Garage Sale Success!

Yesterday I held my first fund-raising event for the 3-Day: a garage sale! Actually, there are a few typos in that sentence; I/me really turned out to be we/our, for all the help I got from Jake.

The day got off to a rough start when I started it at 4 AM, about two hours earlier than I’d intended on waking up. After a coffee stop (at which I declined a drink, for some reason denying myself the caffeine I sorely needed) and a long, construction-prompted detour, we arrived at the Andersons’ and began to set up shop.

Anyone who knows me can tell you that I’m normally a very outgoing, friendly, people-person, but you wouldn’t have known it for that first hour or two. As we were still setting up, people started trickling over, asking such foolish questions as, “how much for that item?” or, “how’s it going?” My exhausted brain couldn’t seem to put any energy into being amicable when it was channeling all it had into putting things on tables, which suddenly seemed like a task worthy of a team of rocket scientists. Poor Jake had the misfortune to (rightfully) suggest lowering the prices during that first hour or so, and got a sullen glare from me for his trouble.

It was obvious that of the two of us, he was much more fit for company, so he started doling out the friendly greetings and smiles while I ran around getting things set out, putting up my signs, and finishing up pricing. Eventually I sat down, drank the orange juice Jake bought me, and let the sugar work its magic.

We were out there pretty much all day, and (once I de-zombie-ified) had a fantastic time! Even after I perked up and began having normal interactions with people, Jake remained the go-to guy all day. The cliché might just be true in this case: I couldn’t have done it without him! (Or at least done it as well).

Our efforts paid off; we raised about $200 yesterday! This morning we took the books/media that didn’t sell to Half-Priced books and garnered in another $20 – so all in all, this event raised 10% of the minimum goal :)

I have to say, I was a little surprised that more people weren’t interested in the fact that the money was going to a great cause (so Matt, Ryan, and Mike: you were right). Several people asked about the walk, but only a few offered more money because it was going towards breast cancer research. However, Jake tells me that when I was off getting us lunch, a man came by with his daughter and said that he was so glad to see that I was walking the 3-Day and fund-raising for it; evidently his wife had passed away from breast cancer.

I want to extend thanks to:
Natalie and Jordan for the use of their property, both to sell and on which to host the garage sale;
My mom and Dennis, for the loan of their truck and card tables;
Marie and my coworkers for being so great about donating items for me to sell;
And of course, my amazing boyfriend Jake for taking as much ownership of the event as he did – his help was immeasurable and he was great company besides!

Here are some pictures...

The signs I made. The rectangular black bars turned into arrows once we - no, Jake - figured out where to put them. (Oh yeah, another thanks to Jake for rigging up a creative sign-holder doohicky)

A closer look at the explanation


The sales team


Jake valiantly protects the books when it starts to sprinkle


Natalie on deck!


We're giants! With flowers.


PS - Thanks to those who voted on how to price things. We ended up pricing some stuff, and left some wiggle room for ourselves on certain items so we could name a price based on how interested they seemed. It seemed to work well!