Goat Day #9: One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure
8The time has finally come. I’ve accumulated soooo much crap that it’s going to make me a hoarder if I don’t do something with it. That’s right, I need to have a garage sale. I’ve put in at least 10 hours already just sorting through it. It’s scattered all over the damn place, and there’s still a ton to do.
80% of it is going to be leftovers from fuku/bocs. The rest is going to be baby clothes and stuff I don’t wear any more. Here is one of many areas of the house that has been taken over with items all over the place. In addition to that, we have at least 10 large boxes in the garage, and a few shelves in the utility room crammed with all kinds of stuff.
My strategy is to price everything ridiculously low just to get rid of it. I haven’t been to a garage sale in 15+ years, and haven’t ever had one myself.
What’s the best way to display stuff? How do I advertise it? Should I allow people to haggle when my crap is going to be dirt cheap anyways?
If you have experience as either a buyer, or seller at a garage sale, I’d love to hear from you.
- 13 comments, 22 replies
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If I give you a list of stuff I’m looking for, would you be able to give me price quotes for whatever you have?
Oh, provided you’d be willing to ship.
@PlacidPenguin Yes, as long as you’re actually looking for stuff, and it isn’t ridiculously long. I can check for you. Also, shipping is up to you.
Contest! Contest! Contest!
@mfladd What are you contesting?
@lichme @mfladd
Bet it has something to do with handegg.
I’ll give you $5 for the couch. $7.50 if you include the pillows.
@PlacidPenguin Ok. You pay shipping, which includes a $1500 packing fee.
@lichme
What if somebody comes and picks it up though?
@PlacidPenguin My house is very educational, with all of the alphabet magnets and educational books all over the place. Kind of like a museum, but admission is $1500, which is required to get the couch.
I’ve given up going to garage sales since they’ve all been lying. The garage wasn’t for sale.
The yard sale folks aren’t any better either.
@narfcake
@narfcake
I normally wouldn’t do this, but:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5r91nj
I really feel that people should watch it.
Random order of advice:
Just had a yard sale and earned a bit over $200. I didn’t put prices on anything as I didn’t have time. Helps to price though. I put up signs on the city square (live a couple of blocks off that), put an ad in the garage sale page on facebook for our (small) town, and a free ad in the online version of the newspaper. Anywhere that you can have an ad online or in the paper list some of your best stuff. If you can get a neighbor to have a sale with you multifamily sales go over well.
Think about the weather. I don’t have a garage so my ads said weather dependent, will reschedule for the following saturday if it is going to rain. If you actually can do it on a porch or in a garage (but have barriers so you don’t get other stuff stolen from it) then say rain or shine, indoors (or in the garage or something) if raining.
Lock your house. Do not let anyone inside to try on clothes or use the bathroom. Leave nothing lying around the yard, porch, etc. or it might walk.
Decide if you are doing Saturday morning only or Friday and Saturday. Both days can draw a crowd, but it is a PITA to be stuck outside in hot weather for 2 days and having to pack everything up and set it out again for the second day.
I made all clothes $1 (except a couple of things). All baby clothes 25 cents. Convinced someone to buy all the remaining baby crap for $25 (started at 40 and worked my way down - this was about 3 hours into the sale). All books hardback 50 cents, paperback 25 cents. Put up signs about that so you don’t have to price that crap individually. For stuff individually priced, be prepared for people to swap stickers for price.
My display sucked. Piles on plastic in the parking lot. Would have been better to have tables but I didn’t have any.
Price with bargaining in mind.
Be really careful about the vans/SUV’s that a zillion kids get out of and then the adults try to distract you with your back to the sale or all 10 people from the vehicle are scattered all over your sale so you can’t watch them all at once. Lots of stuff gets stolen that way. That is the plan on how to steal from you.
Have a fanny pack (put it down and it may vanish) with a roll of quarters, nickels and dimes and a bunch of 1’s, 5’s and 10’s. Sometimes people pull the stunt of trying to pay with a 20 (or larger) for a couple bucks worth of stuff hoping you will give it way instead of make change.
