Had a yard sale today

[disneysteve]

We always intend to have an annual yard sale but it never seems to happen. We end up with one every other year and today was the day. We were up at 5am to start setting up. The sale was advertised to begin at 8am but I knew that the serious shoppers show up well before that. True enough, the first customer pulled up at 6:02am and we made our first sale of the day at 6:14am.

For us, the goal of a yard sale is to clear stuff out of our garage and house - declutter. The money is secondary. We make our prices as low as we can to move the merchandise. We could get more for the stuff, but then we'd risk not selling it. I'd say our sale was a success. We got rid of quite a few larger items that were taking up space, like 2 bicycles, a storage rack, an inflatable chair, a couple of jewelry boxes, several collectible bottles and lots of smaller stuff like games, toys, glassware and more. Our profit for the day was $168. Not much money for the amount of work involved, but still money we didn't have when we woke up this morning and we gained some much-needed space in our garage. Plus it is fun to talk with the customers, meet and chat with the neighbors and get some fresh air.

Unfortunately, it started to rain just as we were starting to pack up which was really a pain. We had planned to take our time packing up to consolidate what was left, separate out stuff that we were going to donate to Goodwill and reorganize stuff in the garage. Instead, we made a mad dash to get everything out of the rain as fast as we could, so things just got thrown in every which way. I'll have to take some time this week to sort through it all and repack it neatly and get together the stuff we will be giving away.

[maat55]

I went to a few garage sales today. Spent most of the rest of the day installing an hide-away attic door I bought for 10 bucks.

[nmboone]

It sounds like you do what we do Steve, and that is price things to sell! My mom, sister, and myself went to a community garage sale in a rural area and all their stuff, even little knickknacks were priced quite high! Some things were even priced based on what it sold on Ebay for. Why didn't they just sell it on Ebay then? Anyway it was pretty disappointing. I had to haggle for a $10 hardback book that was hardly in the best condition but it looked interesting to have, so I got them down to $7 and they almost refused that! I don't understand, I thought people were trying to get rid of things at garage sales!

[jeffrey]

Thanks for the reminder. One more thing to add to my list of things to do...

[maat55]

Were having an garage sale in two weeks. It is an neighborhood sale. It is common here for whole neighborhoods to have sales.

[disneysteve]

Were having an garage sale in two weeks. It is an neighborhood sale. It is common here for whole neighborhoods to have sales.

Actually, 5 or 6 families at the other end of our street also had sales on Saturday. We didn't know about it because they hadn't told the rest of the block. I wish they had because we spent $38 to advertise and we could have just all chipped in on one ad had I known.

[wincrasher]

I'm on a first name basis with the guys at the landfill.

Often they'll unload my van and keep what they want and pitch the rest.

Alot less work without a bunch of nosey neighbors picking over my junk.

[disneysteve]

I'm on a first name basis with the guys at the landfill.

Often they'll unload my van and keep what they want and pitch the rest.

Alot less work without a bunch of nosey neighbors picking over my junk.

Why should perfectly good stuff go into a landfill if there are people who can use it? If you don't want to have a yard sale, at least donate the stuff to charity like Goodwill or Salvation Army or a local mission or thrift shop. That way, others benefit, you get a tax deduction and we don't pollute the environment even more.

[rob62521]

Disneysteve,
My mom used to say all those little sales add up and if you are having a garage sale, price it to sell...folks are looking for bargains. If you want antique shop prices, then open a shop! It's amazing how many folks don't do what you do, and price things to sell and get rid of them.

We donate a lot of our stuff to either Salvation Army or nonprofits. A lot of our clothes and dishes go to one group that is a food pantry that also has an area set aside to provide clothes and necessities for people...free.

[wincrasher]

1. Don't buy a bunch of junk you don't use in the first place.
2. Anything useful is reused/resold by the guys at the landfill
3. The landfill sorts and recycles alot of material.
4. Goodwill and other charities have drop-boxes at the landfill.
5. Who cares about tax write-offs for donated junk? Unless you like cheating on your taxes by drumming up ridiculous values.
6. What's the difference to the environment if something a) sits in your garage, b) it carted off by someone to sit in their garage or c) buried in a big hole out by the highway?

[disneysteve]

1. Don't buy a bunch of junk you don't use in the first place.
2. Anything useful is reused/resold by the guys at the landfill
3. The landfill sorts and recycles alot of material.
4. Goodwill and other charities have drop-boxes at the landfill.
5. Who cares about tax write-offs for donated junk? Unless you like cheating on your taxes by drumming up ridiculous values.
6. What's the difference to the environment if something a) sits in your garage, b) it carted off by someone to sit in their garage or c) buried in a big hole out by the highway?

1. That's great. If the landfill crew pulls out all of the usable stuff, that's terrific. Still, I'd personally rather see the money in my pocket instead of theirs, but that's just my preference.
2. Same answer.
3. Recycling is great and I highly encourage it, but reusing is still much better than recycling.
4. That's different. Giving to Goodwill is not the same as dumping in a landfill. Plus, as I said, you get the tax deduction that way.
5. I care about the tax write-off. So do millions of other people. You don't need to cheat on your taxes to benefit from a charitable donation. Not sure why you think that. There are published value lists for donated items that are perfectly legitimate to use when doing your taxes.
6. There is a big difference to the environment between something being used for its intended purpose and something buried in the ground. All kinds of chemicals can be released into the ground and water supply. It will happen eventually when the product is worn out beyond use, but why accelerate the process?

As for not buying junk you don't need, I totally agree with you. But even if you follow that rule 100% (which is pretty tough), you still periodically have things that you no longer need. For example, on Saturday I sold an old bike that my daughter outgrew as well as numerous toys and games that she is too old for now. Why not let someone else's kid enjoy those items now?

[DayByDay]

1. Don't buy a bunch of junk you don't use in the first place.
2. Anything useful is reused/resold by the guys at the landfill
3. The landfill sorts and recycles alot of material.

This is what we end up doing too. We usually have just a few items at a time we'd like to get rid of (not enough for a garage sale) so we'll just give stuff away to family or friends or take it to the dumps. There is a huge "thrift store" at the dumps with everything, like furniture, baby stuff, exercise equipment, books, toys, etc. We bring things home from there occasionally.

[cicy33]

I think yard sales are great! I love to go to them. I often find things in great shape for a fraction of the original cost and then they are reused. I got a coupe car little tykes for my granddaughter for $1. I had to clean it up but hey, who cares. and it will get used for several years by her and then her brother. I hate to pay full price for anything! I am having one next weekend and like you, disneysteve, we price to sell. I can't stand going to a yard sale and seeing walmart prices on stuff. We say here "they sure are proud of their stuff!" translation: yea, right!

[disneysteve]

The best thing about our sale was that quite a few items we sold were things that we had originally bought at yard sales and were now selling because we no longer needed them. On most of those items, we broke even or close to it, so we got free use of those items for a few years (like the bicycle).

We also sold a lot of items that we had gotten for free which is totally found money for us.