Garage Sale Phenomenon: Part 2

Alright…here is the deal: its garage sale morning, its go time. The female half of the four couples have arisen early with the same excitement and adrenaline rush as one might feel if they were preparing to play for a national championship. For you see, this is the championship of the garage sale world. It’s time to prove to all who attend that you are the best of the best, the cream of the crop, to attain the heralded title of the best “garage saler” around. Realize, anyone can go to a garage sale and stumble across a good deal; but putting on a garage sale and coming out the top seller…that is the pinnacle of success in the garage sale world. It is the Super Bowl, when everyone else is playing for the 1A state championship. And so it begins.

Four couples arrive at the home of those hosting the garage sale, breakfast tacos (from La Familia, Schneider) in hand, 30 minutes prior to the start time of 7:00 AM listed in the newspaper ad. (By the way, subtract from any money earned the cost of the aforementioned ad as they don’t give those away for free.) Typically, the first 30 minutes will look like this: guys sit around and eat tacos and drink coffee; ladies huddle up and decide who is the most outspoken and aggressive of the group. This lady is posted at the end of the driveway to ward off those die hard bargain shoppers who started circling the cul-de-sac sometime last night and are now trying to get a jump on the competition. There will be no fewer than ten cars, laden with “garage salers” who try to get to your stuff before the appropriate hour of 7:00 AM. And this violates all garage sale rules apparently. I'm still unclear why it does because I was under the impression that we wanted to sell all we could. But, I digress as I'll cover that later. While these diehards are rebuffed, the remaining ladies move tables of “merchandise” out of the garage, onto the driveway, and get set up with eager anticipation of the fast approaching hour of 7:00 AM.