Thursday, June 7, 2007

Garage Sale Bullies!

This morning I went to a few garage sales around my house. My morning started out great! The first sale I stopped at I hit the jackpot! The boys are really into trains and for their birthday Matt's Mom, Dad, and Sister Joann started them with a collection of GeoTrax trains. They are so cool!

As soon as I walked up the drive way I noticed three big boxes of Geotrax. I asked the lady if I could purchase the 2 trains with remotes (Retail price 19.99 each). She said no unfortunately I am selling everything together. So, I asked how much for everything. She replied $20! I got over $200 worth of Geotrax in perfect condition for $20!!!

I have only been to one other garage sale this spring. At this last sale I noticed a man with a truck with a trailer attached and toys were just overflowing. I really thought nothing of it except I was a little jealous because there was a football toybox the boys would have loved.

This brings me to my next sale. I hit another house with tons of new boy toys. I really think I am on roll now after my last find! I almost have my hand on a big bag of plastic tools, perfect for the boy's workbench. Along comes the garage sale bully!

The lady grabs the tools plus about 5 other surrounding items and quickly tries to confuse the garage sale host by bartering down each and every item!!! The lady got so flustered she said, "fine, but not the tools they are too nice and I will not lower the price". I swear at this point I was going to offer the lady double the ticketed price to to spite this bully. But, before I knew it she was bartering again for other toys and somehow fit in the tools. They were gone!

The bully turns around to her husband and tells him to pack the toys in the trailer. It was the same man I saw a couple of weeks ago. And again he had an overflowing trailer. Darn these people! I am sure they do this for a living and sell the toys on Ebay or Craigslist, but they take the fun out of garage sales. I told my mom about this story and she remembers him from last year at my garage sale. You'd better believe this year I will be ready for those garage sale bullies! Am I ridiculous or what?

Here is a picture of Matt trying to assemble the new GeoTrax. He has already been at it for an hour! Such a dedicated Dad.

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