Friday, May 30, 2008

Friday Five: Garage Sale!

Over at RevGalBlogPals, two of 'em write: Since will smama is preparing for a joint garage sale with her parents, and Songbird's church had a Yard and Plant Sale last Saturday, we have five enormously important questions we hope you will answer:

1) Are you a garage saler? Not really. I've been in "we have too much stuff" mode for years.

2) If so, are you an immediate buyer or a risk taker who comes back later when prices are lower? I've managed to leave the vast majority of stuff right where it is, no matter the price.

3) Seriously, if you're not a garage saler, you are probably not going to want to play this one.(That wasn't really #3.)

3) This is the real #3: What's the best treasure you've found at a yard or garage sale? Um, well... I found Deluxe Scrabble once when I was about 11 years old. That was nice. My father-in-law is the real garage sale person in the family, though. He likes to refinish furniture he picks up for $5 or $10 (which is how we got our end table and coffee table in the den), or find books and toys for the stockpile at Grandma and Pop's house (for our one nephew who isn't covered in fur).

4)If you've done one yourself, at church or at home, was it worth the effort? I'd never do one myself. There's one for church in a couple of weeks, so we will probably take some stuff and hope that it's worth it. But the real worth-the-effort ones were with my extended family. My grandmother and aunts had a reputation for huge tag sales (no "garage" to it, although the carport area was heavily utilized). You'd turn in your stuff, tagged with the price and your initials, and they'd keep your money in its own envelope as your stuff sold. They'd spread the word at the neighborhood grocery store my aunt owned, so there was plenty of traffic. I got quite a bit of spending money through those sales in my childhood. And you didn't have to worry about what to do with all the stuff afterward, either... my grandparents had a good-sized storage building that would hold it all until the next tag sale came around.

5) Can you bring yourself to haggle? Not very well.

BONUS: For the true aficionado: Please discuss the impact of Ebay, Craig's List, Freecycle, etc... on the church or home yard/garage sale. I try to stay away because I don't need more stuff (see #1). But the Alpha is currently divesting himself of a great many action figures and is selling to folks through other avenues before he starts putting stuff up on eBay (if you're interested, let me know in the comments!).

9 comments:

David said...

So glad to have you back in the action, sorry I missed the change til now.

Deb said...

You know what? I divested our basement of my beloved's childhood train set - rusted train tracks, busted cars and all - for $300 on eBay!!! And they were SO excited to get it. So I say, sell those childhood toys... :)

deb

Auntie Knickers said...

It's surprising how easy it is for me now to go to a sale or even a "real" store and walk out with nothing. Unless it's a bookstore that is. So, no action figures for me! Good play.

Terri said...

good play, interesting prospect it seems for ebay and those toys...who'd guess?

Unknown said...

Sweet thing, I can well imagine that haggling does not come easily to you!

DogBlogger said...

Oh, Deb, the toys aren't from childhood! Not chronological childhood, anyway. I married a superhero geek... the action figures keep coming! (But, thanks to eBay, it's largely a self-funding hobby.)

RevAnne said...

Those tag sales sound amazing. And like a lot of fun to wander through.
We got rid of vast quantities of stuff before the last move, and we're still purging. That's where I've learned to love Freecycle: odds and ends of craft stuff goes to a good home instead of the trash, clothes go to someone who needs them, etc.
Hope the Alpha's not mourning too much at parting with his action figures. I hate letting pottery go, but I've got to make room for new pieces!

revhipchick said...

wonderful play!

you're commenting about the stuff reminded me of the veggie tale's song with mrs. blueberry--stuffmart or something.

peace

Anonymous said...

There you are, darling! It's good to read you again.