Garage/Estate Sale--setting prices and tips

[raeoflyte]

My grandparents moved into assisted living over 5 years ago, but my mom is just now at the point where she can go through the stuff in the house. And wow... is there a lot of stuff.

We're planning on opening up the 3 main areas of the house and breezeway/patio and doing a series of garage sales of the coming months as we get through stuff. The first one we've decided to do this coming Saturday.

I haven't been garage saleing in ages. We're pretty much lost in how much to charge for things. This weekend will have the mugs/glassware, kitchen 'stuff', books, clothes, linens/sheets, and of course a lifetime of assorted dust catchers.

Any other general tips as well?

[alabamagal]

Price everything to sell! And price it a 2x what the minimum you will take for an item as many will want to bargain!

For clothes can you sell in bulk? Works if they are all the same size, "10 blouses for $5"

Unless you have some big items (furniture, nice pots and pans), it is really a lot of work for very little money. If things don't sell the first time, just donate to Goodwill.

[hoops902]

When we did our garage sale we found that "3 for $20, or $8 each" type offers worked well to get people to buy more. Good since our goal was to get rid of stuff more than make money.

As much as possible, price items by category. All glasses =$x. All books =$Y, All shirts =$Z. Yes they probably aren't all worth the same, but it's easier, you don't need to make tags for everything, and people feel like they're getting a bargain if they pick out "the best" for the same price as less desirable items.

If you know when your other garage sales will be, post it on a nice big poster. Let that be part of your advertising for future sales. People who find things they like will take note and come back next time.

One "trick" i suppose, park some cars out in front of the place rather than the driveway if you can. We found that when there was no one parked in front of our house everyone who drove by and looked woudln't stop. The moment we had even 1-2 cars stopped, EVERYONE who drove by stopped and came to look. Activity draws more activity. Even when it was family members stopping by to say hi, the mere presence of a car and people seemed to draw everyone else in. I was kind of amazed at the effect actually.

[hoops902]

One other thing, if it were me, I might highly consider waiting until I had everything gone through and doing one huge estate sale rather than a series. I can see some people not coming later on because they assume it's just selling stuff that didn't sell last time (rather than a new series of stuff like you're doing).

And if I came to an estate sale hoping to find tools and other "guy" stuff, and found out that wouldn't be for 2 months, I'd probably forget about it by then.

I realize this might not be an option due to time/volume of items. I woudl htink it'd drive a lot more traffic though.

[shanendoah]

Find a friend to help you set prices.
My mother is a garage sale queen and makes pretty good money every time she does a garage sale, but she prices things to sell. When she helped friends do a garage sale after family died, it was no where near as successful because they wanted to price things emotionally- ie- the deceased person loved this, we can't let it go for only $5, it has to be priced at least $10 type thing. That's a natural reaction, but it won't get things sold.
Even though it's been 5 years, if your mom is just now ready to go through things, she's likely to want to price emotionally. Find a friend who has garage sales or goes to garage/estate sales to help you put realistic prices on things.

[Bluerobin]

Before you sell, look for money hidden in pockets, taped to the bottom of drawers, even in seldom used pots. Old folks liked to have cash on hand. Cleaning out MIL's and Mom's place, we found cash hidden in unlikely places. MIL had tons of cash hidden in every pocket of every garment.

[raeoflyte]

Thanks for the tips! I'm going to print everything and talk about it with my mom and sister tonight so that we can start labelling. I really like the 3 for $x approach.

I think my mom is more interested in keeping anything that has real sentimental value, but we'll see how she does tonight. I'm the least sentimental about 'stuff' but I want to be as supportive as possible for my mom.

We don't have enough tables/surfaces to have the entire estate sale at once unfortunately. We need to have this one because we are pretty much out of room and can't start emptying anything else out until we have more space. I will see if my mom is willing to donate stuff left over from the first sale right away instead of leaving it for a 2nd sale. That would be ideal. Setting the dates of the other sales is great idea too. It will help make sure we don't lose steam and leave the rest for another 5 years.

