are yard sale's dead?

yesterday we participated in the annual neighborhood yard sale. 23 families in the neighborhood participated.

i had been boxing up things for a yard sale for 2 years. took friday off to label and prep everything. and spent yesterday in the sun.

if you count the lunch i bought for me and rj, i lost $7. it was $5 to participate in the sale (bought balloons, ads in the local paper, and signage). i spent $8 on the labels. and $14 on lunch. and i barely got rid of anything. people were looking for crazy deals. and old man from the senior center played deaf when he gave me $2 for his $7 total. seemed like lots of people were looking for the .50 item they could resell on ebay for $100. i may be lazy, but i'm not that lazy! i was incredibly disappointed.

i remember my parents making money on their yard sales. i hadn't expected thousands. but i had hoped for $100-$200. never expected to LOSE money to get rid of stuff. next time i will just donate to charity since i'm calling the salvation army to get rid of most of the rest of the stuff anyway. there are a few pieces worth trying on craig's list and ebay.

has craig's list and ebay effectively rendered yard sales obsolete? are yard sales still effective in other areas? what do you need to do for a successful yard sale?

-s