"Make An Offer, Pilgrim."

Garage sale day! My whole street attempted a neighborhood garage-yard sale. There were only three of us, plus a neighbor who put a pile of junk out in the front with a FREE STUFF sign. I snatched up his free large tomato cages and ran like a thief back home.

I actually wanted an opportunity to show off my "new" garage. This summer I had it remodeled a little. The window (near the bike) used to be a door which was on the opposite side of the garage from my house and the rain storms would flood through the space under the door and flood the garage every winter. The door was moved to the opposite corner so it's next to the house's back door and within my locked fence. Much more private. You can just see the opening of the door in the upper left corner of the above photo.

Then I painted a wall multi-colored!  Too fun! On the opposite wall I plan to paint a mural.



The great thing about having an outstanding garage is when I have a garage sale I can remove all the stuff I don't want to sell and take my time organizing the sale stuff throughout the week. I'm pretty sure I have the prettiest garage sale in the history of private enterprise. I had a women's department, men's department, pet center, jewelery display, sports department, and bookstore with paintings on the walls and sparkly lights around the ceiling.



"Make an offer!" This was the phrase of the day. My garage sale motto. I think I said it to everyone and rarely was anyone's offer turned down. So many people said, "Oh, I can't do that." WHY? I have to fight with them to give me an offer. Jeez.

So I beg (ugh!), "I'm trying to get rid of things, let me know what you want to pay."

"Ohhhh, no, [whiny voice] I don't know how much it's worth."

"I don't either. Just name your price."

"I don't feel comfortable doing that."

"I haven't turned down an offer yet."

"You might get offended...."

"AND THEN WHAT? DO YOU THINK I WILL SCREAM AT YOU? CRY? GRAB YOU AROUND THE NECK AND SHAKE YOU UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD OR SOMETHING?" Good lord these people are so scared. This is America! Capitalism is our drug lord. Just give me a damn price.



Look at my sparkly lights around the ceiling. I
was going to sell them then decided to use them
as decorations!

Eventually I get an offer. And there are other shoppers who don't hesitate to give you a price. Sometimes their offer is outlandishly low, but more often it's much higher than what I expected. I had these two glass things. Very tall vases that look like oversized wine glasses. I actually rescued them out of my non-garage-sale-participant-neighbor's garbage a few weeks ago. I figured, hmmm, a dollar each? Fifty cents each? The woman offered me $7.00 for the pair.  Hey, if that's what she wants to pay, who am I to turn her down? SOLD!

The chandelier I got from my neighbor's last FREE STUFF junk pile had a buyer looking at it. Prior to offering it for sale I had removed all the crystals to use for crafts projects so it was the bare skeleton with some old wiring still attached. Heavy, though, so a nice metal. I would have paid for someone to take it away. She offered me $10.00. SOLD! I don't know why my neighbor doesn't want to sell his own stuff. He'd make a little extra money.


A few neighbors asked me if I would sell some of their books for them. Sure! I figured I'd sell the hardcover books for fifty cents and the paperback covers for twenty-five cents and the small paperbacks for ten cents. Not one shopper offered me anything lower than a dollar for any size or any cover type. In fact, it was Dollar Days at my garage yesterday. People kept offering a dollar even for the littlest things. I even sold my weedwacker for a dollar and I had to talk him into it. It was ugly so he didn't think it worked. I told him I just weedwacked my 10 x 10 square foot of yard a few days ago and I'm getting rid of it because I'm digging up the grass. I plugged it in and showed him it worked. In the next few weeks I won't need a weedwacker so it's either sell it for a dollar or it goes to the junk yard. A dollar is a good price.

I do, on occasion, turn down an offer. I had these old Christmas candles, never used, still in their packaging that I've had for years. I think I've tried to sell them at every garage sale I've had for the last ten years. This young man brought them to me and I was so excited someone showed an interest in taking them away. I said, "Make an offer!" He handed me three dollars. I handed him two dollars back in change. I just wanted someone to take them away. Hopefully, that little gesture of non-greed made his day.

The great thing about not marking anything BESIDES the bargaining is I can also give things for free. This is advantageous if you just want to get rid of stuff. If I catch anyone looking with any kind of interest and it's something I know I will throw away, I tell them Take it, it's free. I try to have little stuff around kids might like, too, trinkets, stamps, hair ribbons, and cheap jewels. This year I also had balloons. Some times kids come to me as they are about to leave and ask, "I'm not sure I understood you - did you really mean it was free?" I thought about giving out lemonade this year, but the day started out rainy and then cloudy. What happened to summer?

It was great. I got rid of my old rabbit cages that were cluttering the garage and that park bench I bought a few months ago that I planned to strip and repaint. The guy offered me $5.00 more than I paid for it. SOLD! So glad I don't have to strip it now. I really need to avoid those chemicals.

The hardest thing to sell was my bike. I am feeling remorseful and mournful. It has been on many tours with me and two trips to Europe, but it's been sitting in the garage for a year with two flat tires and cobwebs. I rode it once last year after I cleaned the cobwebs off it then, too. I got it out last week, cleaned it up and fixed the tires. My neighbor looked at it and then when I told her it did the Camino de Santiago in Spain she got all excited.

The Camino de Santiago is a medieval pilgrim trail. To get to heaven in the Middle Ages you were required to do a pilgrimage and this one was very popular.

Map of Camino de Santiago

Modern day pilgrims walk or cycle 737 kilometers over all kinds of trails and roads from Roncevalles in France to Santiago de Compostela, although some start from the eastern border of France. They carry scallop shells as a symbol of their pilgrimmage in honor of St. James (Santiago) of Compostela.

Road Conditions...from my sketchbook.
The only road type not on here was the creek I had to
carry my bike up for about a mile. Packs and all. Not for the weak of heart.
Oh, and then there was the time the trail ended at a 20 foot drop off and I
had to trudge around the trench through a cornfield. I earned my stamps!

We go from cathedral to church to monestary to medieval hospital and every stop on the route you get little pilgrim stamps in the official pilgrim certification booklet.



Pilgrim Certificate with Stamps

At the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela you get a certificate that says you get to go to heaven. Hooray! Don't you love Christianity? Who needs to be moral and good when you can just walk 700 miles and still go to heaven?

On the Camino...with my ex-bike. (Sigh.)

Her sister was with her and told me they both walked the Camino de Santiago a few years ago. This is another wonderful thing about garage sales - you really learn interesting stuff about people you live right next door to that you wouldn't otherwise. I was impressed as they are both retired and one would not expect they are so fleet of foot. They suggested I hang the bike on my wall instead of selling it. She bought it. It's a good bike...I'm a little sad about selling it. BUT it was my second bike. The other one I ride often enough so it doesn't have cobwebs....I'll get over it, hopefully. I really don't need two bikes.

It was a good day, not too much stink, lots of interesting and conversational people. And MONEY!

Next year the neighbors and I were talking about doing another neighborhood yard sale with a neighborhood picnic and barbeque! That would be fun!