I never could go garage sale-ing. I didn’t have the guts. It somehow felt like trespassing to wander up a strange driveway, and voyeuristic to browse through other people’s items. It seemed judgmental to ponder the worth of the tagged prices and the condition of the items. But most of all, it felt downright insulting to wander through someone’s offerings and walk away without buying anything. I felt obligated to buy. Otherwise what was I doing there in the first place? Why’d I even come if I wasn’t a serious shopper? And what if I inadvertently bought something that some poor person who came haplessly behind me really needed? After all, I didn’t really need anything at all, really.
I especially hated to come upon a sale that involved “multiple families,” where all those family members sat en masse and collectively stared at you staring at all of their offered items. How could you possibly share a comment or a look with all that going on around you? And some things just demand vocal or facial comment. I also resented the overly ambitious garage sale hosts who felt compelled to tell you the story behind each item and its great, magnified worth based upon whatever imaginary original price they had dreamed up as plausible when they sized you up during your approach.
So, how did I manage to end up with two fooseball tables, two pairs of downhill skis, a kids play table, two storage bins of toys, hockey sticks and skates and a pile of various other garage sale items too numerous to mention, as well as a dining room set and lamp for my parents, a small one-cup coffee maker for my son and an AbLounger for my other daughter ? Well, chalk it up to spending a little time with a shameless daughter and some latent family tendencies toward addiction and hoarding.
I started accompanying my daughter mainly as a sidekick to watch over my grandsons at each sale site. In the beginning, I bought nothing, but I learned a lot through observation. My daughter greeted each sale host with a smile and comment as she arrived –something I never thought to do, so caught up was I in my ruminations on mandatory buying. She had absolutely no qualms about foraging through things, picking them up, asking questions about them, then buying nothing and guiltlessly moving on. I was amazed. But I did notice she would smile and shout, “thank you,” as she walked away empty handed –and they would smile back, nod and look satisfied –truly amazing.
I first bought toys for my two grandsons that I had no doubt they would like, as I’d had to pry them from their tight-fisted little hands to pay for them. We acquired plastic little person bikes for when they visit us and for my parents house. I branched out into other recreational items –and even though the hockey sticks turned out to be left-handed and the skates flew apart on their first run around the icy lake, they were still good buys because I got them for a song, albeit buyer beware. While I have no true obligation to buy, the sellers have no obligatory law for disclosure. And I’ve discovered garage sales are plentiful in every community –if I buy what someone else needs, there will be another one at another sale. Sellers get rid of things they no longer need or want and buyers take a chance on items they’d like to try out without forking over full retail price for them –everybody wins. But watch out –there’s something a little addictive about the thrill of the hunt in garage sale-ing and unintentional hoarding could result. You must be willing to walk away from the steal of the century find if, well, if you truly don’t need it. Period.
A final tip –here’s how to tell if it’s a good garage sale –if the seller feels like s/he’s giving it away and the buyer feels like s/he’s stealing it –it’s a good sale! And rest assured, there will always be another garage sale on another day –always.
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