Help with garage sale pricing

[SEA333]

Where we live this is the better route to go. My DH was all excited about a yard sale. All the work and planning and I think we made $200. I do better putting a couple of items on craigslist and donating the rest.

We used to live in a rural subdivision that would do a community sale every may...it was the only time I did garage sales. Foot traffic was excellent and the sale was well known, so buyers knew what to expext. I woild make $4-500.00 in the one weekend. We found that pretty much all baby amd toddler stuff were big hot ticket items and would sell first for a decent price. Furniture sports equipment, some electronics, and bikes were next. Clothes I didn't even bother with except brand name dresses and coats of DD's...boots and snowpants did ok, too. Most household stuff I sold for a dollar or two for a dollar, but put it all on a table marked as a blanket price. Coats were $5.00. We sold a rocking chair for $35. Elliptical for $100. Crib for $25. Little tyke climbers for $10-25, strollers for $7-15....any household item would have to be priced under $5.00 or $1.00 depending on what it was, or it wouldn't sell. I never had any horror stories, thank goodness! But one neighbors 7 year old daughter came by and wanted the book I was actually reading to pass the time, lol, and it was to the point where the little girl really thought it was for sale and so awkward that I just sold it to the mom (it was a small town...the mom was DD's dance teacher, too) for a dollar and never got to finish the book lol. I have to try to find that title at the library so I can see what happdns at the end!

Good luck!!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I think that if your goal really is to just get rid of the clutter then it's easier to take the people who are trying to take advantage of your already cheap pricing. My goal in having a garage sale is to make money. If I am going to put all the work into pricing, setting up, manning the sale, dealing with rude people, etc, I want to make money. And not looking to make a ton but I will be fair in my pricing and I expect others to be fair in return. If my goal is simply to get rid of it, I can haul it down to the Goodwill and then take a tax deduction.

Edited to fix my spelling mistakes. Wow, don't post while trying to make dinner LOL!

This is why we don't do garage sales anymore. Too much effort. I remember one sale DW did with her mom. They worked all Summer to get ready and brought in about $200 total. FIL and I both could have worked overtime the day of the sale and would have cleared more than $200 each. We'd have been money ahead to go to work and just set everything out by the curb


Nice kids clothing items go to work with DW for her coworkers to buy. What doesn't sell goes to the resale shop with adult clothes and some other things. Few things listed on FB garage sale groups, and the rest to Goodwill

 

[kymom99]

I did VERY well with my son's clothes through a consignment shop. He was my only child and so the clothes were only worn by him. There were very few things that didn't sell. The lady who owned the shop loved seeing me coming because she said she didn't get many boys' things.

We had a sale after Mom died. We all took a lot of her kitchen things, but we just didn't have room for all of it. At the sale, we told the shoppers what Mom used the for. She had some big Pyrex type bowls and ceramic bowls she used for potato salad, etc. She was a fantastic cook. We actually had some ladies saying they were going to buy the items and use them thinking about the little old lady who used them. It was so nice! I guess they would hear us talking and feel bad about trying to argue over the prices. thingsThere was one lady who said she was looking for some old, vintage things. We went into the house and got some of those doilies and hand stitched table runners. She bought all of it. So I guess in our area, we get people just looking for something interesting. The hard core garage salers would get there before we were "open" but after that, we would get browsers. No one is overly pushy, thank goodness. However, I my garage sale days are over.

 

[tvguy]

We used to live in a rural subdivision that would do a community sale every may...it was the only time I did garage sales. Foot traffic was excellent and the sale was well known, so buyers knew what to expext.

My street is a dead end and off the beaten path, and many of neighbors did the same thing for many years until we realized that in the week afterwards we always had a series of car break ins, car thefts, and creepy people driving through in the middle of the night.
I have taken part in 2 garage sales in my life, never again.