garage sale Saturdays!

I actually tried going to some garage sales yesterday, but I had my post-operation doctor's appointment yesterday morning and only had time for about 3 sales before I had to drop Lily off with a friend and go to the appointment.  A word of advice for people who want to do a garage sale some day from someone who goes to many sales: don't be overly zealous about selling your stuff to people.  Ugh.  There is such a thing as a good sales person..but just about everybody I know gets annoyed and turned off by the overzealous and pushy sales person.  And garage sales are just not the place for you to practice your salesmanship.  Because honestly, I don't care how much you bought your piece of whatever for 20+ years ago.  If I wanted it new at full price, I'd buy it new at full price, and if I wanted to know the price, I'd ask.  Last weekend, you may remember that I mentioned going to a house that basically we could just sort through and ask if it was for sale?  The guy was asking absolutely ridiculous prices on everything: Jesse picked up an old sling shot and asked the price.  He was told that "oh, 10 years ago I bought those for $20...I'll sell both of them to you at $15 apiece."  Really?  $5 off 10 year old USED stuff?  Jesse chuckled and told me later he was thinking more along the lines of both sling shots for $3.  Not 2 for $20.  My personal favorite I hear a lot is, "I just couldn't let it go for less than $xx, I put $xx into that."  Telling me prices and how you wasted your money isn't going to convince me why I should pay more for your USED item.  Some people..

Anyway, sorry about the tirade, but yesterday, a lady had about 20 things in her garage she was selling.  And she kept trying to sell everything to this other poor lady.  Everything the "customer" picked up, the sales lady would tell her how much it was, how much she bought it for and why it was a good deal.  I just left, even though there were some things I was interested in, her prices were higher than I would want to pay.  I know beggars can't be choosers..but I promise, if I need/want something new, I won't be looking for it at a garage sale.

End rant.

Today, Lily and I went out.  I had my list of sales I wanted to check out and the order I was going to stop in.  I'm never this prepared when we go out on our adventures.  I didn't come home with a ton, but did have some great deals: got a big box of clothes for Lily for $10-- I told her to give me a price and I'd take the whole box.  She thought about it and said $20, then shuffled through the clothes and dropped it down.  Which is good, because I definitely wouldn't have been buying it if she hadn't.  And I'm not sure what's going on with this area of West Virginia, maybe it's going out of style, but I have seen a TON of Coach purses and bags.  Today, I came home with a messenger/laptop bag for $20 (talked her down $5) which I'll be using as a diaper bag/purse (you mom's out there know what I mean) until I have use for a laptop bag and a $15 Coach duffle bag for my friend, Jen (also talked down $5).

pile of clothes I'll sort through after I wash them

my new bag! yay!

I didn't take a picture of the bag I got for Jen, but this is what it looks like..

I also got a picture frame and a blank scrapbooking book for my MIL.  Man.  If I was into scrapbooking, I would get all my books at garage sales.  I hear they can run pretty expensive at the store normally, but when I can buy them blank for $1 at a garage sale?  That just seems to make good sense to me..

And since I mentioned it and I have such caring and concerned friends, my appointment with the doctor went just fine.  He was pleased with how the incisions looked and how I was feeling so he cleared me for activities again!  Hurray!  Which I was kind of already doing anyway, so it's good that he "cleared" me to pick things up again.  I may or may not have "forgotten" I wasn't allowed to do certain things occasionally..but I went for a run today.  Ugh.  Two weeks of no running didn't give me the best times today, but I'm pretty sure I'm still going to do my best and push through my training and run my half marathon in October.  Seven weeks of training for 13.1 miles should be sufficient, right?

xoxo