Yard Sale - pet peeves

[~Audiz~]

The garage sale season hasn't started here yet, still to cold. When sales are on, my husband and I go to the ones that are neighborhood sales. Our biggest pet pev is when in the paper it's listed as neighborhood sale or several houses, we get to the area and only find one family having a sale ...

 

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[camperlee]

people that don"t take their old signs down and signs on a dirt road that doesn"t say how far the sale is.

 

[Seamuss]

I found a detector at a yard sale. I turned it on and the guy said it needs batteries. He told me I need to go get batteries and come back and buy it for fifty dollars. Ofcourse I told him there is no such way that I would help him sell his stuff by buying batteries for him, since he was that lazy. I don't respond well to being told what I need to do, when it's someone elses junk.

 

[Digginman]

Sign that says garage sale
then you walk up to pay and the Ahole running it pulls out a antique price book

This has happened to me with Baseball Cards.....alot!!! I just tell them to sell it to their price guide. I can't tell you what I'm usually called, too graphic.

DM

 

[HolyDiver]

I had a yard sale a few years ago. Probably one of my biggest pet peeves is when the people show up about an hour early and just gather outside. Plus, they like to go inside my garage and ask how much for things that aren't even for sale.

 

[gallileo60]

1. Yard sale where no one speaks english
2. One that the people own an import business
3. Nothing but baby clothes
4. We don't open for another hour (put the time on your damn sign)
5. "I looked it up on Ebay"
6. "sorry I don't have any change"
7. One sign garage sale (Every one knows where we live)
8. Same garage sale every week for a month or more
9. Garage sale stuff that I sold in my garage sale
10. We started selling Thursday (it's now Saturday)

Just a few of my top one's
J-G

Haven't had number 1 happen yet, but the rest all look too familar!

Move to Houston,English is a "second" language
J-G

Boy do you have that right...............

 

[cyberdan]

I just tell them to sell it to their price guide. I can't tell you what I'm usually called, too graphic.

Good one I have to remember that.

I have a new pet peeve, happened to me a few days ago. Junky front yards.

I see a yard sale. Lots of stuff out front, kids playing on a spread out tarp, lady sitting in a chair on the driveway. I get out of my car and start walking up the driveway and get a dirty look from her. Ask about old coins and jewelry. I leave in a hurry.

ITS NOT A GARAGE SALE - JUST A BUNCH OF K-RAP THAT BELONGS TO ALL THE KIDS

 

[diggin jimmy hoffa]

My biggest one is No Early Sales.

So I get there about 5-10 minutes early to wait out at the road and some guy is walking down the driveway carrying the item that I was so interested in going to the G-Sale for. Why put No Early Sales if you're gonna open early. That sale was just around the corner from my house. Arrrrgh!!!!

 

[scoter]

People who are still sleeping when I follow their signs. Or they shut down and leave their signs up. Or they just aren't there at all. The worse thing is one I overlook the date in an ad for a sale that's for another weekend, past or future, or for sunday, not saturday. 'Course, I'm peeved with myself in those cases.

I followed one guy's signs for 2 miles, and he told me, in an unequivocal way, that he wasn't ready and would not sell me anything yet. He was putting stuff out. He suggested I come back in 20 minutes. I mentioned, politely, that it would make sense to put up the signs after he was ready for customers. He answered, that this was not an issue he was concerned about. I then stated more pointedly that it was inconsiderate to induce people to drive all the way out to his house from the main road, and then expect them to wait 20 minutes while he finished setting up. He answered that he was just fine with being inconsiderate. I said, "OK, good luck with your sale." On my way out I pulled his sign out on the main road.

Then there are folks who just lie about their stuff. The number one lie is "it's new." That's fairly innocent, except when they put an old item in a new box that looks like it's got the original sealing tape on it. The trickiest guy put an older model, that looked just like the new one, in the new model box, wrapped in the original plastic with the new model's cards and manuals. That guy got me.

Fortunately, that's been pretty rare. Most folks are great, and many of them sell me valuable stuff for next to nothing. Sometimes they know it, and sometimes they don't care, and sometimes they have no clue. Sometimes somebody knowingly lets me steal something for a few bucks, and they seem almost as happy about it as I am. I have no complaints with any of them, on the contrary, I'm quite grateful to all of them.

Which brings me to my final point...I feel pretty certain that the most reliable way to find treasure week in and week out, without investing any real resources, while meeting a lot of nice people, is at yard and estate sales. Would y'all agree with me?

 

[cyberdan]

On my way out I pulled his sign out on the main road.

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

so, if someone has a yard sale...they must post signs only you can interperte...be there when you show up, sell you premarked and packaged items...and have tidy lawns and bags so you don't have to carry the things you bought...

or you tear the down the signs and insult them in their own yard.

 

[cyberdan]

so, if someone has a yard sale...they must post signs only you can interperte...be there when you show up, sell you premarked and packaged items...and have tidy lawns and bags so you don't have to carry the things you bought...or you tear the down the signs and insult them in their own yard.

