Garage Sale

Moving usually requires a garage sale. For some reason in LA it is called an Estate sale. Here in Anchorage, it is a garage sale.

Garage Sale Shopper

Andy took the various items I dug up around the house and crawl space over the last two months and set it up on tables and the floor and priced things as best he could. He got a 50% take for doing all the hard work of signs, pricing, arranging, and selling. I just had to find things to sell. Luckily we had nice weather.

The first morning, the tried and true buyers were there to have first pick. Some of them are wholesalers for gift shops and antique shops. One came later to David’s office and bought a lot of his Alaska Native Art for a good price. By noon, all the bargains were gone, like a ton of legos, other antique toys, and even the transformers. No one seems to remember selling the transformers. Aaron kept two.

Tory found two unwrapped Christmas presents among an old box of decorations. One was marked Aaron and one Andy. So they each unwrapped them together. Andy received a Raggedy Andy book. Aaron received two Star Wars figures, IN THE ORIGINAL wrapper. We looked it up online and one is worth $400 and the other $250!

Another surprise was when Tory took a couple evening purses to give to her sister and found my diamond watch which belonged to my Mother in the lining of one of them. Whew!

The people who come to garage sales are very interesting. There are the dyed in the wool garage salers who go to every sale, every weekend. They can make a bargain or buy for full price, knowing they got a steal. One lady wanted an evening purse, but could only pay $7.00. She left to put it in her car, then came back for more. Amazingly she had a few more dollars. We were told to have a 25 cent table to draw people in. We had all sorts of things on it, some valuable, some not. One of my Alaska Native beaded barrettes got on that table and was gone in a second. But some things you would think would be snapped up were not. I had two boxes of greeting cards. They could have one for a quarter or the whole box for probably $2.00. NO ONE was interested in greeting cards. I guess people don’t send cards anymore, at least ones who come to garage sales.

Then the neighbors came to check out what kind of junk you dug up and also to say hello. It is a form of neighborhood party, especially nice because sales are held in the spring after we have all been holed up inside during the winter.

Talking to customers or friends is also an opportunity for people who are shopping. If I get distracted, they can slip in a $20 pair of beaded earrings to a pile they are buying for $3.00, which I luckily caught. Also, some are counting on you to forget the original price you gave for something by lingering, finding something else, and then quoting a lower original price. Then there are the ones who downright slip stuff in their pockets. I was told a story of a friend who had a garage sale. All three of the gals watched a man load up his truck with items. Each one asked the other who was waiting on him. My friend went up to him to ask, and he closed the truck and drove off.

The first weekend, we netted over $1,000. The next weekend, about half that. The third weekend half of that. We had new items each week, but the seasoned shoppers have already been there I guess.
The third weekend we some unusual shoppers - two moose who were making their way through the neighborhood.  They didn't stay long because they spied a neighbor's yellow tulips.

Sales:  Andy and Tory

Now we have a garage full of leftover items. Some we will put back in the house, some we will throw away, and some we will donate. This time we did not have any clothes. Those were donated a few weeks ago. David found the best way to do that. Get a couple big garbage bags, open them in your closet, and just start pulling clothes off the hooks quickly. You have no time to reminisce, ponder, or try it on again. We cleaned out half the closet. ARC came the next day to pick up.