If you plan on using a yard sale solely as an opportunity to get rid of 3 generations worth of stuff, you are setting yourself up for failure.
Save some time and anxiety.
Just call Salvation Army. Have them send a big truck.
Clearing out the basement will take a lot of work and you will end up getting your feelings hurt over and over again.
Also, you will hate everyone in your neighborhood and family by the end of the day.
My family had 7 tables worth of nic nacs and trinkets and wicker baskets for sale. So many baskets.
Sometimes you end up selling things that held a ton of sentimental value to one of your family members for a dollar.
Shame and guilt will wash over you as soon as the sale is complete. You will wish that the flea market haggler that trolled through your junk like it was shit would just fall and break the nic nac your grandmother once adored as they walk away.
And sometimes you sell a silver plated cracker trough to some weird guy for 5 dollars! Haha Sucker! Good luck with that SILVER-PLATED-CRACKER-TROUGH WEIRD GUY!!
Sometimes you have to offer sweet, sweet deals like this one to move product: Buy the tiny glass slipper and we will throw in the cutting board my uncle made in 7th grade for FREE! That's right, the Crawford's have BOGO deals!
And sometimes you sell your sister-in-law's $1,000 Prada Purse for 3 dollars.
True story.
She wanted to kill me.
In my defense, I thought it was a knock off.
I don't think the placement between the "Super Duper Baseball Bloopers" VHS from Blockbuster and the "Enema Syringe/Douche Bag" from 1971 on the table helped my valuation either.
Yes, it has a 3 year guarantee, but that eneded in 1974. And if its one thing you probably don't want to buy used, its something you have to stick in your ass or lady parts.
We have a complete inability to determine value in eachothers stuff.
There is a distinct difference between something that is an antique and something that is just an old piece of junk.
I think that might be the case with exercise equipment.
Its not a vintage cardio machine so much as its an old crappy mustard excercise bike with a spedometer.
Suprisingly, this item didn't sell.
A few other items that shockingly did not sell were a pair of JAMS I wore to a 1986 Italian Day picnic at Kennywood Park. These are actually back in style in New York...
...and a pair of AM/FM radio headphones.
Modeled by my dad, who is either enjoying some rock-n-roll or taking a dump.
After all the blood, sweat and tears, you come away with a few hundred if you're lucky.
The emotional costs are high.
Watching a foul smelling dude with hairy shoulders stick his oily, greasy head into one of your favorite Steeler Hoodies only to not buy it is a burn you can't easily bounce back from.
Fighting with family members over the price of an Apollo II paper weight just isn't worth it.
Even if you sell a bunch of stuff, you will still feel awful.
All the time you spent organizing and cleaning and setting up and breaking down will end up working out to be below minimum wage.
You will wake up in a cold sweat shortly after the yard sale, haunted by all those little trinkets you sold. "No!" you'll say, "I could have made room for that one! I could have given that one to my daughter! I could have called a distant cousin and driven that one to them! I could have gotten at least 10 bucks for that one!!!"
