Yard Sale (Part II)

Having survived the past two days of hanging out in my driveway, I must admit that I feel like I’ve truly lived the yard sale experience. I lucked out on the weather as it was sunny and warm both days which meant lots and lots of shoppers on the cul de sac.

I decided not to just hang out and sell my possessions but to turn this into a study of human nature. I learned a few things:

People will buy used boy’s underwear if the price is right.

The cheapest people make the biggest mess of your stuff by pulling it all out, dropping    it, and then complaining the most about the high prices. After insulting me and trying to barter, they left empty=handed.

Bringing out a cute dog and tying him on his lead to the tree in the front yard helps sales pick up. Stop and pet the dog. Take a minute and look around for a bargain.

80s tunes playing in the background didn’t really help sales, but the new U2 album boosted sales all day today!

Serious garage sale goers WILL run over your small child with their car while they speed through the neighborhood peering into garages and yards. Keep those kids off the street when there are garage sales in progress!

This is probably a terrible thing to do but I did it as an experiment to see what people would really buy. No one touched the gorgeous (worn once) red velvet Laura Ashley little girl’s dress priced at $25. But someone did buy an old and clearly worn pillow for $1. Just for fun, I tried to sell my nasty (and quite ugly), worn-out white Aerosoles sandals. Not even a glance until I dropped the price to 25 cents. (One woman actually picked them up and mulled buying them!)

Would I do this all again? Maybe in a few years when I’ve accumulated enough junk. For the moment though, it is worth it for the huge wad of cash and the extra space I now have in the house. Also I did enjoy having a day where the most difficult thing I had to do was attempt to stay awake while sitting in my lawn chair basking in the brilliant May sunshine.