The Things You Keep

       Our Garage will never be garage-sale ready, so I always jump at any chance to leech off of others who are opening their driveways up for the early morning Saturday traffic.  And this past weekend was the big sale.  My neighbor across the street volunteered her very clean and empty garage so that I and some other neighbor ladies could throw our stuff in. I always complain about the time the garage sale prep takes, but it wasn't bad, and kind of fun.
     After this garage sale and a few others I've joined, I have learned a few things. They may or may not be universal, but I thought them interesting enough to write down.

#1 - I think my stuff is a lot more worthy than it is.  I over price everything.  Don't the people who buy our old kid toys know what they meant to us?  The answer. No. They don't care that the Fisher Price Farmhouse book with 50 different flaps was Elijah's favorite when he was two-years-old.  But because I care, I make sure the price is a $1.00 and not the 25 cents everyone else seems to think it should be.

#2 - I get a little frenetic when it comes to garage sales.  When I see my items being sold, and money adding up, I want to throw more and more in.  Because we live right across the street, I kept going home and would make a sweep of the house.  I would take the most random items, items that weren't intended for the garage sale, but I just wanted to sell, and throw a sticker on them. It was SO freeing. I had Kenny cleaning out the garage.  We got rid of so many shelves I didn't even know existed.

#3 - I can't bargain.  Not At All.  If someone went down on my price, I would look around for someone else to verify that I should do it.  I was terrible, terrible. My friend who hosted the sale, didn't put a single price tag on her items.  She just asked what the people wanted and usually, she gave it to them for a steal.  We are not the same kind of people.  Whereas she just wanted everything out of her house, I wanted some profit.  I became very, very greedy.

#4 - People want cheap.  Garage sales are not Ebay. They are not Craigslist.  They are certainly not a second-hand store.  This truth doesn't mesh too well with #1 so I did lug home some big money items that only I cared about. Very disappointing.

#5 - You just never know what is going to sell.  Quick story:  When I was in high school, my friend Marnie gave me some Pig slippers.  She had cow slippers. We thought we were very cute.  For some reason it got out that Jen really likes pigs and it became a go-to collector's gift item for me.  Because of  all that gift-giving, I have a box in my garage that is filled with pigs of all kinds:  Stuffed pigs, porcelain pigs, pig earrings, pig shelves, pig trinket boxes, pig paper.  If they sold it with a pig on it in 1989, I probably received it.  I found that box full of dust and put several pig items in our garage sale, and can you believe it - one of the porcelain pigs that was dressed like Santa - sold?  I wanted desperately to follow the guy out to his car and just ask him some questions, like why, and really?Maybe he has an unfortunate friend who is a pig-lover as well.

#6 - I couldn't let go of everything.  This black leather coat was a Christmas gift to Elijah when he was four (I tried to find a picture of him wearing it as a little guy and was not successful.)  It was in the pile of coats I was going to sell.  When I pulled it out, I remembered the moment he opened the package. You'll have to verify mom, but I think you gave it to him as a real coat, but we thought he looked so much like the Fonz that we just cracked up.  It was  adorable.  I couldn't part with it.  So I brought it home and let the girls try it on.  They loved it and really, you just never know when an invitation to a sock-hop may arrive in the mail.  It's back on the coat rack if anyone is looking to dress their lad as a biker.

But I learned something important  ...  Some things you have to keep.