Yard sales. Garage sales. I hear in some places they’re tag sales. I’ve managed to avoid having one for my whole adult life, at least until this morning. Interesting business. Yesterday we stapled signs up around the area, and last night we placed an ad on Kijiji. It was free, so why not. I listed some of the stuff in the sale and almost immediately received two replies from people who are specialty hunters. Can you give me details? Can you send a picture? These are the people who collect particular stuff and they want first crack at it.

It was still dark when we started dragging junk items outside, setting up tables, arranging things just so. The first guy rolled up at dawn. He was one of the people who responded to the Kijiji ad. He wasn’t going to miss out, and he didn’t. He bought some stuff, and I think he got a good bargain. I don’t know. What do I know. Next came the serious garage sale shoppers. They’re first at every sale. You can see it in their eyes. They’re looking for the gravy.  This crowd bargains in bundles, five, six, seven items. Will you take $20 for all this stuff?

Why did you put tape on this? It’s the price. But the tape is going to ruin it? It’s low tack tape. Oh look, she’s put tape on everything. Can you believe that? Oh, I’m gonna buy it anyway but you shouldn’t use tape. OK. Next time.

Ellie Mae is sound asleep on the driveway. Her back legs are dangling in the air but her front legs are to one side, an impossible position unless you are Ellie Mae. She’s in her glory and she’s snoring. Oh look. It’s a dog. It’s real. It looks like a bear. Oh my God, there are two of them. Are they Saint Bernards? No, they’re Newfoundlands. Oh, I didn’t know Newfoundlands came in two-tone. The two tone ones are called Landseers. A little boy comes with his mom and hugs Ellie Mae and then Memphis. He seriously loves dogs. I’m gonna get a dog soon. An orange one. His mom confirms it. He is getting a dog, a Golden. Sort of orange.  Excellent.

The biggest surprise to me was the general lack of interest in books. There were some really good books there, and we were selling them for peanuts, making room on the bookshelves for um, well….more books.

We ran the sale from before 8 until after 12. After that we packed everything left unsold into Tuffy P’s car and ran it over to the Goodwill.

Overall, the whole business was OK. There is nothing that was sold or that ended up at Goodwill that we are ever going to miss, and as a bonus, we pulled in a decent chunk of cash for our efforts. No need to have another one for a very long time though….