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Yard sale, revisited
I was so tired last night that I didn't even think about writing up details of our day yesterday until I read ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ravensroads' account of her yard sale.
As I noted earlier, we got up before the sun to finish "staging" the sale. I had gone out Friday evening to put signs up at major intersections within the subdivision. So Saturday morning, we dragged the furniture out to the driveway and arranged the pieces as if they were in a living room. Spouse had moved the books into the garage last week, so they were already set. We grouped the knick-knacks, decor and electronic items by general category: ceramics here, craft items there, holiday decorations over yonder.
A neighbor walked by about 6:30 on his morning constitutional. He popped in for a minute or two to look around, and said he'd be back later. At 6:50 we had our first customer.
And it didn't stop until noon. I should have counted how many people showed up. The cars were so thick people had to park on the next block. Old people, young people, whole families, individuals, teenagers out on their own for the day....they just kept coming, and coming, and coming...
The kids were adorable. One little girl was so determined to buy something she must have shown half a dozen [entirely unsuitable] items to her mother. Another little boy had only 25 cents, and we didn't have anything for 25 cents that was geared toward someone his age. However, spouse let him have the dumbbells for the quarter, just to get rid of the things. Spouse was pleased, I was pleased, and the kid was just plumb tickled. He hoofed it down the street to his house, carrying a set of weights almost as big as he was.
We heard a lot of compliments about how organized and clean the sale area was, and about how "good" the merchandise was. Some customers even called friends to tell them about us, or went home to get other family members so they could shop too.
Spouse left about 1PM to go to work. By that time, the flood was reduced to a trickle, and I actually got some reading done between customers. A little after 4:00PM, utterly exhausted, I pulled the remaining merchandise back into the garage, shut the door and called it a day.
I think it was a fluke this sale was so successful: We were the only sale in the neighborhood yesterday, which is not the norm -- this subdivision is Yuba City Yard Sale Central; it was an unusually gorgeous sunny day (unusual for March, I mean -- it was pouring down rain this time last year); we advertised in the paper as ONE DAY ONLY, which helped create a sense of urgency for potential buyers; and we had a boatload of relatively-high dollar items.
Spouse was so encouraged by the final tally that he wants to hold a sale every six months. He has another think coming.
ravensroads' account of her yard sale.As I noted earlier, we got up before the sun to finish "staging" the sale. I had gone out Friday evening to put signs up at major intersections within the subdivision. So Saturday morning, we dragged the furniture out to the driveway and arranged the pieces as if they were in a living room. Spouse had moved the books into the garage last week, so they were already set. We grouped the knick-knacks, decor and electronic items by general category: ceramics here, craft items there, holiday decorations over yonder.
A neighbor walked by about 6:30 on his morning constitutional. He popped in for a minute or two to look around, and said he'd be back later. At 6:50 we had our first customer.
And it didn't stop until noon. I should have counted how many people showed up. The cars were so thick people had to park on the next block. Old people, young people, whole families, individuals, teenagers out on their own for the day....they just kept coming, and coming, and coming...
The kids were adorable. One little girl was so determined to buy something she must have shown half a dozen [entirely unsuitable] items to her mother. Another little boy had only 25 cents, and we didn't have anything for 25 cents that was geared toward someone his age. However, spouse let him have the dumbbells for the quarter, just to get rid of the things. Spouse was pleased, I was pleased, and the kid was just plumb tickled. He hoofed it down the street to his house, carrying a set of weights almost as big as he was.
We heard a lot of compliments about how organized and clean the sale area was, and about how "good" the merchandise was. Some customers even called friends to tell them about us, or went home to get other family members so they could shop too.
Spouse left about 1PM to go to work. By that time, the flood was reduced to a trickle, and I actually got some reading done between customers. A little after 4:00PM, utterly exhausted, I pulled the remaining merchandise back into the garage, shut the door and called it a day.
I think it was a fluke this sale was so successful: We were the only sale in the neighborhood yesterday, which is not the norm -- this subdivision is Yuba City Yard Sale Central; it was an unusually gorgeous sunny day (unusual for March, I mean -- it was pouring down rain this time last year); we advertised in the paper as ONE DAY ONLY, which helped create a sense of urgency for potential buyers; and we had a boatload of relatively-high dollar items.
Spouse was so encouraged by the final tally that he wants to hold a sale every six months. He has another think coming.