http://search.ebay.com/hp-11c_W0QQfkrZ1QQfromZR8">these. My geek friend was very excited. His quit working... these calculators are very popular with electrical engineers.
(4) Most clever sale? My yard sale signs sold for $5.
(5) Hardest sell? A box of old topo maps for $65... I love maps. I hated to sell these, but I wasn't doing anything with them. Some artist bought them and she was going to actually do something interesting with them... which is why I let them go.
(6) Computer stuff does not sell... you can hardly give it away. Couldn't even sell a 17" trinitron monitor that was in decent shape for $10.
(7) If it has the words "Coca-Cola" on it, you will probably sell it.
--- It truely is amazing what people will buy, and won't buy. We had some stuff left over I was really surprised didn't sell at all. Yet some of my 'junkier' stuff went at full asking price.
Wierd.
3151. arkymalarky - 6/27/2005 9:16:07 PM
Bob would have loved the maps and probably the calculator.
Good tips. I'd rather have bamboo shoots shoved up my nails than do a yard sale, but we really need to one of these days. We'd have to move all the stuff to somewhere else to have it, though, which would be a nightmare. I'm never up early enough to get much out of yard sales, but I like them.
3152. iiibbb - 6/27/2005 9:33:16 PM
More tips
(1) I would tag-team with other families if I were you. I forgot to mention that's what we did. Multi-family sales are a big draw and I think enhance your likelyhood of getting what you want for stuff. In addition, rather than being a painful experience, you get to hang out with friends of yours while you sell stuff.
(2) Mark stuff about 20% over what you'd really take. People want to haggle. If they show any interest you can immediately knock some money off.
(3) You can tell what we didn't mind keeping... stuff that was over $20 is stuff that we wouldn't care if we took home.
(4) Make sure stuff is clean... clean stuff sells significantly better, and at significantly closer to your asking price.
(5) Have a free-stuff box... part of the object is to get rid of stuff... if you really don't care, just mark it as free. If you can't bring yourself to do that, "buy something, and get something from the box for free".
3153. thoughtful - 6/28/2005 8:48:36 PM
I eat LOTS of veggies and get tired of eating the same old same old, so I've found the best way to add zip to veggies is to combine them. Last night, I sauted up vidalia onions with garlic, zucchini and plum tomatoes in olive oil. I seasoned it with fresh parsley and basil and of course salt and pepper. Came out yummy. Serve with or without a sprinkling of parm cheese on top. Would've been good if I had some criminis around to toss in too....
3154. Magoseph - 6/28/2005 9:12:55 PM
I’m tired of eating vegetables too and lately I have blended them in the mixer with a little Tabasco sauce and chili powder and drank the whole down quickly. I have prepared vegetables in all kinds of ways and I’m tired of cooking two meals every meal. What are criminis?
3155. thoughtful - 6/29/2005 1:30:52 PM
criminis are baby portabella mushrooms...pack a wallop of flavor.
3156. concerned - 6/29/2005 3:54:55 PM
What a dry spring and hot early summer it has been in the upper midwest. I actually have had to water my plantings & some saplings this year to ensure they don't succumb to stress.
OTOH, I have some good news to report with regard to the colorado blue spruces and even some of the western hemlocks I planted this year. Most of the (bare root) blue spruces are showing new growth and some of the hemlocks are also. Also, I am succeeding in keeping the deer away with bitter pellets and occasional applications of Deer Off. Also, my Southern Magnolia is turning it around, having suffered only moderate leaf burn over the winter with no shoot die back and growing six inches so far this year (for the previous two years, it had suffered major die back and leaf burn). And I came across a web forum where somebody not far from me (slightly northwest of me) is having good success growing a Southern Magnolia of the same cultivar as I have (Bracken's Brown Beauty - most others have failed for him). He says his flowered last year and the secret to survival in Zone 5 is not to get them too small and keep them going until they're about five years old. He says once his got established it made it through a northern Illinois winter without any leaf burn. I'm not sure I'm quite ready to accept that yet since even some conifers such as arbor vitae get leaf burn, but it'd be great if my Southern Magnolia actually became that hardy. Souther Magnolias, I find out, are also pretty unique for a flowering tree because they supposedly bloom more or less continuously throughout much of the growing season once they become established.
3157. judithathome - 6/30/2005 1:02:05 AM
Good news on your trees, Con'ed!
3158. Jenerator - 7/2/2005 8:12:07 PM
Cool wesbite, Jex.
---
iiibbb,
A few weeks ago, my mom and I had a garage sale of mostly my stuff. We planned on having it for two days, but the weather stopped us the first day.
Knowing that the experts hit 'em early, we set up shop at 6:30 am. By 8:00 am, we had made $250. Then the rain moved in and we made $50 more as we were packing up.
The biggest sellers were some old candy/gumball machines that my husband had from his grandparents, circa 1900 and an old rocker. The couple who bought those tried so desperately to not appear as dealers, but we knew. They kept asking us about old tools that we may have had laying around the house.
I know that those are verycollectible right now.
We had a 1960 Broyhill cabinet for sale for $30, but no one even looked at it. We wound up calling Goodwill.
The only time I got really angry was when the females tried to haggle me about clothes prices. I had some beautiful pieces I was getting rid of from St. John and Cache for $1-$5 a piece and they were trying to bring them down to $.50. I wouldn't budge and they wouldn't buy!
I wound up selling them all to other people. Oddly enough, it was the Vietnamese who were trying to bargain the most. Is that a cultural thing?
Anyway, despite the weather closing us down, we were happy to make some money that's going to the baby's room.
3159. arkymalarky - 7/2/2005 8:23:58 PM
Mose sells her clothes to a place in Hot Springs called "Nearly New," and it's very handy. I don't know how much she's made, but they send checks when they sell the stuff.
3160. judithathome - 7/3/2005 12:28:23 AM
Is that a cultural thing?
Maybe they just didn't have much money.
3161. Ms. No - 7/3/2005 12:33:10 AM
Finally found a market where I can get Kaffir Leaves and Galanga. I'm still trying to perfect my Tom Ka Gai recipe and have decided that I don't like any of the "make do" versions that entail using Ginger and grated lime peel.
The checkout clerk at the Bangluck Market looked at what I was buying -- Galanga root, Kaffir Leaves, White Basil --- and said "Oh, you make Tom Ka Gai?" and I said "Well, I'm attempting it. I've been looking for Kaffir leaves all week. If it doesn't turn out right I'm coming back and asking you for instruction." She laughed and told me to bring her a sample.
3162. thoughtful - 7/5/2005 10:05:53 PM
Help from another gardner please....we planted our tomaotes and the plants look extremely healthy. They started blossoming in early June and so far all but one of the blossoms have dried up and fallen off. We have one tomato. Any ideas why?
In past years we had a fungus attack the plants and they'd start dying from the bottom up, so someone suggested we plant them in pots instead, which we did. I'm afraid we made the soil mix too rich and that's why we're getting what we're getting.
Neighbor suggested that overnight temps have been largely too cool and it takes a certain amount of heat for the blossoms to set. He also suggested we may not have enough bees pollinating them, but we've not had that problem before.
Any suggestions?
3163. judithathome - 7/5/2005 10:58:57 PM
No suggestions but I do recall someone...a neighbor? another poster?...talking about beating the tomato plants to make pollinate.
3164. thoughtful - 7/7/2005 1:52:29 PM
well, i looked on the net and found an article that blossom drop is related to temperature variations and there's very little one can do about it. It's a shame. I was so hopeful having gotten blossoms on the plants so early. Our growing season is short and I so look forward to that first juicy tomato!
Well maybe we'll get some real tomaotes yet....
