Garage Sale People - PRICE IT!

There is a big 3 day garage sale event in my subdivision. So I go on a 2 mile exersise walk at lunch and bypass all the garage sales as it looks like a lot of car seats and kids clothes.

Until I spot a few aluminum rims......chain saws.....ladders.......old cameras.......tool boxes.......old Schwinn bicycle........table FULL of tools.......so I tell myself to stop.

Nothing is priced. "I know nothing" lady calls Harley shirt guy outside from his salad eating lunch in the kitchen.

How much for these old Honda Motorcycle gauges? hmmmmm....I guess $20.

How much for these four velocity stacks? hmmmmm....I guess $2 each.

How much for the old Schwinn? hmmmmm....I guess $20.

Me: You guys should price your stuff.....it will make your life easier.

Velocity stacks?

You mean like, these guys?

Hey, if he keeps pricing stuff, let him. Sounds like good deals!

Sounds like that old gambit:

"my wife wants this stuff gone, so we are having a yard sale...even tho I don't want it gone."

My sister had a HUGE garage sale a few years ago in preparation for a move of 1200 miles. There was too much stuff to individually sticker, so we just grouped it by categories and if the bigger items needed higher than "average" prices, they were "segregated" and marked with prices.

When my father goes to yard sales, like many people, he ignores the prices and "bids" what he thinks something is worth. If he's wrong, and needs to "re-bid", he does, if he REALLY wants to. Yard sale prices: really nothing more than suggestions, anyway.

It's common practice at garage sales not to price anything so that somebody will make an offer.

It drives me crazy.

The first few garage sales we had, we priced most stuff. People still pick it up and ask, How much?

Ever see someone at a garage sale remove the price tag, or switch it with something waaay cheaper? Just asking, you see that in movies and on tv.

integraguy wrote: There was too much stuff to individually sticker, so we just grouped it by categories and if the bigger items needed higher than "average" prices, they were "segregated" and marked with prices.

I like that idea...

garage sales are fun... but I tend to never have cash and sleep to late on sat anyway... always amazed me how early they "open" and even more so when the garage salers would get there...

integraguy wrote: ........he ignores the prices and "bids" what he thinks something is worth. If he's wrong, and needs to "re-bid", he does, if he REALLY wants to.

I like this strategy - Hey, will you take $5 for this old Schwinn?

Those old schwinns can be worth a bucketload. If it's an old original stingray in good shape I have seen them fetch $1200+.

Also, I hate people who price like (excuse me) nazis.

This one woman had an off the shelf, home depot, little bench vice. Price it at $40.

I told her I'd give her $10 for it. It was the end of the day and they were moving the next.

She said no, the price was $40.

I said, $15.

She said no, the price was $40.

I said, "It's not worth $40 at a garage sale the day before you leave town"
She said, "It's a very sturdy bench vice"
I said, "It's also for sale"
She stared at me.
I thanked her for her time and left.

Joshua wrote: Velocity stacks? You mean like, these guys?

More like these on ebay for $1.99 - just old ones.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NOS-VINTAGE-VELOCITY-STACKS-CB-500-/280743432112?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item415d9ccfb0

pete240z wrote:

Joshua wrote: Velocity stacks? You mean like, these guys?

More like these on ebay for $1.99 - just old ones. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NOS-VINTAGE-VELOCITY-STACKS-CB-500-/280743432112?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item415d9ccfb0

hmmmm... make a reducer so you can run em on a challenge/lemons/chump/whatever car as itb's??

Last time we had a garage sale, we went like this:

First 1/3 of day - $1 each

Second 1/3 of day - $1/bag

Third 1/3 of day - $1 all you can carry, and I'll help you carry it.

The point of a garage sale is get rid of all the crap you've been hoarding.

I've never seen a garage sale without price tags and if you're going to price by the bag why bother having a garage sale. It's too much work unless you are going to make some money.

After spending waaayyyy too much time on a garage sale years ago I did the math and figured out that donating and taking the tax write off I was money ahead vs the meager cash I got out of the sale, without even placing any value on my time. Haven't had one since.

pigeon wrote: After spending waaayyyy too much time on a garage sale years ago I did the math and figured out that donating and taking the tax write off I was money ahead vs the meager cash I got out of the sale, without even placing any value on my time. Haven't had one since.

EXACTLY!

Make it worth your while or donate it.

My kids used to run them for us for a split of the proceeds. They'd also bake brownies, cookies and sell drinks. They made out like a bandit.

my brother and his wife had a garage sale a couple of weekends ago.. their daughters (2 and 4) "helped" them set up- which really meant that they got to play with toys they haven't seen in over a year or more..

they spent all day friday setting up and didn't really sell much of anything on saturday. i think they made $20. i told them they had the wrong pricing strategy- my idea was to get a bunch of boxes and sell the box for $5 and allow people to take as much as they could fit in the box, or $1 per item if they just had to have something but didn't want a box of junk.. they wound up giving a bunch of stuff to their crazy neighbor lady, and the rest is still piled up in the garage..

Since I started selling antiques/junk/etc. in my shop, I've been rummaging most weekends through the summers. I find I can get much better deals than I do by going to auctions, and I don't have to waste a whole day just to het outbid.

I almost never pay asking price - whether it's marked or not - but I'll usually wait until I've picked everything I'm interested in before negotiating.

All I know is E-Bay sucked the fun out of all garage sales around here.

On the other hand, my FIL held a yard sale and sold $400 worth of triplicate tools he got at an estate sale - he spent $300 for a huge rolling workbox full of hand tools. Made $100 just on the repeat stuff. Then he got about another $200 for some random lawn care stuff he had laying around - he had a small yard, and therefore small tools, got a bigger yard, and bough bigger tools. THe old stuf made a little cash in the end. So $600 just on the first day. It just depends on the stuff you got...no one wants your old In Living Color VHS tapes, even if you have the ones where J-Lo was a fly girl. No one wants your kids broken Barbie van.

4cylndrfury wrote: On the other hand, my FIL held a yard sale and sold $400 worth of triplicate tools he got at an estate sale - he spent $300 for a huge rolling workbox full of hand tools. Made $100 just on the repeat stuff. Then he got about another $200 for some random lawn care stuff he had laying around - he had a small yard, and therefore small tools, got a bigger yard, and bough bigger tools. THe old stuf made a little cash in the end. So $600 just on the first day. It just depends on the stuff you got...no one wants your old In Living Color VHS tapes, even if you have the ones where J-Lo was a fly girl. No one wants your kids broken Barbie van.

i'd love to have old In Living Color VHS tapes.. especially if they have a lot of Fire Marshall Bill and Homey the Clown..