Community Chat

[ScrapHappy]

I posted about selling my Mothers's china at our garage sale.  Thank you for all your responses.  I decided not to put the china out for sale.  I went back and forth about it and I remember my Dad once told me, "if you have to think that much about doing something, that it may not be right thing to do."  We've had many many neighborhood garage sales over the years and this year by far was the worst.  Hardly anyone in the neighborhood signed up for it and foot traffic was very low.  We were going to do it on Sunday as well but decided not to.  We will donate everything.  This was our last garage sale.

[D Kay]

In my opinion, they are more trouble than their worth.

[kaydee50]

@ScrapHappy  IMO, garage sales are a waste of time and energy.  Did one once and that was enough.

Have you checked Replacements.com?  I had good results with them.

Good luck!

[threecees]

I used to have yard sales years ago when my kids were much younger. Even back

then people want everything for practically nothing. 

I would have everything priced to sell and organized neatly on tables. When something

was $4 or $5, they have the nerve to say can I have this for a dollar. No get lost.

We would sell lots but then still have so much to clean up. I used to take a big haul

to Goodwill but done with donating to them too. 

I stopped going to them too, used to bring too many little trinkets home, piles up and

no place to put somebody elses stuff anymore.

[ninjawife]

In the neighborhood I lived in previously we had annual community yard sale.  I participated when my children were little when I wanted to sell baby gear or children's clothes or toys.  I priced things to sell and I did sell a lot.  We usually donated the proceeds to the food bank.  

When we moved from that neighborhood to our current one, I had two yard sales and got rid of a lot of stuff I did not want to move to the new house.  My father was moving in with us in the new house so I sold a lot of things from his house as well. 

The neighborhood I live in now is too upscale to have a community yard sale and frankly I miss them.  I was able to clean out a lot of stuff and raised a lot of money for various charities. 

[JYWilliams]

@scraphappy, Years ago I use to love going to garage sales. We would get up early in the morning and go grab a newspaper. We would mark the ones we wanted to go to. It use to be so fun. I haven't been to one in over 25 years.

[cjm61]

@ScrapHappy Sorry you decided not to try to sell your China. I do think the odds of getting what you wanted may not have happened but I think it would have been worth the try IF you had also advertised on sites like Craigslist. 

@ninjawife , why do you think an area is too upscale for a garage sale? The homes in our area go for up to 2 million and many have garage sales. I know people that purposely go to the higher end homes where you can usually get some quality items for cheap. 

I have to completely disagree with @kaydee50 and @D Kay. It's definitely worth our time and very little trouble. I have a designated site in our garage where we put items we will sell at our next garage sale. We  have two per year so we don't accumulate a lot of stuff. Somehow, we do manage to have enough things to participate in our community garage sale but it only takes about an hour to price the items and place on tables. Everything is ready first thing in the morning.

We do sell cheap, very cheap. I love meeting people and seeing their excitement to find something they appear to really like, especially the children. We see neighbors and have some great visits. My daughter comes with her family, and 3 of our grandkids, and they love it too. They sell some of their stuff too. I make a big breakfast and we make it a fun day. In fact, I've had many customers ask if they could buy some of my breakfast. It's a fun family day for us. We make anywhere from $200-$700, just depends on what we are selling. 

I schedule a donation pick up on the following Monday so anything not sold is donated.  

[Franklinbell]

@cjm61 that sounds like fun!

[cjm61]

@Franklinbell It really is. We've done it for a good 15 or so years. People stop by just to see how the grandchildren have grown and to see my daughter's golden retriever, who actually passed away last year at 12 years old. People remembered him as a puppy, they remember when my daughter was pregnant with each of the kids, etc. It's a lot of fun. 

[Franklinbell]

@cjm61, I am so happy to hear of a fun community event.  Years ago, I bought a watch and bracelet at a garage sale and have loved them dearly ever since.