Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Let's get ready to haggle!


The last time Maggie and I had a garage sale, we lived in New Brunswick, New Jersey. We weren't married, and we were about to move to Brooklyn, NY. I weighed about 20 pounds less than I do now (I'm not currently overweight), I was playing drums in a band, and my hair was really, really long.

The two things I remember about that garage sale:
  1. I sold my Toyota Corolla.
  2. Maggie was driven batty by the haggling moxie of some of the pro-level yard-sale people. This one lady was trying to talk Maggie down from a quarter to a nickel on a colander, and I remember her saying: "NO! IT'S A QUARTER. THAT'S WHAT IT SAYS!"
The ad is placed in the local paper. The signs are ready for deployment.

Next Sunday, we sell.

Love to all.

7 comments:

Joanne Casale Viskup said...

Hey Rich! I've hit your site many times while surfing and finally stopped to read. Honestly - I didn't stop before before the site had a "serious" look to it, but you caught my eye with the garage sale photos and I had to see what the deal was! You are hillarious and interesting and I love how you talk about your wife. She sounds like a riot what with the yelling about the collander - she and I could be girlfriends. Garage sales were foreign to me as I grew up in Brooklyn, but now that I'm here in Ohio I have participated in Community Garage Sales. People are crazy, they start scoping you out the day BEFORE the sale and arrive at your door as you are unloading on the morning of. The eveing before is supposed to be reserved for those of us who live in the neighborhood. We basically walk around buying each other's junk - I've dubbed it The Windmere Crap Exchange. (Windmere's the name of our development)I have decided to only buy this year. We are not setting up. Good luck to you and Maggie. Where are you in Westchester? I could send my mother-in-law over - she's always up for a 5-cent collandar. Incidentally - the "Love to All" tagline kills me!JCV

Rich | Championable said...

Thanks for the kind words!

I'm worried that we'll get all caught up and accidentally sell one of the kids.

:-)

Lisa said...

Just make sure if you sell the kids, that the customer understands your strict "NO RETURNS" policy

landismom said...

Maybe you can teach them to sing "On the Banks of the Mighty Raritan" as an added selling point.

Rich | Championable said...

Awesome ideas. Although I'm not sure NJ or Rutgers is much of a selling point in the tony Westchester town I'm in.

:-)

Anonymous said...

CDs for 50 cents...I think I can drive there in time for the sale...Just NO WIGGLES...GOOD LUCK!

shqipo said...

" I weighed about 20 pounds less than I do now (I'm not currently overweight)" This shameless plug brought to you by Rich :P