What’s a good way to price items for a garage sale?
It's been many years since I've had a garage sale, but have quite a bit to get rid of and was thinking about doing a sale.
What are some good hints about doing a garage sale?
How do I price items.
ie:
I have a bunk bed, solid maple, with drawers underneath, and the mattresses - fairly new... New was several hundred. How much now.
1 year old mower.
large snow blower.
stuffed animals.
Do I price things at 50% of what I purchased it for?
any HELP would be appreciated.
that's a good way of looking at it... do I want to get rid of stuff or make money. That's will help price things.
It depends on the item’s condition. 10-25% of the original retail generally. For something in really good shape or with tags you can charge more. If you want more than that for a really nice item, consign it at a secondhand shop or sell yourself in the paper or on Craigslist.
You can price higher than that and count on the fact that some people will bargain, but some buyers will walk rather than negotiate.
So for example:
Hardback books: $1 unless really big and nice then $2
Paperbacks: 50 cents
Stuffed animals I would put at a quarter unless they are collectible. Or say free with purchase. Everyone who likes them usually has too many.
Clothes, unless new with tags, then would be:
$2 for jeans, more for designer
$1 for most shirts
$5-$12 for a dress that cost $50, depending on condition
$3 for a pair of shoes that cost $30
$10 for a pair of boots that cost $100
For your bunk bed, $50-75, unless it’s in really good shape. You can price it higher if you are willing to haul it back in and relist it later, which might be your best option.
To draw people to your sale, put some large items out front so your sale is easy to see from the street. Put large colored signs at all the intersections near your home with big arrows. All the same color signs works best to follow. Make the time of the sale BIG so there’s no question.
You can also have a cooler with cold pop cans and water bottles for sale. Homemade cookies in baggies will make money too. Have your kids sell them. People like to buy from kids.
Another big draw is a FREE box. Stick a box out front with little McDonald’s toys and random odds and ends. Put FREE on it in huge letters visible from the street. People who would normally drive by will stop to see what’s in the box and stay to look at the rest.
You’ll probably get people who come too early, while you’re still setting up. If you don’t want to deal with that, just put up a sign that says, "Early Birds Pay Double".
Have lots of grocery sacks and change ready. Have someone with you to spell you off and watch for people taking things. When making change, hold the bill the customer gives you in your hand until change is made. That way noone can say they gave you a bigger bill than they actually did.
An hour before you shut down, make everything half price that you really don’t want to take back in the house. If people want to knock the price down too low and you don’t want to go that low yet, tell them that at such and such a time you’ll put everything at half price. If they want it bad enough they’ll either buy it or come back.
Good luck!!
I would put the stuffed animals in a box.And price them for 75 to 50 cents.And on the box i wood put buy one get one free.Thats how u make boney and rid junk,
easiest way is to just price everything 25 cents EA. Then you only need 1 sign. That’s how I do it and stuff really sells fast.
good question
are you trying to get rid of stuff or make money?
have you thought about giving to paralyzed vets and taking a tax write off?
no matter what price you choose you will be asked to sell for less
even if it cost a dollar you will be offered 25 cents
50% of retail might be a good place to start
Look up the big items on ebay or graig’s list to about how much they go for and then maybe even lower that if you really want to get rid of whatever it is. For any smaller things price them really cheap, like a couple of bucks, if you got anything for free then price it really cheap as well. Anything brand new should be a little bit higher but still a lot less then what you paid for it. The 50% thing, I think is a bit low maybe more like 70% but if someone wants to pay less they can always bargain.
The value of anything you bought in a store = %50 of what you paid for it the moment it was outside the store. To anyone else, after that, regardless of condition, they are ‘used’.
That is the first rule of thumb.
The larger unused items I would start at 1/3rd of the retail and be prepared to go down from there.
People love to bargain. Leave room to knock off a certain amount from any item or as suggested, offer one free with purchase of two smaller items or a better price for groups of items.
Watch the T.V. show Clean House. They sell people’s clutter: the sponsored show matches up to the first $1000 of the yard sale gains ~ on the show. But…. in reality, their pricing is about right on all sorts of household items, even without the sponsor’s added dollars.
Clearing it out should be worth about anything, even if very little. You get cash, people haul it away. Double relief.
best regards, petr b.