Yard sale observations and tips

[snafu]

Oddly, what the seller sees as desirable is not necessarily the opinion of the buyer. It also can help solidify pricing.

[momof1in150]

Originally Posted by snafu

Mid May – mid September 10:00 am – noon. Be ready by 8 am as ‘early-birds’ [often re-sellers] will ring your doorbell and expect you to welcome them.

I always advertise that "early birds pay double" and also the last 30 minutes "Fill a Bag for $5" It brings people back at the end of the day.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by snafu

Mid May – mid September 10:00 am – noon.

That may work where you are but you would fail miserably if you did that around here. By 10am, most serious yard sale shoppers are back at home eating breakfast. Our sales are called for 8am and anybody who knows what they are doing is set up well before that. I start setting up around 5am.

I would also never finish up at noon as I'd miss the late day bargain hunters. They don't usually come by until about 2pm.

[disneysteve]

Scanner, I don't have time to respond right now about the ebay mentality but I will comment on that later.

[momof1in150]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

That may work where you are but you would fail miserably if you did that around here. By 10am, most serious yard sale shoppers are back at home eating breakfast. Our sales are called for 8am and anybody who knows what they are doing is set up well before that. I start setting up around 5am.

I would also never finish up at noon as I'd miss the late day bargain hunters. They don't usually come by until about 2pm.

Ours are typically 8am - 1pm. After 1pm it is really dead.

[Scanner]

That's okay, DisneySteve. . .I am going to p.m. you later on a totally separate, unrelated subject (need your osteopathic background and a random poll. . .sorry. . .no money for this one )

I have seen my former assistant really spend a lot of money on Ebay - she gets clothes for her kids like from Baby Gap and other name brand companies. I mean . .I think she dropped like $100-200/month on that website.

We always liked gifts from her because we knew the clothes for our kids were going to be kick-ass vs. the usual Target, Walmart, and Old Navy attire we usually dress them in.

[Salmon Runner]

I have to say that you should almost expect ANYTHING at a garage sale. It's not a professional business and most these people aren't capable of running a business. We should just expect to find something used at a low price. It's pretty much just reusing old stuff instead of putting it into the trash.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Salmon Runner

We should just expect to find something used at a low price

The problem is I often find used items but not at low prices. People who aren't familiar with yard sales often don't know how to price their items. They assign far too much value to things, particularly mistaking old with valuable. The two don't necessarily go together. The other mistake, mentioned earlier, is searching ebay and using those prices as a guide for what to charge at a yard sale. It doesn't work that way. Ebay commands a higher price for good reason.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Scanner

I remember my golf bag was dry rotted at one point and needed a new one. We had a neighborhood yard sale, and I was walking the baby and I noticed where a person was selling his, that he had only bought 2 years ago and used it maybe 10x for something like $20.00. I could touch it, feel it, negotiate and not have to compete with other bidders.

I would personally rather buy something from a garage sale over Ebay where you have to sort through all the listings and when you do finally find a quality listing. . .you are up against bidders.

I personally think Ebay is more geared towards the seller and the yard sale towards the buyer.

But then again, I'm not usually either.

I am a thrower-awayer.

DisneySteve. . .you seem like both. . .is their an Ebay psychology/cult I am not aware of?

Scanner, I am both a buyer and seller on ebay and have been since May 1997, so ebay and I go way back. I would disagree with your assessment of ebay being geared toward the seller and yard sales toward the buyer. I think ebay offers a tremendous advantage to both the buyer and the seller.

Let's use your golf bag as an example. You bought yours at a yard sale as an unplanned impulse purchase. Let's say, however, that you were actually looking for a golf bag. Where would you have a better chance of finding one? You could go to dozens of yard sales and not find a golf bag. On ebay, however, you are virtually guaranteed that at any time, day or night, wherever you happen to be in the country (or world), you can log on and find what you are looking for.

From a seller's standpoint, if I have a golf bag to sell, I could decide to sell it at a yard sale. I have to post ads around the neighborhood and run an ad in the local papers. I have to hope for good weather. Then I have to wake up early and display all of my merchandise and wait for customers to show up and hope that at least one of them is looking for a golf bag. In the course of the day, perhaps a hundred people will come through my sale. Oh, I also have to set a price. I could go too high and scare people off. I could go too low and sell it for less than I could have gotten. No way to know.

Or, I could take a picture of the bag and list it on ebay. I can do this at anytime that is convenient for me, day or night. I can spend just a few cents in the process and have my item seen by millions of potential customers. I can set a starting price that I'd be satisfied with, but if I underestimate its value, potential buyers can bid the price up to what they are willing to pay. That may be substantially more than I would have gotten at a yard sale.

I think yard sales and ebay are different. There are things that I would never try to sell on ebay. That includes items that are inexpensive, namely under $10 in value. Also, items that are heavy and would result in a shipping charge that is way more than the item is worth or are large and awkward to ship.

Then there are items that I would never put out at a yard sale. That would include most anything of significant value, anything collectible that is in reasonably high demand, or anything that is collectible but is more of a niche item since I'm more likely to find a buyer among the millions on ebay than among the dozens at my yard sale.

Both have their place. I do both, but I make far more money on ebay since I can do that 7 days/week, 52 weeks/year. Over the past 12 years, I've made ebay sales to all 50 states and pretty much every developed country around the globe. You simply can't compare that market to that of a yard sale.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Scanner

I have seen my former assistant really spend a lot of money on Ebay - she gets clothes for her kids like from Baby Gap and other name brand companies.

And she gets those clothes for a fraction of their original price. Ebay is great for that kind of stuff. I've sold my daughter's outgrown name brand clothes on ebay that we had bought secondhand and got more for them than we had paid. Can't beat that.

[nanamom]

I do both ebay and yard sales. I sell higher priced items on ebay. The things that are large go in yard sales, or the things that I expect to get less than a couple bucks for. I have one yard sale a year. I usually make 2 to 3 hundred which I then spend on the kids back yard equipment. We have quite a nice jungle gym now and this year are getting a trampoline with a net. I sell all year long on ebay. This year alot of the money went towards our trip to Florida. It paid for the hotel and the tickets to Disney. I live in a relatively small community if I lived in a bigger city I might sell more in a yard sale. I don't expect to make money at yard sales, but that is ok because I am selling stuff we are done using. I have gotton my money's worth out of it and hope the next person does too. I price my stuff to sell and people are delighted to get bargains. I had one woman tell me the train table was priced too low even for a garage sale and I shouldn't let her buy it for that. I told her my son had enjoyed it and I was happy to bless her by letting her have it at a low price. She felt too guilty to buy it and I had to convince her it was ok.

[Scanner]

Disneysteve,

That was a great response. You have changed my opinion.

[rob62521]

Back to the original post, Disneysteve, you are right...appearance and availablity of the sellers is important. Most folks around here want to negotiate the price and just like a nice store display, it's nice to see an organized sale.

My mom was a great garage saler, both having and buying. Her philosophy was to have it on a Thursday since most were having theirs on Fridays and Saturdays so less competition, have it after the first of the month when many have gotten paid, set it up neatly, have lots of change and papers and bags, and great every single person when they come in to the garage. She sold things I never thought would go.