Saturday, June 05, 2010

No Yardsale for you! The Yardsale Nazi

Yardsales start early here in the summer, most yardsales start at 8am, and some earlier, because it gets so hot and humid early. And most are over by noon. So I left the house early and went to a 7am one, and then drove by one that I remembered seeing advertised online which said to "come early" and it didn't have a set start time in their ad. Me and another car drive down the long driveway and the seller tells the first car to set up their stuff over to the side (apparently the first car was the other part of the "multi-family" sale). The seller sees me and I roll down my window and ask "are you open?" I don't remember what she said except that I could park anywhere I wanted.

So I park the car and walk around the sale and select a few items. Another customer drives up and ask if the seller has any baskets and leaves when the seller says no she doesn't.

So as I continue to browse, I'm chit-chatting with the seller and she is finishing setting up.

Seller: Don't you have to go help Sue?
Me: What? I'm a shopper
Seller: I'm not open yet
Me: You told me to park anywhere
Seller: I thought you were with Sue
Me: Nope, just a shopper. I thought your ad said "come early"
Seller: the signs say 8am
Me: Ok, I'll leave if it's a problem. Here is $4 for the stuff I have. (Note - I had exact change so all she would had to do is take the money).
Seller: I'm not taking any money until 8am
Me: ??????????????????????
Me: I don't think I can come back
Seller: I'm not taking any money until 8am
Me: You're a crazy, anal-retentive old bitty/control freak.

Well the last sentence is what I wanted to say, didn't actually say it out loud.

Did I go back? Hell no. I plopped the stuff down and left. She wasn't going to get any of my money. And the stuff I wanted to buy wasn't anything I couldn't live without.

Really I don't have a problem with people who want to start their yardsale on the nose, but if so they should make it obvious by stringing a rope across some lawn chairs in their driveway with a sign saying they aren't open yet. Rather than letting people shop and waste their time by not taking their money. And they should say "no earlybirds" in their ad with the start and stop time rather than "come early".

I did manage to find other yardsales that did want my money. Will try to add a picture and maybe a youtube video later. My favorite buys of the day:

$1 wooden ammo box with handles (great storage)
.50 hardcover copy of American Junk by Mary Randolph Carter. (Years and years ago when I first started my website, and when she worked directly with Ralph Lauren, she left me a positive comment in my guestbook, before I even knew who she was)



Stuff I didn't buy:

Weird old man doll. One of the yardsales had a ton and a half of dolls. They could have easily been on Hoarders TV. It wasn't a collection of a certain type of doll, it was all kinds of all shapes and sizes. And the seller was a smoker so you know they all smelled of smoke. Today was a weird shopping day, it seemed that a very large proportion of the sellers today were smokers.



And this baller thing caught my eye at the thrift store. It intrigued me, what exactly was this baller thing? Then once I turned it to the back side and saw it's a ballerina.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Same thing happened to my brother once. He went to a community yard sale, garage was open, an old man sitting at the cashier stand, my brother looked around, found a few things to buy, went to the old man and he said "I'm not open yet, I won't take your money". My brother put the stuff back, left, and never went back.

It was the old man's loss.

Anonymous said...

Keep a pack of ones still wrapped up from the bank and when it does happen again say something like, "You mean I got all this money for nothing?" Turn around and walk off saying, "I'll find another yard sale that will take my money". Shaking the pack of ones in the air helps, too! LOL

Chris the Yardsale Queen said...

The ironic thing is, I DID have a pack of 50 ones from the bank in m fanny pack. Will have to remember that next time.

Somewhere I either hear or read online that instead of asking "are you open yet" what you should ask is "are you taking money yet?"

Anonymous said...

I have been to yardsales like that and do not go back. I also find that people who open at the time stated and never a minute before, do not have good things anyway and then I get a double whammy of disappointment.

EM said...

Weird old man doll is creepy!

PIRATE CAPITALIST said...

Thats pretty funny! I myself had had that happen a number of times. I hate it especially when a time isn't posted, and they get ignorant. I hope that stupid woman had to pack that stuff back up. I always tell em "Never look a gift horse in the mouth!" Stupid bitch should have taken the money!!

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