Finding hidden cash has been interesting. I'm sure we won't get all of it, so hopefully someone will find a deal. We are flipping through books and doing a quick wash of all the kitchen stuff because its so dusty. But mom found $120 in the middle of trash papers.

[spicyhotpepper]

I price everything a few dollars above what I want to sell it at- if they bargain, then I still usually get the price I wanted.

Also, watch out for the crooks and thieves. We always get people switching prices on things and stealing things (I've never caught them in the act but have noticed things missing). When I was a kid, one person asked me to use our restroom during a garage sale. I said no but a neighbor let them in and they stole some things from their house. If people are going to be in the house, make sure you have a team of people to help- I'd have one person in each room and be sure to lock up any valuables and purses, etc. Make sure someone is watching so that people don't try going into other off-limit areas.

[swamp]

I don't dicker at my garage sales. I price it what I'm willing to sell it for and put it out there. The point of a garage sale, to me, is to get rid of crap, not make money.

And with an extensive estate, I'd hire someone. But I'm also not sentimental at all.

[alabamagal]

Also around here, the "garage sale junkies" always try to arrive an hour or so before the posted start time to get a head start on everyone else. Be ready for this!!! Just post a sign saying "No early sales" or something like that.

[swamp]

Aug 13, 2012 11:44:48 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

Also around here, the "garage sale junkies" always try to arrive an hour or so before the posted start time to get a head start on everyone else. Be ready for this!!! Just post a sign saying "No early sales" or something like that.

I once had a garage sale, I went out at 7:00 a.m. to set up (and I had been up partying until about 2). I opened the auto garage door and there was a group of garage sale queens waiting for me.

[hoops902]

Aug 13, 2012 11:44:48 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

Also around here, the "garage sale junkies" always try to arrive an hour or so before the posted start time to get a head start on everyone else. Be ready for this!!! Just post a sign saying "No early sales" or something like that.

Why? I hear this a lot but I don't get it. If people are there early, willing to spend money, and you're already set up..why not let them in to buy? We let people start buying anything they wanted when we started at 8, started setting up at 7, and people were showing up at 7:15. I'm certainly not going to stop you from giving me money for my things just because it's 45 minutes before i planned to start.

[Deleted]

if you/ she can itemize deductions it might be easier to donate it and deduct it

[spicyhotpepper]

We too let the early birds in as soon as we're ready. We don't care.

[busymom]

Lots of people like to dicker around here. I agree with setting the price a little higher than what you'll settle for. Maybe it's the community, but even when I've priced stuff cheap, I'll bet 1 out of 4 people who stopped in tried to get it a little cheaper....

[lynnerself]

Aug 13, 2012 13:02:53 GMT -5 busymom said:

Lots of people like to dicker around here. I agree with setting the price a little higher than what you'll settle for. Maybe it's the community, but even when I've priced stuff cheap, I'll bet 1 out of 4 people who stopped in tried to get it a little cheaper....

This always irritated me, although it is accepted practice.
Mainly because I always mark things at rock bottom prices to start just to get rid of it all.

[busymom]

Exactly, lynnerself! If I've got things marked $1, and they're in good shape, I don't want to have to pack them up again!

[raeoflyte]

I HATE haggling! I will definitely make sure to bring this up, so that we can have a plan in place for whoever is taking the money.

[lynnerself]

The only discount I like to give is if someone takes multiples of stuff. I usually just round it off at a discount. Again, just trying to move stuff out.

[alabamagal]

Aug 13, 2012 11:55:08 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

Aug 13, 2012 11:44:48 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

Also around here, the "garage sale junkies" always try to arrive an hour or so before the posted start time to get a head start on everyone else. Be ready for this!!! Just post a sign saying "No early sales" or something like that.

