Smooth sale-ing for buyers, sellers
THERE are two types of people in this world — those who are drawn to garage sales and those who aren’t.
I’ve been both at different stages in my life.
In my younger (poorer) years I was an avid “garage sailor”. I spent many a Saturday morning trawling the neighbourhood sales in search of a bargain.
And if it looked like a good deal, and I could haggle it down even more, I’d reel it in.
It’s where most of my furniture was bought.
Some, including my kitchen table and chairs, I still have to this day. Even the beloved Star Trek wall clock I bought for 20 cents more than a decade ago is still ticking along nicely.
Most items, however, didn’t stand the test of time.
A bar fridge I snapped up packed it in within a month.
An armchair I thought would last forever fell apart before I could imprint my own bum grooves.
And some groovy threads I bought thinking I’d be able to remove the pong from once I ran them through the washing machine never did stop smelling. But that’s the nature of the garage sale — it’s not always smooth sailing. I may no longer heed the urge to spend my Saturday mornings fossicking through strangers’ stuff, but it seems that for plenty of garage sailors the prospect of uncovering a hidden treasure is just too tempting to pass up. Which is great news for me: I’m thinking about having my own garage sale. We’ve got a heap of stuff cluttering up our house and a clear-out is long overdue if I want to get it shipshape again.
But is anyone really interested in buying my old board games with missing pieces, my swivel desk chair with a wonky wheel, or my wife’s old crockery?
Well, judging by the last time I had a garage sale 15 years ago, they can’t get them fast enough.
I had people camped out on my verge from the crack of dawn that day poised to snap up a hidden treasure I’d obviously been oblivious to.
They’ll be more than welcome if they come back this time. I don’t mind an early rise if I end the day with more money and less stuff than I started with.
Maybe I am a garage sailor at heart after all. I’ll start battening down the hatches.