Garage sale question: Has anyone held a "make an offer" garage sale?

[AmyAnne]

Our neighborhood is having a garage sale in the spring and I'm thinking of just setting out stuff and hanging a sign that says "make an offer" (or something like that) instead of trying to price things. Anyone have any experience (good or bad) with that approach?

 

[_19disnA]

We have held garage sales using both set price and 'make an offer'. Typically people make offers even if the item has a price. Used items are always negotiable. Seems to depend mostly on what you are selling and what people are looking for. For items of nominal value the 'make an offer' sounds best but if you selling some larger/more expensive items, it is best to have a price on them. You can also put out a table of small items for the 'make an offer' area.

 

[Shughart]

People will make an offer most of the time no matter what. I would just have a sale and make it known that I am open to negotiation, but maybe no rude lowballing?

 

[miztressuz]

If you don't want to price individual items, you can gather similar value items on the same table/blanket and call it the $1/$2/$5/whatever table. In my neck of the woods all offers would be 50 cents ( maybe with furniture the offer would be a $1) without a starting price. And at yard sales that's what it really is, the starting price. I rarely get people paying sticker price, even if it's brand new and we've already marked it at 90% off.

 

[cm8]

Our neighborhood is having a garage sale in the spring and I'm thinking of just setting out stuff and hanging a sign that says "make an offer" (or something like that) instead of trying to price things. Anyone have any experience (good or bad) with that approach?

I participated in one a few years ago. I think it went better than I could have anticipated! It saved me time from marking up the items with those price stickers. Most items I even sold for more than I would have asked!

I had separate tables for each group of items. I made the majority of my money in Children’s clothing and shoes. I sold a ton of little girls clothing still new with tags at great prices! In most cases, I was offered about 2 to 3 dollars below the tag price when in fact I would have listed it for half . Shoes I sold buy one get one if they paid full price for the one new pair. I had a few hagglers who thought I should accept between $2 to $5 for brand new items. I kindly declined their offers....


Edited to add, my items were all
sold within the first 2 hours!

It was held on a Military Base so I’m sure the foot traffic helped me sell as much as I did. Also, if you are close to a base, each spring (most) have a base wide yard sale. They will let you buy tables for $20 each and put you in a reserved section to sell your items! It is usually held from 08:00 to 12:00. It is open to Military and Civillians. They come ready to buy!

 

[DLgal]

Yep, that's the only way I do it. I put a sign that says "name your price." I agree to whatever people offer. The truth is, I would be donating it all anyway, so I don't care what I get for it. Once I get to the last few things, I change the sign to FREE. I don't want to have to make the trip to Goodwill...

 

[MillauFr]

I've found that many people are only willing to pay 10 to 20% what items are worth. I can get more money by giving away the items to Goodwill and writing them off as a tax deduction.

 

[tvguy]

Let us know what you decide, and if you go the make offer route, let us know how that went.
Garage sales have really declined here. A co-worker was moving and held one. Posted it on Craigs List and NextDoor, and was shocked how few people turned out. He, he wife and 2 kids wasted a Saturday and a Sunday for about $150. Next time he says, it's just getting loaded into his mini-van and going to Goodwill.

OT but we used to have a block garage sale but stopped about 10 years ago. Our street is off the beaten path, so people don't know it's here. Never fail, the week after we would have car break-ins, vehicle thefts (always pickups, 3 years straight) or home break-ins. The guy who organized it made $500 the last year, but the week after his brand new Toyota pickup was stolen. Found it with the wheels, tires, brakes missing, $10,000 to fix it. He said he was done with garage sales after that.

 

[unrequited23]

I would never feel comfortable at a 'make an offer' garage sale and would most likely leave without buying anything.

 

[mmbrad02]

I've been to both. I usually price my own, but it's very time consuming. I do like attending them where items are priced, but around here it's common for them not to be.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Garage sales that don't have prices on items/tables set up grouped in pricing are ones I avoid. I usually leave quickly when I find that's the case. I really don't want to think very hard, I don't want to come of as rude offering a ridiculously low offer, I don't want to track someone down just to give them my offer (which I find the people who haven't done any pricing can be hard to find them to even go over the item though that's just my experience), etc. On the flipside I'll also leave if it's clear by one's pricing they aren't interested in getting rid of stuff-no one is really going to want to pay $75 for a 32inch tube tv these days.

That said I do at times negotiate on pricing. I don't lowball but I like having a starting point with a price listed. I don't always try to negotiate either. Just depends on the item.

