Garage Sale Goodness

So I held a garage sale this weekend. My neighbors, seeing what a grand idea it was, decided to haul their sh*t out of their garage and try to sell it as well. Yup, we had a garage sale 2-fer.

Now, lemme tell ya, DH and I had some awesome stuff for sale. You know when you go to one of these shindigs and they're all clothing that smells like moth balls, costume jewelry and half-used bottles of nail polish? Well, DH and I sold a window air conditioner, window fans, a sweet stereo with USB ports, a double stroller, a single stroller, loads of children's clothing, books, computer games, DVD's that people would actually want to watch (Titanic, Lady and the Tramp, Young Guns, etc **our duplicate DVD's**)...

Anyhow, I really wish I could have had the *ultimate* garage saler. You know the type, the diamond in the rough customer, who browses these sales for treasures. Because lemme tell ya, I had a few that I thought would sell like hotcakes.

I used to frequent eBay back in the day, and I hung out with all the crocheters and knitters (because I had a crocheted teddy bear business) and I've procured a LOT of yarn. Sad thing is, I never crochet anymore and every member of my family has an afghan. :P So I decided to sell my yarn stash. **SOBS** The ladies on eBay always said they wished more garage sales had good yarn. My yarn rules, I must say. Non-smoking home, kept in storage, no odors, no stains, awesome colors (because I collected rare and out-of-print variegated yarns), etc. I only had three people of the many many people who stopped to peruse buy any skeins. As hard as it is to say goodbye to my beloved yarn, THREE PEOPLE?!?

I also had pretty cloth swatches out for potential quilters, and a plethora of rubber stamping supplies. Even two Australian cross-stitch kits. But alas, no crafters came by and I'm still stuck with my crafty goods. :(

I did manage to sell our strollers. But hardly anyone bought any of the kids' clothing. I had a garage sale a few years back and the clothes then were DEVOURED. This time, not so much. Weird, I know. I did sell a few of my kids' old shoes, however. I had some pretty cool appliances as well, such as a coffeemaker and crock pot that didn't get sold, along with pretty much ALL of my romances.

I had such high hopes for my romance novels. It's mostly women who garage sale anyway. But they'd all flock to my hubby's fantasy/sci-fi table. Keep in mind, I'm selling LOADS of Johanna Lindsey, backlists of Desires and Intrigues, romantic suspenses by Maggie Shayne... And I only sold ONE romance the entire day. ONE, folks. Where the HECK are all the romance readers? Stores say it's their number one selling genre, and used bookstores won't buy them off of you because they have so many. SO WHY AREN'T PEOPLE BUYING THEM AT GARAGE SALES?! LOL

Please excuse the frustration.

We even had two (count them, TWO) computer monitors that were FREE that nobody took. Couldn't even give the damned things away. *sigh*

All in all, however, we had a great sale. My kids even had their first lemonade stand. They made about $5.50, for 22 cups of lemonade. But they were so excited. :P I'm not sure how the neighbors did on their garage sale, but they went back out there today. I said F that! lol It was sprinking on and off today, and it was funny watching them cover their junk with tarps, then uncover it after the sprinkles. LOL Despite the overcast weather, there was still a lot of traffic on the street, but I didn't set up again. Figured we'd sold the "good" stuff yesterday.

Still, I couldn't help but wish I'd had a crafter or a romance lover stop by. :( Now, I'm stuck with all this stuff. LOL Any of y'all missing some Lindsey from your bookcase? :D

~~Becka