth off to someone, they're probably not going to want to sell you anything...especially something that once belonged to them. People get so hostile when it comes to money. Sheesh...  ::)

OK, I will not make any promises but this is the last item I am going to tell that I bought today ::)


I found a Dewalt cordless drill set which has the drill (of course) and two rechargeable batteries with a black case.  It was $20 and the guy said the batteries do not hold a charge for very long.
So, we went to Home Depot to see if they might have the batteries needed and of course they did not :P

A short while ago I checked Ebay and I can get a battery for about $30 there 8-)

I am sure some of you know Dewalt are very good tools and I think $20 is a great deal since the new drills at Home Depot arre $150 and $200.

Jerry

Jerry - DeWalt's are excellent tools.  If you have a BatteriesPlus in your area, they probably have a battery that would work and they would guarentee it.  We've done that ourselves several times for good tools with rechargable batteries.

Thank you for the suggestion but I have never heard of BatteriesPlus but we might have something like it but looking for something special becomes a treasure hunt and I call our town the shopping capital from hell ::)

And, if the store or shop can get it they have to special order and that becomes a crap shoot because a lot of times the item is ordered and either takes forever or is cancelled :o

But what frustrates me the most is we can go out of town and pretty much any other city has what I am looking for and usually a great supply in stock :o

So, when I discovered Ebay and other internet sites I was thrilled to death 8-)

Jerry

Garage/yard/estate sales are a good source of Christmas decorations. Always go back the next day and fetch what didn't sell from the trash pile.  :P I am a rodent....

bikerbraid wrote on May 19^th, 2008 at 9:17am:

Jerry - DeWalt's are excellent tools.  If you have a BatteriesPlus in your area, they probably have a battery that would work and they would guarentee it.  We've done that ourselves several times for good tools with rechargable batteries.

We were out of town on our wedding anniversary/Barb's birthday June 26th. and they have a betteries plus so I took the drill battery in to see what they could do if anything.
And the guy said they could rebuild it which would have worked except I would have had to drive all the way back to get it and then drive back home so as high as the price of gas is getting it would not really be worth it.
But, it is nice to know there is a Batteries Plus in our state ::)

So, if we have the time and money to spend the night there I might do that or I could maybe have my neice who lives there either bring it to me or mail it to me but I would have to talk to her about it first of course ::)
And, if worse comes to worse I will just get one from Ebay :P

Jerry