Yard Sales - I hate it when...

[NHmomof2boys]

This thread is perfect!! DH and I are having a garage sale this weekend, now I know what to look forward to.

*I hate it when: people literally JUST step out of their car, complain about the terrible heat, & beg you for some water! Last May, DH & I were sitting by our table & this woman comes to us, sees we are drinking bottled water & asks us where we got it from! SERIOUSLY?!

My two DS's are planning on selling lemonade during our sale. They seem to think that Mom is going to make fresh squeezed lemonade for them to sell

 

[jaccceee]

Once I was having a yard sale and I thought I saw a creepy fat man steal my son's old cowboy doll. I don't why anyone would want it. It was old and it's arm was ripped. I don't know how it got there because I thought I put it up on a shelf. Luckily he just had a birthday and got a cool space toy. But everything worked out in the end when we found it right in my car!

 

[lovesmurfs]

Once I was having a yard sale and I thought I saw a creepy fat man steal my son's old cowboy doll. I don't why anyone would want it. It was old and it's arm was ripped. I don't know how it got there because I thought I put it up on a shelf. Luckily he just had a birthday and got a cool space toy. But everything worked out in the end when we found it right in my car!

I'm sure the dinosaur and race car helped your son through the transition!!

 

[uva185]

My friend had a yard sale a few years back. Basically it was all junk one way or another he was not keeping it. So after a day of trying to sell everything it just got placed by the curb at the end of the day for the garbage company to come pick up the next morning. As he was taking stuff down to the curb some woman bought a $25 item....then realized what he was doing and asked is he was going to throw out the item he just sold. She was pretty mad if she waited 2 minutes she could have taken it out of the trash pile for free.

 

[peyton18]

I hate it when people show up early & start digging through the stuff I'm trying to pull into the driveway.

Also, being an avid garage-saler, I hate table-blockers (people that try to stand in front of a table & pick through all the good things w/o letting anyone else look)!!

 

[TupperMom7]

Once I was having a yard sale and I thought I saw a creepy fat man steal my son's old cowboy doll. I don't why anyone would want it. It was old and it's arm was ripped. I don't know how it got there because I thought I put it up on a shelf. Luckily he just had a birthday and got a cool space toy. But everything worked out in the end when we found it right in my car!

Tooo funnnnyyyyy!!!!!

 

[Folklore]

I have a love/hate relationship with our garage sales.

I love....

* DH finding his inner used car salesman and then proceeding to sell the majority of our stuff with his wonderful personality.

* DH for convincing me that drinks will sell at a garage sale. This is a big moneymaker for us. We buy the cheap cans and sell them for $.50 to $1. I couldn't believe the number of people who bought these.

* Setting a goal for what we want to purchase with our earnings and then going out and buying it the last day of our sale.


I hate...

* The lady who would not understand that the angel that holds our plastic bags was NOT for sale. (It was one of the few gifts I have ever received from my mother-in-law that I actually like.) I had to tell her NO four times! She finally got snotty and told me that I had just lost a sale and stomped off.

* The neighbors who beg us every year to organize a neighborhood garage sale and then once we have paid for the ad stating a "neighborhood" sale decide that they don't have enough stuff, are sick (two years in a row) or don't want to participate. I finally told them it was their turn last year and a neighborhood sale was never organized.

I also don't let anyone into our house to use the bathroom, phone or for anything else.

 

[bluehen]

I have to relay this story of one of my best friends. He was an all out smart a**. One day at his garage sale a well dressed women gets out of a 40k BMW. She wants to buy a sweater and asks him if he will take 50 cents instead of the dollar. He says no and the woman starts to her car in a huff. When she is about half way to her car he yells out.

Sweaters now 50 cents to anyone not driving a German car.

We still laugh at the stomp to the BMW the woman did.

 

[ThunderMTexpert]

Once I was having a yard sale and I thought I saw a creepy fat man steal my son's old cowboy doll. I don't why anyone would want it. It was old and it's arm was ripped. I don't know how it got there because I thought I put it up on a shelf. Luckily he just had a birthday and got a cool space toy. But everything worked out in the end when we found it right in my car!

YOU are my new best friend.. HILARIOUS!!

 

[Donnask8pro]

Last year we were out front of a friends house tailigating, A whole carload of people pulled up and got out. Starting looking at the grill. Which was loaded with food I might add, asking "How Much???" They thought it was a garage sale...

 

[surfergirl602]

Once I was having a yard sale and I thought I saw a creepy fat man steal my son's old cowboy doll. I don't why anyone would want it. It was old and it's arm was ripped. I don't know how it got there because I thought I put it up on a shelf. Luckily he just had a birthday and got a cool space toy. But everything worked out in the end when we found it right in my car!

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

I have to relay this story of one of my best friends. He was an all out smart a**. One day at his garage sale a well dressed women gets out of a 40k BMW. She wants to buy a sweater and asks him if he will take 50 cents instead of the dollar. He says no and the woman starts to her car in a huff. When she is about half way to her car he yells out.

Sweaters now 50 cents to anyone not driving a German car.

We still laugh at the stomp to the BMW the woman did.

I love it!

 

[melancholywings]

I've only ran one and never again. I'd rather wait in line at the DMV.

DD is an only child, and I'm a frugal shopper. I picked up a lot of her toys from resell shops, I also personally collect various toys and had decided to stop being such a pack rat and to let some of it go. So I put the old toys DD had outgrown in the sale as well as a bunch of my stuff.
I had this one woman show up haggle for awhile, and I cut her really good deals as she said she had two children, had just got off work (she was in her waitress clothes) and was driving a bit of a clunker (with car seats so the kid thing was true). I understood, i'm a working mom myself and the 'nice' things I have are due to lucky bargin shopping. It felt good helping another mom.
Until she said as I helped her load up the car with all my old crap.
'You only have one DD? And all these toys were hers? You spoil her too much.'

