Garage sale rant

It's cold and rainy today and I feel like ranting.

Tis the season...garage sale season.  Claire doesn't really need much clothing right now, but I've decided to start looking for stuff in bigger sizes to save for when she's a bit older, and it's fun to get out and do some thrifty shopping.  I've always enjoyed "the thrill of the hunt."  However, nearly all the sales I've been to this year have been complete duds.  I will pose two questions:

1.  WHY do people try to sell clothing that is super old, pilled, faded, stained, or in otherwise horrible condition that it would be unsellable at even Goodwill?

2.  If people insist on selling such horrid clothing, WHY do they price it so expensively?

Seriously, people.  If something is in such bad condition that you yourself would not buy it at a garage sale, then don't try to peddle it to your customers.  And if for whatever reason you insist on selling your kids' gross clothing, then at least have the decency to price it accordingly.  Faded, pilled pajamas with milk/formula stains all around the neck should be priced at no more than a quarter, not $1 like I saw at a sale last night.  Just because an outfit was made by Gymboree doesn't mean it should be priced at $3 when it's in such horrible condition I would be embarrassed to see my daughter wearing it.

My other big beef is when people sell clothes that are really old.  I may sound like a freak, but I know clothes and can identify them well, similar to how people can look at a piece of antique furniture and say "Oh, that's a Duncan Phyfe that was made in suchandsuch year, blahblah," or how sports fanatics can recite obscure statistics about their favorite team at the drop of a hat.  Even if you aren't very knowledgeable about clothes, Gap and Old Navy make it really easy to see how old an item of clothing is - they print the season and year in which it was sold on a little tag on all their clothes.  So when I go to a garage sale and see a Babygap sweater priced at $4 and then look at the tag and see that it was sold in freakin' 1999, I consider that to be extremely overpriced (not to mention a little ugly, because it was the 90s, after all).

Maybe I am being too picky.  But I am willing to pay several dollars for a cute outfit at a garage sale, as long as it's in good condition.  The whole practice of people thinking their stuff is worth more than it actually is because it's THEIRS and they LOVE it and can see past the flaws drives me bananas.  It's like people here have forgotten how to have a garage sale.  This is something I will remember whenever I decide to part with some of my stuff and have my own garage sale.