DUmmies Discuss Yard Sales

[GOBUCKS]

The DUmbasses commiserate with one another over the crushing poverty they've discovered since the jug-eared muslim brought them hope and change:

Kennah  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jul-15-11 12:04 AM
Original message
Yardsales: A Simple Sign Of The Times
Wife and I had a yardsale a few weeks ago, and it sucked royally.

We couldn't give away the kids clothes until we hit $1 each item, and these were in pretty great shape. Even then, we did not move them all.

Every weekend, I see sign after sign for yardsale after yardsale. NEVER have I seen so many yardsales.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1494119
This reminds me of all those posts by DUmmies at the height of the Great Bush Prosperity, where they would discuss how
the shopping malls seemed to be deserted, and the few people there weren't buying anything. This was during a period of the lowest
unemployment rate since WWII.

msongs  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jul-15-11 12:09 AM
Response to Original message
1. cheap imports slammed yard sales, desperate ppl dumping stuff has killed them off....
used to be a yard sale was a good way to move out quality old stuff, then the onslaught of US corporations importing cheap junk made price at yard sales a tough go. now there are so many people selling stuff to make ends meet, yard sales patrons would rather buy cheap trash at the 99 cent store than pay their hurting neighbors a decent price.

I've never been to a yard sale. People used to call them "rummage" sales, which sounds a lot like "rubbish" sales.

sammytko (894 posts)     Fri Jul-15-11 12:13 AM
Response to Original message
2. We usually have a couple of yardsales a summer - price items very low
Kids stuff a quarter or so. People will not pay much more than that even in good times. Target is no more than 10% of original price.

A quarter is more like it. I'll go a quarter for some kid's castoffs if they're good for a dust rag, or a single-use rag to wipe excess grease off my trailer hubs.

 

jwirr  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jul-15-11 12:21 AM
Response to Original message
3. Most yard sales are to get rid of excess item you no longer need.
If you want that then it is best to price things really cheap. I have only been to several sales this summer and I noticed that the prices have gone up. As Kunstler says, " living off each others rummage sales". Buyers are looking for bargains. If we do not find them we do not buy.

In other words, rubbish.
 
 

SoCalNative (1000+ posts)      Fri Jul-15-11 12:38 AM
Response to Reply #3
6. Exactly
I'm having one in a week just to clear out excess crap I no longer need. Whatever doesn't sell is getting donated.

Now, the DUmbasses have established that this rubbish will not sell for over a buck, and that the fair market price to move it
is about a quarter per article.

I wonder what value per article this donated rubbish will have when this greedy DUmbass lists up his itemized deductions. 
 

Now DUmmy NYC_SKP will give us a preview of the democrat 2012 campaign theme. Sounds like a winner:

NYC_SKP   (1000+ posts)        Fri Jul-15-11 12:23 AM
Response to Original message
4. There's a bright side to all this, seriously.
the last few years have seen a decrease in energy use, and consequently, less greenhouse gas emissions.
more people buying and selling used clothes is more sustainable, fewer useful goods going to the landfill, fewer new items imported and purchased.

our economy, our lifestyles, have been unsustainable for generations, in fact they've become increasingly so.

The future will look a lot like yardsales, and it won't all be bad.

 

cutlassmama  (1000+ posts)       Fri Jul-15-11 12:27 AM
Response to Original message
5. I noticed the onslaught about a year ago. MANY, many yard sales
and it's sad all the people "downsizing" and trying to get fair price for their stuff.
People only want bargain basement priced stuff or they don't buy.

If taxes were raised on billionaires, people would be willing to pay premium prices at rubbish sales.

grasswire  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jul-15-11 12:41 AM
Response to Original message
7. neighborhood sale last weekend
Observations:

Almost every person who came over to look at my stuff was a dealer looking to buy stock for resale. I am a dealer too. Shoppers aren't going to find the extreme bargain at my table that they can make money on. I already know what it's worth.

No one was a collector. I had vintage and antique postcards and ephemera, and linens.
But as a dealer I found things that *I* could make a profit on. Old German blown glass xmas ornaments. $1 a box.
I bought books from other sellers. I can almost always spring for a book.

Well, splash one pie shop. Gone down in flames.

I just wonder how someone who's lived in a former friend's bonus room for the past two or three years can be a junk collector.

Where does she keep it?

And now that she's told us about her eviction, its even harder to believe.

Maybe she's like one of those old guys with the long beards that American Pickers find, back in a hollow with huge heaps of rusting
old junk.

[catsmtrods]

I once lived on a main thoroughfare that led from NYC to their weekend homes in the Catskill's. We had a yard sale at least 6-7 times a year stocked with stuff I got from the dump. Made a good buck on it and had a hoot!

