Despite some intermittent light rain and clouds, the yard sale event on Saturday was successful. Only a few of the 45 families gave up in the face of the weather. Actually, the morning was busy for most sellers, and many buyers, responding to our advertising, came from out of town. By and large, this truly should have been called a “porch sale” because everyone who had a porch made good use of it.
We were supposed to start at 9 a.m. but there always are early arrivers—often dealers or collectors. We had a vinyl collector show up first. He chose a $1.00 Joni Mitchell album. He said that he owns “thousands” of record albums, but “there’s always room for one more.”
Another guy asked us if we wanted to sell him silver or gold. He said, “I can pay better than other dealers because I have no overhead.” As I told him the bad news—no gold or silver on my porch— I imagined him under the Wesley Lake bridge weighing his gold and silver. Three women named Vicki arrived at our sale at the same time–perhaps a world record unless there is a Vicki Association somewhere.
A group of 4 antique toy sellers had gathered in front of a garage on Inskip Ave. Because we had itemized the goods for sale on Blogfinger, they were able to connect with antique toy collectors, so they did very well.
Pat, a jewelry maker from Olin Ave, said that everyone who came to her sale wanted something that she didn’t have. “I make jewelry from Swaroski crystals, and some buyers thought my name was Crystal Swaroski,” she said. “I guess I need to bring my jewelry to a craft show.”
But Carl Hoffman and I rode around to spot-check the sales, and almost everyone we visited said that they were having a good day. One seller complained that as the day went on, her pants got longer. We were baffled by that one until she explained that the bottoms were getting wet, so her pants were losing altitude. We left before the critical mass caused chaos.
As a social event, it was really a lot of fun. Grovers who were new in town got to meet neighbors, and neighbors formed partnerships and bonded with the folks next door or down the block. We had one buyer, a chubby guy with glasses, do an excellent 5 second impression of Rodney Dangerfield (“I don’t get no respect”—-In my mind I heard a rim shot).
A New Yorker named Nick had just blown into town by bus and immediately hit the sale trail. “I read Blogfinger every day at work,” he said. “Thank you for bringing us out-of-towners the OG news. I especially look forward to the crime reports.” (I’m thinking, “I really have to call Chief Adams and tell him we need more crime news.”)
Another New Yorker named Hubert, a young man browsing through my photographs, could not stop smiling because of little Grover Eddie, age almost-two, who was waving his Woody doll around and saying “Giddyup” over and over.
A woman came up on our porch, peered in our living room window and asked Eileen if she could buy an oriental covered dish that she saw on a table inside.
If any of you had some adventures at the sales yesterday, please click the “comments ” button” and share.
Next year, let’s see if we can get 100 addresses. And don’t forget, we will advertise your garage sale. Just send an email to blogfinger@verizon.net. It’s free, so let her rip. (Why are we offering this? Yard sales bring people and life into the Grove on Saturday mornings, and then they go home. I remember when OG was a boring place. )
—Paul Goldfinger, editor @Blogfinger
AMY WINEHOUSE. ( “You’re wondering now what to do….)
Dedicated to all the yard sellers who participated and made our event a success.
Congrats…it looks like it was a lot of work but a lot of fun
FInger, Nice job putting this together for the hood. One man’s junk is another’s treasure.. or so they say.
Thank you so much for organizing the yard sale. Everyone who visited our sale was very friendly. There were the usual shark dealers who were easy to spot. One lady bought all our Barbies. I gave her my price and she made an offer and told me I had one minute to think about it! That was pretty funny.
We only had two children visit and both left with a gift. We wished there had been more. Two dogs came and just pranced into the garage. I thought that was rather rude particularly since their owners did not purchase anything.
Looking forward to next year.
I started setting up at 7:45 and had the early birds checking and buying my stuff well before the skies opened.
i reached my goal of cleaning our my clutter, made $400.oo in 2 hours AND met some neighbors and other grovers i might not have met had i not had my garage sale.
I am heading over to Goodwill (near Wegmans) to drop off all the unsold stuff. They have a drop off entrance and according to the phone call i just made, I don’t even have to get out of my car to drop things off.
Thank you! next year i will be a buyer and not a seller and am already looking forward to it.