What a Sale It Was!

It's been over a week now since my church had its Rummage Sale, and I know a few friends (well, OK, one friend) has wondered how it all turned out. Quite well, quite well, indeed.

Let's start off by quoting the write up in the Good Shepherd bulletin:

Our 7th Annual Rummage Sale was a big success, raising just a little over $8,755.60 from your many donated “treasures." Thanks again to Jerry Alexandria, Judy Dombrowski, Sue Cumo and their huge team of adult volunteers and the many youth and Boy Scout helpers, who made this happen. 25% of our sales will go to “On This Rock”–to reduce the building fund debt. The rest will be proportioned out to our Religious Ed, Youth Programs, Scouting Program, our South Alabama Mission (SAM), and Facility needs. Good Shepherd's MMO and Pre-school teachers were offered first pick for their classrooms, and leftover sale items were dispersed to the following organizations: Local Pro-Life (all items left in Baby Room); Huntsville AL Hispanic Association (youth books, videos & educational books); SAM-South Alabama Mission in Moses/Pineapple (ladies hanging and flat items, mens clothes, fabrics); Sierra Leone Freetown Africa (Youth clothing, suitcases, some jeans); MARS (computers and all other electronic items); SNAP thriftshop (most all books); Breaking Free Rescue Mission (everything leftover from above).

We seem to increase our funds raised by $500-$1000 each year. That's a lot of good done by "someone else's junk"!

Now for the personal report. Personally, and others saw this too, we didn't get as many donations as we have in years past; luckily, what we did was was good condition, high-end & desirable, so we sold a lot in cheap lots and quite a few in "big money" items ($3.00 - $80.00). We also made the jewelry a separate "cash & carry" table to eliminate the 5-finger discount. (It's a church rummage sale, people! We can't price the stuff free, sheesh!) There are many theories about the down-turn in donations; someone thinks we've tapped our our church donor base, but I don't think so since we're a vibrant community with kids being born/growing up/moving/ moving in--lots of room for stuff turnover; another is the weather-- it was lousy cold with snow during drop-off days-- but we did get half our stuff during the snow days. My theory is the economy; many people are hanging on to stuff long, passing it on to family & friends, or are selling it themselves. But, because of the economy, we get great crowds! The day for the sale was perfect weather, and I'd guess that 1/2 our merchandise was bought in the first hour. We get quite a few dealers.

Cathy & I were the only returning "Toy Room" workers from the previous year, but they asked new volunteer Frances to help in the toy room, and she, her sister & her three daughters were fantastic! I wasn't sure about the young girls (you know, that other-peoples'-kids thing), but WOW! they were poised, fun, sweet, smart, helpful, able to follow instructions but able to think independently, too. (If my daughter grows up to be like them, I sure wouldn't mind.) I hope that they can volunteer next year, but with school schedules, you never know.

We got some good donations in the Toy Room, but we got some stuff that I can best describe as "hodge-podge." Every year were get a load of trinkets & partial toy sets, but this year we had a couple of case of "Thank God! I can shovel out my kid's room & get a tax deduction for it." (Grumble......) So, being greedy to raise funds & being just plain stubborn, I put together Bionicles to make sure all the parts were there & to match them to boxes, washed toys left out too long in sandboxes, and bagged up little stuff. The box of well-played-with Transformers I had no clue about how to match the parts up, so I made them one big box-- take your chances. And someone did for a buck-fifty. We seemed to have some new dealers this year, but one of regulars didn't show (hope he's OK.) Since that one guy didn't show, I had no takers for the HO Swiss Train set ($25) and the Tyco Nite-Glo ($15) slot-car set, even after one $5 markdown. Mid-sale, I took them down to the "big-boy-toy" room (computers & electronics), and they did sell for their full second prices, which is actually quite a lot for a gotta-go rummage sale.

And before all this got underway, we workers, of course, got to go shopping for ourselves. As usual, I spent most of my money on the kids. I was able to get for my son's Special Ed class some puzzles and fine-motor-skill games. Also, we get some really good condition books, so I found a few which I will save for future gifts (I'd mention the titles here, but MLB keeps walking in & out of the room.) While sorting & making the grab-bags, I grabbed a few orphaned Fisher-Price components for DLG-- Roll-arounds, Peek-A-Blocks, Little People-- and Legos for MLB (if they'd had a set I could match them with, I did.) I swapped out our Little Tykes toy box for a more big-boy one, in planning a new room for MLB; and also some sports-themed items like a lamp & valance, too. DLG also got a bead maze and some Duplo blocks (which need more cleaning.)

Found a few finds for my husband; as usual, some LPs (they are becoming somewhat of a retro-sub-craze,) a tape of Celtic music, a "TurnerSouth" bbq apron, and some really cool 1960s head phones (it was surprisingly easy for him to pass on the Sony 1960s reel-to-reel player/recorder.)

Yes, I found a few goodies for myself. Four pieces of vintage sheet music like my grandmother used to play & sing. A "Southern" book. A layered-blue glass cream pitcher (now I need to grow some Shasta daisies.)

And two pieces of jewelry!!! A baseball bracelet and a pair of fresh-water pearl earrings. (told you we got some good stuff.)