Sidewalk Sales for Brenda

Belisa and I’ve held three sidewalk sales so far to raise funds for Brenda’s care. Friends of ours have donated some really great stuff—so great that we saved quite a few items to sell on eBay instead of the street. Besides, the last sale we had was in early November and it was a little too chilly to comfortably peddle our wares outside.

The first, and most successful, sale was in front of my friend’s apartment in Brooklyn—the capital of stoop sales, apparently. The clientele was fierce. An elderly Greek woman yelled at me for selling an ‘evil eye’ pendant for too little money and I had to politely kick her out of my sidewalk store.

Though a success, transporting our goods to Brooklyn turned into a 12-hour affair and because Stacy offered the spot in front of The Dog Run, we set up shop there the next two times. The shoppers here were much different than the pros in Brooklyn. These people were looking for cheap items at an even cheaper price. We moved a lot of our less expensive things quickly but didn’t turn a high overall profit. Any change in the pocket is better than no change, though.

At both locations we got donations from neighbors, which was surprising. Someone in Brooklyn gave us a barely used tent and another brought down underwear with the tags still on. In Manhattan, a man passing by our Manhattan spot gave us a sub-woofer (I wondered if he had just stole it from someone) and another guy donated a very nice Nautica king-sized comforter. We saved both for eBay.