Lawn sale loonies

[plan9au]

Inspired by the previous posting regarding lawnsale loonies, my own stories from my one attempt at a yard sale.

Just setting the scene, My parents are the worst kind of packrats, luckily for me they always looked after what they had and they never bought crap, always good quality stuff, and plenty of antiques (seriously my mum keeps buying antique steel frame beds and does them up, never sleeps in them mind you they just fill up all the availabnle space). In an effort to regain the house/shed/grannyflat, they decided to have a huge (and i mean huge) yard sale, and that i should organise things.

My mother reads those trashy romance novels to unwind and goes through 2 or 3 a night, so needless to say we had hundreds to get rid of, read once and in great condition $0.10 each or 20 for a dollar, you think people were happy with that....
"Ill give you $10 the lot"
"Theres 2000 books there give or take, $100 and there yours"
"Thats stupid their second hand...you'll never sell them" *storms off*
You know how many i was left with by the end of the day, 4..and they went to goodwill.

Antique wooden teachers desk - paid $700 priced at $100 - $80 if you load it up and take it yourself,
"i'll give you $20 for the desk"
"sorry no... ill do it for $80 and ill help you load it"
"$30... and ill load it myself"
"$80 and no lower sorry"
"$40"
"no and now youré not getting the desk at all"
The problem was he was one of the many antique dealers in the town, and would have sold it for many times more than i was. Sold it to a nice gentleman a few hours later, he bought so much stuff i gave it to him for $80 and helped him load it.

My wife decided to come and help, with child in capsule (those ones you slide in and out of the car) just inside the back door, away from the people but within earshot while she slept,
"How much is the capsule?" says crazy lady waving one in my face
"Im not sure we have...." realising what she has just said "where did you get
that?"
"Inside the house"
"And the child that was in it?" i ask a little panicky
"i put her on the floor....So how much?" And she had tha audacity to complain loudly about being told to leave...

This is a lawn sale not a place to attempt to convert people to your religion, so shoo, im serious, i will get the hose.

And to the dealers who turned up at 4am, i will spray you with hose again if you dont go away, and the dealer who managed to sneak past the gate and my hose of Doom...to get a look at the stuff first, ill call the dog back in when i come out to set up, if you stay on the desk you'll be fine

[Amina516]

My wife decided to come and help, with child in capsule (those ones you slide in and out of the car) just inside the back door, away from the people but within earshot while she slept,
"How much is the capsule?" says crazy lady waving one in my face
"Im not sure we have...." realising what she has just said "where did you get
that?"
"Inside the house"
"And the child that was in it?" i ask a little panicky
"i put her on the floor....So how much?" And she had tha audacity to complain loudly about being told to leave...

Umm...WHAT?! Im going to pretend I DID NOT just fuckin read that.

This made me want to get violent....

[Absenthius]

I would love to hear more of these yard sale stories, they seem to bring out the real lunatics. Am I the only one who hates those really pushy types who want to buy your entire yard full of stuff for $100 or something like that? They're always the ones that turn up an hour early or more and get REALLY pushy, "I give you $100 for all this".

Last time we had a - well we call it a garage sale in Australia, at least some of us do - I was at work but my parents told me about a family who turned up I think it was two hours before the time my parents had put on the signs. They turned up at about 6.30 in the morning, when they were only just starting to set up. Basically they just go right up to the pile of plush toys and start trying to give my parents $10 for the lot, they were priced at a dollar each I think and there were heaps of them.

They had a HUGE roll of cash, which made my parents slightly suspicious, so they said no, they're a dollar each. Woman gets really huffy and argues and pushes until dad loses his patience and tells them to bugger off. Ended up selling a few of the toys later on to a really nice guy who came later on with his little girl, who seemed to love them. Didn't sell all the toys, but a much better result if you ask me.

I'm hoping we have another garage sale soon so I can sell some of my old games. Not too keen on having to deal with people like the ones I described, but being my own boss and being able to tell wankers to get stuffed is kind of appealing.

[Anakah]

That lady would lucky to have a face if she had touched my child! Oh man, I don't know if I could have held back. She's lucky you didn't call the cops! I'm surprised she didn't ask how much for your kid too. What a freaking lunatic!!!

[JustaCashier]

I'd like to see that stupid bitch charged with attempted kidnapping.

Or, since she really wasn't trying to remove the child from the property, assault at least, for touching her when she had no business in doing so.

Lady, this salmon, is for you!


Mike

[bainsidhe]

At the very least it's trespassing, seeing as she entered the home to get at the kid. Oh YEAH, what the hell is wrong with people?!?

[the lawsmeister]

That lady would lucky to have a face if she had touched my child! Oh man, I don't know if I could have held back. She's lucky you didn't call the cops! I'm surprised she didn't ask how much for your kid too. What a freaking lunatic!!!

Can't agree more Anakah,
My wife and I are having our first bub soon. I'm already running interference when we go out to stop people touching her belly, but if anyone dated take my baby out of his/her (not sure which yet ) capsule, hell if anyone even dared to touch my baby I'd tear their damn lungs out.
I can't even begin to comprehend how this woman thought what she did was acceptable

[plan9au]

Pure shock and relief that the baby was ok was all that saved her (seeing the empty capulse nearly gave me an heart attack), although the air around us did turn blue with cursing.

