The Big Sale!

Well, the day has finally arrived and Keith and I were up pretty early. We were astonished to see Sue and Paul setting up at 8am as the table-top sale didn't start until 10am and I certainly didn't expect any customers before then.

Keith became a bit jittery, so we moved both our cars and carried the heavy table down to the end of the drive and onto the narrow path that runs in front of our house. A little wooden sign had been put up letting people know we were taking part and stating that visitors to our premises did so at their own risk! Health and Safety these days!

We woke the children and asked them to help us transfer all the stuff we were selling from the conservatory to the table and I arranged it all, making sure that everything was shown off to its best advantage!

Archie watching what's going on. He was lucky he didn't have a price put on him!

We found out why Sue and Paul had been setting up so early...Sue was going to help out in the village hall and Paul's parents were coming over to help sell their stuff. As we were watching out of the window, a woman drove up and went over to see what our neighbours were selling. She then got out her purse and bought some things! It wasn't even 9am so we assumed she was a canny dealer, getting in early to pick up the good stuff! She came over to our table and relieved us of a little spoon and a necklace!

Keith rode around the estate a couple of times on his bike to see what the other houses were doing and reported back that progress was slow as a lot of people still hadn't set up their stalls. We had a few other people walk past and look and a couple of cars drove slowly past, and then the first woman turned up again and bought some vintage compacts and cigarette holders that I'd bought at an antique fair years ago. By now we were well into profit and heading towards our first goal!

As the morning wore on and the sun came out, it was very pleasant chatting to the visitors who sauntered past. Some people just looked and didn't even speak but over the next few hours we made a lot of sales and one man bought all of our PS2 games, which amazed me! I was in the house at the time as things had slowed down a bit, and from then on I was told to stay inside and Sophie and Keith went on to sell a lot of stuff!

I hoovered the house and prepared the dinner and Mum and Dad came around to see how we were getting on. By the end of the afternoon we'd made enough for the four of us to go to The Han in Market Harborough so we were really pleased. I was a little disappointed that I hadn't sold more books, CDs or DVDs, but maybe we'll go to another table-top sale in the future and try and get rid of them there.

We cleared everything away and then I went to have a bath and a snooze on the bed while Keith watched football downstairs. The dinner of beef casserole I'd prepared was delicious and it was a great feeling knowing that we'd cleared some of our unwanted stuff out and made a little money in the process!