So we participated in our first yard sale this past Saturday. It was one of those community ones where a bunch of houses in a development put their stuff in the yard and signs in the road. Then a bunch of sloppy jalopy's roll down the street and holler out at ya - Hey you got a TV? Hey, you got a space heater? Seriously, it was about 41F and windy on Saturday morning - not exactly great outdoor shopping weather. A few days earlier it was 68F in the morning and we were hoping it wouldn't be too hot.
Anyway, we brought two truckloads of stuff to our friends house in this neighborhood at eight in the morning. We had hardly got out of the truck and people are looking it to see what we got. I had boxes and boxes of stockpile stuff to sell - razors, candles, thermacare, visine, deodorant, toothpaste, scrubbing bubbles, glade refills, airwick air fresheners, Halloween candy, pledge wipes, Bayer aspirin, BBQ sauce and of course lots of vitamin D. I lined the boxes up on the makeshift table made out of an old bathroom door and a couple saw horses. People swarmed at the "drugstore" all day and as soon as they had a couple items, I handed them a bag to keep filling up. The product was mostly priced at 0.50 and 1.00, with a few things at 2.50 like the Hydro Edge razors and the Febreze candles and Thermacare.
Everyone ignored all the stuff we had that cost more than about $5. We had some good "man stuff" like toolboxes, and a chainsaw and other yard tools. And we had some golf clubs and other sporting goods for boating, diving and other games. We did sell most of the Nerf footballs that I got from the Ford House Party. And of course no one looked twice at the electronic items - the ipod, fax machine, scanner, CD player, telephone. I think they all were priced too high for garage sales, so they will have to go on craigslist and ebay.
Anyway, one of the most fun things to standing out in the cold blustery outdoors was talking to all these nice people. Everyone has a story. The one guy who happened to buy the highest price item that sold that day ($15 for a spare trailer tire) was telling us how he fell out of a tree 6 years ago while trimming it and he broke a bunch of bones and was laying on the ground in his yard, and the only reason he was found and didn't die is because the neighbor noticed blood running under the fence. He just has his last surgery a year ago, but he looked like he could have used more because he was walking with an altered gait, and seemed hobbled. (kind of like Scott does now).
So at the end of the day, we pocketed about $220 which mostly was from stockpile product, and we packed up the trucks midafternoon. Now at least all the junk stuff is boxed up ready for the next sale in January. I really had no idea that stockpile product would be such a hot seller. I've been giving away my stockpile to friends and neighbors and charities all year which has been a good thing, but I like the idea of earning cash for it too. So now, I'll start watching the sales with an eye for reselling at yard sales. But don't all you couponers worry, I'm not going to become a smash and grabber - I still only have 10 inserts of coupons each week.
I think I'm ready to start the next year at a higher level yet of couponing - bringing in the use of rain checks more to capitalize on sale prices when the sale has already passed and then a coupon comes out. Then the stores have the item restocked and getting a higher quantity isn't hard to do, and also doesn't clear out the stock. My goal this year was to spend less than $1000 this year on food and household supplies and I might make it, since I've spent $922 so far and only have a month and a half left to go. It would be awesome to be able to recoup most of that expense by reselling product at yard sales, so the net expense for the year would be really low. I'm sure there's people who do that, but that would be a lot of work.
