The Most Humorous Garage Sale I Have Ever Attended

After Friday's post, I decided to continue my theme of "things that make me laugh."  Today I will be discussing one seller's incredible naivety.

Back before I started garage saling seriously, at the height of the Beanie Baby craze, I happened to stop at a garage sale in my neighborhood with my parents.  These people were selling one item: Beanie Babies.  As in tables and tables full of them.  Apparently they had invested a fair amount of money into them (buying them on eBay, etc.) and suddenly realized they were short on money.  As in the thousands of dollars they spent on these animals.  

Even as a kid in elementary school, my mind was blown.  For adults to spend so much money on something that was clearly a fad was disturbing, especially since the demand was entirely artificial, constructed by the company to boost sales.  Really.

The worst part about this sale were the prices.  People were swarming the tables, trying to get a good deal on a "valuable" stuffed animal but they weren't buying anything.  Why?  Because the seller was pricing the Beanie Babies using the Beanie Baby collector's book she found at Borders.  She seriously expected to make, in some instances, $150 per stuffed animal.

Readers, if you have an item that you have been told has a certain value, don't try to sell it at your garage sale.  People come looking for bargains.  If you really think you have something worth money, sell it on eBay.  There you will get its fair value.

A Laughable Bargaining Technique

The intelligence of the average Craigslister is approximately equal to that of the average Youtube commenter; ie, on par with the garden snail.  I have seen a number of ludicrous bargaining techniques from these people but the one I will discuss below is definitely the most humorous.

Several extreme lowballers with whom I have conversed have attempted to justify their lowballing because they would be "paying [me] in cash."  As in, "I'll give you $30 for this item you have listed at $120 because I'm giving you cash."

Dumb Craigslisters, if you are reading this, pay attention.  Your lowballing is not justified by your paying cash.  Cash is the only form of payment I'll accept.  I won't accept your check (I have no way of knowing if it's good or not) and I certainly won't accept a barter for something less fluid than cash.

When people send me emails like this, I simply respond that cash is the only form of payment I accept so their offer is stupid (I'm not always that blunt; it depends how I'm feeling that day).  I usually won't even offer them a counter; I'll wait for them to make a second offer and then counter that so they're at the disadvantage.

Craigslist people make me angry sometimes.

"Fell Off the Truck" Sales

In my last post, I discussed fell off the truck sales, which are more a curiosity than anything.  "What does fell off the truck mean?" ask those of you too lazy to follow the link the first sentence. Describing an item as fallen off the truck means it was either stolen or obtained through some other illegal means. Fell off the truck sales have many duplicate new items; the shear quantity of the items make their origin questionable at best.  When asked, most sellers say that they got the items from their old business or from their company (but what company gives away hundreds of dollars of merchandise to its employees?).  While uncommon, I have seen a fair number of these sales.  Here are some highlights:

• A sale with scores of DeWalt tools, all new.  The woman claimed it was from her construction company, but what company gets rid of new tools.  I saw she had another sale with a new set of tools two or three years later.
• A sale with two pallets of Seagate hard drives, five hundred gigabytes.  This was back when a drive this size was probably $200.
• A sale with many identical containers of shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, candy, etc.
• A sale with multiple boxes of approximately thirty-six fifty-packs of blank DVD's.

Fell off the truck sales are very hit and miss.  The woman selling the tools wanted new price for them. The people selling the hard drives wanted them for approximately one-fourth their retail value.  The man selling the DVD's wanted $1 for fifty, actually a good deal.  One thing I've noticed that all these sales have in common is that prices are non-negotiable.

The Drive By, Continued

In my last post, I introduced the concept of the Drive By, which is, in my opinion, the most important garage saling technique.  Today I will discuss situations in which executing a drive by is the proper decision.

The most important rule regarding drive bys (byes?  bies?) is that the decision to skip a sale must be unanimous.  If even one person sees something he or she wants or even just wants to look, stop the car.  With my friends, we have an unspoken rule that if one person gets out, everyone gets out.  The reasoning behind this is that by sitting in the car you have no chance of buying an item; by getting out at a sale, you have the chance of buying something, no matter how small that chance may be.

