Some Lessons Learned in Selling "Stuff"

Elberon, NJ May 22, 2000
Aaron H. Schectman

THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then. Opinions pro or con are welcome.
SOME LESSONS LEARNED IN SELLING "STUFF"

First, let someone else to it. Second, don't expect your "treasures" to be
appreciated by the people who march up your driveway. Third, lower your
prices even on the "priceless" possessions that you must give up. Your
patrons are interested only in bargains - to their advantage. Fourth, don't
do it for the money. It doesn't pay. Do it for the fun of dealing with the
public, those who come to see what they can take away from you.

Our two days were not just two days of selling and fun. We had rain both
days and it was very cold. We huddled over an electric radiator and were
dressed for winter in hats and gloves and the down coats we thought others
might want. And then, too, we were exhausted: physically and mentally. It
wasn't fun under those conditions. Think about the following.

1. We spent weeks in selecting things we no longer wanted and deciding on
how to price them.
2. The attic needed cleaning out; same for the space above our utility
room and the rafters in the garage. We had to clean out the crawl space and
the storage shed out back. We emptied closets and took things off high
shelves.

There was a tremendous amount of junk in these spaces. I hired a
man and a helper to do the work. The man left and said he would be back in
two hours. He didn't return until four hours later when the helper and I
had accomplished most of the work. The price of these labors was almost as
much as we took in for the two days of camping out in a cold garage while it
rained most of the time outside

We were going to hold another sale next weekend but the thought of doing it
all over again made us decide to get the liquidator in. She looked over the
stuff and spotted only a few "good" salable items. The rest she said she
would haul over to a charity and at least we could get a donation document
that we can declare on our tax form next year. Well, so it goes. You get
old too soon and too late schmart!
Carol's Evaluation: 8 out of 10 (Carol thought I hadn't quite captured the
piquant quality of misery we suffered in this attempt to sell "stuff".)