I'm thinking of having one in the next week or two and I dread those that want to make a bargain. I won't budge. As you said, my stuff is in good condition and is cheap, I'm not going to go any lower.
You're setting yourself up for a slow sale, and you're likely to move a bunch of stuff back into your house! Some people may make unreasonable price suggestions, but flat-out refusing to haggle will turn people away.
I love going to garage sells but I hate when people over price their junk, just because you brought a dress 8 years ago for 50 bucks doesn't mean its worth 45 now.
I can't believe people do this, but it's very common! What are people thinking? Who do they think will pay $10 for a blouse that was in style in the 80s? If they're honest with themselves, they wouldn't give that blouse a second look if it were on a 90% off clearance rack -- yet they think you'll pay almost what it cost new! Those are the people who don't understand why their stuff doesn't sell.
I hate it when a grown adult asks to go to the bathroom because it is an emergency
Don't ever, ever, ever do this! Last time I had a yard sale a whole family came by, and they were DETERMINED that they were getting into my house. One adult needed to use the restroom (Sorry, there's a gas station down the road), they couldn't possibly buy those .25 jeans without trying them on (Take a chance, or don't -- it's a quarter), a child absolutely must use the restroom now (Yet when I refuse, they stay another 30 minutes), Can they use my phone? (No.) I'm not sure what they were up to. Maybe they were going to try to steal from my house while I was at the yard sale, or maybe they were going to try to steal from the yard sale while I was in the house, or maybe they wanted to see if my house was worth breaking into . . . regardless, it's not worth it to make a sale at a garage sale!
.......people try to rip off my children. My DDs sell books and cookies to make money. Books are 25cents each. A lady approached my FIVE-YEAR old DD with 20 books in hand and said, "Will you take a dollar for all of these?" What is a kid supposed to say? She didn't know she was being swindled.
Adults EXPECT to haggle at yard sales, but there's an unwritten law that you just don't do it with kids. Very rude.
My two DS's are planning on selling lemonade during our sale. They seem to think that Mom is going to make fresh squeezed lemonade for them to sell
If they're determined to sell drinks, I'd suggest getting cans. I personally wouldn't buy homemade food from someone's yard -- there are sickos out there, and there are people who are just lax when it comes to cleanliness. I
might buy a canned drink, but I wouldn't buy anything else.
I DO HATE IT WHEN, you won't take NO for an answer. It is my stuff. I am entitled to ask what I want. No one says you have to buy it.
Some people are not so skilled at haggling. If someone really gets on your nerves (and you don't really care whether you sell the item or not), hand it to one of your children and tell her to put it in the house. That ends the negotiation immediately; of course, the people probably won't buy anything else either, but they were probably distracting your attention from your other customers. In fact, when someone's haggling like this, you should look around to see what their friends are doing. It's a common ploy: One person haggles with the owner while the others steal things.
I had a garage sale in June. We had a large cabinet, and it sold it at the last minute of the first day, but she couldn't take it that day and would come back on day 2, saturday. We put in back in the garage, and then dragged it back out to the end of the drive to make it easy when she came back.
That happened to us once. Next time we had a yard sale, we made a new rule for ourselves: We'll hold it if you pay up front . . . but we will only hold it until garbage day. If you don't pick it up, it is GONE. The biggest reason to have a yard sale is to clear out junk that you don't need -- getting paid for the item and keeping it sounds nice, but it isn't really such a great deal!
I had a storage bin of mens t-shirts marked 25 cents each or 5 for a dollar.
If you want to make that easier next time, make it "Stuff a bag for $2". This encourages people to buy more stuff, and you don't have to count anything. Speaking only for myself, I never put out anything that would be expensive at a yard sale, so there's no problem with people mixing things -- you get more money at a consignment store on ebay.
The lady who owns the Antique(junk) store down the road was there with her flashlight at 5:00 a.m.
At least make me an offer (it was priced) before stealing it.