Have a water bottle handy for yourself but put where someone won’t walk off with it.
Start at 7am and be prepared to be hounded as soon as you start setting up (even if you say “no early sales”). Some of those folks will offer to help you set up because they want first dibs - some of them also shoplift from you. Close by noon to 1 for closing as far fewer show up after 10am. Advertise an open and close time
Dealers show up early (even before you are open) and lie about why they want things hoping to get a dirt cheap price on your best stuff. I refuse to bargain with early birds. I tell them if they want to bargain come back after 10am. The good stuff will sell even if they don’t buy it. The good stuff will still mostly be all sold by 8am (if you open at 7). Some try intimidation or get mad when you don’t practically give stuff away or tell them to come back once you are set up.
If your plan is to donate stuff at the end of the sale, you can often make arrangements for the truck to show up to pick up at sale closing. You can also put some boxes of crap on the curb with “free” on it. Likely that will all vanish by the end of the day.
Gather up a bunch of grocery bags. People will buy more small junk if they have a bag to put the stuff in.
If you have a bunch of electricity powered stuff have an extension cord handy. Make sure all battery operated stuff is charged.
If you really value something have it furthest way from the street and hang out near it.
Find out if you need a permit to have a garage sale. Don’t lose most of your profit to a fine.
If it is only you supervising this mess be sure you pee prior to starting to set up because if you are absent for one second and someone shows up that is an invitation to take your stuff. Kids are not good substitutes for adults overseeing stuff while you run inside to pee.
Put a chair outside for you to sit in after the initial madness is over.
Most people are honest. Most people are nice. But likely you will end up dealing with a few asshats and have some stuff stolen from you. If you’d be pissed if a certain item is stolen then sell it on craigslist or your city garage sale facebook page. If you want to take your chances put all that stuff together away from the road and where you plan to hang out with your chair.
You get more money for things that are clean, clothes that are ironed, clothes that are hung up (ladders parallel to the ground work well for this if you don’t have actual clothing racks). It might be worth selling it for less not to have to clean it.
As you set up group like things together. If all of it is on the ground (I bought cheap plastic paint drop cloths) make sure people can actually get to all your stuff. I had one drop cloth where I had a sign that if this stuff didn’t sell I was selling it online and so it isn’t traditional garage sale prices as it was worth a lot more (actually did sell a few of those things). I had one sign that said make an offer for junk on another drop cloth. I had a sign about the books an clothes on another. With lulls straighten your mess as people don’t like looking through piles that are too deep and trash heap like.
That’s about all I can think of at the moment.
@Kidsandliz Amazing post with lots of great info. Thanks a bunch! I plan on setting up a camera near the higher value stuff, and maybe a few dummy cameras.
@lichme The cameras aren’t going to do a thing. Most people won’t steal from you anyway. It is the loaded cars where they scatter and then try to divert you and talk to you to get you positioned so you can’t see everything that are the deliberate attempts to steal (I usually have this happen 1-3 times at each garage sale I hold). The best approach is put all the valuable stuff in one place, then post someone right there (sitting in a chair, behind the table with the stuff on it or whatever), have them stay put and refer people to someone else if there is an attempt to get them to leave their post. People usually aren’t brazen although once (and only once) I stopped someone from loading things into their car who hadn’t paid yet.
I usually am stuck doing garage sales alone so have to figure out how to deal with this and it is much harder than if I have someone helping me at the sale. If you physically follow someone too closely they usually leave without buying anything - let folks browse in peace and you will do better with sales. Just figure a few things likely will get swiped. It just goes with the territory. Since you plan to price at the “almost give it away” prices anyway losing a few things won’t cost you much in profits.
Also the odds of selling valuable things at a “fair” to you price at a garage sale is slim (you usually do better on craigslist, facebook, or other local solutions). People come to these things looking for deals. Some come to buy to resell on ebay, thrift stores, their own garage sales, antique stores if you are selling anything that would work there (these are often some of your early folks)… Some come because they need the savings. Some come because this is their weekend entertainment and they enjoy browsing and occasionally getting deals.
