The Secret Life of Yard Salers

Our family recently had a yard sale and I became aware that there is an interesting subculture. It is likely that as finances become tighter there may be more people running the roads and following the signs for the treasure hunt. When you are deciding what to put out there in your yard sale you never really know what people are going to be interested in. I did observe that men in particular seem to be in search of tools, new ones and antiques. Some people arrive as couples and the guy will sort of hang back disinterestedly and the "wife" will beckon him over if she observes something he might like. Books are always popular.You sometimes wonder what people's views might be based on the book title. It is also true of the yard sale host that if you have some of the "liberal literature" (books left over from college) it might cause visitors to your yard to wonder about you.The items people select appear to be somewhat random although "little old ladies" (no offense intended, I'm headed there too) like the nick nacks and will also pick up toys for the grand kids.I once knew a woman who had a serious hoarding problem who had a house and garage packed with stuff she had bought at yard sales. When she would send stuff to her children and the grand kids they were horrified.Eventually they had to trick her to go away on a little vacation and descend on their mother's home and start hauling stuff away. Of course this is an exception but how many of us have bought things at yard sales and then had no use for it.There are some fairly astute people now who will pick up a bargain and turn around and put it on E-Bay. You really need to know the value of your castoffs. I find that many visitors to yard sales are very friendly and talkative. You end up hearing their personal stories. One women bought our set of old dishes for her daughter who was setting up her first apartment. It was rather humorous when a ten year old boy begged his mother to by our little dorm sized refrigerator left over from our kids when they were in college. He tried to convince his mother he needed the refrigerator for his room. We laughed and thought it was hilarious. One unexpected outcome from our recent summer yard sale was meeting some of our neighbors whom we hadn't been acquainted with.We offered to just give them the small inexpensive items they had in their hands but were insistent they give us the 75cents. I've often wondered if people have a strategy about stopping at sort of nice houses because they are likely to have sort of nice stuff. I must confess that I hardly ever stop myself at yard sales so I don't have a clear idea of the etiquette. I'm sure there are probably unwritten rules.Maybe someone has published a book on it and if I go to a yard sale I can buy it.