Garage Sale Lightweight

We had our neighborhood garage sale this weekend and apparently I missed the big picture. The advertisement my neighbor Chris posted in the newspaper slated the start time for 9:00 am and ending at 4:00. By 8:00 am Saturday morning he and his wife had 5 large folding tables piled with items to sell. We hadn’t even started breakfast. My wife Linda walked the Portland to Coast Race this weekend leaving the girls and I to handle the garage sale. It’s the largest walk race of it’s kind with over 400 teams made up of 10 - 12 walkers each and lasts two days. This was her first year in the race and my first garage sale.

Chris had two televisions, furniture, books, and box after box filled with Taiwanese junk. He has two sources of income which he refers to as “my companies.” The first is a printing business where he takes a photo submitted by the customer and prints it on a Wheaties box just like the real ones you buy in the store with someone famous on the front. He’s the inventor or creator or whatever you’d call it of this idea and I believe he does a comfortable business with it. His second source of income, however, is from importing crap from Taiwan and China and hocking it to the lowest common denominator. Plastic 3-D puzzles, half sized coloring books with hard waxy crayons included, and spongy rubber holiday decorations are just a few of the items he sells.

A few months ago we ran into each other on our way to work. I to my office and he to his warehouse which another neighbor clarified for me, “It’s just a storage unit that he calls his warehouse.” This particular morning he had a new item to import and was anxious to talk to me about helping out. He held up a pencil made entirely from recycled Chinese newspapers. “You can even see little bits of Chinese writing there if you look closely,” he said. He had normal, pencil length versions and short stubby versions and it seemed he wanted me to get my company to buy great loads of the short version. “These would be great for handing out as promo items. Just imagine printing the logo right here at the end. It’d be a great marketing tool.”

This was yesterdays idea though and now as he prepared for the onslaught of garage sale buyers he arranged boxes and boxes of holiday decorations. Christmas and halloween mostly but there were a few strings of green leprechaun lights as well. I looked back at my driveway and his eyes followed.

We had a single item - a toddler bed that’s been sitting in our garage for the past six months taking up space. Is that all you’ve got,” he asked?”