Should you negotiate prices at a garage sale?: The Saturday weekend review #71
PRICING IS THE NAME OF THE GAME
If you aren’t prepared to negotiate when you hold a garage sale be ready to potentially haul your “stuff” back in at the end of the day.
Hard-core garage sale buyers are now out in full force hoping to score some deals and if you think the frugal-minded buyers aren’t willing to negotiate you are wrong.
Sure, you may have the few that won’t but some will even nickel and dime you on the small items and you know what, most sellers just say, sure.
Holding a garage sale is not an easy task as it does take prep work including pricing items and making garage sale signs to advertise your garage sale so people will come. The name of the game is to get rid of you junk and fast so you can downsize and clean up your home.
The art of negotiation
I’m a firm believer that people get rid of junk at a garage sale because they don’t want it or don’t use it any longer. The entire point of a garage sale is to get rid of “stuff” that you no longer have use for especially if it’s toys and your children are long gone.
Learning how to price items at a garage sale might not be an easy task that many people want to take on unless they know the item may be worth something more than a few dollars.
Sure, we can be optimistic that the next person might actually pay you the price you have listed on an item but most people negotiate prices when they are out looking for a bargain.
What is a negotiation? Good question. The way I see it is it’s when the seller has a set price and the buyer wants it cheaper than said price. Back and forth negotiations may take place until both the buyer and seller can agree on a price that makes them both happy. Having negotiation skills are very important so any chance you get to improve them I encourage it, even if it is while at a garage sale.
Even if you think your stuff is worth more or you paid a high amount of money for it, garage sailing enthusiasts don’t care. They won’t to get the best bang for their buck and that means they will offer you a price in hopes you will negotiate back with them. Know that some of these people use negotiation tactics because they know the price of the product, even if you don’t.
Today I picked up a butter tray for $0.10 (I wasn’t going to negotiate that) and brand new lemon juicer for $0.50. The seller wanted $1.00 for the lemon juicer and I offered her $0.50. She took the money and smiled as it was a win win negotiation for the both of us.
I don’t know many people who enjoy taking stuff out of their home to make some extra money only to have to pack it away because they were unwilling to negotiate even a $1.00 with a potential buyer.
I’ve shared garage sale tips with all of you in the past and today was one of those days I think this seller could have benefited from being a bit more open-minded with prices. I could easily give you some price negotiation tips as a buyer and seller but if you aren’t willing to negotiate then what’s the point?
It’s easy to negotiate though as long as you have a price in mind you are willing to accept. If the item holds no value to you and you’d rather see it gone try to meet the buyer half-way. Same goes for the buyer be realistic with your negotiation skills because if you drop the price too much you might just get pushed away.
Remember it doesn’t hurt to ask and it’s a great way to improve your negotiation skills for even more important aspects of life such as negotiating an employment contract or negotiating a price on when buying a house.
Should you negotiate?
Well, that all depends on how bad you want to get rid of your junk and make some extra cash rather than having it sit around and collect dust or for the next person to come along. There might not be a next buyer.
This is what happened today at a garage sale that we went to. The older lady had tonnes of children’s toys and I’m not kidding when I say lots of toys for sale. She said they were the toys her children enjoyed growing up and her grandchildren. My wife was pretty excited to see a Lite Brite and some other nostalgic toys but we didn’t buy anything.
My sister-in-law on the other hand found a toy doctor’s medical kit that she thought her son would enjoy. It came in a damaged kit that came with a toy stethoscope, needle and other medical gadgets. It was priced at $3.00. There was also a big transport truck that didn’t have all the mini cars inside for $2.00.
As a buyer understand that not all garage sale pricing is equal because most people just slap a price on depending on what they think an item is worth. This is where you may be able to negotiate especially if you know an item is over-priced.
If you want to learn how to garage sale believe that you are able to negotiate prices and to be honest I haven’t met one homeowner that wasn’t willing to negotiate back and forth. She offered the lady $4.00 for the two items instead of the $5.00 since they were damaged and parts missing. The lady immediately fired back and said, no $5.00.
Well, she just lost a sale and that’s fine, it’s her stuff. I hope you have room for all the toys you don’t need if you are not willing to negotiate even $1.00 with buyers. I could understand if she was being unreasonable or it was some posh item but they were toys with missing parts and damaged.
I told her just to buy it and she refused on the basis of principle saying that she wasn’t even willing to negotiate $1.00 to make a sale on junk she has no use for. The entire driveway was packed with books and other kids items and many were overpriced compared to other garage sales we’ve been to.
An example would be VHS movies for kids selling for $5.00-$10.00 each when people are practically giving them away for free. Who uses VHS these days? Not many people and you can easily score great deals at second-hand shops on VHS for around $2 a tape. By the way, we do own a VHS.
So, she didn’t get her son the medical kit but she did score some other great deals that sellers were willing to negotiate, like a lovely Tiffany and Co. necklace for $10.
Do you negotiate prices at a garage sale? How do you negotiate and what do you do if a seller is not willing to move on price?
CBB at home and blog
I’m sure if you have followed me you know through social media outlets that I’ve had a rotten week with the blog. I’ve been working with Grayson from Debt Round Up who offers excellent, reasonably priced technical support to bloggers to sort out any problems.
