When Yard sales Turn Ugly

Last edited Sat Sep 7, 2013, 02:23 PM - Edit history (1)

Many of us in this forum buy from yard sales and resell the products online.

Other people have regular yard sales to sell their things. This has been a tradition ever since I can remember. I knew two families like this growing up. Today, they don't want to be bothered with the online process. They even think of online re-sellers as their competition.

I met a family like that today.

Their Craigslist ad announced, among other things, 400+ DVDs, CDs and video games. That's gold for me. The start time was 8AM this morning, according to their ad.

But when I hit their subdivision I noticed the signs had deflated balloons hanging from them. What this usually means is the signs were put up the day before and chances are the yard sale actually began on Friday morning. Now, just as some of us have our little tricks to get the best deals and hit the most profitable sales early, people who have yard sales on a routine basis have their tricks to lure the most people in. Knowing no one likes to hit a sale on the second day because all the good things are gone, these people delete their original craigslist ads and put up new ones that remove references to Friday start and end times.

They let me in a few minutes early and to my surprise most of the DVDs, CDs and video games were still there. Then I found out why. They were charging NEW retail prices (sometimes higher) for used products.

I scanned them anyway - hoping to find a rare gem that I could sell for more than the asking price. When that proved pointless, I asked if the prices were negotiable.

"Nope!"

I asked him if they knew their used prices were in most cases higher than online prices? (Maybe they didn't know )

"We price them this way to get people who don't speak English or aren't smart enough to shop online."

I just smiled, took my seven year old daughter by the hand, and said, "let's head out."

The guy then did his a really awkward baseball umpire impression and yelled, "and you're outta here!"

I ignored his theatrics and continued walking away.

"I can't believe you came here to try and jew me down!"

I stopped, turned around and said, "Did you really just say 'jew you down?'"

"It's just an expression!" He said.

"So is dumbass, but it applies to you perfectly" I called back as I got in the car.

It's interesting that I'd had a discussion the night before with my little girl about tolerance and stereotypes as we watched Al Sharpton's coverage on the March on Washington. So I was glad I could show her a real world example of how to stand up to jerks like that.