GARAGE SALES: RIP?

Yesterday, I co-hosted a garage sale to benefit the youth group at my church. I was at the church at 6am & didn't leave until 3:15p. What struck me was how few buyers were out there. We had 200 vendors, great location & yet, no early birds to speak of & more sellers than buyers throughout the day. We made a few hundred dollars but we had a lot of inventory & ruthlessly slashed prices to move the stuff as the day wore on. I was reminded, anew why I vowed 2 years ago to never again do or participate in another garage sale. It's a tremendous amount of work for a relatively low reward. Nonetheless, the idea that you can make some money from getting rid of your discards is hard to die.

The dearth of buyers, however, told me that Craigslist & ebay & possibily the recession have significantly eroded the buyer pool. I guess getting up early on a Saturday to score some deals isn't as exciting as checking Craigslist or ebay for deals. I notice that I don't see as many garage sales as I used to. Too bad. I've always enjoyed visiting garage sales, especially when my daughter was very young & I could find toys or clothing that she'd use. Another sign of the times.