The Garage Sale Diaries....our first garage sale!

[dodukes]

Ok so my friends and I decided that we were gonna have a garage sale together. Makes more sense since the more people, the more stuff, the more traffic we are bound to get. I advertised on the flyer and in craigsllist as well as had signs up from 3 major streets.It was my first time doing a garage sale and they had technically done one small one before, but we have 5 people come in for this one.

Can I just TELL YOU the WEIRDOES that come around!!!!!

Don't get me wrong we had some wonderful customers and some wonderful non customers, but then we have some really strange people come up. And also who steals form garage sales??? I mean really if yo need it that bad just have it but jeexz don't steal it from a 9yo's table. Yep, first thing in the morning, a lady put something in her pocket, both my friends husband saw it as did their son but they just let it go, must have not been too important because I would have said something just on principle.

We had one lady "buying" a fish tank ( a small nemo aquarium thing) we had it for $3 and I know my friend if pushed would have told her to take it for a buck if she had asked. Well after a lot of hoopla and looking around she starts walking off. I ask hey did they pay and all of us are like no, so we are like "ma'm you didnt pay for the fish tank", to which she replies, "yes i did to that lady over there". My poor friend was aghasst, she was like "no im sorry you didnt". Said lady again, "yes i did" but she was hesitant and had money in her hand. Needless to say she walked off because my friends were so shocked they were like screw it let her keep it if she needs it that bad. Funny thing is she left the directions sitting on the table behind, i told them if she came back for them to charge her $3 for them...

Next, lady at the end of the day, tries to negotiate for 2 avocados (i mean really!.lol) She buys 2 avocados and a 2 shelfs ( a whopping $1). So she comes to meet my friend halfway to check out and they sort of meet at this table were we had put our lunch from Mcd's earlier. She starts looking in the bag and my friend says"oh thats not for sale, thats just our leftover lunch". The lady proceeds to grab into the bag and take a whole thing of french fries that was there. Again, same friend was soooo speechless, she didn't say anything. (really it wasnt about the fries, we werent gonna eat them but who does things like this!!!!!!)

anyway thats just a couple of stories, it was a real eye opener, there are some RUDE and weird people in this world, and then there was some really kool people that stopped by.

My favorite was this one older lady who after perusing my cds grabs my songs of the 50's album. She was so cute I swear i could see her going home and putting it in and reliving her younger years!! She was soo nice too!

So anyway not to trash garage sale goers but jeez, Im sure Im not the only one who has these stories.

 

[Shelby5514]

No, garage sales bring out all kinds of people. I had a pair of brand new dressy flip-flops, that I had priced at 10 cents. The lady asked if I would take 5 cents? UH, NO. I can understand bargaining, but 10 cents? Come on.

When my in-laws were downsizing they had a 36" TV that they were selling. It was a big honkin' thing from their formal living room that they never used. They didn't have a place for it in their new house so we priced it to sell. $40. Someone offered us $20 for it because that was "all she had". We stood firm so she walked away to look at other things. She finally came back to the table to pay for the items she found and said she'd also take the TV. She then reaches into her bra and pulls out a warm, moist $100 bill and asks if we can make change. We had just opened and we would have given all our change away if we did so we told her to go break it and we'd hold the items for her until she came back. There was NO WAY we were going to take a sweaty, skanky bill from her even if we did have the change. Thats just gross.

 

[MrsPete]

I know what you're talking about. Last time I had a yard sale, a couple people tried to steal. I can only imagine what they do at stores.

The worst was one family was bound and determined that they were going to get into my house: They couldn't possibly buy the .50 outfit if they couldn't try it on first (okay, I'll lose the sale). Their kid had to use the bathroom (then leave, I'm done with you now). And they kept telling their kids it was fine to run up the stairs to my house. I had to send my kids to go in to wake their daddy, who came out and sat on the steps with his pistol. They left.

Another family pretended they didn't speak English, and they kept trying to negotiate prices down. I'm fine with bargaining, but they were rude about it. Finally I started moving my prices UP and simply taking things out of their hands, saying, "Sorry, not for sale", taking items out of their hands and refusing to give them back. Suddenly they could speak English as well as I can.

People like that were small in number, but I just wanted them to LEAVE so I could take care of the people who really were interested in what I was selling.

 

[IDoDis]

I've had people steal from me before, too. The most common trick is they give their child something to "hold." Then as they leave, the child is still holding said object until I say, "Umm, are you buying that?" I can understand when a kid picks up a toy and walks around with it and may not put it down, but you have to wonder when the item is a battery charger!!!

I've also had people walk in my garage and start picking up our own personal things, like a big package of toilet paper from Costco or a case of soda! They eyeball what's in the garage (all items for sale are placed in the driveway) and start asking for prices of things that clearly are not part of the sale.

