Sale Away

It's Saturday morning and I've just closed shop. We had a garage sale this weekend. It would have been nice to have a little chat with Mother Nature before picking this weekend, but it was a sort-of spur of the moment thing. We had more than enough rain these last couple days, but I don't think we can complain on our sales.

The Murphy goal was simple: sell this giant piece of exercise equipment and get it out of our hair. Jonda had a double stroller that she hoped would sell, but doubted. Stacey had boxes of baby clothes and my parents brought over miscellaneous stuff that my dad swears is not returning to their house. Tracy brought over some clothes and whatever else she could throw together to sell.

Okay - Thursday started out with pouring rain. Our signs were ca-put within the first hour. Luckily a house up the street was having a sale so we mooched off their awesome signs. Tradition holds and Tracy had the first sale of the day. $2 for a Vikings sweatshirt - quite a steal. After 10:30 most of the day went fairly well. Steady stream of people, but not overwhelming. We all got rid of various things but what remained? The giant piece of exercise equipment and the double stroller. So much for goals.

We really didn't have the great people watching/studying experiences that make my garage sales so fun to be at. But, here's a couple of the highlights:

• The woman median age 77 that came Thursday, looked at the $3.50 color t.v. with remote and complained about her current plasma that "was a piece of crap" and she was never buying another. She returned Friday morning at 8am to buy the $3.50 t.v. and if it didn't work when she got home we'd probably hear her yelling at our house. After her ranting about modern t.v's and her bad luck I suggested maybe she was the type that needed to just listen to the radio. That sent her ranting/raving about how she "couldn't stand that crap you people call music". She was fun loving.
• The older couple who bought the fridge. They wanted to know if it worked, but my answer of "yes" wasn't good enough. So, I picked it up, hauled it over to the power cord on the opposite side of the garage and plugged it in. I immediately started to hear it hum and told him it was working. The man said, "that doesn't mean anything" and proceeded to do whatever proved to him that it was, indeed, working. After a good five minute investigation his results netted nothing and he said he just wasn't comfortable buying it and not knowing if it worked. He said he couldn't hear it running - even though I had given him the "deaf test" of saying, "if you put your hand on it you can feel it vibrating." So, he gave me a little lecture on how I should leave it running and then maybe it will cool down and others might buy it knowing it worked. He returned 5 minutes later and bought it saying they'd just hope it worked. At least it was clean by the time he got it - all the cobwebs had come off on my pants.
• The other lecture I got from the lady who almost missed our garage sale because I didn't have any signs on a particular corner. She went on and on (and on) about how I really needed to post more signs and about all the customers that don't know I'm having a sale, yadda-yadda-yadda. Then she bought $2 worth of stuff. Dad said that for all that we had to listen to, we deserved more than only $2 in sales.

About halfway through Friday I was able to call my neighbor and report a successful sale of her stroller. This is a fairly reserved person. I don't think I've ever heard her get louder than a good laugh. All the sudden I heard her yell, "YA-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" through the phone. One goal accomplished. Still had a giant exercise machine.
And then my new best friend showed up at about 4:45pm. A man and his wife. She was looking for baby clothes for their first grandchild. He was sitting in the truck (a large truck!) and talking with dad and I. Eventually he looked up and asked what that big machine was. We told him it was something he definitely could use and wasn't it great that he had such a big truck to carry it away in! Well, he got out and said yep, he needed that, his boys needed a work-out room. I wasn't sure he was serious and didn't want my hopes to get up. But, he made an offer, I upped it by $30 and he said fine whatever. So, I ran up the stairs told Mike he needed to be downstairs NOW to explain this thing (time being of the essence: we didn't want him changing his mind!). Mike came down, explained everything - hooked it up and between the three guys they somehow got it in his truck. It was so big however that they couldn't shut it. Mike, knowing this was our only chance offered ropes and whatever else to keep it from moving. I was about ready to send Mike in the truck to hold it down if need be and follow him to bring him home. Then they actually paid and it WASN'T ours!!!! Like Jonda, I let out a big YA-HOOOOOOOOOOOOO! and thought the garage sale was a huge success.
This morning it is raining again, but I really don't care. I so don't care. Did I mention we sold that giant piece of machinery??????