posted on October 14, 2000 05:38:08 PM new
I don't know if by the time I work with the public all week I am just fried and can't handle any more on the weekend or what. I had a yard sale today and I've had it with that! Had some Ebay leftovers and regular stuff, didn't want to mark everything so I just said everything 25 cents an item. I had some good stuff in there but just was time to clear out. One lady then came up to me with a sports memorabilia item worth about ten bucks and asked me if I would take ten cents for it instead of a quarter! Then another lady bought something (for a quarter) and about half an hour later came back because there was a small piece missing (non essential) and she wanted to look through the grass in my yard to see if it came off (which she proceeded to do for several minutes before giving up)! I took what was left over to Goodwill today but next time I think I will just go to Goodwill to start with. Has anybody else gotten disgusted with having rummage sales or is it just me getting old and cynical? I used to enjoy having them but now after about three hours I start getting ticked off that people aren't coming and hauling my junk away! Maybe by the time spring rolls around I will have a different attitude. Rant over
posted on October 14, 2000 06:52:20 PM new
hammerchick...several years ago, I had a fund-raiser garage sale for a co-worker who's husband had leukemia. All the employees donated items and some of them were really expensive pieces that they just didn't want anymore. I had a large sign done up stating it was a charity fund-raiser and talked to everyone about the family and thanked them for participating. I couldn't believe, even knowing it was for a family in need, that they tried to offer me such piddling amounts for really nice stuff. I remember a beautiful large glass jar with "pretzels" painted down the front. It was in new condition and I marked it for $2.00. I had so many people ask if I would take $1 for it, but I just said no. Even if they could have found this somewhere else, it would have been at least $10.
I can't believe someone would try and talk you down from $.25. I can just imagine how you were feeling.
*************************
That's Flunky Gerbiltush to you!
posted on October 14, 2000 07:38:26 PM new
I went to one today...and I got so angry, I was seeing red. Gal was sitting there on her duff, nothing priced. So I asked "what do you want for the apparel?" and she said, "I dunno. Gotta ask Bertha". So I began to look lightly, then asked again "Can you ask Bertha what she wants for the clothes?" and she says "Oh, that rack is mine. YOu can have stuff for 50 cents each". So I start looking alittle more seriously. I find a few tops that will go with India skirts I find from time to time that need the top part, so I have a few of them in my hand...as I walk to the OTHER rack, I said "Its really hard to shop if I dont know the prices from Bertha what she wants for these on THIS rack" so the gal sighs and hollers "BERTHA! Wattchoowant for these"? And Bertha hollers back "Oh, bout a buck or so", so I look and see a nice skirt and a nice dress, so I pick them up. I walk to the chair to lay them down and Bertha saunters over and says "That one there is 2 bucks...this one is 10 bucks cause I only worn it oncet, y'know", so I calmly begin to hang everything back up and BOTH of them snicker and say "yeah, thats right little missy...you go head an put them back right wheres y'all foun' 'em" and I looked at Bertha and whatsherface and said "no...I changed my mind. YOU hang them back up". Sheesh. Getting prices out of those two was like pulling teeth.
posted on October 14, 2000 07:52:15 PM new
I hear ya.
Last time the wife and I decided to have a garage sale it was impromptu, but it was "city wide" garage sale day (town of about 1400) and we thought we could just set some stuff out, make a couple of signs, and do OK.
It was the most dismal garage sale we ever attempted (few customers, fewer buyers), so about noon I suggested we just load up the stuff and take it to an outdoor auction that was held every Saturday afternoon/evening in a nearby town.
We had books, paper items, radios, a TV, lots of things, some good. I unloaded it and arranged it all on a couple of tables at the auction then came back home for a while to wait for the sale to start. Then it started raining and our stuff got wet and most of it ruined. To add insult to injury, I had to haul the stuff back home (who's going to bid on a bunch of soaked items?) and then pay the county dump to take it. Just another day in Paradise...
posted on October 14, 2000 08:01:41 PM new
I have this regular customer at the flea market who drives me nuts every month. Today she picked up two items priced at $5.00 each. She brings them over and asks if she can have them both for $5.00. I said of course you can't that would be like getting one free. She just stood there staring at me and said but you always give me good deals. I tell her sure I can come down on the price but not so much that you get a $5.00 item free. She walked off in a huff and I hope she doesn't come back next month.
posted on October 15, 2000 03:45:00 PM new
About going back to a sale, I have to confess I've done it...