Why? I hear this a lot but I don't get it. If people are there early, willing to spend money, and you're already set up..why not let them in to buy? We let people start buying anything they wanted when we started at 8, started setting up at 7, and people were showing up at 7:15. I'm certainly not going to stop you from giving me money for my things just because it's 45 minutes before i planned to start.

Well mainly just be ready for it. I don't like people standing out in my front yard when I am not dressed.

I was once at a large group yard sale (8 am start) and the organizers advertised a used washer and dryer. Someone showed up at 7 and bought it. At 7:15 another buyer showed up to buy it and got really nasty - we were about to call the cops. So basically an early bird was causing a scene because she got beat out by an earlier bird.

[Gardening Grandma]

I enjoy garage sales; I don't dicker if the price seems fair. If the price is too high (in my view) I'll ask if they will accept xamount. If not, I walk.

Price things to sell. And if someonebwants to dicker, go ahead.

[northdakotanice]

Here's a couple tips that i don't think have been said yet:

Before your sale, do a quick look-over of your pricing so you have a good idea of what prices are on what items. We had a garage sale a couple weekends ago and people were switching tags (Someone took a $5 tag and switched it with a $15 tag, basically ripped us off for $10).

Also, if you are selling clothes, it has been my experience that people don't want to spend tons of time looking through rack after rack of clothing items. It is better if you do the work for them. Group items by size and gender (Women's 12-14, Men's xl, etc) and then make a sign stating what size items are where. When we've done that we've moved a lot of clothing items. When we haven't done it, people don't even bother to look.

Be ready to dicker and remember, the goal is to get rid of stuff....Making money is just a side benefit!

[Deleted]

Make it easy for you to make change. The lowest price should be a quarter. If you have to say 2/.25 do it (I am thinking junk). The hardest part of doing a garage sale is the money. I always took a $20 bill with me, and it would really annoy people. So factor that in.

This may not be relevant, but the second hardest thing is people wanting to go to the bathroom. Do you want to let strangers in your house? I didn't. But I offended more than a couple of people whose child needed to go to the restroom. So maybe you should know where the closest public restrooms are. In your case, everything is for sale so it may be ok. But I had to piss people off by saying no.

[Deleted]

I agree with Swamp....if you've got an entire house to go thru and then sell, have your Mom take the few things she wants, then call an auction company and be done with it.

[resolution]

I also like the auction company idea. There are some that will hold the auction on site and others that will remove all of your items and sell them on consignment in their showroom. They bring port-a-johns if they come on site to avoid the bathroom issue. They are really big in our area and they usually get the 4H club to come out and sell hot dogs and soda.

[raeoflyte]

The estate companies want (from what we've seen they require) all of the antiques and furniture to be included in the sale. My grandmother has already decided who gets each piece of furniture so mom doesn't want to go through those companies and then have to figure out the estate buying out all of the big stuff.

Things went well tonight. I think my mom and sister were in the camp to get things sold and price accordingly.

I will be so glad when we are done with this. It is hugely motivating to do a major purge in our own home.

[skubikky]

Aug 13, 2012 20:00:39 GMT -5 @blondegranny said:

I agree with Swamp....if you've got an entire house to go thru and then sell, have your Mom take the few things she wants, then call an auction company and be done with it.

Absolutely. They'll most likely arrange some of the items in "lots". And that can make it easier to move things. The auction format attracts a good size audience.

[Waffle]

If you're comfortable with it, check Craigslist, there are usually a few people advertising that they will buy out estates or yard sale leftovers. You might be able to avoid the yard sale, altogether.

[hoops902]

::If you have to say 2/.25 do it (I am thinking junk). ::

One thing we did for very small items (in our case my nephews' little 1-2" action figures) instead of selling them for $.10 or $.25 each, we packaged them up in ziploc bags of $1, $2, and $3 (for a very large group that all went together). Sold all of them and I'm sure if we'd sold them for $.25 each there would have been tons just laying around at the end. It also kept the area clean, we didn't have kids rummaging through 500 figurines trying to figure out which ones they liked best.