My neighbors decided to have a community garage sale recently and invited me to join in the fun. I figured it would be a great chance to clean up my basement/future man cave and get rid of some excess property.
The difficulty in preparing for a garage sale is deciding what to get rid of and what to charge for items. The little six-inch tall plaster bust of King Tut sitting on my kitchen counter seems priceless to ME, but I'm not sure what some other sucker…ah, I mean, person…would pay for such a treasure.
To unlock the mystery of successful garage "sale-ing,” I contacted the Oracle of Garage Sales, Karen Manning, aka "The Garage Sale Goddess." Karen is one of my mom's best friends and has a PhD in Garageology. The two of them can be seen at the Huddle House most Saturdays around 10:30 a.m., enjoying a late breakfast after another successful garage sale raid. Watching Karen negotiate over an item at a garage sale is like watching a professional trader in the commodities pit at the Chicago Stock Exchange!
That leads us into the realm of garage sale social etiquette. Actually, the fact that there IS garage sale etiquette is somewhat scary. In the "no holds barred, kill or be killed" world of garage sales, the key is to start at 7:00 a.m. If you start at 7:00 a.m., people will come to your sale first. Unfortunately, it also means people will start knocking on your front door at 6:00 a.m. in order to get the best deal.
Be willing to negotiate. If your prices are too high, you’ll be stuck with most of the stuff you're trying to unload on…er, I mean, sell to…some nice person. If someone asks whether you’ll take $10, counter with $15 and then settle on $12.
Armed with the knowledge I had acquired from the Goddess, I suited up for battle and prepared to face the hordes that would surely ascend on my house like locusts. Unfortunately, one of the early bird garage "salers" had taken to social media and spread the word that our community garage sale was a dud. So, after several hours of dragging stuff out, putting stickers on items, and ponying up $30 for marketing and signage, I sold a grand total of $38 worth of antiquities, leaving me with an $8 profit. Just enough to join Karen and my mom for breakfast at Huddle House!
Anyone wanna buy a statue?
