Garage Sale Pricing Guide – Step 1: Getting Started

To prevent a brain freeze on the big day it may be beneficial for you to answer the following questions a couple of weeks before opening day:

1. Why do you want to have a garage sale?
Is it to Conveniently Repurpose All Paraphernalia (also known as the C.R.A.P. factor)? Is it to make money? A little of both?

Many people just want to clean out and organize their garage so they can park their cars inside!

2. How much money do you hope to make?
Price accordingly based on how many items you have and what your dollar amount goal is.

3. How much time do you have?
Typically, people will have garage sales from Thursday through Sunday. With the “power days” being Friday and Saturday. I was really surprised at the number of shoppers I had when a friend suggested I open on Thursday. I had a great turn-out! Sundays were very low turn-out and I would go so far as to say – don’t bother.

Do you have time to devote to preparing for, running and tearing down your garage sale? The time you open to the time you close is entirely up to you.

However, even if you don’t live on “Rise and Shine Road,” serious G-Shoppers will be waiting outside your house as early as 7am, even though your sign says open from 9 to 4.

They will keep pouring in until every last vestige of paraphernalia is out of their eager-beaver site, say around 5pm. But hey, it’s fun and a great way to get to know your neighbors. I recommend a starting time of no later than 8am . . . trust me.

4. How are your haggling skills?
Shoppers will haggle whether you want to or not so it’s wise to have a margin. It’s all part of the garage sale “experience” shall we say. It will go something like this, “I know it’s marked $1 but will you take 50 cents for it?”

Be prepared by marking your items accordingly, i.e., price a little higher so you have room to haggle. The worst feeling in the world is to wrestle over whether to sell something in the first place and then have a buyer beat you down when you know Grandma’s macramé lamp is worth twice the asking price.

Rule of Thumb: Your asking price should start as high as is appropriate so as not to scare your customers away.

Example: If your bottom line price is 50 cents, mark it 75 cents (oh yeah, they’ll even haggle at that price).

True Story: A customer said to me, “I know these shoes are $2 but would you take 75 cents for them? They’re for my Mother.” He then looked down (hopefully movingly) at his aging mother who was leaning feebly on his arms. My response? “Okay . . . for your mother.” *inner eyes rolling*

Get the book now. It’s “pay what you want!”

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