Yellow Daisy Festival and Yard Sales

It's getting to be that time of year.  And even though it doesn't feel like Fall in Metro Atlanta the anticipation is here for the festivities scheduled over the next month.

A couple of early entries in this year's lineup were the annual Yellow Daisy Festival at Stone Mountain, and a Multi-Dealer and Collector Yard Sale that I participated in.  Yellow Daisy is something I attend every year, rain or shine, cool or hot, with cool being a relative term and hot meaning h-o-t.

Typically, the Yellow Daisy Festival is the first weekend in September.  My neighbors planned a group outing for Sunday this year.  It was a busy weekend, and, besides, Sunday was predicted to be cooler with less humidity.

Turned out that was false advertising.

People from all over the country come to the Yellow Daisy Festival, dealers and visitors alike.  I don't know exactly how many set up booths to display their wares this year, but someone stated 400.  At one point in time, several years ago, pre-recession, there were 800-plus,

YDF is reputed to be the third largest art and craft show in the country.  There were tons of people selling artisan food items.  And I saw a lot of birdhouses.  Beautiful birdhouses... they get more elaborate every year.  There's always a lot of jewelry of every style imaginable and in all price ranges.  Wood crafts.  Leather goods.  Pottery.  Knitted and crocheted clothing.
Quite a potpourri ... and, yes, there's some of that, too!

This lady is there every year, one of the first you see when you enter.

We didn't make it around the whole Festival this year.  As the day progressed so did the temperature and number of people.  In the afternoon, after church concluded, the crowd grew exponentially.  I usually buy more than I did this year.  In fact, I only purchased one item and that was Pussy Willows, three bunches.  And I ate lunch, Sonny's barbecue.

We left not long after lunch because it was hot, crowded, and we were exhausted.  Heat and I are having something of a disagreement nowadays.  I really use to tolerate it better.

The next weekend, the second weekend of September, several of us participated in a Multi-Dealer Yard Sale.  It just so happens this was the same weekend of Scott's Antique Market.  We knew that when selecting the date for our sale but with the inclement weather this year we wanted two weekends in a row in case we needed a "rain date."
The weather was beautiful!

I love yard sales.  I love to hunt for, stop at, and buy at yard sales.  Having a yard sale... not so much.  Although I've had fabulous luck in the past.  Notice I said "past."  My friends had a great sale.  Me... again... not so much.  In fact, after paying someone to help me load and unload and purchasing a folding table for display I ended up in the red.

I was also red from sunburn.  It was hot.  And, even though we'd advertised city-wide, and put out lots of signs, we got mostly locals, several of whom strolled by after taking their dogs to the Dog Park.  I didn't count, but we may have had as many dogs as people.  And they weren't buying... at least not what I had to offer.
Go figure.

It seems people didn't connect with the "Dealer" and "Collector" and "Antique" and "Vintage" advertising for the sale.  

So, what did we -- {ahem} -- I learn?

For starters, if possible, don't compete with Scott's Antique Market.
Second, don't plan a HUGE be-all end-all yard sale...
it might be better to consider holding several smaller sales throughout the year.

But I'm really curious... 

What type of successful sales have you had?

And are you willing to share your experience?
I'd really appreciate your insight...

In the meantime, thanks for stopping by...