Sometimes the $50 OBO (or best offer) type deal works well as well as it leaves it clear you're up for negotiations but have a general idea of where you'd like to be around. People can decide if that number is just too high. For instance you want X item sold at $50 at least that's your hope. A 'make an offer' type deal could mean someone looks at it and offers $10, $20, $25,etc. A OBO may offer $35, $40, $45, etc.

Having said all these things I think it can depend on your area too. Some areas are just more like X and some areas are just more like Y.

 

[kymom99]

This is a little different situation, but a few years ago we had a yard sale to raise money for a school trip. Carloads of donated stuff. It was impossible to price all of it. We separated it all by category: books, holiday, toys, etc. we made signs that explained what the money was going towards and that we were accepting donations. We did price some of the larger items, such as furniture but there wasn’t much of that. Some people felt a little uncomfortable with naming their price but most were fine with it. They came up with arm loads of stuff. We made a lot of money but had a lot left over too. We loaded it all up and took it to a local church.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

This is a little different situation, but a few years ago we had a yard sale to raise money for a school trip. Carloads of donated stuff. It was impossible to price all of it. We separated it all by category: books, holiday, toys, etc. we made signs that explained what the money was going towards and that we were accepting donations. We did price some of the larger items, such as furniture but there wasn’t much of that. Some people felt a little uncomfortable with naming their price but most were fine with it. They came up with arm loads of stuff. We made a lot of money but had a lot left over too. We loaded it all up and took it to a local church.

I would treat that as a different situation personally. I'd still be uncomfortable without pricing but the reason for the sale would make it different for me.

A normal garage sale priced like that I'd just leave. A place that was trying to raise money for a good cause I'd be more likely to at least peruse longer.

 

[FabFive24]

I would never feel comfortable at a 'make an offer' garage sale and would most likely leave without buying anything.

I feel the same way. However, I know frequent yard salers don't typically have an issue with naming their own price or making a lower offer.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Most garage sales fall into some kind of "make an offer" territory. But yeah, I don't like having $20 in my wallet and then going through someone's front yard and trying to figure out how much of the stuff I am holding is worth the $20.

 

[Dakota731]

I never had one but I hate going to them! I don’t want to be haggling over every item. I sometimes will stop at one in my neighborhood to look for books or toys but if there are no prices, I usually just leave

 

[LovesTimone]

Big items get a price

I have .50 cent card table, a table for 1 dollar items, or last time a had 2 tables with everything a dollar, a hanging rack with nicer clothing for 3 to 5 bucks, Pants and shirts 1.00 each...
I have also had a 3.00 dollar table and a 5 dollar table... books paper backs .50 cent hard cover a 1.00... I just hang a big signs on the table...

Anything leftover goes to charity...

 

[_19disnA]

^^ I agree and then you don't have to bother with pricing every tiny item. OP might also talk to other neighbors who are going to be part of that and see what they plan to do. There is no one 'right way' to price items for garage sales. People will show up regardless of what you decide to do. It's not like they would know ahead of time what is priced and what isn't.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I would never feel comfortable at a 'make an offer' garage sale and would most likely leave without buying anything.

This is me. I LOVE to go to yard sales, but rarely buy anything at ones that don't have their items priced. I don't like "make an offer" because I have no idea what kind of price you have in mind and I don't want to be in the awkward position of offering you a $1 on something you were hoping to get $10 for.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Big items get a price

I have .50 cent card table, a table for 1 dollar items, or last time a had 2 tables with everything a dollar, a hanging rack with nicer clothing for 3 to 5 bucks, Pants and shirts 1.00 each...
I have also had a 3.00 dollar table and a 5 dollar table... books paper backs .50 cent hard cover a 1.00... I just hang a big signs on the table...

Anything leftover goes to charity...

That's what I did too. I did color code a tiny bit with the clothing in terms of pricing but I made it easy for people to know the pricing of it.

But that wouldn't be what I was referring to in my comments nor what it appeared the OP was going after with just a "make an offer".

If I saw a sign on a table that said "$3.00" I know that items on that table are $3.00. But if you just have a table set up and that's it..I'm not really wanting to figure out just how much to offer and I'll leave if the whole garage sale is like that. On the other hand pricing just tables/areas comes with its own thing since you the hoster of the garage sale need to remember that you put that item on the $3.00 table and the buyer has to remember that it was on the $3.00 table. Normally if you don't have a lot it's easy to remember.

Separating hardbacks and paperbacks is also easy. I don't expect each book to be labled but if all hardbacks are $X price and all paperbacks are $Y price that's pretty easy. But to just have all books in a tub with no indication of price..that's not the type I'm usually comfortable with.