Can you believe the NERVE of this person?

[MeanLaureen]

Hee Hee Hee

We have this wackos phone number from caller ID - think I should call them at 3am tonight and ask them how they liked the yard sale and if they are enjoying their purchases?

I normally wouldn't even have picked up the phone for a number I didn't recognize but it was from the same exchange as my mom's nursing home so I was worried something happened to her.

I hope Matt recognizes the voice and points them out - since it rained all day yesterday I might have to wait until they walk under the big old Crape Myrtle tree and shake it off a bit

 

[MeanLaureen]

Good Luck to you too Roberta!

Matthew had to go out and replace most of our signs this morning (he's doing that now)

I could have killed him. I spent hours on those signs. They were each a half sheet of posterboard. I did the sign and on each one they had a different cartoon character (Bugs, Garfield, Shrek etc) with a funny saying about the yard sale. You didn't think I could have just regular signs, right?

Well I told him to put the signs up on the way to work yesterday. Well apparently the forecast had changed overnight and it was going to rain all yesterday. You think Matt would have aborted the sign hanging up? Hmm.. posterboard meets water and wind - not a fair match.

Yep, you guessed it, he hung most of the signs before I frantically called him on my way to work after seeing them hanging there in the rain. As of 7pm last night they were posterboard shrapnal laying on the ground

*sigh*

All that work down the drain

Now he's hanging up thrown together signs with no catchy slogans or characters

 

[Big V]

At least people saw them before they were destroyed! Good luck on your sale today! I hope you sell a lot!

 

[Eeyore1954]

ML, so sorry about your signs. You sound a lot like my DW -- she loves putting those extra touches on things to make them special.

Anyway, the success of your sale won't depend so much on your signs as on the quality of the sale and the sellers. In your case, I'm betting on a HUGE success!

 

[Jaimee]

My neighborhood association is having one today...I have tons of DS's stuff to get rid of. Last year I said never again, but here I am My story is about the "smiley lady". I had these 2 stupid yellow coffee mugs with smiley faces on them the my boss gave me. Never used, 25 cents a piece. This lady talked to me for 20 minutes about how she loves smiley faces because someone at her church gave her a bag with a smiley on it years ago and ever since she's loved them. SO she pays for the mugs, but asks if I would hold them for her until she was done at the other houses, no problem. Well, she never came back. I set them aside with the stuff I was going to take to Goodwill. The next morning (Sunday) my doorbell rings at 6:30 am, and there's the smiley lady, she said she forgot which house whs bought the mugs from, so we went up and down the block asking the neighbors (on SUNDAY MORNING ) if they knew which house had the mugs?!?! Finally my next door neighbor directed her to my house

 

[Disney Doll]

These are the reasons why I hate yard sales. I'd really rather just donate stuff to different places. Clothing goes to a local church for their homeless people's clothing for free store, household good go to the local battered women's shelter, as do our old cell phones, anything that really garbage goes to the appropriate recycling center.

 

[liznboys]

Some people are just Yard Sale FREAKS!!!!!!!!!!! I've been debating about having one as we have a bunch of stuff to get rid of. But I don't know if it's worth all the fuss??! Good luck with your sale today, hope you make lots of moolah!!

 

[HollyJoy]

LOL.. some people are just rude! I'd just tell them to come tomorrow!

 

[HoneyPooh]

A few years ago I had a yardsale and I sold a set of curtains still in the package that I hadn't needed. I think I sold them for about 50 cents. Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. someone knocks on my door and it's the lady who bought the curtains asking me if I had any more she could buy (she had the set she bought from me in her hand). When I told her no I didn't have any more, she started cross examining me about where they came from and when I bought them because she really needed more than one set (then why buy one set?) etc etc. Finally she ended with "I guess I can't use these afterall". . I think she was expecting me to offer to give her money back! I guess from now on my yardsale signs should say "NO REFUNDS".

 

[momm2four]

My friend put her ad in the paper for her sale which was the next day, and at 9:00 that night, someone knocked on her door, wanting to look through her stuff. He DH was home, so she let the man in the garage. Bright side is that he spent around $50, but that is just RUDE!!!

On the flip side, what bugs you when you are out looking at garage sales?

I HATE it when the person having the sale feels they have to comment on everything I pick up. "That's really cute, isn't it?" "That's a good deal, you know" "That's a Tommy Hilfiger shirt. They're very expensive" "We have some puzzles over here" AARRRGGGHHH I want to scream, "LEAVE ME ALONE!" This one lady did that to me this morning. I was the only one there, and she had about 25 items for sale, mostly clothing, 2 cushions for outdoor furniture and two ice cream makers. I declare she talked the entire time I was there. I finally made some excuse like "I'm mainly looking for little boy clothing right now" and made my escape.

