Garage Sale Rules of Thumb

[snarlingcoyote]

Someone I know is starting to go to garage sales. She asked me for advice and I thought about it and offered her the following:

1. For the community that I garage saled in, if the sale is supposed to open at 6, be there at 5:30. Other neighborhoods have other rules. You will have to learn them. There will be rules of politeness as well. Learn them.

2. Don't garage sale in neighborhoods that are too rich or too poor. Too rich and they overprice because they don't understand the value of a dollar to the rest of us. Too poor and they overprice because they're desperate.

3. Some denominations and faiths tend to have overpricers and some tend to have underpricers - which is not to say that exceptions exist, but, in general, there are very noticeable trends.

4. Some people holding the sales are thieves. Some people attending the sales are thieves. Some people holding the sales think all attendees are thieves.

5. Many people who hold garage sales do not have enough coins or dollar bills. Bring your own. I recommend one roll of quarters, one of nickels, $40 in ones, $40 in 5's and a couple or more twenties stuffed in your glove box. You often won't use even half of it, but it is better to be prepared if you see something wonderful at the end of the day that you MUST have.

6. Many people who hold garage sales cannot do math, even with a calculator.

7. Know where all the clean public restrooms are in the neighborhoods you visit.

8. Never park where you might get hemmed in. It is better to walk a little ways.

9. You will meet some very interesting people. It is okay to chat. It is okay to make friends with them. You share similar obsessions.

10. Go with a USSR shopping mentatlity, not a USA shopping mentality. If you see something you like, buy it then. It will not be there when you turn around, it will not be there in two hours. It is there right then and there is only that one. If you change your mind later, donate it to a charity.

11. Remember that garage sale currency will play funny tricks on you. Someone will have a good pair of jeans you like for $5. You generally buy your jeans for $3. You try to get them to go down. They won't. Is it really worth $2 to argue? Those are jeans you would buy at Dillards for $50. Seriously. Stop and think - you're working in garage sale currency. Buy the darn jeans.

12. Some people will be delighted if you show up at their baby shower with a platform rocker you got for $5 at a sale. Some people will be horrified. Know the difference. (If they will be horrified, only buy them things at a garage sale they will have no way of knowing were bought at garage sales.)

13. Some people will look down on you for shopping yard sales. Ignore them.

14. If your house gets cluttered from all the junk you've bought or you start to think the people on Hoarders don't live so bad, stop cold turkey. Just stop. Don't buy anything you don't actually need and/or don't have a place for. Not ever. I don't care how good a bargain it is.

15. You will make more money donating your nice used things and taking the itemized deduction on your taxes than you will having a garage sale. Go, but never hold one.

16. Never forget to be kind to others when you are saling. It is easy to get caught up in the frenzy, but kindness doesn't cost and karma is important.

Anyone else have any suggesions?

 

[BadgerGirl84]

Thanks for sharing! I plan on doing A LOT of garage sale shopping to prepare for the arrival of my first baby this summer (minus the safety stuff like crib and car seat, etc.)

 

[PatchPixie]

These are great!


My other suggestion is to leave the kids at home. You will *not* want to buy the gnarly stuffed animals they inevitably seek out, and the dear old women telling you they can have them "for free" will not help your case. I have a hard fast rule of no stuffies. Little old ladies nearly try to shove them into my childrens' hands!! Bah! No more stuffies!!

 

[snarlingcoyote]

These are great!


My other suggestion is to leave the kids at home. You will *not* want to buy the gnarly stuffed animals they inevitably seek out, and the dear old women telling you they can have them "for free" will not help your case. I have a hard fast rule of no stuffies. Little old ladies nearly try to shove them into my childrens' hands!! Bah! No more stuffies!!

But how will they ever learn the gentle art of the con? Seriously, I've known some 4 year olds who knew how to work it - big eyes, slight lisp, head tilted and they could walk out of a garage sale with a Manet under their arms for free.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Just thought of a few more.

17. Keep a tape measure with you and have measurements for things you are looking for written down on a piece of paper you have with you.

18. If you are buying for extended family, check on kid's sizes once a month.

19.Check the "cool" teen clothing store websites once a month so that you don't buy anything dorky. And never, ever buy anything that is one of a kind in the same town that your kid goes to school in or let any of your kids' friends see you shopping garage sales at their houses. In fact, if all possible, sale at least a town away if you are buying for teenagers. (I bought for my nieces and nephews who lived 50 miles away. I NEVER saled for them in their hometown. Recipe for disaster.) If your kid is into vintage or eco-stuff, you may or may not be able to ignore this advice. Still. Tread lightly.

20. If it plugs into the wall, plug it in yourself before you buy it to see if it works.

21. If you buy kids' shoes at yard sales, get a piece of card stock and draw around your kids' feet, then cut out the pattern. Check this at least every month. If the card stock fits without bending, it is more than likely your child's foot will fit.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Someone I know is starting to go to garage sales. She asked me for advice and I thought about it and offered her the following:
14. If your house gets cluttered from all the junk you've bought or you start to think the people on Hoarders don't live so bad, stop cold turkey. Just stop. Don't buy anything you don't actually need and/or don't have a place for. Not ever. I don't care how good a bargain it is.

