A candle and a laptop

A post that was forgotten to upload due to the holidays rush…

… My legs are hurting and I am exhausted from yesterday. This is the result of the garage sale I went as a vendor. This usually happens once a year at the end of the school year for people to sell items they do not need anymore and others to buy useful items they need. There are usually lots of used clothes, toys and books at very cheap prices. Many times there are very good deals with items almost new (especially toys and books). I have been going through the cupboards of clothes for the last few weekends separating everything (or at least a lot of it) we did not want or did not fit anymore. I separated good items that were still good to sell and others too old (only to give away). We had about 6 suitcases full of varied items. I had planned to sell items at very cheap prices (between 1 and 5 usd each) and give away to charity anything not sold thereafter. I had agreed with the girls they would help to sell the items that had belonged mostly to them, we would split the profit equally and they could use their money to buy new toys or clothes. This was also an incentive to really go through some of our cupboards (that were quite full) and make a good choice of items we did not really needed or use anymore (sometimes choices somehow difficult to make). We were all very excited to get rid of a pile of old/unused stuff and may be still making a reasonable profit!

We packed the car early in the morning and prepared a picnic basket as the sale was from mid morning to mid afternoon. We arrived there, with half of the other sellers already in place. We quickly laid out our items on the table we had booked, organizing piles of identical prices to facilitate the sale. I realized soon I had too many items to display in just one table. But the problem to have two tables was the need to have more people to control them. So I put the pile of clothes on top of the table and the toys, books and shoes on the floor and on top of chairs in front of our table.

The first two hours were quite busy but still under control. We sold books almost new, games and stuffed teddy bears. There were also new shoes nobody had used. The first priority was given to the school staff, students and families. Many of the security guards and students, parents and teachers made very good deals with our items. There was a lot of bargain and things were selling fast, especially shoes.

The rest of the crowd was queuing at the gate waiting for the time to get in. A few minutes before the scheduled time, the organizers come to tell us they were going to open the gates to the general public and we should be careful as they were many. The additional crowd came and our table was even more surrounded by people picking clothes, choosing colors and sizes and bargaining even more. At some point we lost control of the items. People where stealing and the pile were reducing fast in a big mess. The security guards that were around realized we had difficulties and came to help us. Suddenly we realized we were almost squashed against the wall behind us. The crowd had slowly pushed our table and we had no more space to move behind the table. We grabbed the pile of cloths and stop selling until we managed to re-organize the mess. My friend selling on the table next to mine offered me some help, but the best help I needed was to take the kids home as they were a bit distress with such a mess. We regain control and sold most of the few items remaining. At that point as there were only a few things left, people tried to buy anything else on sight, the plastic stools I was sitting on, the boxes I had brought with my snacks, the empty suitcases we used to bring the items…

Before I come to Ethiopia someone told me we could sell anything here. Thinking about this, it is true that there are not so many thinks available, but on the other end there are lots of shops with cloths and shoes (although usually only one item of each, and very difficult to find a range of sizes of the same item or color). Things have been improving through the years we have been here. I think the main difference is on the prices (but also on the unique items they find – like many of the toys no one would find here). New items are usually expensive. Foreign people usually tend to sell second hand items at very reasonable prices and people really go there to get good items for almost nothing.    

We regularly have many items we do not need. Although we give away many of them to the maids and orphanages, there are times we have too much to give away and particularly sometimes items too good or too valuable to just give them away. In many other countries many of these items have no value at all. So this was a good opportunity to get back some of the money spent. We made the equivalent to 500 usd on the sale last Sunday. In fact, this roughly means that those items must have cost us at least 5000 usd to acquire or even more… This made me realize how much money we often spend and many times is wasted. Many of the clothes were only used a couple of times. This also makes me feel less eager to buy new clothes…

This usually happens once a year. So I am preparing more bags for next time. There are always things that are left and forgotten behind. I will try to be better prepared. It was quite a big mess but I think it was also fun and a great experience. I have done this before several times, but many times the amount we make is diluted as we end up spending buying items from the neighboring tables. This time there was no time to look at the other tables, so no time to spend! This was the first time I had such a large amount of (especially children’s) clothes and shoes. I think that is why was so particularly messy!

I am happy we got rid of most of the suitcases of unused stuff. We went back home with only one half full suitcase. We made some money that we can try to spend wisely and still have a few items left to give away. It was a good experience in many ways. I also know we were definitely partially robbed; I keep remembering items I had there, do not remember to sell them but they were gone at the end of the day. I wish I could have given them to poor people, but after all, I think the ones that took them must have been somehow also needed people. I just wish I could have given then to better people…