Lori P.

 

[Lewski709]

Originally posted by MeanLaureen
Can you believe the nerve of this person??
We are having a yard sale tomorrow - we put an ad in the paper today and tomorrow - no phone number, just address

We have someone on the phone right now - 4 minutes until 10pm - grilling us with questions on what will be in the sale.

They did say they would be by tomorrow to look

What the......

Hey just think, they'll be at your house too.

Too many freaks, not enough circuses!

 

[arminnie]

Best advice my late mother EVER gave me was that I didn't have to be nice to rude people. You can't imagine how liberating that can be.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

I can believe anything now! I caught a shop lifter at one of my garage sales. I told her to give it back and she said that she was buying plenty and that I should give it to her. It was a .25 belt but I was not going to give in!!

 

[lisajl]

We had a garage sale today with my sister.
We made around $100. Not too bad considering we sold a couch someone GAVE us for $50.00! Of course it was right at the last moment as we were packing stuff up.

My fave story on people you deal with at garage sales is this one.

Two years ago I put a V-tech camera (kids toy) in the sale for $3.00. A women came up to me and said, "Will you take 1.00 for it?" I said, "No, the sale has just started and someone else might pay $3.00 for it." She had the nerve to say, "Well, I buy things and then re-sell them." I DON"T CARE!!! Needless to say, she did not get it, and I gave the camera to a friend for her baby.

Geesh! these people make me crazy!

Lisajl

 

[pw2pp]

I'd rather GIVE my stuff away than have a garage sale. What a PIA!

 

[Pig Pen]

The funniest ad I ever saw a few years back:

"Yard sale, Saturday 9:00 am....early birds pay double."

 

[Van Helsing]

Guess thats what happens when you open yourself up to the public ( yard sale )

 

[Beth E. (NJ)]

we've done a couple of yard sales here. The thing I learned was to mark the prices double what you want for the item because people will over 1/2 no matter what the price asked. We wanted $1 for some things and people offered $.50. If we wanted $2 they offered $1.

I once helped a friend at her sale and I was amazed by the number of people who asked if there was stuff for sale inside the house. They were using the drive way and the garage for sale items. Finally we put a rope with a "no admittance" sign across the door leading from the garage to the house.

 

[jipsy]

As a yard sale junkie, here's a few things:

The person who called you was an antique dealer. Most likely looking for something he could buy fairly cheap to sell later. Dealers hit the best yard sales very early in the morning to snag the best stuff, which is why you have people who show up for your yard sale at 5 am even though you advertised it starting at 7 am. The best way to deal with the callers is to tell them, sorry, the sale starts tomorrow at ______, see you then and hang up. However, I will say that one time I advertised a refrigerator in my yard sale. Someone called me the night before and asked about it. They were willing to pay what I wanted and they came and got it with a truck. Saved me from having to drag it outside. Also, if you have a garage, organize your yard sale the day before INSIDE the garage and keep the door closed. Open it up at your announced time and you can just lift the tables and put them out in the yard, etc.

I once helped a friend at her sale and I was amazed by the number of people who asked if there was stuff for sale inside the house. They were using the drive way and the garage for sale items. Finally we put a rope with a "no admittance" sign across the door leading from the garage to the house.

I have been to many yard/garage sales where people were selling off alot of things because someone died and there was too much to bring out, so they would use a few rooms inside the house also. This is not unusual. Most estate sales use the whole house also, perhaps they were under the impression you were having an estate sale for some reason.

The haggling is what I LOVE about going to yard sales. If you are NOT prepared for people to haggle with you over prices, you're better off not having the yard sale and selling your stuff at an auction house or on ebay.

 

[C.Ann]

As much as I love selling on eBay, I have to admit that it has basically killed the concept of garage sales.. The people hosting the garage sales are attempting to get the same kind of prices they would hope to get on eBay and the buyers are looking for rock bottom prices for resale.. It's kind of a vicious circle..

Yesterday I spent a few hours at a village-wide sale and I couldn't believe what some people were asking for their items - $5 for a used video; $15 for a used CD; $5 to $12 for a cookbook; $3 for a used jigsaw puzzle; etc., etc.. Even before I became involved with eBay I never would have paid those prices for used items.. Out of over 100 garage sales I found maybe 5 or 6 with what I considered reasonable prices.. I spent less than $10 and purchased only items for myself, granddaughter, and DD - which was fine because I really don't need to be buying MORE stuff to sell on eBay - I've got enough of my own to get rid of..

Unfortunately I don't see this situation improving as long as the option of eBay is available.. Eventually I will have to hold a garage sale myself - for larger items like furniture and things I just want to sell off by the box full - but I know I'll have to keep my prices low if I really hope to get rid of the stuff.. It's the "new era", I guess..