All-mom pickers

Saturday, I had a mega sale of all of Elly’s old clothes and baby junk.  I started working on sorting all of her stuff about 2 months ago.  (Did I mention I'm a hoarder?)  Needless to say, there was a ton of crap and really had to be sorted out to the various categories of sizes, gear and sleepwear.

Finally, I picked a day and was committed to selling the stuff and making back some of my money.  The only problem is that I happened to pick the hottest f’ing day of the year in Washington D.C. to have a yard sale. 

It was so hot…

How hot was it?

It was so hot a plane sank into the tarmac at Reagan National Airport.  Now if that isn’t freakin’ hot, I don’t know what is!

I had been advertising this sale for three days leading up to the sale.  By Friday when I realized the weatherman was going to be right and I would actually sweat my balls off spending the afternoon outside in the sun, I made the executive decision to move the sale inside.

BRILLIANT!

I had such a great response.  Tons of people.  And by tons of people, I actually grew a bit concerned at one point that I may have exceeded the maximum capacity for fire safety exits in my house! 

But the payoff was great!

Tons of pregnant women made it out searching for great deals and cool A/C.  But with these women came the hagglers.  Now, I understand that haggling in other cultures is very common and actually the norm.  For me, I’m not that used to it.

Thank God my hours invested into reality television paid off again.

Friday night I stayed up late folding clothes, watching the History Channel’s American Pickers.  I established a great cost system that the more you bought the better a deal you got.  Thanks to Frank, that’s the power of bundling. 

I found myself negotiating like Mike:

B: “That’ll be $14.”

Random woman: “$10.”

B: “I’m at $14, you’re at $10, let’s split the difference and it’s $12.”

Random guy: “How much is that?”

B: “$25”

Random guy: “$5?”

B” “Uh, NO! I could do $20.”

Random guy walks away.  Jerk!  Who tries to offer $5 for an exersaucer in great condition?  This is All-mom pickers not Let’s Make a Deal. 

Overall it was a great turn out and yielded great results.  Too bad within 24 hours I turned around and became a mom picker myself and went shopping for Elly’s fall/winter fashion line.  It’s funny how I can make so much money one day and be back to nothing the next all because of my kid.