Garage Sale Day II

The customers poured in all Saturday morning, and even by afternoon, when traffic usually slows down, we had steady customers. Some of our more interesting stories from day 2:

Our first customer asked if we had any old gold we didn't want. At first I put him off, until he claimed he paid more than jewelry stores do. I mentioned "a few broken chains". He said he would take a look at them and tell me what he would pay. It was fascinating: he pulled out a little kit consisting of a scale and little bottles of chemicals. He tested each piece and identified the metals I had. I ended up with $36 for 3 broken chains, and $3 for a couple of broken silver pieces. And I have a tidy jewelry box now.

Greta was thrilled to sell all of her canvases and drawings, and two of her three sculptures. This ceramic lady was quite popular with the customers; by late afternoon she had a new home. A mom and son bought her for their neighborhood annual Halloween decoration contest. I'm not exactly sure what her role in that will be, but Greta was glad to sell her.

The iris bulbs were particularly popular this year. I kept grabbing the shovel to dig up more; by the end of the day I had sold 17 bags of bulbs.

We tried a new sales technique this year: at 2:00 we grouped all the remaining small stuff on one long table. Then we invited customers to "Fill-A Bag" for $1. Whatever they could get in the bag they could have for $1. (We included hanging clothes in the offer too.) It had mixed results. Some people didn't understand and thought we meant everything remaining in our sale. Others just didn't understand. So we decided not to try it again in future.

Overall, we were very happy with the results of our garage sale.