I recently held my first "Yard Sale" (as we call them in the South) approximately one-month ago. Being the business-savvy person that I am, I placed an ad in a local newspaper advertising the sale and made sure to price everything excessively low.
You see, I am the queen of letting things go...I throw almost everything away (cards, letters, useless items that I no longer find necessary in my daily routine, etc.) due to the fact that I absolutely hate clutter. I figure if it's something to be considered "memorable", then my mind will stash it away and remember it as such. Not to mention, I have a few hoarders in my family...but that, my friends, is a whole other blog entirely.
I am proud to say that I practically sold out of my yard sale belongings the first of the two days that I had advertised for. I know people are cheap, but I never realized just how cheap people were until the bargaining part of my yard sale began. Except, shocker, I didn't really bargain. I just paused for a minute and then told everyone, "Sure" to their offers. I mean, it's "for sale" for a reason-I have no need for the items for anymore, and furthermore, whatever didn't sell would only be donated to Goodwill anyway...for free. So, why not take what I could get? Makes sense to me.
That whole way of thinking, however, obviously does not make sense to others. Namely, two of my neighbors. For the last four weekends, I have watched them meticulously set up a "Yard Sale" in their driveways every Saturday morning. There are tables loaded with their now useless-to-them junk. And when they pull the signs down each Saturday and haul the belongings back inside their suburban garages, the tables are still full. The only thing I can think of is that secretly they really do not want to get rid of these items. Which is a shame. Yard Sailing can be so much fun. Especially the people who do it professionally.
Oh, you didn't know that there are Professional Yard Sailers? It's true. These are the people who hunt out a good bargain regardless of whether they need the items for sale or not. They come early...at least thirty minutes before your advertised "start" time. And then, they sit and wait. As soon as you pop open that garage door, they converge on your belongings and snatch up as many items as possible while offering you a flat price. If you're smart, you accept their flat price. Less time you have to spend "selling" your belongings, and less items to haul off for donation at the end of the day. Then there are the stragglers...the people who just peruse through your junk, agree that it's junk, make small conversation because they feel obligated, and leave. These are who I deem the lonely people. People who just need to get out of their houses and have a few social encounters before calling it a day. And then, there are the neighbors.
The same female neighbors who gravitated toward my boyfriend during our entrance into the neighborhood (read my column in The Canton Local at www.readthelocal.com for more background on this), came over to scope out my belongings (and garage) while pretending to be neighborly. One just wanted to see what kind of decorating themes I used and how clean my garage was. The other stated she just wanted to know if we had a "boombox" (yes, she really used that term) that she could purchase for her daughter's cheerleading squad. She too eyeballed my garage while asking this question.
All in all, my yard sale was a success. Maybe this Saturday when my neighbors again have theirs, I'll go check it out. One, I want to be nosy too. And two, I want to see what kind of junk it is that they're hoarding and can't (or don't want to) get rid of.
Super Shopper Yard Sailer,
Freeway Fairington
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