Garage Sales

This is a first for this blog.........posting on location.

I'm sitting in a chair in my friends garage as it's Labor Day weekend and in the US that means............garage sales. Well ok not everywhere and it's not compulsary, but there are a butt load of them all over the country and people make a day of it and drive around visiting as many as they can.

eBay hasn't quite caused the demise of the garage sale as not many people want to be bothered buying or selling the small items that mostly make up such sales. Of course anything can be sold and we have a snow blower for $700 and a load of tools for 25c each...............and everything you can think of in between.

On my walk yesterday I passed quite a few such sales so the tradition is alive and well. Some were small affairs with one table containing only a few items and others were like ours with a huge 3 bay garage filled with groaning tables bearing the purchases of many decades.........as well as unwanted pressies and gifts collected over the years. Anyone who is into downsizing their house clutter will get the point.

It's strange to see cars and trucks pulling up and disgorging family members who come up and pour over this families possessions. I know I'd find it hard enough to put a price of $30 on something I may not need anymore but cost me, say, $100 only a few months ago. Or take the snow blower.......oh God please take the snow blower !!! It was bought only a few months ago but is not needed anymore as we're spending the snow months in Florida. You have to know the market of course and set the prices accordingly. It would break my heart - but then again that's the Scot in me speaking !!

An associated custom I like here is leaving some item you want to sell out at the end of the driveway with a price on it.......or sometimes not. In the UK this would be taken as an offer for some passing motorist to swipe it and think they'd struck lucky. A totally unwanted item can be placed there too but with a clear sign showing it is free to whoever wants it. The unwritten rule seems to be that if it doesn't say it's free, then it's not......and don't assume it's not either Remember that home owners here might well be armed to the teeth and you might well get a few yards down the road with your stolen item but the bullets will still catch up with you !!

Well it's near the end of the 2nd and final day of the sale and we're ready to pack up, remove the road signs and call it a wrap. Sadly not everything was sold but that's the way it goes. The point is, there are plenty of birthdays and Christmas' to garner up more unwanted items and plenty of national holiday weekends to have garage sales to get rid of them all again.

It's a sort of circle of life thing.