My legendary Vast Accumulation of Stuff garage sales will return in June. I started doing these a few years back when it finally hit me that I desperately needed to downsize my stuff. There were lots of reasons for this and more reasons have been added with each passing year. Here are the top six:
1. Having just watched Sainted Wife Barb and others have to clear my mother-in-law’s house of decades of stuff, I don’t want to put Barb and our children through that when I die and become a vengeful spirit. They might still have to deal with a lot of stuff, but it won’t be anywhere near what they would have to deal with if I die before the end of today’s bloggy thing.
2. I would really like to know what books, comics and stuff I own. I know what I think I have, but I’d like to be certain, especially when it comes to comics and other things I am actively collecting. Or would be actively collecting if I knew what I had.
3. I would like to reduce my monthly expenses by the $218.74 I pay out every month for three storage units.
4. I enjoying spending a few hours every other week or so selling stuff and talking to fans and friends and neighbors. Writing can be a lonely profession and the garage sales allow me to interact with other human beings.
5. I could use the money. I need dental implants. I need to buy a bunch of comic books for research on ongoing projects. I would like to renovate my office to make it more efficient.
6. Because of the nature of my garage sales, which are built around old comic books and related items, I can create mini-conventions of a sort around them. You can expect to see cosplay, guest exhibitors and even panel discussions in my driveway. Because I am all about the fun.
This items for sale at this year’s sales will be somewhat different than in previous years. My first priority is to drastically reduce the clutter in my office. That means you’ll be seeing higher-priced comics, books and magazines than before. I’ll still have boxes of comics, magazines, paperbacks, trade paperbacks and even hardcover books at a quarter each. But those bargain boxes will be fewer in number this year. On the bright side, you can usually count on the sales including between a half-dozen and a dozen $5 mystery boxes every time. My customers love those mystery boxes.
1. Having just watched Sainted Wife Barb and others have to clear my mother-in-law’s house of decades of stuff, I don’t want to put Barb and our children through that when I die and become a vengeful spirit. They might still have to deal with a lot of stuff, but it won’t be anywhere near what they would have to deal with if I die before the end of today’s bloggy thing.
2. I would really like to know what books, comics and stuff I own. I know what I think I have, but I’d like to be certain, especially when it comes to comics and other things I am actively collecting. Or would be actively collecting if I knew what I had.
3. I would like to reduce my monthly expenses by the $218.74 I pay out every month for three storage units.
4. I enjoying spending a few hours every other week or so selling stuff and talking to fans and friends and neighbors. Writing can be a lonely profession and the garage sales allow me to interact with other human beings.
5. I could use the money. I need dental implants. I need to buy a bunch of comic books for research on ongoing projects. I would like to renovate my office to make it more efficient.
6. Because of the nature of my garage sales, which are built around old comic books and related items, I can create mini-conventions of a sort around them. You can expect to see cosplay, guest exhibitors and even panel discussions in my driveway. Because I am all about the fun.
This items for sale at this year’s sales will be somewhat different than in previous years. My first priority is to drastically reduce the clutter in my office. That means you’ll be seeing higher-priced comics, books and magazines than before. I’ll still have boxes of comics, magazines, paperbacks, trade paperbacks and even hardcover books at a quarter each. But those bargain boxes will be fewer in number this year. On the bright side, you can usually count on the sales including between a half-dozen and a dozen $5 mystery boxes every time. My customers love those mystery boxes.
Even the higher-priced items will be priced well below their cover prices, generally about a third of their cover price. There will be boxes of comic books originally priced at $2.99 to $4.99 and more selling for a dollar each.
Do you collect Monopoly games? If so, you won’t want to miss these garage sales. I have well over fifty collectible and still factory-sealed games that will be selling for five and ten dollars apiece. I’ll also have assorted loose Monopoly pewter figures and such on sale. Stock up for family game nights!
I’ll have Isabella-written stuff for sale, some older comics, maybe some posters, maybe some other cool stuff. I literally won’t know what specific items will be on sale at any given garage sale until I finished getting ready for it. Oh, the suspense!
Here’s my updated convention and garage sale schedule:
Friday, May 19: East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention
Saturday, May 20: East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention
Friday, June 2: GARAGE SALE (tentative)
Saturday, June 3: GARAGE SALE (tentative)
Friday, June 9: GARAGE SALE (tentative)
Saturday, June 10: GARAGE SALE (tentative)
Friday, June 16: GARAGE SALE
Saturday, June 17: GARAGE SALE
Friday, June 30: GARAGE SALE
Saturday, July 1: GARAGE SALE
Friday, July 14: G-Fest
Saturday, July 15: G-Fest
Sunday, July 16: G-Fest
Friday, July 28: GARAGE SALE
Saturday, July 29: GARAGE SALE
Friday, August 11: GARAGE SALE
Saturday, August 12: GARAGE SALE
Sunday, August 20: NEO Comic-Con
Friday, August 25: GARAGE SALE
Saturday, August 26: GARAGE SALE
Friday, September 8: GARAGE SALE
Saturday, September 9: GARAGE SALE
Friday, September 22: GARAGE SALE (tentative)
Saturday, September 23: GARAGE SALE (tentative)
Friday, October 6: GARAGE SALE
Saturday, October 7: GARAGE SALE
Friday, October 13: GARAGE SALE (tentative)
Saturday, October 14: GARAGE SALE (tentative)
Friday, October 20: Grand Rapids Comic-Con
Saturday, October 21: Grand Rapids Comic-Con
Sunday, October 22: Grand Rapids Comic-Con
Saturday, November 4: Akron Comicon
Sunday, November 5: Akron Comicon
Some of the garage sale dates are “tentative.” I’m hedging my bets on the June 2-3 sale because I’m not 100% I’ll have a set-up I’ll be comfortable with. The June 9-10 dates are listed as “tentative” in case I have a June 2-3 garage sale and it’s so successful I need extra time to restock.
I kept the weekend of Comic-Con International in San Diego open on the off-chance I might unexpectedly attend that event. It’s a long shot, but not impossible.
The September 22-23 dates are tentative because there’s a chance I will be involved in a special event that weekend. If that doesn’t happen, there will be a garage sale on those dates.
Finally, the October 13-14 dates are tentative for several reasons. I might be exhausted from the above schedule and not have time to restock for one more sale. The always uncertain Ohio weather might make a garage sale difficult. I might have to be somewhere else on those dates. My life is full of surprises.
As per usual, I’ll advertise my Vast Accumulation of Stuff garage sales in this bloggy thing of mine, on Facebook, on Twitter, in the local newspaper and on Craig’s List. As we get closer to each sale, I’ll let you know how things are going and what you can expect to find at the sale.
That’s all for now. I’ll be back tomorrow with a special edition of “Rawhide Kid Wednesday.” See you then.
© 2017 Tony Isabella
I'm so glad to hear you plan on doing sales on August and beyond. I was very curious/interested on your garage sales and I was afraid you would be celebrating everything in a few June weekends. I'm looking forward to this.
ReplyDeleteYay!
ReplyDeleteHoly guacamole, $218.74 for three storage units?!? I've got four, and my monthly bill is over $600!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, Medina is too far from Oregon to make it worth moving my stuff.