I have also found (I have lived in 16 or so states) surprisingly people are willing to pay more in poor cities/areas of the country (they actually need the stuff, know what it costs in thrift stores and so are looking to save money over that) than when you are in better neighborhoods/richers area where people come to get “deals” and don’t actually need the stuff.
Also as sellers we get hung up on sunk costs (eg what you have already paid for the stuff and compare what we are getting to what we paid). You can’t look at it like this. That money you spent to buy that stuff is gone forever. You can’t get it back so don’t look at selling this stuff as a “loss” to you. This is sort of like you put things into storage that is “worth” $5000 but, over time, spend to store it far more than $5000 and we don’t get rid of it because it is worth money. Instead, if there isn’t a “good” reason to store it (for example you are temporarily living in a small space and you’d have no plans to ever sell this stuff because you will go back to using it once you can live in a larger place, rather than saving it because it is worth money and it is unlikely you will use it again; or it is sentimental stuff that you can’t bear to part with - ever but not talking about hoarders here), sell it for whatever you can get rather than keep it indefinitely and realize that eventually you will “get back” more than the stuff was worth by not renting a storage unit). Instead think about how much you will gain by getting rid of it at a reasonable price (garage sale reasonable). When you are gain framed rather than loss framed you find it easier to let things go at reasonable prices and sell more and then typically make more overall at a garage sale.
Also experiments show we financially value our things more than we financially value the same thing that someone else owns and so we tend to price things at prices higher than we’d be willing to buy it for. Try not to fall into those cognitive traps.
@Kidsandliz @lichme
I’ve lost tons of stuff this way. Another approach is the desperate mother with a small child that absolutely MUST use my bathroom. While her girlfriend or older child grabs whatever they planned to steal. I personally never fell for that one but I have seen it happen at other sales.
@Kidsandliz @lichme
That’s some of the best yard sale advice ever!
Thx.
@f00l you are welcome
@Kidsandliz Your description is why I would just rather donate my stuff. I could not deal with the hassles or people involved with such an event. We use to do them when I was a kid, and they were fun - different time now. Everyone I know who has one now tells me the horror stories.
@mfladd If I had enough money that I didn’t need it from yard sales I’d love to take that approach too. Far easier. But, unfortunately the couple of hundred dollars I make really matters to me right now.
Garage sales dont offer value to me as a seller. I find the time in set up ,ads, clean up is valued higher then the difference between that and goodwill and tax write off.
As a buyer, I often bike the garage sales. Good exercise and some good stuff. Recently bought 2 coach purses that way.
@CaptAmehrican I agree with you, but I don’t get to make those calls.
@CaptAmehrican Yeah but the tax write off situation is going to be harder with the new standard deduction for taxes. I think now donations are more going to be more likely because people want to put things to good use rather than throw it out (eg the goodwill reason).
@CaptAmehrican @Kidsandliz Exactly on the new standard deduction changing it up. I am trying to do differently because it will make no difference on taxes dropping it at goodwill.
A sign I recently saw that made me want to go to a garage sale said “You can make our crap your crap!” with the address and date. I was going somewhere and didn’t have time to stop though.
Another tip, I’ve always been told the first weekend of the month is the best weekend to have a garage sale.
@djslack
In my area tag sales were mostly a weekend deal. Sat & Sun. There seems to have been a paradigm shift, and now most sales start on Friday and run until Saturday mid day. Sunday sales are uncommon.
-Do an ad in the newspaper. (classifieds) Old people love newspapers. Mention the big items you have. Just be sure to list the start time as you’ll have people showing up 20 minutes before the stated time. (6am we had people knocking)
-Tables! People hate bending over. Put everything up on tables.
-Clothes rack. If you have clothing, hang it up on a rack. People hate digging through clothes.
-Put the big/nice items closest to the street. “Those are the money beets.” Looky-loos will drive by and see a nice dresser (or whatever) and figure you have other nice stuff worth stopping for.