And now I present to you the common signs of a required drive by:

• Lots of clothing: in my experience, sales that are dominated by clothing aren't worth the stop.  If you see a sale with mostly clothing, I suggest you keep on driving.
• You have to go inside: frequently billed as estate sales, these sales are put on my professionals hired to get rid of the entirety of a person's worldly possessions and make a decent profit at the same time.  These sales are dominated by overpriced (frequently as in new or close to new prices) household items.  You can find the stuff found at these sales cheaper at Goodwill or other sales.  My friends and I always pass these sales up.
• Very small sales: there's nothing worse (I speak in hyperbole) than getting out of your car only to find that you can scan a sale's contents in under ten seconds.  If the sale is small, just look from your car to see if there's anything you want.
• Lots of household items: sometimes you find sales that have a lot of one thing, such as glassware.  If you can see that all they have is items of a nature in which you are not interested, drive on.
• "Fell off the truck" sales: these are sales at which people are trying to sell many duplicate, new items.  For example, I have seen a seller with two pallets of new Seagate hard drives.  At these sales, the seller usually wants close to new price for the items -- even though they are of questionable origin -- so I suggest driving on.

The most important rule of drive bys is that when in doubt, get out (I'm sorry).  If you're unsure what's in that box, get out.  If you cannot see everything the seller has, definitely get out.  We almost drove by the house at which I bought my Kindle; we only stopped because they had some stuff further up the driveway we couldn't see.

The Drive By: Introduction

If you have ever held your own garage sale -- which I'm sure you have at some point in your life -- you have probably seen the people who don't immediately get out of their car but instead slow down or even stop in the street and peer out the window out your items.  Sometimes they will get out and sometimes they will keep driving.

While frustrating to sellers, this is probably the garage saler's most important technique.  When I first started garage saling in high school, my friends and I got out at every sale.  I guess we assumed (hoped?) that sellers had more items than could be seen from the street.

It took us a depressing amount of time to realize our hopes were, quite frankly, stupid.  After several years of getting out of the car for just about every sale we realized we were wasting our time.  The Drive By lets you screen your sales, allowing you to save time to go to more, better sales.  In a typical day we drive by twenty to forty percent of sales without stopping.  Seeing how we stop at scores of sales every day, the time saved by not having to park, get out of the car, and walk to and from the sale amounts to quite a bit.

My next post is a continuation of this topic; I'll be offering some tips regarding how to know when a drive by is necessary.

What to Pay: Common Items

There are some items you seem to see at every sale: books, clothes, VHS's, etc.  I'm going to give a brief introduction regarding what you should pay for these to give you a sense of pricing items.  This will hopefully give you a little understanding before we get into pricing uncommon or unique items.  As always, ignore the marked prices and bargain.

Books: When I first start saling I would offer $0.25/book.  Now I try to get books for $0.10 to $0.20 each.  Anything more than $0.25 each and you're overpaying in my opinion.  The only time I ever ignore this rule is when it's an expensive book (as in $30+) I was intending to purchase anyway.

VHS's: Anyone who tries to tell you these are worth more than a quarter is a fool.  I don't care how many times it was used.

DVD's: I wouldn't pay more than $2 for a DVD if it came in the original case. No case? I'd pay no more than $1.  A good way to bring prices down on DVD's is to mention scratches.

Clothing: I never buy clothing from a garage sale.  I never even look at clothing at garage sales.  However, based on my own experience having garage sales, people feel ripped off if they pay more than $1 per garment.

That's all the common items I can think of now.  I'm sure I'll think of some more in the future so I'll have to write a follow-up.

2/11/12 Purchase Summary

I was lucky today.  Really lucky.  I ended up spending $6.85 but I was paid $0.75 at one sale so I'll just calculate it as spending $6.10.  I'll come to that later.

As I said, I was lucky.  The day started slow.  The first sale we went to, which was right by my house, had a large pile of Nerf guns (I think the kid counted nineteen total for sale) but they wanted $70 for all.  Definitely out of my price range.  There were two I was interested in but they wanted $14 for the two; again, out of my price range.

