I used to live here.
As I've probably mentioned, my mom is selling my childhood home-anyone in the market for a house in the 'burbs?-which means endless cleaning out of junk. Which also means that she held a garage sale recently, and I tried to fence some of my stuff there, too.
This is probably common knowledge, but people who go to garage sales are strange beings. There was the lady who stayed for hours and touched everything to the point where she felt entitled enough to start rearranging the tables. (She bought a lot, though.) There were a couple of people who started poking around at things that were obviously outside the parameters of the garage sale, like we'd keep the good stuff hidden and only bring them out for people who managed to get behind our tables. My mom was selling a few furniture items that were too big to drag outside, and when she brought interested people in to show them they'd start placing bids on whatever they could see regardless of it was advertised as being for sale or not. (A couple of these, she accepted.) The creepiest was a guy who immediately asked us if we were selling pocket knives, then carefully went through all of the kitchen knives that were for sale, selected a few, asked who to pay, then put them all down and walked away. I also saw at least three people I recognized from high school.
Even though the people were weird, I'd say the sale was mostly a success. A lot of stuff moved. Only, sadly, most of it was not mine. Still, I had some surprising sales, and some things that I was shocked people had no interest in.
Things That Did Not Sell
*Dishes. We have so many dishes, and only one cabinet in the kitchen. After the wedding, we had to do some weeding. They're great dishes, they just didn't match with the red-white-blue-polka-dot scheme we have going on with our tableware now. We said in the ad that our dishes would be great to outfit a dorm/first apartment, but I forgot that it's Westchester and people would rather bring their soon-to-be freshmen to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and buy all new dishes at full price.
*Any of my '80s toys. Granted, they weren't in mint condition. But I had both the Purple Pie Man and Sour Grapes! Who could pass up an opportunity to own those two? Okay, they were a little sticky for some reason, but still. Since there wasn't much interest in my '80s toys, I feel doubly justified in my decision to bring all of the Smurfs home to Brooklyn with me.
*About 99% of our VHS tapes-one person bought a Zumba VHS for $0.01-even when Jesse changed the price to say "free to a good home." I can't say that I blame anyone in that case.
Things That Did Sell
*A box of rocks. This was the most exciting sale of the day. When we were cleaning out the attic, I was really confronted with my secret hoarding tendencies. Nothing exemplified this more than when, while cleaning out one of my Rubbermaid bins of keepsakes, I came across a box marked "Marisa's Rocks." (In my defense, there were fossils and geodes in there-that kind of thing.) I seriously saved a box of rocks. My mom told me to put it in the garage sale pile, and I told her she was crazy. No one would buy my rocks, I said, when they could find their own outside for free. But she was right and they sold to a man who had a flip-down monocle that went over his glasses. The woman he came with was not pleased that he bought rocks. He almost bought my tarnished childhood spoon collection, too. I feel like this guy and the eight-year-old me could've hung out.
*While no one was interested in my Rainbow Brites or Strawberry Shortcakes, someone did buy the Atari we had along with a cassette walkman. The '80s live!
*I had a dorky collection of dragon statues. (People told me that I should start a collection like that because those appreciate in value. It was totally not true. Note how nobody is bidding on those Ebay listings.) The collection was the source of endless we're-laughing-but-not-at-you-dot-dot-dot-mostly moments at the garage sale, but they sold. We marked them as $1 for most of them, $2 for the big ones. There were something like nine little ones and three big ones. The lady who touched everything bought all of the little ones, but not the big ones-she didn't even try and talk us down on the others or anything. I wanted to tell her that she didn't save six dollars-she wasted nine.
Things I Came Home With That Wasn't Mine to Begin With
*A shoebox-sized boxes full of plastic hopping frogs.
*Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on DVD. (Thanks, Corinne, for selling it to me for free without knowing it!)
*Songs from the Cape Man. I haven't had the heart to tell Jesse how truly bad it is yet.
Oh, and some videos of me from elementary/middle school for when we do get that party together eventually.
This is probably common knowledge, but people who go to garage sales are strange beings. There was the lady who stayed for hours and touched everything to the point where she felt entitled enough to start rearranging the tables. (She bought a lot, though.) There were a couple of people who started poking around at things that were obviously outside the parameters of the garage sale, like we'd keep the good stuff hidden and only bring them out for people who managed to get behind our tables. My mom was selling a few furniture items that were too big to drag outside, and when she brought interested people in to show them they'd start placing bids on whatever they could see regardless of it was advertised as being for sale or not. (A couple of these, she accepted.) The creepiest was a guy who immediately asked us if we were selling pocket knives, then carefully went through all of the kitchen knives that were for sale, selected a few, asked who to pay, then put them all down and walked away. I also saw at least three people I recognized from high school.
Even though the people were weird, I'd say the sale was mostly a success. A lot of stuff moved. Only, sadly, most of it was not mine. Still, I had some surprising sales, and some things that I was shocked people had no interest in.
Things That Did Not Sell
*Dishes. We have so many dishes, and only one cabinet in the kitchen. After the wedding, we had to do some weeding. They're great dishes, they just didn't match with the red-white-blue-polka-dot scheme we have going on with our tableware now. We said in the ad that our dishes would be great to outfit a dorm/first apartment, but I forgot that it's Westchester and people would rather bring their soon-to-be freshmen to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and buy all new dishes at full price.
*Any of my '80s toys. Granted, they weren't in mint condition. But I had both the Purple Pie Man and Sour Grapes! Who could pass up an opportunity to own those two? Okay, they were a little sticky for some reason, but still. Since there wasn't much interest in my '80s toys, I feel doubly justified in my decision to bring all of the Smurfs home to Brooklyn with me.
*About 99% of our VHS tapes-one person bought a Zumba VHS for $0.01-even when Jesse changed the price to say "free to a good home." I can't say that I blame anyone in that case.
Things That Did Sell
*A box of rocks. This was the most exciting sale of the day. When we were cleaning out the attic, I was really confronted with my secret hoarding tendencies. Nothing exemplified this more than when, while cleaning out one of my Rubbermaid bins of keepsakes, I came across a box marked "Marisa's Rocks." (In my defense, there were fossils and geodes in there-that kind of thing.) I seriously saved a box of rocks. My mom told me to put it in the garage sale pile, and I told her she was crazy. No one would buy my rocks, I said, when they could find their own outside for free. But she was right and they sold to a man who had a flip-down monocle that went over his glasses. The woman he came with was not pleased that he bought rocks. He almost bought my tarnished childhood spoon collection, too. I feel like this guy and the eight-year-old me could've hung out.
*While no one was interested in my Rainbow Brites or Strawberry Shortcakes, someone did buy the Atari we had along with a cassette walkman. The '80s live!
*I had a dorky collection of dragon statues. (People told me that I should start a collection like that because those appreciate in value. It was totally not true. Note how nobody is bidding on those Ebay listings.) The collection was the source of endless we're-laughing-but-not-at-you-dot-dot-dot-mostly moments at the garage sale, but they sold. We marked them as $1 for most of them, $2 for the big ones. There were something like nine little ones and three big ones. The lady who touched everything bought all of the little ones, but not the big ones-she didn't even try and talk us down on the others or anything. I wanted to tell her that she didn't save six dollars-she wasted nine.
Things I Came Home With That Wasn't Mine to Begin With
*A shoebox-sized boxes full of plastic hopping frogs.
*Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on DVD. (Thanks, Corinne, for selling it to me for free without knowing it!)
*Songs from the Cape Man. I haven't had the heart to tell Jesse how truly bad it is yet.
Oh, and some videos of me from elementary/middle school for when we do get that party together eventually.