We placed our brightly colored signs out on the chosen corners Thursday as the sale was Friday and Saturday from 8AM until 3 PM. Everything was carefully staged in the garage and on tables we planned to slide out onto the driveway in front of the garage. Fortunately, we had a large crowd the first day. Have you ever watched people park for a garage sale? Apparently they lose all sense of rationality when they are shopping for bargains. They will park ANYWHERE and block everything and everyone without regard of how traffic will get around them. Then they pick over every item and try to negotiate the absolute best price imaginable. We actually had people stop in on Thursday when they saw me staging the stuff, and then on Friday morning (remember the sale wasn't starting until 8) they started to arrive at 6:30! Fortunately we had gotten up at 6 AM and made coffee and were ready for these "early birds."
But one of the craziest things I have ever seen happened when Kevin noticed one of our signs was not up when he was on his way home from work last night at 11 PM. He parked the truck and went to check and see if the sign had somehow been knocked down. What he didn't expect was that the sign was GONE, and had been replaced by someone else's sign in the neighborhood next to ours. Now, my first thought was, did they think people would come to our house first and run out of money? Did they think we had better stuff? Did they actually think I was so stupid that I wouldn't notice our signs were not only gone, but replaced by theirs? Fortunately again, I don't think the loss of our signs hurt us any. I had record sales for a yard sale.
I guess I just haven't realized yet just how sad and sorry some of the people in this world have become. I have commented before on how people are greedy and don't care about other people...but, to actually steal someone's garage sale signs to replace them with your own?! What's up with that?
I had several people ask me if there were other sales in the area, and I referred them to the one that I knew about in Sardis Plantation right next door to our small community..the people who took our signs and replaced them. I chose not to return ugly for ugly. I feel like what goes around comes around, and as an old and dear friend of mine used to say "God don't like ugly!"
I made three times the amount of money that I had expected to at our little garage sale. I had very little left and plan to donate it to Goodwill as they sell this kind of stuff all the time. My house is "lighter" by a lot of "stuff" which I really didn't need and really needed to divest myself of in order to downsize to a smaller place. We sold everything from furniture to bread machines, costume jewelry to Christmas decorations. STUFF!!
I enjoyed talking with all the people who came by. There were old, young, crazy and rude people. They were tall, short, handicapped and clueless in some cases. I had opportunity to witness to several people about God and what He has done for me. I had numerous chances to share dietary information to many who are interested in improving their health or the health of their families. Kevin and I both enjoyed this two days in spite of being bone tired. It will be at least ten years before I feel like doing another garage/yard sale; and I will probably be too old to bother at that point!
Just be aware if you decide to have a yard/garage sale. It is a lot of work. You can actually make quite a bit of money on things you no longer need. Garage sales prices have to be CHEAP! These people who shop garage sales are absolutely "addicted" to it, and won't buy things if they are priced too high..they will just go on to the next street, neighborhood etc. Have a plan about what you want to do with what is left. Know that no matter what times you put on those signs (and I hope yours don't get stolen), people will show up EARLY! Have your coffee and plan to talk.
Good Luck! God Bless! Peace, Love and Joy to All
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