i'm not a garage sale goer nor have i held one of my own.
i was hoping to be able to wait till a friend of mine could help
but that is not going to work and i need to get my feet wet this weekend with it.

consequently i am hoping for some sage advice from anyone.
i am getting rid of the mulitude of dishes and household items
that my uncle accumulated from going to sales over the years.

but he also bought a lot of new stuff. never used. and i have some furniture items.
i have no idea what to price things at. i would appreciate any tips you have.

like how does one to to the bathroom when you are working your sale yourself?
how much float money am i going to need? do you price dishes separately or as a lot?
do i try to sell collectible items here or take them to the antique shop?

anyone?

.
[Edited 9/3/07 10:03am]

I never price anything I just set it all out, or allow people to go in my basement and see what they want, then talk money.
Alot of people especially dealers come in the early hours and have the most money.
They dont mind paying the higher price for stuff and usually will buy many things at once.
Things that you know are more valuable, I would write down on a pad what you want for them.
Just so you dont get flustered when trying to make a deal and let it go for soemthing less than what you thought was fair.
And kicking yourself for it later.
But it will be trial and error at first anyway.

I have never held one either

THIS morning TR and I just talked about maybe having one to rid a few things and make $ to pay for JT's 1st semester college books

In my experience people barely want to pay anything. I was selling some brand new items (bought less than a month ago and never used) and so I thought half the original price would be fair, but nobody was interested. If you have electrical gadgets like tv or cd players etc you might get a few bucks, but kitchen equipment are really hard to sell. Definitely price them as a lot. And don't try to sell collectibles, you could get much more for them on E-Bay or at an antique shop.

Basically you should ask yourself at what price level you'd rather donate to a charitable cause instead of selling it, and then price the items a bit above that. It's no fun standing there for hours and hours without getting rid of anything.

oh and be ware of the sweet old lady or poor looking person.
they likely are gonna turn around and re-sell the item at a flea market or ebay.
so take them for what they got and dontlet them guilt trip you.
To that sweet old lady, its just like her gambling her money away at the casino.

Mach said:

Its best to do it when you see your neighbors, if you have any have put out sale signs.

that means that they have already done the advertising in the news paper for you!

put a few signs up around the neighborhood pointing to you house.

and wallah! you'll have 400-500 dollars made in an afternoon!

horatio said:

Hell no one without 4x4 drive can GET to my house

I'll have to ask my friend that lives in the city/brubs if we can do a 2 household one @ her pad

i have $100 in small bills and change

does everyone come up with $20's

emm said:

I dunno

Mach said:

my org twin and i are both having garage sales

i think i will get another $25 worth to have on backup.

retina said:

that's what i'm afraid of. that and not being able to go pee.

ok. so basically i will use this weekend as a learning experience. i won't put out anything i will kick myself over later. i will decide the "i'd rather give it away at that price" price point and i will stick to my guns on prices and not be manipulated by little old ladies

it will take a bunch of sales to get rid of all of this stuff. so maybe if i hate it i will know not to cart anymore of it up to my basement. and i keep thinking about all the crap of my own i can get rid of! $400 bucks? really? wow.

i have no advice.

i like ebay.

oh, and while your having your garage sale I recommend you blast

White Stripes 'Rag And Bone'

TotalANXiousNESS said:

ebay to sell or to buy?
i can't be bothered.

i was looking to see how much his collector plates would go for on ebay...
the ones he bought for at least $60 each. they sell for $10.
i hate how those companies target old people
saying ohhh buy our limited edition crappy thing
it will be an investment! a treasured collectible!

emm said:

horatio said:

i was going to put out this rca victor
4 speed record player and spin some bing crosby



lol actually i think i had decided to advertise that separately.
but i don't own any white stripes

It's best to always have someone or even a few people there at the time of the sale. I've heard of many people having shoplifting going on (even though things are priced dirt-cheap most of the time) during their garage sales. The more people there to supervise, the better. Find a big, tall mean looking guy to help you out.

JediTodd said:

maybe one with a moustache and a lightsabre?
that way you could sear off those five finger discounts in the blink of an eye!

emm said:

Oh hell yeah!

JediTodd said:

or a shot gun

what makes a crappy sale?
people who don't have enough set out?

emm said:

nothing

people sell plants that they have divided form their landscaping.
thats all they have. and they are expensive.
what could be more boring than that?

horatio said:

Someone would probably try to buy it.

JediTodd said:

surely

i was thinking about my large furniture items
i can't get them outside myself
and if it rains i would be panicing to get everything back in myself

horatio you let people in your basement
perhaps i will set up the big stuff in my livingroom
and let interested people go in? it would just mean
putting everything else out of sight.
what do you think?

Are you selling your garage? where would you park your car?

emm said:

I'd keep people restricted to the garage. You never know if someone is there just to scope out the residence to come back and rob it later.

ArielB said:

Maybe she can have a yard sale instead. I'd buy it and build a house right next to hers, then.

emm said:

just block off enterences to other areas of your house.

Block them off with large pieces of furniture, and dont leave anything else in the room , obviously, that you care about.

is this an estate sale/moving sale?

if not, and you are going to continue to live there, you'll want to think if its worth having all those shoes walk on your floors.
And you'll certainly want to watch that area when someone is in there.

I just happen to have easy access to my basment from the side of my house.