Recessionary times bad for garage sales?

I'm new to the garage sale scene. Early Saturday morning with my car packed full of baby stuff, I headed out to the Giant Kids Garage Sale with high hopes of getting rid of my stuff and making some money. Eight hours later, I returned home, with my car packed with my baby stuff and about $70 in my pocket. Ouch!

Last week I was so busy trying to get ready for the garage sale as well as trying to get a big hat order out that I had no time to blog. For a week, I painstakingly put items in Ziploc bags, labelled them, priced them as well as sorting and pricing items for the clothing rack, while trying to block dear husband's pleas that I was "selling darling daughter's childhood" every time I put a priced item of clothing or toy into the sell bin. I've heard so many great things about this garage sale, so I did have hopes of selling darling daughter's unwanted clothes and items. I did get rid of some stuff, but stuff that I thought would easily sell didn't.

It was an interesting experience as most the people I encountered were savvy shoppers, on the hunt for bargains. At one point, I reduced my prices. Two hours later, I took all the prices off, hoping people would make me an offer. I got some nibbles, but nothing concrete. People weren't even looking. And when they did, they were extremely picky. I took comfort that most people were in the same boat as us as no one seemed to be buying. At the end of the sale, it looked like no sale had taken place because there was so much stuff left over. It was incredible. I learned from other vendors that the sale didn't attract as many shoppers as it usually does. Some theorize that mass consignment sales that are being held every weekend throughout the spring here in the Ottawa area took a bite out of business. Some have said that these sales, overall, have been slow.

So are recessionary times bad for garage sales? Sure you want to get rid of stuff, but you don't want to give it away either. I enjoy bargains too, but the shoppers I encountered on Saturday were very hard to please. Right at the moment I was packing my stuff away to haul out to my car, a woman came over to look at darling daughter's cookie jar shape sorter. In my mind, I was doing a little happy dance as I thought I had a last minute sale. When she discovered the toy was battery operated (batteries were working perfectly) that apparently was a deal breaker and she walked away. At that point I had reached my limit. I stuffed the shape sorter in the box and headed out to the car. When I returned home, dear husband was happy to discover that I hadn't sold that piece of darling daughter's childhood.

To make a long blog post short, I'm off garage sales and possibly consignment sales, too. Not too sure how I'm going to get rid of darling daughter's leftover sale items. Luckily for me, they are folded neatly in Ziploc bags. I'll likely end up packing them away, lick my wounds and wait for a consignment sale in the fall. Hopefully by then people may be apt to part with their money.