Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Starburst FaveREDS


BEST CANDY EVER. How do I love thee? So many ways! I'm partial to red and pink candy, and often leave the sad little yellow and green Starbursts, Sour Patch Kids, and Gummy Bears abandoned in the bottom of the bag. So how cool is it to have JUST THE RED & PINKS?!?!? Back at Easter they started marketing Starburst JellyBeans in just packs of the various red colors, but this is truly phenomenal. Way to go Starburst, you made my day. And I just ate a whole pack as I was typing this.

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Cha-Ching! Yard Sale Update

The yardsale went VERY WELL! I am shocked to write this, as generally my yard sale experience is TOO MUCH WORK and in the end NOT WORTH THE CRAZIES, but despite a very wet Saturday, I'm over the moon about this sale. Most of it is thanks to my SuperMom, the original craftastic creator, who talked to the nut jobs, hung up clothes, and sat in the rain for hours as people just kept coming.

We were definitely helped by the city-wide sales supposedly taking place a few blocks north, so I'll have to remember this timing in case I ever get enough junk to purge again - though for a while, at least, I'm happy to be done. Sunday was gorgeous and dry, so despite my aching knees and back, I was moved to haul everything back on the lawn and slash all prices in half - there were some ridiculously good deals and it showed - people kept coming even as we were packing up the remainders for Goodwill. Now hubby and I don't have to panhandle on our trip to New York! :) YAY!

Friday, June 04, 2010

"HUGE MULTI-FAMILY SALE"


I've been buried, both literally and figuratively, in my yard sale preparations, which at least partially explains my blogging absence - I've been busy sorting/pricing/stacking up junk, and I just haven't had time to tackle any creative projects. I do hope this purge will set me up for a much more crafty summer - both in space as well as (hopefully) a little more funding :) Now if only the rain will hold off!

I find sales to be a double-edged sword - they're a TON of work, with no guarantee of making ANYTHING, and there's always that uber-awkward group of "shoppers" who want to interrogate you about your life, talk you down in price, and otherwise just be a huge pain in the @$$. Despite my firm attention to etiquette, I'm not all that friendly with strangers and don't feel I need to be doling out personal information to be pleasant. Small talk is annoying and uncomfortable.

My yard sale philosophy is this: I priced it at what I want for it. If I wanted less, I'd have priced it less. I'm not forcing you to buy anything, if you don't think it's worth it - move along. I price everything (what I feel is) extremely cheaply, and honestly the tax deduction I'll get dropping it all off at the Goodwill is probably worth a lot more than the quarters you're offering anyways. I pretty much always say no when someone asks if I'll take less on an item.

But on the other side, cash is always important, so if it does work out and you make some money while getting rid of clutter, in what is essentially your free time, then that's pretty valuable, even if your "hourly rate" didn't live up to your expectations. And if you look at the day as an anthropological survey of your culture (or like a visit to peopleofwalmart.com) it can be kinda amusing.

A few sale tips I learned from years of our 8-family neighborhood sales:

-don't price anything under a quarter. If it's not worth a quarter, it's not worth your time - throw it in a free bag, or get rid of it off the bat. Alternatively, group a bunch of similar stuff together in a bag or box to make it a worthwhile lot. This also serves to cut down the amount/kinds of change you need - just quarters and bills.

-write a little note on the tag of what the item is. This is because of those few little douchebags who actually stoop to switching or removing price tags at garage sales - as if they don't think you remember the hours you spent tagging everything. And yes, I've had it happen. And it's never the really poor people.

-have someone sit with you, preferably someone you can stand to talk to for a whole day. This significantly reduces the awkwardness of staring at your customers as they rifle through your old crap, as well as passes the time more quickly. Potty breaks are also a plus.

-for multi-family sales, assign everyone a different color sharpie to write their tags. when people make purchases, remove the tags and stick them on a page for each color/contributor - at the end, you have an easy record of how much everyone is owed, and you can easily see the items that sold.

-hang clothes when you can. They're easier to look through and people are more likely to spend time actually perusing them than if they had to unfold and dig through piles. It might just be a "Minnesota Nice" thing, but people don't always like to make a huge mess of your carefully folded piles, nor do they really want to re-fold everything they look at - thus, they just skip it - no sale. :(

-candles melt in the sun. If you're in a garage this isn't as big of a deal, but since my sale will be out in the sunny front yard, it's something to remember. Also, the sun MOVES! Tricky devil :) At some point, you'll probably have to move the candles and possibly other plastic items/stickers/etc...Or peel them off the grass/table/other items.

That is all the wisdom I can muster - hopefully I shall emerge rich and relieved after this weekend, ready to kick off some Halloween projects (and blog about them) - GASP - since there are only 150 days left now! EEK!