I missed a Mexican Standoff???
(LOL! Picturing what that must have entailed! Mo... Gotta love him!)
It's a damn good thing neither of us had a gun!
And that none of the other mommies had guns.
You wanna see some really strange expressions?
Go to McDonald's playland and tell the other mommies "It would be a really good idea if your child avoided a certain part of the play structure for right now".
Boomer--
Some memories have to be considerably blurred before you can laugh about them.
Are you barred from MacDonalds? Or just conditioned to avoid the place?
No, we haven't been banned - or at least not by the McThorities. Luckily, the clouds moved in, the temperature dropped ten degrees and the rain started - driving most of the kids indoors shortly after our ordeal started.
We very rarely go there. It was a special "treat" in the middle of a difficult week. We won't be going back for a good long time. I wetter and wiser than I was yesterday.
Mr. B is going to take Mo to work with him on Friday. That is a big relief.
My ad started running today and I was happy to see that I the top ad in the list and that I had way better stuff listed than the others in the area.
I've got my fingers crossed that I have a good weekend because I'm not ever doing this again!
I hope Mr. B. and Mo have a wonderful Friday together--and that you can survive Mo's absence.
This morning I had early errands to run. Yard sale signs had sprouted all along the highways and byways. Personally, I have no commercial talent. I'm a buyer, not a seller. This distinction is like the Biblical demarcation line between the sheep and the goats; like Kipling's East and West; like modern Americans Red States and Blue States.
No experience is ever wasted, but you'll never have to live through a Yard Sale again.
Hold your dominion.
Good luck, boomer. I hope the weather cooperates, too.
I'll be thinking of you.
Hold your dominion.
Oh boy! I wonder how it's going.
Me too -- hoped there would be an update.
Hope it's going well, and that Mo had a good day with Mr. B...
I lost my internet connection (again) last night. I saved my long post so let's see if it'll work today:
Whew!
These people are nuts!
I made about $200 today though so that's pretty cool. I was selling stuff for pretty cheap so I sold a LOT. Fifty cent paperbacks were the big movers. Someone suggested Powell's would pay me more than what I was selling them for but where's the fun in that?
Two women made a lasting connection over the book bins - a special education teacher and the woman of a special education student in peril - so it was really great to be the middle-man of that.
I might call Powell's on Monday to see if they will come buy the leftovers though!
I was told that I held the most "literate" garage sale ever and that I had the "best garage sale signs ever" so I'm feeling groovy about that.
I'm hoping that tomorrow it's less of the re-resale people and more people just wanting stuff.
I'm still pissed that the paper wouldn't allow me to advertise "retail displays" -- that stuff is stagnating. (Hello, craigslist.)
The really good thing though is that I handed out a lot of info. on my new studio and when I talked to my partner J. he said that the phones had been ringing off the wall today. Going cut-throat on prices my increase my bottom line in more ways than one!
And I met my new funky biker chick neighbor so it's all good.
So....
If I can have an equal day tomorrow I can buy the little pocket digital camera I have my eye on - my big fancy camera being too damn big and fancy to get the kind of photos I really want.
Then, I know I can sell off some of the bigger ticket items in other places if I have to for some Texas dough.
I guess we're finding out what four days of frustration and one public humiliation are really worth!
I forgot to tell you about weird picture frame guy!
I have about 30 large picture frames in the sale. This guy shows up, takes each frame out into the sunlight and carefully examines it then takes them back and puts them away.
Then he comes up all confrontational wanting to know where I got "all those frames".
I explained about owning a photo studio and that these were frames used to display the photos.
He stared at me for a minute then wandered away muttering "Strange. Very, very strange", shaking his head in disbelief.
Do you suppose there is a ring of frame theives working in the Portland area and I am now a suspect?
Thanks for all your good wishes!
Mo had a great day with Mr. B - they both came home absolutely exhausted!
That's great, Boomer!
Crossing my fingers for some real customers for ya today.
And, the studio line ringing like crazy??!!! Way too cool!
Thanks for the updates! Sounds like it's going really well so far, congrats. Fingers crossed that today goes even better...
There's a theatrical superstition that a bad dress rehearsal means a great opening night.
I'm glad it applies to this side of the footlights.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for today.
Wow! You did great for the first day! I hope today goes even better.
Your story about the frame guy reminded me of a story from my garage sale. I was selling my son's collection of baseball cards and no one had shown any particular interest until this young father pulled up with his little girl in tow and a very large whiney dog. The dog stayed in the truck and whined the entire time his humans were browsing. Dad went through every single box of cards with a fine tooth comb. He left no card unexamined, spending the better part of an hour at the task. Finally he left without buying a thing. I''m sure he was just looking for that illusive card to complete his own set.
I didn't tell him that we had saved the best cards in a photo album in the basewment. heehee
Ack! What a disaster.
There were very few garage salers out yesterday.
Or, if they were out, they didn't come my way. I think I took in about $65. The people who came bought stuff, there were just so few people.
I did get the front yard weeded and my garage organized though so all was not lost.
Now I'll try selling some of the leftovers in other places and see what happens.
Ah well. Live and learn.
You might not have had great profit, but you survived and you've learned the ropes.
If a lot of your stock-in-trade is related to photography, could you find a place in your studio for bargains?
Boomer, do you have an eBay drop-off place by you? They're springing up all over. You can just drop off your item and then they'll do the work of actually selling it on eBay and take a percentage.
I think that's common for multi-day garage sales to have all the action right at the beginning. I guess people figure the good stuff will be snapped up right away. (Hence early birds, too.)
$65 doesn't sound bad to me!
