Rules for Yard Sale Attendees

Photo: "Garage Sale" by Accretion Disc CC by 2.0 - added text

Are yard sales regional?  They are huge in Ohio.  They take so much work to set up and tear down that you have to really have a lot of good stuff to sell in order to make it worthwhile.  It helps if you have multiple families to sell and work the yard sale too.  More sellers=more stuff=more traffic=more money!  But this is not a post about how to sell at a yard sale.  Although I did make quite a bit of moolah this weekend, I don't consider myself an expert on that at all.  I can consider myself an expert on how one should behave at a yard sale.  What I might consider common sense to most people, rules clearly need to be laid out for others.  So, here goes.

1.  Wear shoes.  Just because my sale is in my garage does not mean I want you walking around barefoot in it.  The same goes for shirts and pants, too.  This might be a stretch, but if it's not allowed in Wal-Mart, it's probably inappropriate in the general public as well.

2.  No smoking.  I don't care if you choose to kill yourself in the privacy of your own home, but please don't take me and my kids down with you.

3.  "I brake for yard sales" is a joke.  You should not stop in the middle of the street to "browse" or park in the neighbor's driveway.  Oh, and that bright yellow thing in front of the house is a hydrant.  The fire department frowns upon parking in front of those too.

4.  I'll make a deal with you, but I won't let you steal from me.  This is not an open-air market in Cancun.  If a baby walker is priced $25 and a Baby Bjorn is priced $15, I'm not going to give you both items for $25.  If I tell you "no" more than twice, stop asking.  It's not going to change, and now all you're doing is annoying me.

Sadly, I'm speaking from experience here.  Have anything to add?  I will happily post a sequel, you know, to help all mankind.