Thanks lady.

 

[Wilsonfamily4]

I detest when my inlaws, my husbands 3 siblings and his parents and grandma, want a garage sale and decide my house is in the best spot. Then when the day comes they are here the night before until well after midnight pricing things at my house. Can they not do it at their house so I can get some sleep? Also the day of the sale they all seem to have to work or have things they need to do. So I am left doing the sale for the 2 days mostly by myself. Then they take WEEKS to come gather their junk and take it home. Why do they think my garage wants to store their junk. I have told them after doing this two years in a row I am not interested in garage sales anymore. I may sneak one in without telling them sometime though.

I do love my inlaws though!!

 

[Tarheel Tink]

Never again. I had one and a man asked how much I wanted for the stack of styrofoam coolers. I told him they were free (I got a lot of Omaha steaks gifts that year) and he didn't want them.
Jump ahead 3 years; at 8:30 pm when I'm home alone the doorbell rings and I innocently open it up (posted private drive for 4 homes, assumed it was a neighbor). Same man in shorts and barefoot asking if we still had a pool cue available from the yard sale (3 years before). He drove off in a Jaguar.
Never again.

 

[musclemouse]

This is awesome. Great laughs!

This Saturday I am sharing a table with my sister at a Mom2Mom sale. I love these because the shoppers are moms and looking for childrens things. So everyone always does really good with getting rid of their things while making good money! This is my second one and I am geeked. I'm expecting to bring home about $200 from toys and clothes! My sister will do wonderful too because she has a lot of highly overpriced named brand things...Burberry, Oilily, etc.. These clothes were all givin to her, too! So what doesn't sell...

Will go sit on my drive way for our community wide yard sale next weekend. Along with all my other unused items. I know I won't do nearly as well. What I don't get rid of Salvation Army will gladly take it!

 

[mommytoone]

OMG!!!! I am laughing hysterically


These are all the reasons that I will not have a garage/yard sale. I have so much stuff, and was planning on doing it this summer and have changed my mind. I will do something else. I can't stand people coming to my house and haggling prices with me. I have never had anyone ask to use the bathroom, but I am sure it has happened more times than not.

 

[stitchlovestink]

I love that one!

How about when they bring up something marked a quarter, ask if you will take a dime for it, then pay with a quarter

That's as annoying as the person who wants to buy a 25 cent item 1st thing in the morning w/ a 20 dollar bill. I know to have lots of change. But equally, you knew you were going yard saling, as a buyer you should have some smaller bills too.

I hate it when people leave their stupid signs up for weeks or until the wind and rain blows them down the street onto my lawn.

I hate the people who offer you $3 at 10am for EVERYTHING you have.

I hate it when my kids get super hyped for a garage sale and *I* get to put everything out on the lawn and put whatever sells back into the house. They got charged a "fee" for that one I'll tell ya.

I hate it when people come an hour before the sale and ask for some completely random item (like Pogs. anyone remember those?)

One year, a whole family got out of a car and offered me $5 for a park bench that I was selling for $15. I knew I would get $10 for it from a friend who offered so I politely said no. They all stood there yelling at me in Vietnamese and then they piled back into their car and drove away. Weird.

I hate it when garage salers don't have any change. You can't change a $5? If you KNEW you were having a garage sale, wouldn't you think to have lots of change on hand first?

I haven't done a garage sale in two years or been to one. They're too aggravating!!

They might've had change until the buyers w/ the 25 cent items needed to break their 20 dollar bills. I'll forgo the quarter sale just so that I don't have to break your $20. I really do think some people do this on purpose to get smaller bills and change. I am not the local bank branch. Bring some smaller bills w/ you.

I do not mind for someone to ask if I'll take less for something or to make me an offer. I DO HATE IT WHEN, you won't take NO for an answer. It is my stuff. I am entitled to ask what I want. No one says you have to buy it.
I hate it when I tell someone my rock bottom price, and then you continue to pick apart the item and say well it's not worth more than $X. Then put it down and don't buy it.
I also do not live in Mexico, this is not a Mexican market and I'm not participating in a haggling contest. I had one guy who wanted a pair of like new Nike basketball shoes for $2. I had them priced at $5 (which I felt was more than fair as DD didn't even wear them outside, only in the gym). He asked me to take $2 like 10 times. I finally said, if you ask me again the price goes up to $7 for you. He handed me a $5 and walked away.

 

[phamy76]

This past weekend we had a yard sale.

I had some left over (*free ) personal hygiene items out and a few of the Glade candles.
A woman takes a new toothbrush, a new deodarant and new shampoo and I said $4.00, please.
She said, what are you offering on the Glade candle refills? I said $2 each or 3/$5.
She says "I'll give you the last buck for all 3".
NO, thank you.
She hands me my items back and says, "well, I guess you're not gonna make any money now".

 

[DopeysMommy]

I had a garage sale in June. We had a large cabinet, and it sold it at the last minute of the first day, but she couldn't take it that day and would come back on day 2, saturday. We put in back in the garage, and then dragged it back out to the end of the drive to make it easy when she came back.

It is now August, and still in my garage. She paid--why the *^&* didn't she come back??? It wasn't pricey enough to place an ad to say "Lady who bought white cabinet, come back!" but I feel bad tossing it/putting it on craigslist.

I love my garage sales. Every year we do one, and I am already looking forward to next year!