Motivation

To never have another yard sale, that is.  Today's yard sale was yucky.  We had the merchandise (junk and crap of all kinds), we had great weather (a cold start, but a beautiful warm up for the rest of the morning), and we had the shoppers (in spurts, but some spurts were pretty heavy).  So what made it yucky?  Just a few of the following:

• The shopper who showed up on Thursday morning, when there was just an empty carport and no tables.  When I asked her if the Craig's List she read said the sale was on Thursday, she looked and admitted that it didn't.  And then she asked me if we had any kids clothes, which I confirmed that we did - but it was still in boxes.  Unpacked.
• Shoppers who wanted to haggle every penny.  In other words, they could afford $2, but not $3.  Even when the desired merchandise was still in the store packaging, with the store purchase price on it, which was several times the $3 asking price.
• Shoppers who wanted a "deal."  They had sixty-eleven things they wanted, but naturally didn't want to pay the price as it was added up - they wanted to pay about half.  Then when our hard-liner stood firm on a price, the shopper wanted to haggle about which items they wanted to buy.  When our hard-liner stood her ground, the shopper finally reached in her Gucci wallet and pulled a $20 bill out of the wad wedged in there, and then waited for her $2 in change.
• Shoppers who would have paid the extra $1 for the purchase if we were raising money for brain cancer, but not breast cancer.
• Shoppers who came 30 minutes after closing time, as we were packing up the leftovers, and wanted to pick through everything.  And then left with nothing.

And what did we like about today's sale?

• Shoppers who bought anything without causing us stress.  There was no haggling, no pouting - just figuring up the total and paying it.  All $5 worth.
• The kids (all 97 of them who came together in one car) who put in money in our tips jug and kept buying the candy and little stuff for a quarter.
• The dude who came back and bought the desk.  And then proceeded to take it apart himself in order to get it in his car.
• The fact that we made some money, although far less than we had hoped.  At least we made some.
• The couple who have the recycle place that came and got ALL the leftover stuff (which included about a zillion boxes of clothes) even though they couldn't take the crutches because they were used medical supplies.
• The fact that we all have forever sworn off yard sales as fundraisers.  Not sure what we will do, should the need arise - it just won't involve us, a table full of junk, and a haggler across the table trying to buy anything.

So there you have it.  Yard Sale 2013 in the books.  The End.  I hope ...

********************************************************************

The Good Stuff From Today:  Molly bringing breakfast from Sonic; Karen helping put out the signs; Jo stopping by with a bag of stuff; Adam helping break down tables and getting lunch; Lindley and Everley time