If you are a subscriber via Feed Burner please be advised that my feed keeps breaking when my hosting company goes down which means you won’t get my blog post in your email that day. It’s touch and go but we’ll have that sorted in no time so don’t unsubscribe for fear it’s not working, it will be sorted in no time. If you subscribed when I was with my old blog design you are fine.
Other than the disappointment with the blog all week I’ve tried to get things done around here but I’ve been so tied up with this blog it’s taken away from my goals for the week. I don’t have time for that so hopefully once the blog I can get back to my regular duties. I did manage to get the windows cleaned inside and out which meant I was out on the roof enjoying the lovely weather finally.
I even managed to get that BBQ going which is a nice change after cooking indoors all winter. Other than that the central vac has arrived and I’ll be busy installing that in the next week or so. I’ve also filled my garage with vanities for the bathrooms but am still waiting on deals so that I can head out to buy more of what we need. We’re in no huge rush so we are hoping to score some flyer deals on everything we need to bring the cost down a bit.
I have also finally found the larger river rock I need for the front landscaping thanks to Katrina who landscapes for her clients all summer long and is skilled at finding products for an excellent price. I’ve searched all over and no one wants to sell me a few bags. I really don’t need two yards of river rock so the company that will sell me what I need will get my money.
I did managed to find a company in town that has the product as well. It was only a matter of negotiating with them to get a few recycle bins full especially if they sell in bulk but if they want a sale, they’ll do it. Sometimes though, the little guy is chump change to big companies but it’s always worth a shot.
I hope your week has went a bit better than mine and here’s hoping the upcoming week moving forward will be better for me.
Have a great week everyone.
Weekly CBB posts
If you missed any CBB posts from the week here is the list of posts you can catch up on reading!
- Should you buy a house flip or renovate?
- Saying goodbye to the mortgage payment. Our April 2014 Net Worth Update
- Does your meal plan include a new recipe each week?
- Why you need to review automated payments
- Are businesses going too far for customer satisfaction?
- Cinnamon buns
- Should your husband help with household chores?
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Today Canadian Budget Binder fan Jen Peacock shares her deals of the week.
No Frills
- Breyer’s promo pack ice-cream 10 x $0.97- $0.97 coupons (they were the unilever $1.00 off coupons but No Frills doesn’t give overage so the price was adjusted.
- Bagels 2 @ 3/$5.00- 50% off pink stickers $3.34-$1.68
- Coupons $9.70 used
- Out of pocket $1.66 Saved 87% according to the receipt. \
Great deals Jen!! Enjoy all that free ice-cream!
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Today I would like to introduce to you The Debt Free Guys.
Despite having had thirteen years of experience working in financial services between the two of them, David and John finally acknowledged in 2003 that they were financial nightmares.
They were two thirty-something professionals with $51,000 of combined credit card debt, living in a basement apartment. After reaching their rock-bottom, they made the decision to not continue on the road of frivolous credit card spending and wasteful living that they had been on since becoming adults.
They are now out of credit card debt and through various media now use their personal financial experiences and their almost 30-year combined tenure in financial services to help others get out of and stay out of debt.
These include their blog www.DebtFreeGuys.com and their recently published book Money Conscious Student and their upcoming books 4: The Four Principles of a Debt Free Life and Money Conscious Parent.
The mission of the Debt Guys is to help everyone become money conscious and debt free. They use their understanding of investments and economics, combined with their real-world experience to help others eliminate debt, live below their means and achieve financial independence.
David has worked in mutual fund and institutional investing. He holds a degree in International Business, is Series 7, 66, 9 and 10 licensed. John has worked in retail and institutional investing. He holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and is Series 7, 63, 9, 10, 66 and 24 licensed.
David and John have been together for over ten years and still live in Denver, CO. They love to travel, enjoy wine and being with family and friends.
What is a blog carnival?
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Negotiation is supposed to be one of those things that’s good for all involved. Isn’t always the case, of course.
I don’t go to a lot of garage sales, we have enough ‘stuff’ around here as it is and are doing a slow clean out donating to the local Salvation Army Thrift Store. With hubby’s health having a sale here won’t work well. My sister-in-law does have a sale every year or so. She will negotiate as she sees fit. Once she had a bedding set that she paid a fair amount for. Her hubby found the duvet too warm for his liking so she figured to sell the set. One guy tried to get it for much less than she was asking…she said no, what you see is what you pay. She did say after that the guy behaved like an a****** which didn’t impress her. Had he been reasonable she likely would have worked with him. He was a jerk so no sale. Last I heard she still has the set now minus the duvet itself…that she gave me because she knew I’d love it and I do. The rest of the set didn’t go with my bedroom so she kept it to try to sell later.
The younger son here used to work at the Thrift store and the staff there just hate garage sale season. All the stuff that doesn’t sell at someone’s sale will get dumped at the store late Saturday. A lot of it should have gone to the landfill in the first place and that’s where it ends up. The Thrift store does have to pay to take stuff to the landfill by the way…… The staff has to take turns checking outside the store Saturday nights and Sundays for all those drop offs…..
Being reasonable when negotiating is very important but it sounds like she was up for negotiation just not a large drop in price. The same goes for a homeowner when someone comes in way under price just to see how far they can push.