A Tag Sale. A Misfit Convention.

~ Laura

On Saturday morning, armed with egg sandwiches and large coffees, Steve, Suze and I arrived at the dusty home to prepare for a full day tag sale. The sale was set to start at 10, but the hard core types arrived at 8:30. 

The first guy who walked into the house was looking for silver and costume jewelry. He had the sculpted eyebrows of someone who spends his evenings at a drag club. He was joined moments later by older woman who was looking for beaded purses. They greeted each other by first names. The pros all know each other. 

By 9:00, we had a full house of people who rifled through Aunt Theresa's belongings without remorse. They had no fear of the horror movie of a basement. The casual shoppers who wandered into the house after seeing the sign in the front lawn were more emotional. They wanted to know about the woman who lived there. They reminded their friends that this is what happens to your stuff when you die. 

The things that sold: bags of yarn and vintage cloth that Aunt Theresa had stockpiled for the end times, old table clothes with lace and embroidery, hats, junk jewelry, art books, baking tins, rolling pins, coats, purses, old liquor bottles, framed art, scarves, a trunk, one wheel chair, salad tongs, Christmas decorations, a bed spread, and one lamp. 

Things that didn't sell: furniture, the piano, silver plated serving platters, glasses, and china. 

Even with all the sales, we still had tons and tons of stuff leftover. We'll have to donate the rest of the stuff to a good cause. There were tea pots from England with the tags still on them. A wing backed chair from EJ Audi. I have no idea how we'll get rid of the piano. 

At the end of the day, we counted up the wad of money. We got a $1,000. If we advertised more and were open for two days, we could have made $2,000, I think, but I had devoted enough time to helping my mom liquidate this home. 

Published by Laura

11 thoughts on “A Tag Sale. A Misfit Convention.”

  1. You might want to consult a piano technician/tuner. Ours has a good network of fellow tuners and piano people, and always seems to know about folks looking to buy or sell a piano in good shape. Alternately, it might be easier to just donate it to a small church, a school, a community center or similar. First, though, you have to be sure it is still in playable condition with no major faults (broken sound board etc.) For that, you need that piano technician.
    Congrats on liquidating some of the stuff. A big job.

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  2. You can donate the furniture to a furniture bank.
    http://www.furniturebanks.org
    Furniture banks are not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organizations whose mission is to provide free furniture to families struggling with poverty and other severe life challenges. These families are financially unable to furnish their own homes to even a minimal standard. Furniture banks collect donations of gently used furniture, and provide the furniture for free to families in need via referrals from other social service agencies, churches, schools, employers, etc.

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  4. You can always do a Craigslist free curb alert — I’m always surprised how fast things go when I do this.
    I’m not saying this jokingly at all, if you know of any Mormons, let them know you have a piano. Ask them to spread the word and you might find someone who’d want it.

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  6. When I was in college, we had a pile of discarded couches that was behind the garage. Someday I should see if it is still there.

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  7. The NYT had a very sad article about analog pianos being tossed into dumps. I hope you find a home for that piano (and that its in good enough shape that it needs a home).
    There’s freecycle, in our neck of the woods (a group, kind of like craig’s list but not exactly). Given that you’ve already done your yard sale, and no one lives in the house, I wonder if you could do a “curb” pick stuff up free and just let people take stuff from the house.

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  8. In our area there’s an instrument closet for kids who want to take music lessons in public school but can’t afford the rental. Don’t know if your local instrument closet would take a piano, but call your local music teacher at school — she would know. Great programs.

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  9. I agree with the freecycle and church donation options.. the nice thing about the church donation option is that the value of the piano can be a tax deduction..

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  10. thanks, guys, for the tips. Who knew that stuff could be such a burden?

    I am finding that a key factor in every purchase that I am making is whether it will create — on net — less stuff. Just this weekend, I bought an iPhone 4S, allowing me to avoid having a iPod and a cell phone. And I have everything uploaded to the ‘cloud’, so I feel like I don’t need to keep those CDs in the back of my closet anymore “just in case.”
    Also, my Nook from Barnes & Noble broke (after 17 months, so covered by the extended warranty. How often have you bought an extended warranty, and the thing actually breaks after the initial warranty period and is still covered!) They replaced it for free, and I could re-upload all of my books. The iPhone was really cheap, also, when you buy the Data Plan.
    I’ve been wondering how much of the decrease in crime over the past 20 years stems from there being a lot less value in the “stuff” itself, and more in the associated services. If someone stole my iPhone and Nook tomorrow, I could cheaply replace them, de-register them, move the Data Plans and books to the new ones, and the thief wouldn’t really get anything.
    In any event, with mid-range stuff lasting longer, and stable populations in rich countries, the demand for “stuff” is really drying up. The furniture and pianos may be great, but I’ve got my own grandma’s nice old, bulky stuff. Why should I go buy someone elses?
    And besides the big, bulky stuff, that leaves the china, which has a main purpose of taking up space for 360+ days out of the year. (Did you buy new plates? Medium Raggirl asked this weekend. Um, no. I just haven’t run the dishwasher in 3 days, and had to break into the china that you don’t recognize.)
    Everyone wants space savers and services. Big bulky “things” (the stuff you can steal) really don’t seem to be that valuable anymore.

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  11. If there is anything with probably “real” value, such as good furniture or silver, consider contacting a local auction house. They could identify the things they could likely sell, which should get rid of some of it. There are also furniture consignment stores.

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