[franksolich]

Well, well.

grasswire  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jul-15-11 12:41 AM
Response to Original message

7. neighborhood sale last weekend

Observations:

Almost every person who came over to look at my stuff was a dealer looking to buy stock for resale. I am a dealer too. Shoppers aren't going to find the extreme bargain at my table that they can make money on. I already know what it's worth.

No one was a collector. I had vintage and antique postcards and ephemera, and linens.

But as a dealer I found things that *I* could make a profit on. Old German blown glass xmas ornaments. $1 a box.

I bought books from other sellers. I can almost always spring for a book.

Mighty socially conscious of the grasswire primitive, exploiting the ignorance of others.

Just like the greedy oil companies and the greedy pharmaceutical industry.

If she were a real Democrat, she'd insist upon paying the seller a fair price.

For the record, franksolich gives whatever's of no good to him any longer to thrift stores.  franksolich doesn't worry about "recovering his investment" in used goods; he just wants them out of the way.  And when buying used goods himself, franksolich buys at thrift stores, not from money-grubbing petit capitalists like the greedy grasswire primitive.

Since she's admitted that she's more than just the occasional garage-sale holder, and does it regularly, one wonders if the grasswire primitive properly records, and reports, her income for taxable purposes.

[Karin]

Wait a minute, wait a minute.  Didn't the democrats pass into law, that you couldn't sell your used children's clothing and items to other people?  Has to have an expensive lead test done on them first.  This was Henry Waxman's baby.  You're all breaking the law, your law, DUmmies.   

[VivisMom]

Yard sales (and Craigslist) are great for getting kids toys. I got Viv a Barbie Dream House for Christmas in pretty good condition for less than HALF of what it cost in the stores. Couple of wipes with a Clorox wipe, and she never knew the difference.

The DUmmies are just pissed that they can't sell their crap for what they paid for it. Nobody wants your used waffle irons, morons.

[franksolich]

The DUmmies are just pissed that they can't sell their crap for what they paid for it. Nobody wants your used waffle irons, morons.

That is a constant complaint over there, the grasswire primitive and the vindictive primitive being the most whiny.

"I paid five dollars for this ceramic swan with a broken neck--I can't take less than that for it."

The purpose of garage sales, rummage sales, yard sales, whatnot, is to get rid of junk, nothing more than that.

The primitives don't care that it costs the oil companies $3.50, in research and development, in exploration, in equipment, in manpower, in regulations and taxes, to extract a gallon of gasoline.....so why should one care what a primitive paid for a piece of garbage, when making an offer on it?

One suspects the professional yard-selling primitives would make more money working on the assembly-line at the local factory or waitressing down at the local restaurant; they surely aren't becoming rich dealing in used goods.

[Karin]

Our village has an odd custom.  Once per year in early June, everybody holds a yardsale on the same day, and so everyone exchanges junk with one another.  I've never actually purchased anything, but I occassionally like to walk around and gawk at people's rubbish.  Tells you something about them. 

[VivisMom]

"I paid five dollars for this ceramic swan with a broken neck--I can't take less than that for it."

Just because you were the dumbass that paid five bucks for that piece of shit doesn't mean everyone is as stupid as you. 

That right there is the crux of the problem: they want to pass the stupidity on, and nobody is biting. And this from the smartest people on the internet. 

[Wineslob]

NYC_SKP   (1000+ posts)        Fri Jul-15-11 12:23 AM
Response to Original message
4. There's a bright side to all this, seriously.
the last few years have seen a decrease in energy use, and consequently, less greenhouse gas emissions.
more people buying and selling used clothes is more sustainable, fewer useful goods going to the landfill, fewer new items imported and purchased.

our economy, our lifestyles, have been unsustainable for generations, in fact they've become increasingly so.

The future will look a lot like yardsales, and it won't all be bad.

Darwin Award winner.   

[BattleHymn]

msongs  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jul-15-11 12:09 AM
Response to Original message
1. cheap imports slammed yard sales, desperate ppl dumping stuff has killed them off....
used to be a yard sale was a good way to move out quality old stuff, then the onslaught of US corporations importing cheap junk made price at yard sales a tough go. now there are so many people selling stuff to make ends meet, yard sales patrons would rather buy cheap trash at the 99 cent store than pay their hurting neighbors a decent price.

I can just see this DUmmie's yard sale.  Every item is tagged not only with an absurd price, but also this:

[Chris_]

Right.  The 19 million people in New York City are all going to get by shopping at garage sales.

Let me know when that happens.