I had one lady from a charity come after my sale was over to pick up unsold childrens' games. Her car trunk was so full of stuff that the game boxes wouldn't fit, so she opened each game and dumped all of the contents into the trunk -- all mixed together!

She said she'd put everything back together when she got home. Good luck with that!!!!

 

[akcire]

I actually enjoy some of the antics of the garage sale attendees, and we always have free toys (one per child). My husband only allows one garage sale a year, he loathes them.

Most of the people that attend garage sales in my area are either English speaking, Spanish speaking, or Polish speaking. Now I am from Sweden, and look like I should not understand a lick of Spanish; but I am fluent. I will admit there are some words I have to explain, rather than use the best word for a Mexican Spanish speaker. I like when they discuss in front of me how much or if they should buy an item, I just pretend like I don't understand until I am addressed. You should see the looks of utter shock I get when I start responding to them in Spanish. It is priceless! Also, I have taken more money that has come from a man's boot at a garage sale than I care to admit.

My father-in-law, who has gotten into the "sport" of the garage sale, speaks Polish; so we are covered. Usually the Polish-only speaks are ladies who are cleaning houses in the neighborhood, and stop by on the way to a job. If they think your stuff is nice, and you have someone to translate--they will ask for additional specific stuff. Who knew they'd want half used perfume bottles from the 80's--thanks to my father-in-law I sold a bunch of old fragrance I would have never used; and they were happy too. I also would have never thought to sell used bed sheets, but they asked and I had a ton. My father-in-law is a widower, and I think he is hoping one year his new wife will stop by at the garage sale. It is funny watching him flirt, with the cleaning ladies.

We have had a few people try and shop lift, but we just tell them we will call the police and give them their license plate number. That has always stopped them. The things they want to steal are always the biggest pieces of crap, any way.

When we set up our garage sale, we build a C-shape of tables starting at the garage entrance. There is no way for anyone to reach anything that is not for sale, our food, nor our cash box. We also always take turns so there is one person inside the house, doors are locked but you can never be too safe.

Other odd garage sale things:

The people that annoy me are the one's who shout from the street, "do you have X"? If you are too lazy to park your car and look, I am too lazy to respond.

My favorite thing is when someone wants to buy the largest item we have for sale, and they have the smallest car ever manufactured. I once sold a man a standard size coffee table for $3. He strapped it the roof of a Yugo, not even kidding. A little while later, my husband made a coffee run, and said the coffee table was on the side of the road in pieces. No Yugo was seen at the coffee table destruction site, presumably it survived.

Or someone who wants to buy a luxury item, but is "too poor" to pay your price. For example, my father-in-law had a couple of Waterford vases with the boxes marked $50. This lady gave him this story about how she could only afford $5. Now he would have cut her some slack, but instead he told her if it was her last $5 she should keep it for food; and probably didn't NEED a Waterford vase. You should have seen the fat roll of $20's she pulled out of her wallet to pay for the vase.

This last year we had a new twist on the woe-is-me drop your price negotiation tactic. My husband recently lost some weight, and had a good number of brand new with tags polo shirts. He marked them $3.00 each. 15 minutes into the start of the garage sale (and we don't allow early birds even for a lookie-loo), this lady gave us a sob story about how she was going to mail them to poor people in Nigeria, and could only afford 50 cents each. We declined to sell them for 50 cents, and she began to verbally attack us; this goes on for like 10 minutes.

The sheriff deputy was doing his normal drive by at the time, and slowed down to check out the merchandise (he has bought from us before--while in uniform). The deputy offered the lady a "free" pair of metal bracelets, and a ride to the center of town where the court house is located. At that point, she shut up and left. Ironically, a few minutes later another customer bought all the shirts. Now fast forward, an hour, and screaming lady comes back. Now she is mad that we sold the shirts, and she can't send them to Haiti. We did point out to her that when she was at our house previously she was going to mail them to Nigeria and now she is saying Haiti. I am guessing, by her charitable disposition toward us, that the Africa and/or Haiti bit was just a story. Just another satisfied garage sale customer!

 

[dodukes]

WOW you guys are killing me with your stories.

I knew it couldnt only be us that these things happened to. Yes we had a few woe is me stories or attempts. We also had the two thefts mentioned and I think someone took a pack of my thank you cards but luckily I was on top of my stuff and I would have not just let it go like my friends did, but that is them.

I agree what I found the most annoying was the rude bargainars. Hey I dont mind you asking if I will ake $x amount instead of what I priced it at but don't be rude about it. Or the well I saw it for such and such over there. I had to tell one lady that sorry but its $1 here.

Like I said now that I had my first one under my belt, Im definetely ready for another one but it just amazes me how people are.

Oh and I like the one toy per child thing, we prob have plenty of happy meal toys we can give out!!!