Friday was insanely crazy and I made nearly $500.00 at the yard sale. I grabbed my sandwich and coca-cola out of the refrigerator at 12:30 pm -- and I didn't finish my sandwich until 5:15 pm.
Nearly all of the costume jewelry (rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets) went to a lady who uses it to make new jewelry and also uses it in scrapbooking. She came back twice :)
The vintage Trifari rhinestone bracelet went for $50.00 as did the Nintendo DS Lite (with 2 games and a gaming kit). The full set of silverplate silverware (plus individual serving pieces) went for around $23.00
There were a lot of individual sales of little things like saucers, teacups, salt/pepper shaker sets, Christmas decorations, yarn, and what little costume jewelry was left.
The hand tools, tool bags, and tool boxes just FLEW out of the sale. $1.50 each or four for $5.00, people pay a lot more than that at Ace Hardware or Home Depot
I made the mistake of setting up in two places, carport and front porch. There was next to no action on the front porch which was where all the vintage/collectible/antique glassware was.
Saturday was a different story. It was very very slow all day, and I spent more time in the house (on the computer) than I did in the carport (early Saturday morning I had moved the contents of the front porch into the carport too).
Even with Saturday being so slow, I made another $150.00 between several small sales (8 cans of cat food, teacups, saucers, salt/pepper shaker sets, jewelry boxes, coasters, decorative figurines, Christmas decorations, pocket knives, wierd World War II memorabilia, shot glasses) and two large sales (rolling tool box with 5 drawers and 14 vintage china bone dishes)
I had some real nice conversations with people too about their collections and other topics as well.
I guess Bend, Oregon has a LOT of drivers who either have x-ray vision or use binoculars as there were a lot of drive-bys on Saturday. How can you tell what I have if you don't even get out of your car? There were a lot of lookie loos too.
There was also one lady who I don't think quite understands the yard sale concept.
She came looking for two specific things (a large picture frame and a large nativity set). She acted like either the sale was a retail store with unlimited inventory or that I had what she wanted in the house and could just go retrieve it for her. Nope, everything that was for sale was in the carport or on the driveway already.
And some people--all men--confused being rude or insulting me with haggling. There's an art to haggling or bargaining, and being rude or insulting the seller isn't part of that art (but that's for another blog post)
In the end, I made quite a bit of money and met a few of my neighbors.....not bad for 2 weeks worth of getting ready and one really crazy day.
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2 comments:
Sounds like you had a really good return! Where I live, by the time school's out, it's way too hot to hold a garage sale.
I sell things from time to time on eBay, but then I have to report it to the IRS.
One of our tax experts said we even have to report the money we make recycling aluminum cans.
Wow, Congratz!
I am still desperately trying to get rid of our old electric chipper - I suppose though, I could put it out on the yard and be rid of it within minutes lol - just probably I won't see a dime for it! Too bad the concept of garage/yard sales isn't too common here in Germany :(
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