-Have some boxes or bags handy to let people use as shopping carts. They’ll buy more stuff if they have something to carry it in. Let the people take them home too.
-Place signs on each corner 3-4 turns away from your place.
-List it on facebook or nextdoor or your preferred social media platform
-Play some music at a low volume. It’s less awkward to have people milling around your driveway if there is background noise.
-Have lots of change on hand to break larger bills.
-Use stickers to clearly mark price on things.
-Throughout the day as things sell, rearrange things for better presentation.
-Have a helper available to help customers load items or disassemble things when needed. If you have lots of customers, you can’t be taking apart a playhouse while others want to pay for their shit. Also they can tag you out when you need to take a whiz.
Edit: and if you do a security camera, be sure to make a time-lapse video afterwards to see all your crap vanish
Heh! “All your crap vanish” - be sure to position the good stuff near the camera or you probably won’t see much of a change.
I would add to the above to expect a lot of people to arrive one-two hours early and offer you low prices for all your best stuff - so maybe you should double or triple your prices initially? After that you may not see many folks no matter how much you advertise.
Beyond the great advice already included above, I might suggest posting in the Garage Sale subsection of Craigslist. It guides you thru including address, date/time, mapping, etc. Include as many photos and descriptions of items for sale as you can; folks looking for something specific are likely to use online search. Provide model numbers for higher priced appliances, power tools, lawn eqmt, etc if possible. It’s best to put price tags on as much stuff as you can; it’s really hard to decide $$ figures on the fly.
Think about advertising an extra discount (25%-50% off) near the ending time; say, last 30min of 5hr sale or Sunday of 3-day weekend sale. This can provide a boost to traffic (sometimes even repeat customers) where otherwise things would be petering out.
The first mantra of a successful garage/yard sale is generating visitors - without them, you won’t have customers. Yards signs, flyers, FB, cheap/free ads in newspaper or local ‘penny’ paper, posters in merchant windows (with permission).
Finally, good luck and good fortune!
@compunaut I agree with generating visitors statement. It is worth paying for advertising if it has good reach. The very best venue for garage sales I have ever experienced cost me $20 for 2 spots at Washington State University’s basketball (?no longer remember it has been a while since I lived in Idaho) stadium it was indoors and we were along the outside edge. They advertised far and wide, people came down from Spokane, up from Lewiston (both a good distance - well perhaps not by LA standards but these are mostly one lane each direction roads)… Other than hauling stuff over there in multiple trips, which was a pain, it was the easiest garage sale ever. I always did really well there because of the volume of people who came through and enough people were willing to pay good prices for things that it was worth trying to sell more expensive stuff there.
I blame @lichme because Android Pie makes me tap twice on the meh Twitter link to open the page. If I wanted to copy it, I would long press. Duh.
You should play with that hexbug thing, put it back in the box, and then sell it. They’re fun. (My second ever Woot purchase was a Hexbug set.)
@sammydog01 Woot once sent me a BOC that had a bunch of bugs in it, I think they came to everybody who had the same item (I believe hand towels). To make up for it, they sent me a hex bug kit, which I gave away in a forum contest.
Lots of good advice above. One thought on tables to add. It doesn’t have to be an actual table. Saw horses with a piece of wood across and maybe a sheet to show off the items better. Get creative!
Color coded price dots if you are selling and need to split the money later for what sold. Peel off the stickers and put on a paper to simplify the task later. Sometimes one person sells the expensive items and another the cheap stuff so an even split can cause problems.
In my area neighborhood sales are a big thing. Individual sales need to look good on a slow driveby to get people to stop. Balloons or bright signs that are easy to spot and read. Don’t forget to take them down afterwards.
Some people sell water or pop/soda from a cooler.
Several local places will pick up leftovers for free at a designated time. This includes the regular donation type places as well as churches and individuals looking to resell the items themselves. Once the stuff is out of the house, are you planning to bring the stuff back in to store or set up again at a later time?
Will you come and organize my pile? I will help at yours on sale day.
TLDR: Don’t frustrate and turn off your potential customers. Plan ahead and good luck!