Hello, My Friends!~~~
To beat the oppressive heat that is settling down on the Washington, DC area, I headed off to a garage/estate sale in Arlingto, VA. The sale was advertised as starting at 8:30 and really did sound promising. There was only one tiny ad on Craigslist and nothing in the paper and there were no directional signs.Did they not want anyone at this sale?
When I got there I saw a whole bunch of tables in the small front yard with sheets covering the goods beneath. A man and two men he may have hired to help him were carrying stuff from the house.
I took this stealthy photo for you so you can get an idea of the layout. Clothes hung from the tree and stuff was everywhere.
I had arrived one hour before the advertised start time and decided to wait in my car, drinking tons of water as the heat was rapidly building, until the sale began, ie. hopefully until the sheets were removed from the tables. I hoped I could go into the house, but didn't think so. These yard/estate sales rarely have a "go into the house option".
Soon, another shopper drove up and hopped out of her car. I know that lady and she is very nice and informative, not afraid to give me good tips and info for other sales. I heard her talking to the man bringing things out, and then she walked over to stand by her car.
I left my car to greet her and we stood in the shade chatting. I found out fro her that the family lives in Texas and that they are taking the vast majority of goods from the house down to Texas to re-sell. The stuff in the yard was the "dregs." OK, I have no problem with dregs, dregs are often good and, more importantly, cheap.
Oh, and here is the long, long trailer with all of the "choice" goods bound for Texas inside:
No problem, its their stuff and good luck to them. I, of course, was only interested in the goods they were selling in Arlington, VA.
So the other buyer and I waited and waited. A woman showed up who was involved with the sale and she had brought her quite cute but needy little girl with her. I'm sure it couldn't be helped to tote the child along, but my goodness that child was always falling, tripping, and generally being in her parents and the helpers way. I felt bad for the child and hoped she could find a cool quiet place to hang out and out of the way.
By 8:00, most goods were in the yard and some still in boxes. But the woman told us that they weren't ready yet. In fact they kept squirreling things back into the house that had just been brought out. This wasn't looking well. By a little after 8:00 a few more people had arrived, including a new friend of mine who is a delightful gal and seamtress. At this point someone running the sale decided to take off the tarps. But still, we weren't allowed to shop.
This situation was bringing back bad memories of THIS past sale. All I could think of was, "don't you people wnat to sell your stuff" I mean here are several people standing there willing to shop, and you still say you need more time?"~~~Perhaps I am asking too much. But tomorrow, Saturday, we are having a yard sale at my house that starts early (7 a.m. or earlier, I even advertised early birds welcome) and my overwhelming goal is to sell everything cheap and fast! Isn't that the goal? Well, maybe it is only for me :)
Eventually they decided we could shop. It was quite civilized and in the end I found some nice things. However, many of the items were priced pretty high so I stuck with the $1-$5 items and did find some treasures.
I snuck another photo before I left.
So, there you go, I said I would not go to any more yard/estate sales, but this wasn't too terrible. Never say never.
Oh, and if you live in the DC area and want to come to a fun and HUGE yard sale on Saturday (tomorrow, June 30th) where hardly anything (except for a little furniture) is over 25 cents to a dollar, go to this ad on Craigslist for more info!~~~XXOO, Beth