Advice on having a yardsale

[tiredmike59]

NEVER HAVE ONE ! (at least by yourself)

When I told everyone I was having one today,they all conveniently had places to go, So I sat out in my driveway surrounded by my junk feeling like
Fred Sanford. I had the usual yardsale crap; some old tires, a typewriter that needed a ribbon, a box of books that had been in my garage for 20 years and smelled like cat spray, a vacuum cleaner that sounded like a weedeater, clothes that didnt fit anymore and my main attraction was 3 boxes of old videotapes of tv shows about 30 in each box. I stayed up late last night putting them in order by category; comedy in one box, western in another etc... . My first customer didnt even get out of his car. He saw the video
boxes and asked if I had any porn, I told him I didnt. Who would sit out in
their driveway early on a saturday morning selling porn ? Im not even sure thats legal. Then a little Chinese lady that lives down the street asked, "does vacuum suck ?" I told her it had about 75 cents of suckage left in it, she smiled and left. Some shifty looking dude kept wanting to go in my garage,
I told him a couple of times that there wasnt anything in there for sale.
The only reason I had the door open was I had to run my electric cord
thru there in case someone wanted to listen to my 75 cent vacuum cleaner.
Then this woman pulled up in a little car with this tiny dog, she was carrying
a bag of Doritos and a large bottle of water. She just let her dog loose in my
yard while she headed for the videotapes. She proceeded to empty all 3
boxes in my driveway, then started asking me questions about tv shows,
" Who played in this one? " "When did this show run? " my attention was divided between her questions and what her dog was doing to my yard.
He was pooping like a goose, every 5 feet he had to crap. I wondered
what she was feeding him. I thought about bringing him out a piece of
cheese to help him with his problem,maybe bind him up a little, but I figured
she would eat it herself with her doritos. I started to get a headache with
her questions on the tv shows so I told her she could have all the tapes
for 15 dollars, I was asking 10 dollars a box but I was glad to get rid of
her and the tapes. After 5 hours and a total of 27 dollars, I called it quits.
Then I had to clean up, I figured I better clean up that little dog's
donations, so I went to get a shovel out of my garage but couldnt find
it, I think that shifty dude took it. He vanished as mysteriously as he arrived,
I never did see his car. So I ended up using my 75 cent vacuum cleaner
to pick up the poop. All the neighbors were peeking out their windows
at me, you would think they never saw a guy vacuum his front yard
before. When I was done, I set the vacuum cleaner at the end of
the curb with everything else that didnt sell. I figured the late night
pickers will go through it, and the rest is for the trashman. I am on my
way to Home Depot to price their shovels.

[AB]

Great story. I've had a few garage sales myself & they were more trouble than they were worth. You price your stuff dirt cheap & they still want to haggle over the price.

[Mr. Television]

Originally Posted by AB

Great story. I've had a few garage sales myself & they were more trouble than they were worth. You price your stuff dirt cheap & they still want to haggle over the price.

That's why you always put a higher price on the stuff than you want. Then when you haggle, they come down to your price.

[AB]

^ Very True!

[JamesG]

I actually went to a yardsale today... nope, no pornos there... and bought a few old VHS movies.

If you were to sell adult videos at a yard-sale, technically you would be an adult store, and would be subject to adult use state/federal laws since you are selling to the public.

If you are in violation of those laws, as in having sexually explicit content in plain sight, you could be fined.




One thing though, if you sell DVDs DO NOT keep them inside the case because there are a lot of snatchers out there who would swipe them.

I've seen people just keep the empty boxes out and they keep the DVDs in a CD folder hidden somewhere. After you buy them, they take out the disc and place it inside.

So if one were to swipe they would just have an empty DVD case.

[Crimson and Clover]

Thats too funny. I will never have a yardsale again. Everything goes to goodwill, or is sold to friends or on ebay.

[Zoneboy]

I love going to yard sales to find stuff to sell on eBay but my greatest find was from a yard sale I never went to. Back in 04, my ex-girlfriend's kids wanted a trampoline but with new one's priced at over $200, it wasn't in our budget. One morning I was listening to a swap-shop type program on the radio and this woman called in one in excellent condition for $75 which also included delivery and set-up. This was a steal so I called her about it and agreed to take it and would pay her after it was set-up. During the conversation, she told me that she had a few things left over from a yard sale and asked if I was interested in any of it. She had the typical yard sale fare, books, clothes, nick-nacks etc... none of which I had any interested in. She then told me she had a RCA turntable that she would take $10 for.

I was actually needing a turntable to test records on so I told her to bring it and I would look at it but made no promise to take it. I said I would test it while they were setting up the trampoline. When she and her husband arrived, she showed me the turntable and apologized because she had told me that it was a RCA and instead it was a Yamaha. I almost had a Fred Sanford heart attack when I saw it because I knew immediately that it was worth more than $10. This thing weighed nearly 40 pounds and I took it inside and tested it and it worked perfectly. I gave her $85 for the trampoline and turntable and sold the turntable on eBay a few days later for $350. The kids wound-up getting a free trampoline and we put some extra cash in our pockets to boot.

[tiredmike59]

Originally Posted by Zoneboy

I love going to yard sales to find stuff to sell on eBay but my greatest find was from a yard sale I never went to. Back in 04, my ex-girlfriend's kids wanted a trampoline but with new one's priced at over $200, it wasn't in our budget. One morning I was listening to a swap-shop type program on the radio and this woman called in one in excellent condition for $75 which also included delivery and set-up. This was a steal so I called her about it and agreed to take it and would pay her after it was set-up. During the conversation, she told me that she had a few things left over from a yard sale and asked if I was interested in any of it. She had the typical yard sale fare, books, clothes, nick-nacks etc... none of which I had any interested in. She then told me she had a RCA turntable that she would take $10 for.

I was actually needing a turntable to test records on so I told her to bring it and I would look at it but made no promise to take it. I said I would test it while they were setting up the trampoline. When she and her husband arrived, she showed me the turntable and apologized because she had told me that it was a RCA and instead it was a Yamaha. I almost had a Fred Sanford heart attack when I saw it because I knew immediately that it was worth more than $10. This thing weighed nearly 40 pounds and I took it inside and tested it and it worked perfectly. I gave her $85 for the trampoline and turntable and sold the turntable on eBay a few days later for $350. The kids wound-up getting a free trampoline and we put some extra cash in our pockets to boot.

[tiredmike59]

We also have one of those swap radio stations where I live. Thats a good source for deals. I called in once asking if anyone was getting rid of their
big C-Band satelite dish, I got 5 responses. I went to everyone of them and
they were more than happy for me to take down their dish and haul it away.
I also got there recievers, free of charge. I put one together in my back yard
and hauled the other ones to the scrap metal place. I made about 100 dollars
from all that aluminum. That was 14 years ago, there is basically nothing on
C-band these days.

[ponytail]

I've had a few yard sales and I can't stand them. You put 10 cents on something and they want it for 5 cents. Or we had this guy wanting to buy a mattress we were selling. He said he didn't have the money with him and he would be back, so hold it for him. We had others interested in the mattress but we told them it was sold. The guy never came back. What I've done in the past and I see others are doing it too is just put up free stuff and boy does it go.

[Torgo]

Originally Posted by JamesG

I actually went to a yardsale today... nope, no pornos there... and bought a few old VHS movies.

I've found some rare horror films at yard sales.

[Schmoopie]

The last garage sale I remember "having" was at my mom's house many, many years ago. They seem to be pretty popular in our neighborhood still, but I think that donating or selling the stuff on Ebay is a lot easier.