My mother in-law really needs to follow that rule!

Several years ago, I used to follow "the circuit" during the summer. It was a lot of fun. It seemed like it was many of the same people you would see every weekend, (Fri and Sat mornings). Run the entire route you pre-planned from the newspaper and finish with a McDonald's breakfast. It was good entertainment, and never spent a lot of money and I found a lot of cool stuff.

 

[Eastern]

I liked #15 best: Go, but never hold one.

 

[mollymar]

6. Many people who hold garage sales cannot do math, even with a calculator.
....
Really?

 

[wiigirl]

I liked #15 best: Go, but never hold one.

LOL....totally agree. Held one once...never again!

 

[MichelleinMaine]

I liked #15 best: Go, but never hold one.

 

[DawnM]

My favorite garage sales are the neighborhood wide ones. You can go house to house and not have to drive far. I especially like the neighborhoods with wide streets. Those narrow street sub-divisions require me to take my smaller car!

Dawn

 

[snarlingcoyote]

6. Many people who hold garage sales cannot do math, even with a calculator.
....
Really?

Seriously. God's honest truth. When you get one of those it is easiest to stop and pile things up by dollars then count it up with them. I find a bit of zen patience and kindness helps these folks to keep from getting flustered - which draws the whole ordeal out longer.

 

[BBandDisney]

3. What are the denominations who are overpricers?

 

[we3peas]

I know my church (I will not diclose the denomination) has 2 sales a year. One is my Sunday School class and one is for the youth. When my dh ran it he always made a deal with buyers to get rid of the stuff. People donated it and it did not cost the church any money. His quote was "every penny is profit." When it passed to the next person it was like all the stuff was gold. We always had so much left at the end of the day to repack and find somewhere else to donate it to. Some people even took stuff home to bring it back for the next sale. I thought they were crazy. Now we have instituted a last hour of the day sale where anything you can shove into a paper grocery bag is $2. Helps to clear everything out so we don't have to pack it back up.

 

[poohfriend77]

Seriously. God's honest truth. When you get one of those it is easiest to stop and pile things up by dollars then count it up with them. I find a bit of zen patience and kindness helps these folks to keep from getting flustered - which draws the whole ordeal out longer.

I've had that happen too, especially if it's a multi-family sale, and they're also trying to figure out that $2 goes to Susan, $4 goes to Jimmy, $3.25 goes to Patty, etc. or if they have some stuff marked for odd amounts like 35 cents.

I've also had people try to hurry and give me a "deal" without adding it all. They may say "how about $10 for everything," when I know my total is only $8.50. Know what your total should be before you "check out."

 

[ceecee]

I don't go to garage sales, but I've had a lot! I do know how to add and do it quite well thank you all without calculators! I also make a lot more selling clothes of DD's than donating and taking the write off.
One thing to add, if you are going to a sale do NOT ask the owner to use their bathroom or to go inside to try on clothes.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

I know my church (I will not diclose the denomination) has 2 sales a year. One is my Sunday School class and one is for the youth. When my dh ran it he always made a deal with buyers to get rid of the stuff. People donated it and it did not cost the church any money. His quote was "every penny is profit." When it passed to the next person it was like all the stuff was gold. We always had so much left at the end of the day to repack and find somewhere else to donate it to. Some people even took stuff home to bring it back for the next sale. I thought they were crazy. Now we have instituted a last hour of the day sale where anything you can shove into a paper grocery bag is $2. Helps to clear everything out so we don't have to pack it back up.

Oh yeah. I LOVE church garage sales. Best evah! Never been to one of those or an Eastern Star or a benefit garage sale yet that I didn't come home with a real treasure (at least to me)! The the people holding them are always, always the nicest, sweetest people ever.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

I don't go to garage sales, but I've had a lot! I do know how to add and do it quite well thank you all without calculators! I also make a lot more selling clothes of DD's than donating and taking the write off.
One thing to add, if you are going to a sale do NOT ask the owner to use their bathroom or to go inside to try on clothes.

I didn't say all. I said many. Probably not even a sizeable minority, but they exist and just one on a Saturday morning run yard sales seems like a lot!

 

[snarlingcoyote]

3. What are the denominations who are overpricers?

I'm not getting points on that one. Besides, it is probably completely different from one community to the next. Heck, it may only be so in the community I saled in. Like minded people tend to draw like minded people, after all, so who knows. Might even be the congregations and not the demoninations or faiths.

Any way, if you go and you are observant, you will figure out quickly that there will be very obvious tells for the likeliehood of overpricing and underpricing before you even look at the prices.

 

[lisagirl88]

I was at a yard sale last summer and the house I was at had a ton of new in box toys. A lady that was shopping next to me had an armful of them and was saying how great the prices were and that she was getting them for a steal. I knew from being at Target a few weeks before the sale that the people had bought a ton of the Target clearance and were now selling it for $3-5 more. Not that great of a deal.