We are having a garage sale Saturday. Yuck. However, I've come up with a plan that I hope works better than the last one.

We have hundreds of clothing items to sell. Rather than set them out individually, I'm going to group together like sizes and put them in plastic containers. There will be a listing of all the clothes inside, and maybe a picture, and it will be a "buy all or none" deal. The box will be taped, so if you want some, you have to buy all.

I figure a box will hold at least 50 items and probably closer to 100. It may be possible to buy a complete year's wardrobe for a 10-year-old boy in one box.

The adult boxes will contain high-fashion clothes. For example, one of my boxes will have a $250 Brioni dress shirt.

I plan on offering the boxes for $30 - $75.

Have y'all seen this done before? Do you think it will work?

I'm not going to open boxes for anyone, except maybe at the very end. If the boxes go unsold, I'll donate the whole thing to Goodwill.

That sounds like a good idea...kinda like a grab bag.

This sound a bit like the selling of "lots" on eBay. I've never seen it done in real-time, and I'm sort of thinking some buyers won't take to it kindly, because folk like to touch things that are right in front of them. But it certainly could work! At $30 to $75 for a box of 50 to 100 pieces, I think a lot of people will be able to get over the insecurities.

Instead of donating them to *Goodwill, you should find someone in your area that goes to thrift stores and buys clothes to re-sell at flea markets, because that is how they make money to support themselves.
Cut out the middle man for them.
For instance when i go thrifting there is always this couple i see buying shoes and cleaning them up and re-selling them at the flea market.
My partner goes through shoes like mad. For someone else his shoes are perfect.
I just take the whole lot to the flea market about e very 3-4 months and give it to them since this saves them gas and the cost of buying them. I dont even know their names. Thats where i want my donations to go to, people, not a thrift store or church which has to take their share for their overhead.
To me thrift-stores have become an industry instead of a charity, especially *Goodwill stores.

I could be wrong (and I probably am) but I don't think it will work. Lammastide is right, people like to touch the clothes (and completely mess up the table ). It might be a good idea to group some things together. Like selling 5 pairs of boys jeans for X amount.

I hope all goes well.

That would never work on me. I'd never buy a box of clothes I can't see.

JuliePurplehead said:

I agree with them... spread them out.

I made $750.00 last sell I had.

CarrieMpls said:

Me either though there may be many that would

best wishes with the sale Schro

I have to agree with others here, I wont buy clothes I cant see or feel. But I like Julies idea though, putting 5 pairs of jeans for X amount(same size) or put the same size in boxes like:
1 box underwear size X for X amount each
1 box T-shirts size X for X amount each
(put in boxes so they wont get strung out all over the tables or plastic totes works well)

and so on...
[Edited 11/6/08 10:55am]

I never buy anything that I can't c. Bsidez,cheap prices r the reasonz that many people shop at garage salez.I don't xpect 2 spend a lot of money on used stuff,no matter what brand it is,r itz original value.My sister priced all her kidz used clothez at 5 centz-25 centz and sold every single piece. IMO,if it'z junk ur trying 2 get rid of,y try 2 get rich?

Dang, we have hundreds of clothes. I was hoping my idea is a good one. I don't think we have near enough tables or room of any kind to lay out that many clothes.

Thanks, y'all, for your input.

If you can get a rack or two, that would be great. Don't worry about piling a bunch of clothes on top of each other. One of the best parts of garage saling is the digging.

RodeoSchro said:

Sheets on the ground, ( or old table clothes) stacking same sizes works.

Why don't you try to Ebay your $250 Brioni dress shirt,and similar items like this?

Are garage sale shoppers really looking to buy in bulk? Or do they get a kick out of finding garage sales, and rare items at a great price?

Tom said:

Tom! The Tom, Its been more then a fortnight since Ive seen you.

Tom said:

They're probably not trying to buy in bulk, but I was hoping I could sell in bulk.

I do NOT relish the thought of 300 clothing transactions at $5 a piece. The money's nice, but man, I just don't do anything any more for $5, if you know what I mean.

I live in the garage sale state, there is one word that governs whether you will get rid of most everything you have for sale.






CHEAP.



Don't look at what it's worth. You want it out of your house, remember? Sell it cheap. Consider it good karma. It benefits you both, and someone gets something they want for a good price. You get RID of something you no longer need, and get a little money back for it. Better than throwing it out, which is what you're going to do if it DOESN'T sell.



Cheap will set you free.

JerseyKRS said:

This is the garage sale school of thought that I come from.

If you want to put out paper bags and let people fill one for $5 or whatever, that might work. But no, I wouldn't buy a box of clothes unseen, knowing that I wouldn't want most of them.

yeah, like Melissa said, I wouldn't buy a $75 box of clothes at a garage sale, whether I could see them or not. Price those jammies at $15 each and watch them go.

RodeoSchro said:

$5 a pop for garage sale clothes is really steep, IMHO. $1, tops.

And yeah, let people dig. Put out a tarp on the ground and pile 'em up. If you try to be organized people will mess up your system anyway, so. . .

tackam said:

again, true.

And if you have a few things that are really worth too much to sell that cheap, set them aside and ebay them.

JerseyKRS said:

Someday I'm gonna get down there to visit you bitches and we're gonna and go garage-sale-ing.

tackam said:

we are simple and humble people, that sounds like a GREAT saturday morning.

JerseyKRS said:

For REAL. Our neighborhood has a garage sale every August and that's the NUMERO UNO lesson I've learned. I don't want that crap back in my house, so CHEAP is definitely the way to go.

JerseyKRS said:

And then we'll eat food!!!

FunkMistress said:

Genius! Food is awesome! I can make a craaaaayzee mess of beans and rice and collards.

My mother-in-law is a garage sale fanatic and would totally not like the idea of boxes of clothes for that much money, though she does routinely take advantage of "fill a bag for $5" deals at sales.

Having garage sales sucks in my opinion. They are too much of a hassle. I donate everything to thrift shops in my area and Ebay the really expensive stuff. I'm giving a really nice, expensive coat to the coat drive for kids at my church. I know I could make some money off of it, but I feel compelled to just give it away. I would rather know that some poor, coat-less teen age girl is running around this winter in my old thick faux-fur lined, suede coat then have the $20-$30 I could get for it. I would just waste that $ on fast food or pizzas anyway.

tackam said:

strip Wii!!