Had a Yard Sale Today.

Wow. I've had a couple before, and yard sales do seem to summon some interesting characters, but today really topped the list.

I did manage to make $100 in one sale by selling a bunch of my manga books to a dealer on his way to Baltimore Comic-Con.

The story that I will always remember, though, is the reason that I am posting this thread.

I had a friend stop by to see if he could unload some of his vast collection of PC games (There's a ton available if anyone's interested). And we're sitting on the front porch. I took out a couple plastic soft air pistols and we were shooting at dead leaves and stuff when no one was around. Just killing time.

A super short nerdy-looking guy rolls up with three little kids. These are hyper little buggers, but cute, not really obnoxious. None of them could have been older than 7.

One of them randomly says to me "My Daddy and Mommy used to live together but now Mommy lives in an apartment."

Also "I'm an artist but my teacher doesn't believe me because I'm really energetic in school."

One of them opened a Super Street magazine and said "Cool, an RX-8!" I gave him the mag for free.

Anyway, he's picked out a few Car & Driver magazines and trinkets and the like and I'm figuring out a total price for him when he reaches over and picks up one of the airguns. He holds it up and starts fiddling around with it.

"Are these for sale?"

Me: "No, we're just playing with them"

(Still fiddling with it) "These shoot the plastic bbs, right?"

Me: "Yup, they're pretty cheap if you ever want one"

"But you're not selling these?" (At this point, one hand is on the muzzle and the other hand has a finger on the trigger)

So my friend interjects "I think that one's..." >POP< "...loaded."

Now he's staring at his hand. Luckily the bb didn't leave a mark or anything. .12g bbs don't pack too much of a punch. My friend and I are both laughing and trying not to. Dude doesn't say anything.

Me "Are you ok? That had to hurt."

"Yeah I'm ok"

My friend "You can have that BB for free"

To top it off, my friend follows up with "Wanna shoot your kids? 50 cents a shot"

Surreal...

But hey, I've made about $120 off the morning. Not bad.

HAHAHA nice...

thank you sir for making my morning!

a buddy of mine just signed a lease for a new apartment after finishing college. He needed furniture, so we decided to hit up some garage sales. About 10am we roll up to one in a slightly less than desirable neighborhood, and theres 2 guys on the front porch (a deck about 40" off the ground or so). Its July, and the temp is starting to get near 90 and the humidity is starting to get up there, so obviously neither one is wearing a shirt. As we approach, you can clearly see empty beer cans all over the deck and one of the 2 guys is picking at a acoustic guitar. We are looking at a couple of tables when I hear "wooah woaAAHH" and look up just in time to see the guitarist fall off the side of the deck taking the handrail down with him. Worst of all, we could clearly hear the last note ever to be played by the poor guitar that had sacrificed itself by breaking the morning-drunks fall. The other morning-drunk porch guy looks over the edge, and seeing the first morning-drunk porch guy sprawled over the remnants of what was apparently the second guys guitar, he hops down into the bushes and starts beating up the first guy....my buddy and I watched the mayhem for a few moments, and then decided to leave because it was certain there would be a visit from authorities (nosy neighbors yelling across the street at the 2 crazy a%^holes) and we just didnt feel like having to explain the whole ridiculous thing to the cops. That and my buddy decided the tables were too traditional and he was going for a more mid-century modern vibe

My dad's neighborhood has a giant garage sale and I take a couple of loads to sell.

We had a 1985 Lincoln Towncar for $1,900. I cleaned it up and figured it would be a long shot if anybody would actually buy it.

I ended up haggling back and forth on price with an eight year old kid who was translating for his dad that only spoke Spanish (as my Spanish is weak). He ended up buying it and said he would come back later with cash.

We took it as uh-huh, see you later with cash. Four hours later the car was sold.

Oh I forgot. The whole time they were there, the youngest one found a piece of asphalt by the road and would pick it up with both hands, throw it about two feet, walk up to it, and repeat.

Today is yard sale day at my parents house. Stupidly the powers that be decided to have a block party the same day. So much for drive by traffic. Hoping to sell a car stereo or 2 if the wife thinks about it, an old schwin girls bike too. Maybe I should put out the corolla bumper cover I got stuck with.

What kind of "old Schwin girls bike"???

We had one last year and all it seemed to attract were racists and a woman who seemed to think we were horrible parents because our son was playing outside and had a mosquito bite.

PubBurgers wrote: We had one last year and all it seemed to attract were racists and a woman who seemed to think we were horrible parents because our son was playing outside and had a mosquito bite.

Sounds about normal.

Joey

My dad's "this is why we don't point guns at people" story was very similar. He was 12 and at a friend's house playing cards when the friend pulled out a small caliber revolver. .22 or something. Anyway, friend pops the cylinder open and does a quick look-see and confirms it's empty. Slides the gun across the table. Dad picks it up. Friend holds a card up, dad points gun at card and pulls the trigger and says bang. Gun goes off, missing card but fortunately also missing his friend. I'm careful even with my silly airsofts after having that story repeated endlessly over the years.

I can't stand careless gun owners/users. I mean there's "oops I didn't realize you were standing in front of me while I was cleaning it." That happens.

But when it's "Hey is this real?" while the finger's on the trigger, I get pissed.

I'm not even comfortable with toy guns pointed at me unless I'm playing airsoft or something.

Had a garage sale after my brother died and had 6 lawnmowers that he would run until they quit and buy a new one. Cleaned out the tank and a new spark plug got all but one running.

Priced them reasonable and had people mowing my lawn all day. Told them that if they started it they had to mow to the road and back. Got about half done!