You hit the nail on the head, That bout sums it up.

In the last year I know I have hit over 1000 yard sales. I have seen it all, most were good experiences. But there were a few that were worth mentioning on this string for all your amusement.

 

[~Audiz~]

On my way out I pulled his sign out on the main road.

Now that's a wonderful idea if they give a hard time I wonder how many sales they got, LOL!!!!!

 

[allen]

or when you get there and its been canceled....

 

[BIG61AL]

1 - I am very selective about what I buy...I want to resell things or keep for my own collection....I see two or three common old coins in very good condition. How much? $40 Good luck with that.
2 - We ask any old books? Get shown an incomplete set of encyclopedias that look like they have been sitting on the floor of leaky garage for 35 years.
3 - broken items or item missing key features that can't be repaired/replaced or used for parts. What am I supposed to do with your trash? Pay you to throw it out for you.
4 - I love to look through stacks of records for high value collectables. I am amazed how many copies of Sergio Mendez and the Brazil '66 i find. Why do people keep all those albums nobody wants? No one buys classical/church music from the fifties on LPs....If I do see a Beatles or other collectable record the cover is completely separated from the back cover, has mold all over it and reeks of cat piss, the record looks like it was used for a Frisbee, the price is written with a magic marker right across the whole front and it mine for only $50....
4 - people who look through everything and just toss it any where like no one else wants to look through it too.
5 - sellers who don't have change for a five dollar bill.
6 - this is for buyers - Gather up all the good stuff in one giant pile and ask how much and get mad when i tell them my fare price and offer me five bucks for $300 worth of stuff. Get lost @$$hole

 

[Blacksheep]

1 - I am very selective about what I buy...I want to resell things or keep for my own collection....I see two or three common old coins in very good condition. How much? $40 Good luck with that.
2 - We ask any old books? Get shown an incomplete set of encyclopedias that look like they have been sitting on the floor of leaky garage for 35 years.
3 - broken items or item missing key features that can't be repaired/replaced or used for parts. What am I supposed to do with your trash? Pay you to throw it out for you.
4 - I love to look through stacks of records for high value collectables. I am amazed how many copies of Sergio Mendez and the Brazil '66 i find. Why do people keep all those albums nobody wants? No one buys classical/church music from the fifties on LPs....If I do see a Beatles or other collectable record the cover is completely separated from the back cover, has mold all over it and reeks of cat piss, the record looks like it was used for a Frisbee, the price is written with a magic marker right across the whole front and it mine for only $50....
4 - people who look through everything and just toss it any where like no one else wants to look through it too.
5 - sellers who don't have change for a five dollar bill.
6 - this is for buyers - Gather up all the good stuff in one giant pile and ask how much and get mad when i tell them my fare price and offer me five bucks for $300 worth of stuff. Get lost @$$hole

Missed one related to #6. That same buyer may try to hide a valuable piece inside a box of other items, had that happen not to long ago. Had a box of misc. plumbing fittings/cutoffs and this old codger hid a rather pricey cigar cutter in the box, he said not a word as I removed it without breaking eye contact with him.

(still got that cutter. )

 

[gallileo60]

Sell it to your price guide...........NOW THAT IS FUNNY..........I just can't help it, I am addicted to yard sales.

 

[airborne1092]

I hate TOO much info on a sign, so much it's hard to read.


She never listens but I keep telling my wife the right way to do it when we seldom have one ourselves. So, for those who are reading this are are offensive offfenders, listen up:

Use Store bought G-sale signs
Use a large, single distinguishing shape/color combo (i.e. Blue diamond)
Use an arrow, for directions
and write the days in three letter combos and the time in single digit numbers
Use LOTS of these signs.
Take them all down when you're done!

Why do this you say?

When you're truckin' along in a car at 45 mph, you can't read all the crap folks try to squeeze on a sign. You need a color/shape combo because it's easily recognizable and memorable for your brain. Folks just need to know WHEN you open, on WHAT day and WHERE you are.

Place an add in the paper detailing all the junk you want to sell and in large letters at the end write "BLUE DIAMOND" so folks know what sale they're going to.

I hate arriving at a sale and asking for something, and getting the reply that someone just walked out of here with that thing I was looking for! grrrr...

Just my 2 cents.

 

[DANGLANGLEY]

I saw an ad on Craigs list for a yard sale the other day and it said "4 family giant yard sale, turn on highway 61 and it's one minute out the road" Well, it was about 5 minutes out the road and they had nothing but junk for sale. Also, if it was 4 families selling stuff the other 3 must have not showed up. I felt like saying something but it wasn't worth it.

DANGLANGLEY

 

[jimb]

I saw a sign today that said yard sale, with an arrow pointing the way, and the name of the street. I drove that way but no such street! And no other signs around. I hate wild goose chases!