We had a yard sale yesterday and today, trying to clear out a lot of the belongings of my late mother. In the process, we got an amusing slice of life.
Understand that Ebay, Craigslist, and the retreat of traditional auctions to the online format, have combined to put a crimp in the once huge customer base for these in-person sales.
Flea markets have been similarly impacted by this digital trend, not to mention the heavy handed COVID lockdowns and protocols.
Against this backdrop, we erected our canopies and deployed merchandise on tables and tarp, with limited expectations.
The event was advertised for free on Facebook and Craigslist. We made up some cardboard signs to post at nearby intersections and sat back waiting for the money to rush into our pockets – just kidding.
My wife used to frequent yard/garage sales, often dragging me along. She seldom goes to them these days.
I used to enjoy community events, such as one formerly held in Riverside, in which many of the houses in that residential section participated.
The smart residents there merely rolled out some coolers to their front yards, stocked them with ice, bottled water and soda, and made out like bandits. It’s a variation of the story of how Levi Strauss made his money in the California gold rush not by mining, but by selling goods, particularly jeans, to the miners.
Our yard sale strategy was to move stuff with ultra-low pricing. A welcome benefit was that we didn’t got a lot of “will you take x for it ?” dickering.
One of my favorite characters, to be polite, was an older woman who came late Friday and early Saturday.
She spent Friday wanting explanations and demonstrations of items, including having us remove a nativity set from a box maybe two feet by one feet. It still was in its original packing but she wanted a guarantee it all were there, for the princely sum of $1!
This woman didn’t buy that set, or any of the other items she pored over, settling instead for a small stuffed animal for which she paid 25 cents – and paid for it with a $5 bill!
When she returned Saturday, this discriminating woman shopper needed my wife to pull a lighted Christmas bell decoration out of its box and plug it in to demonstrate its functionality. The woman didn’t buy it, of course.
She did buy some 25-cent item, but this time managed to have a quarter to pay.
This woman also told us she had been late Friday because the woman she was riding with earlier wouldn’t stop because it wasn’t advertised in the newspaper. How anachronistic.
Through it all, we encountered both early birds and people who arrived after sales hours, either wanting to look at merchandise before we had gotten it out, or even as we were packing it back into a storage shed.
We had a lot of political commentary owing in part to me keeping a Trump campaign sign in my yard. Many liked that. If people didn’t like it, they didn’t bother to mention so.
One older couple came back both days and bought with both hands, remarking at the attractive pricing. They were even buying for other people.
What I’ve learned is pretty much what I already knew. Most of those you bump into are personable, friendly, and just generally good people.
An unfortunate minority are sullen, disrespectful and have only a passing acquaintance with societal standards of courtesy.
I was surprised to find there is value in gaudy costume jewelry.
I was similarly surprised to discover one could put out unused items, with original price stickers still intact, and find people thinking what once cost $4 now isn’t worth 50 cents.
I learned there always are opportunists and hustlers looking to steal in the figurative sense by paying much less than the worth of an item that an unsuspecting seller might have offered – in this case a cast iron skillet.
On the whole, though, it was enjoyable.
We sold many items. Admittedly if you broke it down, the proceeds by the hours it took my wife, son and I to set up and tear down each day, not to mention the countless hours my wife spent going through my mother’s old house and sorting items, the pay was probably about 5 cents an hour.
Still, the weather was clear and sunny, but was neither overly hot nor humid.
I wouldn’t want to do this every weekend, as some seem to do. But it was an interesting experience just this once.
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