I've seen a few guys selling things like Cutco knives who do the "let me practice me sales pitch on you" approach with their friends. And I've also seen guys fall into the "essential oils" MLMs.
I can't stand the thought of trying to sell stuff to my neighbors almost as much as the thought of a neighbor trying to sell things to me.
Visiting with neighbors at a cookout? That would be fun occasionally.
Our kids' schools tries to sell stuff, we are involved with BSA and they want to sell stuff, etc.
We send the school supplies that the school requests - though we're scaling it back b/c the school is starting to stock pile it b/c they ask for so much and use so little (or get wasteful). I have also written a check to a fund raiser occasionally b/c I found out when the school sells things - the school sometimes only sees some small portion of the profits - the rest going to some company selling high priced cookie dough or similar.
When I was a kid I was a big seller of magazines to raise money for the school. My big prize for selling more mag subscriptions than most of the kids in my grade one year was a little Instamatic 126 film camera that I wanted so badly but did not even work right from the first picture. The lens was not very clear and it was out of focus (a fixed focus camera though). I could have purchased that camera for $7.50 at KMart at the time and earned the money much, much quicker. It was my first realization that I was being suckered by adults. I've educated my kids past falling for that and we don't participate in the selling stuff drive. My youngest wants to participate b/c that child loves the sense of being part of the crowd (herd). Finally starting to think for himself. Finally.
We live in a pretty ordinary part of the USA. Our neighbors aren't rich (or mostly don't conspicuously spend like they are rich). I feel really odd encouraging my kids to try to sell overpriced stuff to these neighbors.
Again - with the scouts I give my time, my gas money (transportation for trips), teach badges, and occasionally make cash (by check) donations directly to the troop. Fortunately we have some very money savvy parents who are sensitive to wasting money.