[Pairou]

I'd have called the cops immediately.

[depechemodefan]

"where did you get
that?"
"Inside the house"

Now the bitch is a burglar.

"And the child that was in it?" i ask a little panicky
"i put her on the floor....So how much?" And she had tha audacity to complain loudly about being told to leave...

What did she think a living, human being was? a piece of trash to put on the floor?

Did she not see that the capsule was being used? I'm surprised she didn't also say, "you can buy another capsule at the store, I want this one."

Shit, I own a shotgun. I would have...damaged the car she came in.

My mother reads those trashy romance novels to unwind and goes through 2 or 3 a night,

I look at fanfiction; much cheaper.

"Thats stupid their second hand...you'll never sell them" *storms off*

People should at least be gracious; you don't accept their price, they should just say "thanks anyway," or the ilk.

I rememeber goingto one garage sale and seeing one of our library patrons (an ass who runs in as soon as the doors open, takes 4 of the diff. papers and won't share. Yes, we have a rule about not taking more than 1 paper at atime) who complained to the lady having the sale that her stuff was expensive. She told him that he could leave. It was pretty funny.

[wheeitsme]

"How much is the capsule?" says crazy lady waving one in my face
"Im not sure we have...." realising what she has just said "where did you get
that?"
"Inside the house"
"And the child that was in it?" i ask a little panicky
"i put her on the floor....So how much?"

15 to life.

Prolly for both of us.

[Kristev]

That's horrible. I'm so disgusted that little miss entitled not merely just strolled into the house, but put her hands on your daughter and removed her just so she could try to buy the object!

You've certainly got more patience than I'd have if someone tried to touch my child (not that I have any yet, but still . . .) I wouldn't even be willing to let my own mom touch my kids without my being there. (But there's a good reason for that - my mom's bi-polar.)

[underemployeed]

I HATE yard sales, brings all kinds of sucky people. Me and a buddy went shooting during my mom's barn sale, To deter anyone from thinking it would be a good idea to either try and rob her and her friend which has happened around the area before, or from visiting in the night to grab what they want which also takes place. And with out a doubt the cops would have been called if someone PSYCHO removed a child from their carrier and tried to buy it.

I have no idea why people can't take a hint some stuff is NOT for sale, especially when you cover it up with tarps so I could in no way be mistaken as being something on a table with a price tag, furthermore when you want to pay me pennies on the dollar. I'm sorry, $25 for my $400 air compressor is a ripoff when I"m not trying to sell it, and I really thought blocking off the other side of my barn where you need to move two stacks of chairs and a couple fences posts laying in door way would indicate STAY OUT. And When you tell me you know the home owner its ok, and I ask "How do you know Frank?", then response is "We go way back!", well that is strike 3 because nobody named frank has EVER lived here in Past 25years.

I sold a 20HP Riding lawn mower for $75 was asking $150, should have held out for more but I really just wanted it gone. Then when the guy came with a trailer, he said "What do you mean it doesn't start?" AFTER I had already informed him it used to run, It has been sitting for a year or two because we got a much better mower, the deck was uneven, it leaks oil. etc,. He got more than a steal for it but I really just wanted it out of my sight. He actually wanted to take more off and I should have just gave him back his money and sold it to someone else as it WAS in first hour of sale he came in and took 5hrs to come back.

Lol priced snow blower that doesn't run for $115, and another guy asked how I could do that. One again, have a better one from my cousin, and I know the only thing that it needs is the carb rebuilt which is $15-20 kit, also there is possibility of it fitting on my gokart if I ever want to repair it, so I really don't want to sell it but my mom does and well if it worth my while I will.

OH and I almost forgot about the idiot we sold my mini fridge too. We had it running to show it worked, well when we helped load it in their car it had to sit sideways, we made SURE to point out in the manual where it said wait at least 8hrs after putting on side to turn on or else it not going to work right. WELL they plugged it in as soon as they got home and it wasn't working.... DUH.

Always have several signs that clearly say "All Sales Final", Also never reasonable price because people with almost ALWAYS haggle.

[Mystic]

I'm with the others. I would have been on the phone with the police moments later and had her ass thrown in jail. What was she thinking? Or not thinking?

[Merriweather]

They turned up at about 6.30 in the morning, when they were only just starting to set up.

I've been fairly lucky about the earlybirds, but of course, we have most of our sales over the years in a garage, so it stays shut til opening time, and they can sit in their cars and wait if they show up too early.

I've had worse luck when we lived in the UK and sold a couple of times at a local car boot sale (same as a US flea market, and those are just as bad). At flea markets & car boot sales you get the vultures who start going thru boxes before you can unpack them properly (breaking things in the process) and even grab stuff out of your car. I tend to get very mean at those times and simply sit on a box, close the boot and refuse to unpack til they back off.

One car boot sale that was quite popular on bank holidays had a wonderful solution. For a small fee, if you wanted, they would bring over a roll of that bright orange stuff they use for temporary traffic barriers, wrap it around your space, and then remove it once you got your things all unpacked and set up. Kept the vultures at bay, especially as they usually had a nice large menacing bloke stand there while it was up, LOL.