I’ve lost track of how many garage sales we’ve held. Beautiful wife Sandy presided over one each time we moved, so there have been at least eight. Our new community has one every year. We’ve been here three years, so we’re near or past the dozen mark.
Sandy has earned her informal title: Queen of the Garage Sales. She doesn’t just toss a lot of junk out there. She organizes displays of like merchandise, prices everything clearly and fairly, and maintains a level of cleanliness that might make Macy’s envious.
One reason we’ve had many successful sales is that Sandy for years ran a crafts production business, and as a result she always had many nifty new items to mix in with stuff we wanted to get rid of. The "SandyCrafts" business now has been wound down, but moving to our southwest Michigan home provided a new opportunity.
Our new community, about 400 families, is famous in these parts for its annual one-day garage sale. Lookers and buyers come from far and wide to the June event. On the Saturday sales day, the whole area takes on some of the attributes of a big traffic jam.
This year’s sale is tomorrow. Sandy has been getting ready for about two weeks. She was out very early (before 5 a.m.) Thursday in the cool of the morning getting items organized in the garage.
When I made my appearance (about 8 a.m.), Sandy announced her first sale. “A lady drove up and begged me to let her in. She said someone told her our neighborhood sale was last Saturday. Big mistake! She got that day off work, and can’t get another one. She said she stops at our place first every year. She bought two baskets for $1.50.”
Knowing some sellers refuse to allow early birds into garage sales, I thought two days ahead of the opening bell might be intolerable, whether the excuse sounded legit or not. “That was nice of you,” I said.
“Nice” is the other reason Sandy always does well hosting merchandising events. No unpleasant or unhelpful salespeople are allowed around here. Some of the stores we visit might do well to adopt the same rule.
5 comments:
Wow!!!! I wish I could come up and see Sandy's wares!!!!!
I don't think that I have ever seen a "garage sale" here in the UK. We are big on car boot sales though.
This must be the season for yard sales. I counted 5 of them in the two blocks to our main drag this morning. Good luck with yours. Dianne
Our city limits the number of yard sales homeowners can have each years. City also has an annual yard sale at downtown park area but I've never wanted to load up stuff to go down there though I've considered it.
Several neighbors and I had a yard sale in our yard and garage years ago and it was fun. Had done one when we lived in AZ. This time, we put up a sign absolutely no early birds. Wouldn't you know, we were rushing around in the kitchen with kids and trying to eat so we could start the sale on time and some lady had the nerve to come to the door. Perhaps we should just have ignored her. But, my husband went to the door since we weren't sure why anyone would be knocking. When he found out, he was rude -- she was miffed and left immediately.
Frankly, I think she deserved to feel insulted and I could have cared less that she left. Why did she think that sign was there and what made her think she was the exception?
Awww... I wish I was there. I love garage sales. I haven't been to one in too long a time.
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