Sales were consistently poor.  The first item I bought was a Nalgene (or fake Nalgene most likely) bottle with my university's logo for $0.10.  I figure if I bleach it long enough it will be fine.  At the next sale I found a copy of Aldous Huxley's Point Counter Point for $0.25.  I thought this was pretty good because I have been intending to read this for some time but the price was, for a while, $12.50 used on Amazon.  Upon seeing my bag of change, the seller offered me $1 for any territory quarters I had.  I found one so I profited $0.50 at that sale.

Sales continued to be poor.  At one sale I saw a Topsy Turvy pepper planter but the seller was unwilling to go below $1.  I wasn't willing to pay $1 on something like that so I passed it up.  A few sales later I found another and, feeling it was meant to be, bought it for $0.25.  Finally, I bought a Gamecube controller for $0.25.  I will get around $15 before fees on Amazon for it but I am considering keeping it for myself.

I decided to stop at the sale with the Nerf guns on my way home.  They remembered me and were willing to give me a better deal because I came back and it was late in the day.  I ended up getting the two guns for $6.  This doesn't sound like much, but I anticipate the two guns (a Longshot and a Vulcan, for those of you who know these things) will fetch $30-$40 each on Craigslist.  I have sold both of these guns on Craigslist before in this range.  If you don't remember, I bought a Longshot on January 14th with several other guns.  I resold the set for $65 but the Longshot was by far the most valuable gun in the set; the others would have gotten me maybe $20-$25 by themselves.

I have to give the kid selling the Nerf guns credit.  He really knew what he was talking about which was nice because I felt I could trust him when he said they were working.  He was also good at bargaining, especially for a twelve year old.  I could see him doing what I'm doing in five years.

Craigslist Bargaining 101

I like to think I know how Craigslist works.  I've probably had more than 80 sales in my lifetime; I had more than twenty sales in 2011 and I've already had six sales in 2012.  Hell, I made over $1000 on Craigslist in summer of 2010 selling textbooks I fished out of a dumpster but that's a story for a completely different blog.

In my last post I mentioned that I disagree with the "How to Survive Price Negotations on Craigslist" discussion over at recraigslist.com.  I don't think the author is incorrect; the guy is clearly an expert.  Actually, given his circumstances, I feel he's totally right; selling things on Craigslist is his profession and by lowering his cost he is reducing his income.  However, for those of us who pursue garage saling as a hobby, reselling purchases is just a bonus (icing on the cake, if you will) so his rules don't exactly apply to us.  I will now discuss my preferred method for selling stuff on Craigslist.

For us hobbyists; moving items isn't our primary goal.  We can afford to hold onto purchases for longer because we're not depending on the money to pay the rent.  We can therefore focus on maximizing our returns

When I list an item on Craigslist, the first thing I do is figure out how much money I want to get for it. From here, I set my asking price.  For textbooks it's anywhere from two to two and a half times my minimum; for everything else it's between one and a half and two times my minimum.

High prices serve two purposes.  For one, they scare off lowballers, or at least most of them.  Two, they let me negotiate.  Everyone loves a good deal and people think they're getting a good deal when they can reduce your prices (why do you think some department stores have sales so frequently?).

I inflate my prices to give myself breathing room.  Say, for example, I want $40 minimum for an item.  I will list it at $80 so when someone offers $40 we can settle at $60.  I get more than my minimum and the buyer thinks he or she is getting a bargain.  If no one bites at $80, I can lower my price to $60, someone will offer $40, and we'll settle at $45 or $50.

Ryan, the author at recraigslist, doesn't have this luxury.  Ryan is focused on moving as many items as possible and the only way to have really rapid turnaround on Craigslist is to offer really good deals.  He can't afford to inflate his prices so he can't afford to bargain.

One instance in which you should not bargain is when you have already agreed upon a price with the buyer.  If you reduce your price for the buyer either via phone or email and he or she shows up wanting you to reduce your price further, put your foot down.  If you've already bargained once you should never settle for bargaining twice.

