Yard Sale
In September, many thoughts turn to the Lakewood Balmoral yard sale, which is usually scheduled for the second Saturday of September. It’s a twelve block sale with homeowners putting in their front yard much of the accumulation from their basements and attics. For the past two years, Lori and Don Lynch have hosted our sale of donated “stuff” at their corner, which has been quite good for us.
It begins a few days before when we gather various things to be sold. This year, we had some remainders from last year, so they were brought out first. We also had some donations from John Duskey, Teddy Duskey, Betty and Ara Mayian, Winn and Veronica Gillis, Carl and Lorraine Helbig and a neighbor in West Andersonville, Jose Sorto. The day of the sale begins early, at 7 a.m., when Sandee Remis, Lori and Kathy show up to begin pricing and setting things out. This part is difficult because by 8 a.m. the dealers are on the prowl looking for valuable and under priced merchandise.
Eventually, we got everything out on the tables, according to price or, sometimes, type of merchandise. Lori made us coffee and we started selling. It was rather frantic for a couple of hours and then seemed to taper down. In the afternoon we lowered some prices. After we sold one bookshelf at a reduced price, we had seven more people ask about it. Pricing things requires a lot of information and knowing who shops at yard sales.
The brilliant sales staff included Winn and Veronica Gillis, Mark Palermo, Ara and Betty Mayian, Linda Komosa, Lori Lynch, Kathy Gemperle and Jim Price. We packed up our remainders around 4 p.m. and took some things directly to the Brown Elephant. Other leftovers went to the Salvation Army. We owe a special thanks to St. Gregory High School for the use of their van. It was exhausting but fun. Total profit was about $500.