Taught 2 10 year olds how to use weedeaters too!

egnorant wrote: Had a garage sale after my brother died and had 6 lawnmowers that he would run until they quit and buy a new one. Cleaned out the tank and a new spark plug got all but one running. Priced them reasonable and had people mowing my lawn all day. Told them that if they started it they had to mow to the road and back. Got about half done! Taught 2 10 year olds how to use weedeaters too!

That is sheer brilliance. Just put a cooler near the road: "Hey, while you're down there, grab me a beer!"

petegossett wrote: What kind of "old Schwin girls bike"???

back in the late 1980's I would pick up Schwinn Varsity's and Collegiates for $4.00. One I cleaned up and sold for $75 ten years later.

One lime green Varsity was cleaned up nicely and I got $8 at my garage sale. NOBODY wanted this style bicycle and now I see they are CRAZY priced too.

petegossett wrote: What kind of "old Schwin girls bike"???

yellow, 3 spd in the hub, cruiser type thingie from the 70s.

paanta wrote: My dad's "this is why we don't point guns at people" story was very similar. He was 12 and at a friend's house playing cards when the friend pulled out a small caliber revolver. .22 or something. Anyway, friend pops the cylinder open and does a quick look-see and confirms it's empty. Slides the gun across the table. Dad picks it up. Friend holds a card up, dad points gun at card and pulls the trigger and says bang. Gun goes off, missing card but fortunately also missing his friend. I'm careful even with my silly airsofts after having that story repeated endlessly over the years.

When i had my gun class years ago. we were taught that an unloaded gun goes off every hundred years. we were also taught that you ALWAYS point the gun at the ground or your target. Finger stays off the trigger until you pull it.

pete240z wrote: One lime green Varsity was cleaned up nicely and I got $8 at my garage sale. NOBODY wanted this style bicycle and now I see they are CRAZY priced too.

Tell me about it. I want a cheap bike, one that I pay 20 dollars for and it gets me 4 miles and back without problems. Too bad that the cheapest I've found working is about $150.

internetautomart wrote:

paanta wrote: My dad's "this is why we don't point guns at people" story was very similar. He was 12 and at a friend's house playing cards when the friend pulled out a small caliber revolver. .22 or something. Anyway, friend pops the cylinder open and does a quick look-see and confirms it's empty. Slides the gun across the table. Dad picks it up. Friend holds a card up, dad points gun at card and pulls the trigger and says bang. Gun goes off, missing card but fortunately also missing his friend. I'm careful even with my silly airsofts after having that story repeated endlessly over the years.

When i had my gun class years ago. we were taught that an unloaded gun goes off every hundred years. we were also taught that you ALWAYS point the gun at the ground or your target. Finger stays off the trigger until you pull it.

When I was 16 I got the chance to spend 6 months in a spinal injury recovery center due to an unfortunate error in judgement. My first roommate was a guy who's father was cleaning his rifle and accidently shot his son through the neck from across the kitchen table, severing his spinal column at about the C2 level. It's amazing he lived. My first night in the hospital and this guy (the paralyzed son) says "hey, and if you need any coke or anything, let me know..."

On garage sales I go nuts with people who pick up something for a $.25 and try to talk you down. Really?!!!

I HATE yard/garage sales. The first and last one I ever had, I spent about 9hrs cleaning and categorizing. About 6hrs sitting out in my yard baking... I recall...(picture goes all wavy as a wax back to that moment)...

It was hot and I was running out of patience for all these unwashed mutants haggling over stuff I was planning to throw away if it didn't sell... I had a print in a decent frame for something like $7. This guy in a leather vest w/ no shirt (its like 90F out) asks me the origin of the "painting" and if I know who did the original. I said "Yes, this is a real Picaso". That is why I'm selling it for $7 instead of $5. He says "Will you take $3?". I smashed it on the corner of the table and said "Now I will". That was about the time my wife declared the sale over, profusely apologized to the guy (for no reason IMO, he was a douche) and gave him a pile of junk for free.

Total take was something like $110. It cost me $30 at the dump and hours of my time to unload the E36 M3 nobody wanted and wasn't flammable. We had one hell of a bonfire.

Two bucks...and it only transports...matter...? I don't know...I'll give you thirty-five cents. (Homer Simpson)

I was involved with a yard sale once. Never again.

I'm not sure what is worse, the unwashed masses, or the people that show up first and try to buy 1/2 of what you have for 1/4 of your price to sell at their yard sale.

Before we took everything we had left over to Goodwill we called a bunch of our local friends and said "come get whet you want". They brought beer and it was entirely the best part of the day. A bunch of good books got to people that will read, and appreciate, them. So did 10+ years of Playboys...

had to deal with one garge sale last year and this year...at least my grandmother is never doing any again. but attanding one once and in while is cool cause you never know what you can come up with. last year i picked up a whole bunch of novels that lasted me about 6 months. i just picked up a cordless drill at one this summer.

I love yard sales. I take my 2 year old son out to yard sales in our giant developement on Saturdays while my wife gets one morning to herself (she's a stay at home mom). I usually spend $1-$2 on some toys that make him very happy for at least a week. It's a good deal and a fun time with my son. Bought him a $1 Toy Story Woody doll that Target sells for $50. He's even gotten good at telling which sales are likely to have toys.

Occasionally I get some stuff for me. Sat I picked up a ladder and icechest for $5. I once bought a bunch of tennis racquets with broken strings for $1 each. Strung them myself (less than $1 per racquet in string) and sold them for $40 each on ebay.

This last Sat, I took my son with me to look at a $900 E36 I was considering for a 302 engine swap project car. The first thing he asked as we pulled up to the house is if they have toys there (thinking it's a yard sale). I told him, "just for me."