An Interesting Source for those of you Wanting to get into Craigslist

Someone posted a link to the blog recraigslist.com on Reddit a while back.  The author (Ryan) makes a living buying and reselling things on Craigslist and several posts relevant to anyone wanting to sell things on Craigslist.

One interesting post I saw discusses "How to Survive Price Negotations."  Ryan's thesis is that you should stick to your guns and not accept a lower offer.  Personally, I think this is a flawed strategy. While I'm sure it works for him -- he does, after all, need the money to support his family -- for those of us who do this only as a hobby, it's a poor idea.  I think this will be the subject of my next post.

He also has at least one post devoted to garage sales.  Again, I disagree with Ryan only because we're approaching the topic from two different directions.  He's doing it for his job; I'm doing it for entertainment.  He suggests searching the Craigslist postings ahead of time for items he hopes to resell and then just going to those sales which is a fine strategy if you're just doing this for business.  For me, the business side only started as a way to justify it to disapproving parents; I still see garage saling more as entertainment than business.  So, if you're like me (you want to garage sale more for personal items than for profit), I suggest you look for sales using the methods I discussed in my third and fourth posts

I personally really like Ryan's blog.  It's well-written and he clearly knows what he's talking about.  If you want more information regarding selling stuff on Craigslist from another experienced Craigslist seller, I suggest you head over.

2/4/12 Purchase Summary

Sales were terrible today; it was a combination of few sales and a high percentage of bad-quality sales. The only good sale I went to I just happened to pass later in the morning after having finished saling.

I spent all of $0.60.  I spent $0.25 on some chili pepper lights (like these ones).  It's a long story, but they're a gift for a friend.  I spent $0.25 on a copy of East of Eden and $0.10 on a copy of The Brothers Karamazov.  Altogether a frustrating weekend.  I feel sorry for my friend with whom I went saling today; this is his second week in a row of purchasing nothing.

Two More Sleazy Bargaining Tricks

This first trick was introduced to me by a friend long before I ever got into garage saling.  When you're leaving in the morning, stash money in several pockets in different denominations.  For example, in one pocket you may have $2, in another $7, and in another $4.  This works best when you have many pockets, like in some jackets.

The point is to make the seller think you have less money than you actually do.  Say, for example, the seller wants $10 for an item you would only pay $4 for; you tentatively agree to the $10 and pull your cash out of your $4 pocket to see you only have $4 with you.  Obviously, this is dishonest and requires you to have a fair memory.  I've never actually tried this technique but I've heard that it works

I invented a riskier variation on this technique.  Several times when a seller was being unreasonable I have gotten my wallet out to realize I only have $5 with me.  I then showed the seller my wallet to prove it.  In reality I had well more than $5 but I gambled on the seller not being able to get a good look at my money when I flashed it.  This technique works surprisingly well but, as I said above, it is risky; you run the chance of the seller getting a good look at how much money you really have.

Never Set Your Price Using Craigslist Prices

One important thing to avoid when selling on Craigslist is reducing your price because there are other sellers selling the item for less.  The person to whom I sold the TI-84 graphing calculator discussed in a previous post asked me to reduce my price to $50 (from my minimum of $75) because there were other sellers on Craigslist selling their calculators for as low as $40.  I politely told him that my lowest price was $75 but he was welcome to try to contact the people selling their calculators for $40.  If they didn't work out he could call me back, I said.

He called me back in less than an hour offering the full $75.  Apparently the $40, $50, and $60 calculators were no longer available -- or, most likely, never available.

I am fairly certain that the absurdly good deals on Craigslist are almost always too good to be true. Judging by these posts' spelling and grammar (even worse than the average Craigslist user's), I am guessing that most of these posts are listed by scammers or spambots and their respective items never actually existed.  Of the few real items that are priced extremely low, I am guessing they are stolen and/or sold immediately and the seller never took down the posting.

All I'm saying is that you shouldn't use Craigslist to price your items; it's too unreliable.  Use Amazon instead.