Monday, November 07, 2005

yard sales


So Kerry and I had a yard sale on Saturday. I just have a few pet peeves. I think there should be some kind of "yard sale etiquette" for people that shop at them.

Pet Peeve #1--People that gripe about the pricing. I'm all about making a deal with a person, but when they openly criticize my pricing I get real mad. Here are some examples of that:

"I could buy a ceiling fan at wal-mart for that price!"

"They want how much for that dishwasher!?"

She was also smoking which leads into my next peeve.

Pet Peeve #2--People that walk right into your garage with a cigarette in their mouths/hands. First of all, this is my house, I do not want to smell your nasty cigarette.

One guy was looking at all the "goodies" I had for sale while enjoying his skanky cigarette. He gets to the end of the cigarette and decides he is finished with it. What does he do next? Well, he throws it down in my driveway, puts it out with his foot and then kicks the cigarette butt into my grass.

Really? Is this not considered rude or perhaps littering? What if i was eating a candy bar at someone's yard sale and decided, "oh, i'm through with the wrapper I think I'll just kick it into the person's grass"

Pet Peeve #3--The people that want to buy everything except what you actually have for sale.

I had an old man walk right up to me first of all and inform me "your signs had me driving around in circles, I think you owe me just for that." I somewhat think he is joking, but his tone was a little on the rude side so I didn't know how to read him quite yet.

The old man then goes on to ask me "how much?" for different items in my garage. The only problem NONE OF THEM WERE FOR SALE! "How much for the lawnmower?" "How much for that tiller?" "How much for that carpet?" "How much for those tools?" He actually asked me "how much for that table?" Okay, the "table" was one of the display tables we had set out to put the items we were selling on--and it was pretty obvious it wasn't for sale.

He finally gave up on all the items he could see in my garage that wasn't for sale and decided to ask for items that weren't anywhere in sight--AT ALL! "Got any cowboy boots?" "Got any mechanic books?" "Got any guns?" "Got any tools?"

After he finally made his purchase, he made me take the price stickers off every item! I don't know if they were future gifts or what. Needless to say, I was really sick of this guy.

Pet Peeve #4--The bargain psychos. I'm all for coming down on the pricing, especially if I want to get rid of something but the people that want to bargain things under a $1, I mean seriously.

One guy stood over a cordless phone that I had marked $1--a pretty good deal I thought. He looked at it and looked at it. Finally here come the questions. "Does this work?" "Is the battery dead?" Well, yes the battery is dead, it needs to be charged. So then he asks me "Do you think it's gonna need a new battery?" I told him honestly "I don't think so, but i'm not sure." So then he says "Since you don't know if it needs a new battery or not would you take 50 cents?"

Another lady was interested in the mattresses we had for sale. We had them marked at $30 or Best Offer. So she asks me if I'll take $15. I tell her, yes. So after she finishes looking at all the other items she says "you take $10 for mattresses?" I was like "no, you said $15, I'll take $15 for them." You can't just lower the price after you've already made the deal! What the heck?

There were a couple more incidents that occured but I'll save them for my next yard sale rant--probably occuring in the spring.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

good lord...Kari and I are supposed to have a garage sale Saturday....this is making me have 2nd thoughts! LOL I'd forgotten about all the nut cases that are released from institutions on garage sale days!