things you should do to have a successful garage sale
By sandragellar
@sandragellar (440)
Philippines
March 22, 2009 12:45pm CST
i've had my own share of garage sales. it seems that a lot of people are not content with getting stuff for dirt-cheap prices. and even more people are joybidders - that is, they bid and bid but don't buy anything in the end.
my friends who are veterans when it comes to garage sales shared some tips:
1. always give a discount AFTER all the items of interest have been finalized by a potential buyer. if you give discounts on every single item, a buyer may ask for even more discounts AFTER he accumulates several already-discounted items.
2. don't use easily removable tags. some potential buyers actually exchange tags to get an item for a cheaper price.
3. don't reserve an item for anyone for more than 30 minutes. if a person doesn't come back to pay for an item after 30 minutes, he's probably not gonna come back. and even if he does, it's a garage sale, not a store, so you're not getting in any kind of trouble.
do you have other tips? please share. i want to be forearmed and well prepared when i hold a garage sale at the end of the month... ^_^ i'm sure a lot of you have more bits of wisdom to share with everyone!
2 people like this
4 responses
@Darkwing (21583)
•
26 Mar 09
I think you've pretty well covered things there, my friend, but regarding the "asking price" being discounted. Would it be a good idea to mark items up by a little, so that when somebody offers you a lower price, it's likely to be around the price you originally wanted? That way, the buyer thinks they're getting a bargain whilst you're still getting the price you wanted for the item in the first place. It would also allow for more supposed discounting and happier buyers don't you think?
He he he.
Brightest Blessings.
@maezee (41997)
• United States
23 Mar 09
This is great! I'm actually having a garage sale this spring (once the weather gets nicer out), so this is helpful, although I'm planning on selling pretty much everything for cents on the dollar (to raise money for charity), so I'm not too worried about having to haggle or having people remove price tags and such. Thanks for the tips!
@Opal26 (17679)
• United States
22 Mar 09
Hey sandra! It sounds like you will have things under control!
The only thing that I can add is something that did happen
to a fellow mylotter when they had a garage sale which they
posted about. I can't remember who it was or exactly the story
but I will give you the jist of it. Someone was loading
some things in their van that they hadn't paid for yet, which
of course was wrong right there! And the sellers were busy
with other buyers so they weren't exactly paying complete
attention, again which was wrong! Well, you guessed it, they
took off with the stuff they had without paying a penny! So
my advice to you is make sure you have someone designated to
be the "watchdog" specifically! That person's job should be
to "watch" only that no one takes anything or tries to get
away without paying! You'd be surprised (or not) how many
people will try to steal whatever they can! My neighbors where
I live have tag sales all the time and you really have to
watch people so carefully! I help sometimes as the "watchdog"
so I know!
@darknessfalls (180)
• Philippines
22 Mar 09
Wow! So much useful information and thanks for sharing it. Though I do believe that you should always set the your standard price and don't give a discount when you start the sale as I'm sure many would like a discount before buying the selected item. In that way, you'd get a much higher sale especially if the buyer chose your standard price as an A-OK! :D Hope that helped though it was somewhat similar to your no.1 advice.
