Monday, June 22, 2009

Adventures in Yard Sales

We play a game with our Young Women called High/Low. Each girl has to tell one “high” point of their day, and one “low” point of their day. I thought it would be fun to play High/Low as I tell you about the horrendous yard sale we hosted on Saturday.

High: Cleaning out the house, getting a room prepared for a nursery.

Low: Selling your hard earned possessions for pennies on the dollar. Or just literally, pennies.

High: The look on someone’s face when they find a treasure in your pile of random junk

Low: Parting with items that hold certain good memories for you.

High: Making $400+ dollars to add to the adoption fund

Low: 96 degrees, and the hottest day of the summer so far

High: Conning people to take your worthless junk, just because you have a “free” pile. Why is that item suddenly attractive, now that you’ve moved it from the .25 cent pile to the free pile?

Low: Expert yardsalers that think they can trick you by counting backwards in Spanish. Quince does not come after Diecisiete. HELLO. GREW UP 30 MILES FROM THE BORDER people… I’m just sayin.

High: Helping the YW earn money for camp by selling snacks and cold drinks to parched travelers. Unfortunately, I think our biggest customers were my nephews. Thanks Sue for bringing them, and for the deep pockets.

Low: Watching people paw through your possessions, and then throw them carelessly back on the ground. Yes, I understand that it’s sitting on a piece of cardboard in my driveway, but until i have your $1 in my hot little hand, it’s still MINE. Be respectful!

High: Moving most of our merchandise in the first hour. (7-8am) Weird and astonishing that people get up that early for yard sales. But not really, because I’ll get up earlier than that for Black Friday, or a really good sale.

Low: The irritation of what I call the yard sale “vultures.” These are the people that know you start at 7am, but park on your lawn at 6am so they can watch you put stuff out. They don’t play by the rules, and they don’t care that they are bothering you. If any of my readers are guilty of this crime, STOP NOW!!

High: The excellent response we got by posting on Craigslist.

Low: The excellent response we got by posting on Craigslist. I.E., Don’t email me about specific items. If I wanted to barter with you over email, I would have just POSTED IT ON CRAIGSLIST in the first place. Duh. (See vultures comment above)

High: Watching the fella drive up on his riding lawn mower to shop. See picture.


Low: Waiting for the phone call from my neighbor, asking me why I allowed her sons to carry off 3 shopping bags of “free” items. These items included (no joke) 1 cat figurine, a ceramic pumpkin, 6 obsolete D&D games for Windows 95, two CD towers, Christmas garland, and my personal favorite: the SL Temple cake topper. Those kids were the best.

Our biggest thanks to everyone that helped, donated, contributed, or stopped by to give moral support- The good news is that we've decided never to do this again!!! From now on it will be Craigslist, Goodwill, or the Raleigh landfill. HOORAY.

2 comments:

j and s (but mainly s) said...

THis post made me so happy. I'm sorry it was such a roller coaster! I wish I could have stopped by! I was there in spirit. :)

Kim and Ken Carlile said...

Now that is an adventure. We've been contemplating a yard sale, but just don't have the energy. I admire your spunk! Oh and the tractor is killing me, seriously.