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Wednesday, June 25, 2003 - (see all news for this day)
garage sale - 10:02 AM
(filed under 'general')
i've just booked an ad in the paper for saturday week (5th of july) for having a garage sale. we have a bit of stuff which we don't want anymore, but which other people might like or want. most of it's just crap, but some of it's good, like our old fridge & some champagne glasses. there's an answering machine & an electric kettle too (a really cool blue one), both of which we doubled up on when shroom & i got together years ago.
some of the other stuff are things which i bought in bulk at the time, but have now decided not to use, such as an unopened four pack of dove soap. i don't use soap in the shower, i use a sorbolene creme based thing, which doesn't remove all the natural oils which are meant to stay on the skin. there are a few things like that which i think people will go for. also, things like two packets of hair colour which i never used. i mean, you can see these things haven't been opened or used, so i reckon people will pay a dollar or two for them.
the house will be empty when the sale is on. in fact, we'll be at the new place already, & i won't be here until perhaps half an hour or an hour until before the sale, so if people turn up before the time given on the ad, bad luck. i've heard that they do that, turn up at ridiculous times of the morning. we won't have any tables to put things on (except perhaps a plastic one with removable legs which should fit in the car), so i was thinking that i'd use some of the packing boxes which should have been emptied by then & put them on their sides to use as sort of tables.
i realise that it's probably best to put prices on things, but i'm not sure if i should use removable stickers or those little tie-on swing tags. tie-on tags might be better, since they're not as easy to remove & swap with a cheaper price.
we'll have it downstairs in the rumpus room here, which has two large glass doors facing onto the street. do you think it's a good idea to leave the curtains open in the morning so that people can see what's for sale if they turn up early? or would it be better to keep them closed so that they'll stay curious & come back later?
any advice anyone can give me for having a successful garage sale is welcome, since i've never had one before.
Will people come to a garage sale on a holiday weekend? Here, it always seems that holidays mean less sale-goers. But maybe not. I always put "starting prices" on things. That way, they'll either pay that price or negotiate a little lower, and you'll be happy either way. How early are you starting? We usually start our sales at 7 and that's about the earliest that people show. Of course, we rarely have newspaper ads, just good ol-fashioned signs around the neighborhood.
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I'd keep the curtains closed - don't want possible burglars to feel invited