Saturday, August 06, 2005

Yard Sale: Midnight Madness, Decent Sales and Sun Bleached Hair!

A whole week of prep for this weekend's yard sale did make things easier. But the sale got off to a pretty weird start. It actually began on Friday night before the sale.

I decided to go around my neighborhood and post the smaller signs for the yard sale with the arrows pointing the way to my house. I had three strategic placements which would help drivers who entered my neighborhood at the wrong street. The signs were not tremendously big but big enough to be easily read by someone in a moving vehicle. Apparently, the signs were a bit too visible even at night.

Now my neighborhood has changed in certain ways since the days I was raising hell, stomping the pavement and chewing the dirt. One major way in which it has changed is that the streets are filled with cleptomaniacs who lack the mental capacity to steal something of real value. Having said this, this morning's start will make more sense...cause what a real shitty start it was!

My father arrived bright and early at 7:30am to help set up some of the tables and place some of the heavier items. (I had a simple set-up with two major aisles down either side of the driveway with tables in the center displaying smaller bric-a-brac.) The point was I wanted everything set up before kickoff this way I didn't seem as though I didn't have my shit together. Needless to say, it took my dad nearly an hour to absorb enough caffeine to assure he wasn't dead from the neck up. This slowed things up a bit. I'm glad I'm not a slave to coffee.

Later on, as we were finishing setting up, I asked my dad if the sign at the head of my street was easy to see. His reply was, "I didn't even notice a sign." Since I wanted to go to the corner gas station and get more fives and singles, I figured I would examine the sign again and see if it needed to be bigger. Well, guess what? Absolutely no sign was where I had hammered it into the ground the night before! Having made extra signs for the yard and driveway I quickly hammered another sign where the old one was. Just on the off chance I decided to investigate the other signs I installed the night before. 2 out of four were pulled out of the ground. So I replaced them and finally got back to my sale.

Interesting characters showed up this weekend. Many people came on bikes which was really surprising. They basically bought little things they could either put in their backpacks or their pockets but it was all good. I actually sold a bunch of old rakes and assorted tools too. Many larger items are still in the inventory. Basically, stuff I thought would not sell, indeed, sold and many other things I thought would sell quickly I still have. I guess yard sales are funny that way. For the larger furniture pieces left over I have a few options including an estate auction company here in town. They will sell them on consignment, which may take time but at least they are out of the house. One thing I cannot deny is that I made some real loot! ;)

Another added bonus from the last two days was being out in the sun. After several hours exposure the sun has brightened up the color of my hair! My hair is blonder and my skin a bit redder but a few dollars richer too. I really can't complain with that.

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