I just skimmed this entire thread and I can't believe I didn't see anyone post my favorite yard sale tip!
Like everybody else, I hate going to a yard sale where nothing is tagged. As a seller though, I not only HATE the tagging, but I think it takes so long that it makes the overall yard sale profit per hour NOT WORTH THE EFFORT! Here's how I get around the problem...
I have a large driveway. I make many very distinct areas of items based on price. I'll have areas for $.25, $.50, $1.00, $1.50, $2.00, $3.00, $5.00, etc. Then I just take some sidewalk chalk and draw a huge circle around each pile. On the outside of the circle I write a price in chalk. It takes no time at all and everything is "tagged." Just be sure to leave enough space between each "price area" that messy shoppers won't mix items into the wrong piles accidentally. I do put sticker tags on the larger items that I'm selling, but there are generally very few of them so it doesn't take a lot of prep work.
This system works for me because I can look at an untagged item and KNOW what pile I would have placed it in. I don't get mixed up and forget what I originally thought an item was worth. I've also only had ONE TIME EVER that a customer tried to lie and tell me that an item was in a different pile.
Just as a side note to the poster complaining about
WalMart brand soda...I know VERY FEW people who would not purchase a soft drink simply because it wasn't name brand. Most people realize that store brand items are all packaged by name brand companies...you just don't know which one it is and it can change from time to time. Personally, as a seller I'd opt for the name brand sodas and charge $.75 each before I'd sell the store brands for $.50 each, but that's just because there's better profit potential doing it that way. As a customer, I'd rather find somebody selling the store brand drinks for $.50
:hippie
