Getting in at the end of yard sales isn’t all bad

This weekend we went to a yard sale at the YMCA.  The yard sale was an event to raise money for the Kids' Spot; people wanting to sell stuff bought a spot within the event, and this money went toward Kids' Spot.

Amongst a bunch of other things we had demanding our attention, we got the ending time of the sale wrong.  We had thought that we would have an hour or so at the sale, but we arrived there about 15 minutes before the end.  The sellers were already starting to pack up their stuff.

We were a tad disappointed, but there are a few good things about hitting a yard sale at the very end:

• It forces efficiency. We didn't have a lot of time, but we didn't have a lot of time to waste, either.  Saving money is great, but depending on the situation, saving time is more important.  The added need for focus helped us to act quickly, and the “priority items” jumped out a little more at us, like a closet organizer and a couple of shelving units.
• It reduces the likelihood that we'll buy a lot of junk we don't need. Because, that's SO out.  We've been there and done that and have boxes full of T-shirts to prove it.  Fifteen minutes doesn't gives a lot of time for collecting junk.
• Most importantly, though, the deals can be pretty good! A lot of the stuff is gone, but what's left can go for fire-sale prices.  Why?  Because it was a blistering hot day, the sellers were tired, they were almost done with their sale, and then they got to … pack and lift everything that they didn't sell back into their vans and trucks, and then take it to a donation station or the dump, or unload it back into their garage.  Yahoo … NOT!  We found that we could get really fantastic deals on stuff.  And the heavier the stuff was, the better deal we got on it!  Amazing how that works, no?

So, this weekend we got less yard-saling in than we thought we were going to, but it wasn't all bad.