#GeekSpeak: The sometimes random misadventures of @Abby_Cake

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Abby. I met her in Chicago at the #20SBSummit, and this chick is raaaddddd!! She considers herself more of a nerd than a geek - but I think she's just all shades of random and awesome. Oh and FTR, the TNTML stance on nerds versus geeks are that nerds are products of a genetic predisposition, and geeks are raised. BOOH-YAH!!! I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT ABBY!!!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @Abby_Cake

Street vendors are a part of an age old trade, and one I took part in this weekend. This was the first garage sale I have ever held myself and it was quite successful.

Jared and I have been purging our apartment of meaningless items over the past few weeks. Part of the reason is that we are moving to Korea soon and, even so, I don’t want to fill a new place when we return with useless junk. Particularly I was intending to get rid of clothing, non-vegetarian cookbooks, and my overwhelmingly superfluous kitchenware. I had too many pots and pans, too many appliances, and way too many dishes — some of which are still in the boxes they came in, and most were gifts. I did keep a set of dishes, bowls, and salad plates along with a set of our silverware, tea mugs and assorted glasses. I only kept the pots and pans I use with regularity.

Already it feels like this ridiculous weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Just the act of being able to let go of my dishes was purifying.

Lessons learned:

• People will talk to you about anything if you appear friendly. I heard stories ranging from how heavily medicated one lady was, to a woman whose husband asked for a divorce (something she obviously did not intend to give) — she then proceeded to buy all four Twilight books, to a woman who insisted she was going to kill her cat for getting hair on her jacket.
• Don’t feed the stray dogs. Yes, they are very cute. No, they will not go away for the remainder of the garage sale.
• Merchandise the clothing. Clothing is notoriously hard to sell at garage sales. In order to maximize profits we had a “show” area for some of the nicer clothing (jackets, a prom dress, several other dresses). It enticed people to try things on. Also, only the people who should not, under any circumstances, be squeezing into your clothing will be the only people who buy it.
• Advertise. We put an ad on Craigslist the day before and hung signs around town, but putting an ad in the local paper probably would have gone a long way. Especially since in small towns garage sale-ing is a legitimate sport.
• Categorize. If you have a box worth of cookbooks or kitchen utensils (I had both) don’t bother pricing them all individually, just write “entire box $10” or “everything in box: 50 cents.” This might sound lazy (because it is) but it's also easier for everyone.
• Don’t be too proud. Price low on the second day. I am NOT a haggler. Confrontation makes me wildly uncomfortable and I will just stare wide-eyed until the haggling ends. Luckily, no one really haggled and some people even commented on my pricing being fair. I felt vindicated.
• Donate. Anything that doesn’t sell the second time around goes to Goodwill, it does not go back in the house! When we move out officially and begin packing for Korea, I suppose we will attempt one more garage sale before we go — so we broke this rule and kept a few things we might try to resell.

We ran our garage sale for two days, Friday and Saturday. I’d never heard of having a garage sale on a weekday, but surprisingly Friday was our best day monetarily (who knew). People stopped on the way to work or on their lunch breaks with newly filled envelopes from the bank. I honestly felt a little guilt about taking their newly acquired paycheck; but they were excited and I enjoyed the general ebb and flow of conversation. Jared sat in a chair and played guitar, much to the amusement of some older gentlemen who reminisced openly about their guitar years and spoke at length about “House of the Rising Sun.”

Overall, the best sellers were: books, cookbooks, kitchen utensils (pots, pans, etc.), dishes, fashion jewelry, and picture frames. We had a fairly priced paintball gun, fondue pot, and digital camera which didn’t sell, much to our surprise. Also, I must add that selling clothing is particularly frustrating because everyone just complains about not being your size (which is clearly my own fault).

We made about $350 total, not bad for sitting on our butts outside. Also, I am open to suggestions on what to spend the money on, anyone? :)

xx, @abby_cake

#nerdsunite

Want more from Abby?? Check out her blog over yonder - and don't forget to drop her a follow on twitter!!