Here's a post from Team Member Jennifer, who had a very successful garage sale this past weekend. I've also thrown in a few comments for fun. :-) That said, here is Jennifer's story:
"This past Saturday, June 18, I hosted a garage sale to raise money for the Sparrow’s Nest orphanage. After collecting items from friends, team members and neighbors to use at the sale, we enlisted the help of my sister-in-law, two nephews and one niece (and her two dogs, as part of a package deal). One of my dogs, George W. (hey, I wonder if Jennifer is a republican?), generously hosted a very successful lemonade stand, licking reluctant customers into submission. We stuck antlers on him and said he was a baby moose visiting to support Team Moose Tracks, but I don’t think many people bought it. (Image: think of the Grinch who stole Christmas and the scene where he ties antlers on his dog, and I bet that's what this looked like -- Jennifer has two small dogs).
In an effort to increase traffic, we asked neighbors to host their own sales on the 18th as well. I thought more people would stop by the sale for the Sparrow’s Nest if there were other sales to stop by too. We rented a large sign a few days in advance to direct people into our neighborhood.
The sale was supposed to start on Saturday, but the big, yellow “COMMUNITY GARAGE SALE SATURDAY!” sign proved to be worth the investment. I had my first customers Friday before I had even priced any of the items. I sent my husband over to haggle over a golf club, golf shoes and one shirt. He walked back with $30. We were off to a good start.
A few minutes later, my neighbor stopped by excited over a Pillsbury Doughboy Cookie Jar he had spotted in our garage. He knew his wife would just LOVE it and ran home to get money. Unfortunately, while he was getting money, his wife stopped by and saw the jar (and he was right – she loved it). We told her it was already sold, but she was one tough “cookie”! She wanted to know who bought it and how much they were paying. She would not relent, and we finally had to tell her that her husband was buying it – but she couldn’t tell him we told her! So she ran home since he was due back any moment with the money. On cue, he came back to buy the jar and snuck back home. She then snuck over to tell us he didn’t know she knew. This went on for more than an hour, both thinking they were outsmarting the other, until finally, an hour later, she saw the jar at home, he thought he had surprised her, she was happy that he tried to surprise her, and we were just glad to get the jar out of our garage. (Well, the cat is out of the bag now that we're posting this story to the world. I'm just glad he did give it to her -- and that it wasn't really a gift for his girlfriend.) They also saw a computer monitor and a small doll they liked – so we were up another $40. The sale hadn’t even started yet, and we had already made $70.
I had been collecting items for about three months, and there was a LOT of stuff to dig through. There were a few questionable items, including:
1) A well-used training potty (ick) (ick is right -- did anyone buy this???!!!)
2) A pant waist stretcher, some pieces missing, but in good condition (circa 1976) (Whatever happened to just buying bigger pants. Oh, that came along in the 80's.)
Saturday morning, we had our first customers around 7:30 a.m. By 8:15, the traffic was heavy and it didn’t slow down until about 2:00 p.m. By 3:00, people were trickling in and the items remaining were very picked over, so we decided it was time for a clearance – everything remaining was reduced to $0.50. When people started asking if I would take a quarter instead, I decided it was time for more drastic measures to be taken. We reduced prices again – all you could carry for just $5. This went over very well and people walked away with armfuls.
By 4:00 p.m. traffic was slow even with our $5 bargains, so we put a big “free” sign out front. We were excited by the results. So many people had donated items to help the Sparrow’s Nest, and it turns out many other people were blessed by our “leftovers”! One woman took seven bags of clothing for her church. One family with 11 kids took some of the baby clothing. A woman from a local charity stopped by and said she’d take everything else left in our driveway. That meant when the garage sale ended, we didn’t have one thing remaining!
I was really touched by the interest people expressed in the Sparrow’s Nest. One neighbor donated $20. Another woman from the Dominican Republic was an orphan herself and donated $11. Everyone took the time to look at pictures of the children and many let us keep the change from their purchases since it was going to the Sparrow’s Nest.
We counted heads and still had three kids, four dogs, three adults and a grand total of….
$925.17!
I’m not sure where the $0.17 came from, but there’s no arguing that the sale was a success.
I still don’t have a bike… but that’s another story. Maybe I’ll get one next weekend. =) (This is so easy to slam her on that I'll let it lie. Just let me note that the ride is less than four weeks away, she's signed up to do all 100 miles, and she hasn't started riding yet.)
Here's a pic of the new team helmet. Jennifer will be testing it out over the next few weeks.
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