Donations, anyone?

A lot are writing about the end of the semester -- which don't get me wrong I am glad to be finally finished, but I experienced some new developments in garage saling this past weekend.

We had a very large sale at my home this past Saturday -- total there were 6 families that sold at our sale. Our garage sale was HUGE. Every kind of children's clothing, furniture, adult clothing, shoes, purses, books, you name it, we had it. I made a huge sign for the front of our home (we live on busy St. Louis Ave) and we started getting a steady stream of customers about 7 in the morning.

The day started out good and we were getting rid of tons of things, but this garage sale we all experienced something different than previous experiences with garage sales.

We had a total of 5, yes, I said FIVE different people/couples come up to us and ask us what our plans were with the clothing and other misc items after the garage sale. Since there were 6 families involved we couldn't speak for everyone, but honestly no one had really thought that far yet. In fact, most of us were hopeful that our 15 totes full of stuff would be gone by the end of the day. All of these people wanted to know if they could accept donations. Actually make that 3 people. The other two were with charitable foundations at local churches or Crosslines and knew poeple that needed these things. I was appalled by there balls. Especially those who were personally asking for those things themselves. COME ON PEOPLE! We had everything marked so incredibly cheap. My wife prices Gymboreee outfits my daughter outgrew for less than a dollar. Most stuff was $0.25 or less. Everything was priced to GO FAST. And yet, they still asked for our things.
That's why it kills me to see on craigslist people begging for stuff -- "single mom really needs things, can't pay much, any donations would help. God bless." God bless? GOD BLESS?? I'll show you God bless! Okay, so my attitude isn't really a servant of giving, it just seems people have no integrity anymore and aren't afraid to ask for anything. Go to our Wal-Mart and see 4 people with signs asking for money or anything (while smoking a cig). I know the economy is tough right now and yes, I do give and do donate, but don't expect it. It kind of takes the joy out of giving if you are begging for my things.

Am I wrong for thinking this way? We ended up keeping all our unsold things and yes, we do plan on donating everything -- to the Salvation Army.