Saturday loomed early; the alarm clock went off at the bright old hour of 5am, and I was none too pleased. It’s a good thing I love my children. Maybe they’ll appreciate it one day.
The reason why my feet hit the floor at such a ridiculous hour was not because I like watching the sun come up. Oh, it’s a pretty sight, but c’mon people. When you get up at 5 during the week and a lot of weekends for soccer games, you like to sleep in when you can.
No, the reason was the ever-popular Yard Sale, also known as “Let’s See If Anyone Else Wants to Buy My Junk” Sale.
Thanks to my job situation, the kids have found themselves having to be creative in the quest for money. They want to attend the summer youth camp the church group attends each June. Chicky also wants to go on a mission trip.
The youth group had a yard sale a few weeks ago, but Chicky and Rooster missed it because we were out of town attending state soccer playoffs. Even if they had worked the sale, they would have only received a percentage of the profits.
I suggested that we have our own yard sale, and that the kids could keep 100% of the proceeds of their items that sold. Guy Friend signed on as well, bringing stuff to the house. My only requirement was that the kids were to do the hard work…lugging everything out, pricing things with their own colored stickers…assigned by me and designed to keep the proceeds separate.
And work, they did. Chicky and Rooster spent time in the attic, carefully carrying down rubbermaid containers full of books, Legos, and other miscellaneous items. Chicky wants to redecorate her bedroom, so she cleared off her desk, and we toted it out as well. Guy Friend brought two surfboards and a shoebox of PlayStation2 games. Rooster added his own assortment of items.
So, the day loomed ahead of us. We all got up early and carried stuff from the garage to the driveway.
By 6:15, everything was ready. And so I sat.
And I waited.
My first “customer” arrived around 6:30.
As you know, the people tend to arrive in swarms. Business slowly picked up. Guess everyone wasn’t the early riser that I was.
It’s a bit humbling to watch people drive slowly by, taking a cursory glance at your goods, and then keep going. Yeah, that’s my biggest pet peeve. First off, is my stuff not good enough for you? You wonder what in the world they are looking for. How do you know if I have what you want? Do you have such great vision that you can see what’s on my table? I think not.
Obnoxious.
For the most part, everyone was nice and didn’t expect something for nothing. I had a bit of fun haggling with a couple of customers. One of them wanted to buy all of the PS2 games…at once! He offered me $100. I countered. I mean, there were 39 games there! I wound up getting almost $3 per game. We did pretty good considering that Rooster had been offered nickels for some of them when he tried to trade them at our local store.
At one point, we put up a tent we take to soccer games. It was hot! I had several offers on the tent. I politely declined, telling people that I still had games to attend.
Now, a couple of tips for those of you considering a multi-person yard sale.
The colored stickers worked great! I was the only person with the money. I had a clipboard with the names of each person selling stuff. A quick look at the sticker let me know who to give the credit to, and I made a note of each item (ex: books) and the money paid. I kept a running tally, which the kids had fun checking at regular intervals.
At the end of the afternoon, I counted the money and came out exactly even. The kids got their cash before heading their separate ways. We wound up making over $300 for the five hours we spent outside. Not a bad haul. It was a good lesson for the kids. Work hard, and the rewards follow.
The kids are almost halfway to their goal of $200 for the camp.
Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: children, yard sale | 2 Comments »
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