Beginnings Care for Life Benefit
Garage Sale
October
3 and 4, 2008 - 8am to 3pm - Private sale with all proceeds donated to
the pregnancy help center
Day One
My wife and I heard that the local pregnancy help center, Beginnings
Care for Life, was in a serious financial pinch this fall. We asked
ourselves what we could do, and
we came up with this idea - a garage sale, with all proceeds donated to
the center. It was
advertised in the Reporter, Shopper's
Guide, on MyColdwater.com, and on the busy street as shown above.
We asked our church for help so members could donate items
for the sale. And wow, we got carloads and carloads of stuff... enough
to call the sale "HUGE"! The picture above was taken a few days before
the sale. Once our garage filled up, we had to start stacking stuff on
our porch!
The first customer arrived at about
8:07am. After that, it was a steady, non-stop stream of traffic all
day! Until the end of the sale, there were only about 3 breaks of 5-10
minutes each when no customers were around.
These early shoppers braved the cold
weather to get the best bargains at the sale. It started out wet from
the rain overnight, and it took a while for things to dry off.
I had to take an extra day off work
to clean out the garage, sort the items, and get them on tables and
priced for the sale. My wife and I were out an hour before the sale
setting up, and we were still settings things out as customers arrived.
We had so many clothes that we couldn't get them all out, and we had to
wait an hour or two for things to dry off before we could put many of
them out.
All the furniture shown here sold the first day except for the black
table (sold on Day 2), the white kids' play table, and the plant stand.
As the weather warmed up, we finaly got more of the clothes out. But we
were so busy with the sale that there will still 10 bags or so that
never went out - they would have to wait until Day 2.
The kids enjoyed exploring
the toys and books that were set out. All small toys were only 25 cents
during the entire sale.
The furniture was a huge draw
to the sale, with most of it selling before noon of the first day.
Eventually, every item you see here sold except for the children's
workbench set.
Day Two
Saturday's sale was much
quieter. Most of the furniture was already gone, so there was less to
showcase, and much of Coldwater was still sleeping in. A few big sales
were made early, but there wasn't any major traffic until 10:30am.
Around 11:30am, there finally was a busy, continuous stream of traffic.
During the earlier waiting times, though, I was able to finally get all
the clothes out, and we implemented a "$1 a bag" sale which many
shoppers took advantage of, some staying for over an hour to pick
through the massive piles.
In the garage, most small items were 50 cents.
To help move some of the
slower selling items, prices were slashed even more on Day 2. One of
the most popular Day 2 specials was the Christmas Sale in which every
item was priced at 25 cents, even if marked otherwise, including light
sets, ornament sets, etc.
There were so many clothes
that we even had a swimming pool of clothes! We probably sold about one
third to one half of them, but still had a van full left over which we
will dontate to a local charity.
Why so many pictures over just a garage sale? It was such a wonderful
day. The sale was so successful, and so many people enjoyed the huge
bargains (almost everyone walked away with at least one item), and we
made $587 to donate to the center. It was just one of those things were
you could see the hand of God working, and for all those who visited
the sale, it's great to share the memories!
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