Week 5 [05.23.10]

Day Total: $0
Sales Visited: 20

Wow. Completely shut out this weekend. Today was a town-wide sale in a neighboring community, potentially ripe with opportunity, but luck was just not with us. It ended up being more aggravating than anything else. Sunday drivers abound (pardon the pun) and subpar sales. To top it off, the skies were overcast and gray.

We went to pick up the yard sale map in the town center, come to find it was $1. Our hometown posts the map for our town sale in the free paper, so this was pretty lame. We took our chances and actually did pretty well. Apparently there were 28 sales, and the sale in the town center counted as 7 different sales (we only counted as 1), so according to their math we only missed 1 or 2 sales.

Only two video game sightings. One dirty Atari 2600 4-switch with 8 games marked $10 firm. For fun, we offered $2 for everything and got the overdramatic mouth-agape stare, followed by an explanation of how it's a complete set. Really? I don't see the box or manual anywhere... The other was a NES with about 15-20 games, asking $2 a game. The older gent running the sale explained they belonged to his daughter (who of course was not there) and she didn't want to sell everything, only the sports games, which he was separating out when we arrived. We quickly surveyed the games and saw only commons, so we passed.

Several sales were down really long and narrow driveways, which of course caused all kinds of trouble because no one knows how to drive or park. At one sizable barn sale, some jerk pulled into the driveway and parked in the middle, rather than off to the side in the grass, and ended up blocking us and a handful of other cars. The sale owner, seeing the situation, told us and the two other people leaving that we could drive through his front lawn to get out. We were first to go, maneuvering across the small lawn and back onto the driveway. As we're driving back up the driveway, which on the upper portion was fenced on either side and only wide enough for one car, another car pulled in and began coming down, definitely seeing us. It was beyond clear that we couldn't back up, and there was no room for him to get by. What does he do? He keeps inching forward! Finally he realizes he's making things worse and backs out. This was the worst of the day, but we had similar encounters all morning.

Week 5 [05.22.10]

Day Total: $0
Sales Visited: 7

Unfortunately a bust. Late start, although there weren't too many sales going on. Most likely because there's a town-wide sale tomorrow in our neighboring town, so people are probably holding out for that. So, we'll be out and about tomorrow!

We went out specifically for a community center type sale that advertised manga and video games. That particular table was run by a young couple (roughly our age). They had over 100 English graphic novels (mostly OOP), all complete series and in great condition, plus some random fantasy fiction, bootleg anime box sets, and a few current-gen video games. The highlight was a complete boxed Chobits manga, which Liz was semi-interested in (for the right price of course). They were asking $3 each for the Viz titles, $4 each for the Tokyopop titles. The handful of hardcover fiction they had were priced according to how thick they were. It was after 11AM at this point and it was very clear they hadn't sold any of the manga, if anything off their table. It wasn't worth attempting to bargain. Liz's max was $10 on the set (a reluctant $10), and after 'saling for so long you just know when a person is not going to cut you a deal.

This was weird... At one sale, this guy had two car doors propped against each other on the lawn, for sale. No car in sight, just the doors. Definitely one for the odd list.


Rants of the day. People that write "Huge Yard Sale!" and people who sell modded PS1's and burned games.


The first one is more annoying than anything else. I guess 'huge' is subjective. We've been to well over a thousand yard sales over the last 5 years and have seen everything from 2-3 items sitting in a driveway to full lawns covered end to end with stuff (not to mention those multi-family neighborhood sales that just spill into the next house all the way up the street). Today we hit a 'huge' sale that was a little less than average-sized. Do the people running the sale think that the amount they have is huge? I guess if you're not a yardsaler, then you don't know how much stuff other people have.

The modded PS1's. These are usually never marked as such, but you know when you see that stack of burned discs. And the nerve to sell games downloaded for free and illegally. We come across this every so often and really, how crappy can you get?

Week 4 [5.15.10]

Day Total: $10.25
Sales Visited: 26

1 Empire Strikes Back (1982 Re-release half sheet original poster)
1 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Hardcover, 1st edition)
1 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Hardcover, 1st edition)
Paid: $8.00


1 Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition
Paid: $1.00


1 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Hardcover, 1st edition)
Paid: $0.25


1 Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (VHS, fan sub bootleg)
1 Laputa Castle in the Sky (VHS, fan sub bootleg)
PS2 cables
Paid: $0.50


1 AC/DC music book (Guitar, 1985)
Paid: $0.50