I bought 4 widgets from a box of junk for $2 and had a fair idea that each was worth at least $10. These are boxed widgets and the lid of one box was missing. Actually, I saw the stray piece of cardboard when I was at the sale but for some brain fart reason did not put two and two together. Anyway, the woman at the sale was astounded that I was buying anything out of this junky box and had a look on her face like "people are amazing, what they will buy." cluck cluck cluck.
So I go home to discover that I have made a major score. One of the widgets books for $800, but better yet, it SELLS for over $700 whenever one becomes available. One of the others is at about $30 with the other two pieces clocking in at around $150 each....
.... IF you have the box that it.
Oh Maaaaaaaan... I left the stinkin' lid to the box.
So I know it is there, and I know I have to go back. That lid is going to cost me about $30-$50 off the sales price of the widget, so I get in my car. Besides that, the sale is close and she had a couple more widgets in that box...
Well, I am highly distinctive looking in these parts and I am recognized immediately and the woman looks like I came to beat her up because she cheated me by charging me $2 for her junk and this is when I start to beg.
I beg for this piece of cardboard, ask if I could please take a poke around. I angle and plead and plead and angle can she please get the box of junk back out here. The sale is still going on, but the goods are quite thinned out at this point.
Well she can't get the box because it is in her trash can. She threw what I did not buy away, which tells you a lot you know? She cannot believe I am back in her yard, and no matter whose birthday it is, (I said I needed the box so I could give for a gift, and I am sure she was repulsed - how I give junk for presents) she is not going in the trash.
Okay, so I see the trash, it is right THERE, and I am a little crazed, but not crazed enough. I cannot will not ask this woman if I can look in her trash can.
I draw the line.
I leave in defeat with a lesson learned.
ALWAYS GET THE BOX LID.
She was probably frightened and verrrry relieved when I got back in my car.
I got a widget with 3/4 of the box. Oh well.
posted on October 15, 2000 04:36:30 PM new
VeryModern: "I am very distinctive looking"? Okay, I'll bite. What does that mean? Do you look Mafioso? Were you wearing a black shirt and white tie? What? I'm dying to know.
posted on October 15, 2000 06:48:17 PM new
loosecannon - Your story is much worse than mine, now I feel so badly for you!
VeryModern - The item this lady came back to find the piece for was a gift that probably cost $2 at the most at the dollar store.
I spent the day out and about today and I think I am over it now. Hehehe.
posted on October 15, 2000 06:54:26 PM new
Muriel - I just live in a part of the country where there are very VERY few Italians, like almost none. I look very classic Italian but most people around here don't really recognize that. This makes me a walking enigma. People are intrigued, intimidated and put off all at the same time. "Is she from New York? Is she going to bite? Steal my husband/my money/my neighborhood? IS SHE SAFE?
I will never forget the chap who approached me in a bar when I used to wear bangs and asked me if I were Egyptian. I had to tell him that it was only a haircut. Poor guy thought I was going to be his Cleopatra fantasy or something. Or when I was in South Dakota, and told a ski instructor I was from Arizona, he asked if I were Apache. See -- in his reality, anyone with dark hair is an Indian. I asked that guy if he had ever heard of Robert Deniro, or uh, uh, Europe, or what? He had this look on his face that he had not thought of the concept "Italian" more than twice in his life. To him Italian people are not even real. The rest of the lesson he was looking at me with a bit of awe. I was now an exotic creature visiting his land. grrrrreat.
So this is how it is and these are the brave ones.
I got so sick of all this, I advertised on the Internet for an East Coast Guy and I got one. My husband is from Brooklyn and he thinks I am normal. He knows I am not yelling when I talk and that right there is reason enough to marry.
