Filed under: Know-How
I thought having a yard sale would be pretty easy money. Turns out I was wrong. 
My neighborhood was having its annual yard sale and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get rid of the boxes of stuff I had been meaning to get rid of. Not only would I be clearing out my basement, I could possibly get some money to, well, replace that with new stuff.
So I started moving my boxes to the front yard at 7 am. And then came the early bird shoppers. The thinking behind an early bird shopper is that, if they catch you as you're setting up your yard sale table, you'll magically hand over everything you own for a quarter. But in this case, the early birds were content to slowly (and repeatedly) driving back and forth in front of my yard, eyeing up my boxes.
Once I had everything set up, I sat down and waited for the customers. And waited. The more I sat at the table, the more the whole situation felt like a weird single's night. Would anyone show up? Would anyone, at least, talk to me?
I started to regret that last thought when my first customer showed up. A woman came by and began to look through my box of Lakers memorabilia (I had a brief stint where everyone confused my love of basketball with a love of all things Kobe Bryant).
"Excuse me, where is your New York Knicks section?" she asked.
"Section? All I have is this box of Lakers stuff, if you're interested in that..." I said, even though I really wanted to ask why she mistook my yard sale set-up for the gift shop at Madison Square Garden.
"NO!" She responded, clearly offended.
About an hour later, a mother and two kindergarten-aged sons came by and immediately headed towards a box of action figures. One of the boys got excited about one of the figurines, a Wonder Woman action figure still in its original packaging. He showed it to his Mom, beaming, and asked if he could have a dollar to buy it.
"No, you can't have that, it's a doll and boys don't play with dolls," the mother replied.
The son, clearly used to having his dreams shattered, resignedly sighed and put Wonder Woman back in the box.
At this point, two hours had passed without a single sale. As more customers came by, the more I started to regret even setting up my yard sale table. Even if you anticipate crazy questions, you have no idea just how crazy the questions can get. Here's just a few that I received:
"Do you have this suit jacket in another size?"
"Would you be willing to sell this pressure cooker [which was still new in its box] for a nickel?"
"Can I trade you this Star Trek movie for that box of Tom Clancy novels?"
As I answered the questions (no, no, and what Tom Clancy novels?) I heard a spectacular crash. An elderly man had apparently dropped a casserole dish onto the sidewalk. But before I could say anything, the man darted off faster than I've seen anyone run before.
By lunch time, I was ready to throw in the towel. I realized that no one would ever be suckered into purchasing, say, a collection of KISS coffee mugs that I bought a decade ago. I figured I'd just cut my losses and return all the boxes to their previous lives as basement fire hazards.
Maybe it was the heat of the summer sun, but I had an epiphany: Don't fill the house with junk. If I don't want it, certainly I will not find someone else who wants it, either. It's the yard sale equivalent of the Law of Attraction. Just as like attracts like, intense dislike only attracts more intense dislike.
And just as I was thinking this, two kids ran up and started to rummage through the box of action figures. The little girl was thrilled to see the aforementioned Wonder Woman doll, while her brother lovingly put together a falling-apart Transformer. I could see a very different epiphany come upon them: "When will I become a grown-up so I can amass a treasure trove of action figures?"
When they asked how much it would be to buy the action figures, I told her they could take the whole box.
"For a dollar?" she replied, trying to haggle.
"For free," I told her.
Ultimately, we all got what we wanted. I had offloaded an entire box of junk, while the kids got a whole box of ways to bother their parents.
The rest of the boxes either went to recycling or (in the case of the more useful stuff) to Goodwill.
I didn't have the heart, however, to inflict a box of KISS memorabilia on anyone. Until I meet a KISS superfan, the box is still hidden in the basement. Any takers?
Chris Barnes occasionally writes about his growing collection of action figures at Ridiculously Awesome.
Feel brave enough to try your luck at organizing a yard sale? Check out....
How to Hold a Profitable Yard Sale
How to Sell Small Toys at a Yard Sale (VIDEO)
How to Run a Yard Sale (VIDEO)
And to see how a pro organizes a yard sale, watch this....
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Source: http://www.diylife.com/2011/06/21/yard-sale-confession/
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