professionals

This weekend marked the annual Highland Park yard sale and Bryant Street festival. After weeks of advertising on the HP list-serve plugging bands, people sending out pre-sale email notices (for sale! I have a curio cabinet filled with stuffed mice! I have two arm chairs missing the arms! etc) I was thinking that this event better be good.

For the last year, we have had a big cardboard box in the basement with yardsale-worthy stuff in it. Nothing too junky, just things that we didn't want anymore- a breadbox, a cd player, computer monitor, a showerhead, suits that don't fit, shoes we don't wear, etc. Saturday we priced everything and cleaned it up. Sunday we were up at the crack of dawn, all 10 cups in our coffee pot bubbling with full-strength caffeinated goodness. We hauled the items to the porch, unfortunately we weren't able to use the steps or front yard because of spurts of heavy rain and tornado (yes, there was a tornado warning) force winds.

First, the easy news- the sun came out, the day was a success, I purchased a handmade cross-body canvas tote bag sewn and silk-screened by a graphic designer on our street and a vintage item for Reggie's birthday that he will for sure love, but that I can't reveal for another 10 days. Best of all- we made about $200 and our basement once again looks like a roller-skating rink. I love clearing out clutter! My mother says I'm not attached to things (this is meant to be a criticism) but I just hate crap. As it is we have a full house- "treasures" from trips, lots of photographs, decorations, and the like. What I don't do is hold on to things just in case we might need it again. If I have a yearning for a silver scarf, or a red leather magazine holder in the near future, I'll just go out and buy it again. In the meantime- out of my basement!

the front porch, our things on display

Obama always attends our gatherings. He was encouraging people to support the economy by buying our crap

Ok, now the other news. There are people who go to yardsales....professionally. They scour the Pennysaver, Craigslist, the newspaper, and spend the entire day "yardsaling". These pros will also haggle you over every 5 cents. I was selling jewelry that I never wear for about 10cents a piece. A family of professional yard-salers came by, the (adult) daughter wanted to buy 3 of them, her dad tried to haggle me down to .20 instead of .30. really? Will that 10cents break your bank? I think its the "thrill" of the haggle, which when it's for a car or a house, it's called "bargaining" and I get it a bit more- but a dime? That's a haggle, and I don't understand. Another family drove past about 10 times, trolling the streets, shit crammed into their rusted red-ish early 90s toyota.

Cars would slow down in front of our house all day and shout out their requests, apparently too hot on the trail of a good deal to actually get out of the vehicle and walk the 5 steps to the house- "yinz got stamps or coins?" no. "got any precious metals?" uh, no. "what size shoes you got?" 8-9. Other people would stand at the bottom of the stairs and gaze towards the porch. You can't see much from the stairs, but it was like they were deciding if the bounty on the porch would be worth the muscle movements required to climb those 5 steps.

There were hundreds of houses participating. I made note of a few particularly spectacular items listed for sale, including: pigskin chairs, used underwear, empty milk bottles being sold for $7 dollars (empty!), but my #1 favorite, which I never saw live but which was advertised by two (TWO!) independent homes- "occupied japan." What does that mean? Items from post-WW2 Japan? Why did both houses list it as simply, "occupied Japan"? Apparently someone last year found and bought an actual zebra hide. I don't even want to think of the legality of that one, but it is a hit draped over your shoulders at parties.

Our neighbors all stopped by, and we offered a few inches of porch space to Leah and Rabih to unload a few of their unwanted appliances. They were obviously threatened by our amazing yield, so in attempt to make more money, came up with the following ingenious plan for extra cash flow for the day:

It was along day, but thankfully many houses were selling food and drink. I had some amazing Jamaican curry chicken, and the best edible sale- sugary lemonade purchased from a brother-sister pair. They were about 8 years old. He had firey red hair cut into a looong rat tail coming off of the back right side of his head. The sister was in a velvet black dress and pink velcro shoes...on the wrong feet. They looked like they stepped out of a Tim Burton adaptation of Oliver! amazing. This yard sale was definitely the best way I've seen you to get to know, or at least stare and make fun of, the people in the neighborhood.