We had a garage sale a couple of weeks ago and I'd say it was a rather successful one. Another neighbor of ours joined us that Saturday so the massive sprawl was appealing to crowds. My friend had a ton of girls clothing and we had a ton of boys clothing, not to mention the combined mountain of toys.
I don't know about you but we, as in here in San Antonio, get those "shoppers" who are just going to turn around and sell whatever they get at a flea market. They are looking for BIG bargins.
Well, with MUCH regret, I share a story that ALL of us who participated in this garage sell REGRET TO THIS DAY... STILL. There was this older hispanic man picking about the toys. In spanish and broken english he tells me he's going to put a bunch of toys in a box and I give him a price.
He proceeds to put just about EVERY toy we had in the box (one of OUR tubs). He asks me, "How much for all these?" My gut tells me to say $20 but I say $15. There's a lot of toy in there. He tries to tell me that some of the toys don't have all the parts, which TWO of them didn't. I'm thinking, I really want to get rid of these toys, so I reply $10.
So he buys the toys for $10, A STEAL and he wants the tub at no extra cost. Ha ha ha uh NO. He loads up his toys then comes back... Now he's after the stuffed toys. There are some rather cute animals, BIG animals in the pile (and I do mean PILE). He asks us how much for all of them. Here we go again.
I think we started off with $10 and ended up settle for $6.00. I step away and my friend handles the transaction. She comes back with $5.55 cents. We are both disgusted with the money that we don't care how it's split up or IF it's spilt up between us.
He is the ONE customer that ruined our whole day... week. UGH! I will never do that again with another customer. If I think I'm asking for a fair price then I am going to stick with it. I will IN FACT go in the opposite direction if they try to talk me down. If I ask for $10 then it's $10. They say, $5 I'll say $15.
I would have rather been stuck with that pile of toys and give it away FREE or to Goodwill then sell it to that man if I had the chance to do it over.
There's no one else to blame but ourselves but we won't make that mistake again. At the end of the day it was profitable. We made almost $300. It paid for our Tivo (a refurb) Todd's been dying to get ever since we cut cable.
- Garage Sales
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candesintx- November 17th, 2008
2008-11-17 04:28 pm (UTC)
I gave what we didn't sell toy wise to our church for their rummage. :)
2008-11-17 08:57 pm (UTC)
(Anonymous)
2008-11-18 01:54 am (UTC)
2008-11-17 11:33 pm (UTC)
2008-11-18 01:56 am (UTC)
-- Candes
2008-11-19 12:40 am (UTC)
There are these Jamaican women who do that crap. They did it to me 2 yrs ago on clothes - tons of clothes and mens shoes we had w/ tags still on them. She asked how much and I had told her $2.00 each (brand new w/ tags, ok?) and she started talking me down. REALLY mean. She wouldnt leave. I kept saying "No" when she offered 50 cents. I was alone and it was busy so finally I told her FINE. Then she started up on the next thing. I just let her have a few things and told her no more and she left.
Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. This lady comes up and i have all these sundresses and clubby dresses, some with tags still on them. I tell her $.50 each (I just wanted to get rid of it). A STEAL on this stuff.
She says "No $.25" What the #%$% !?!?
So I say fine - again I just want them to GO AWAY. She says "You count them and I hand to you."
So she piles up $5 of stuff into my arms (25 cents each - so there were 20 items). She says "Ok how much?" I say "$5.00"
She says "NO $2.00" I say "$4.00" She says "$2.00 or no." I should have told her where to SHOVE IT, but I was going to donate the crap anyway so whatever. So I say fine and take her $2 and walk away from her.
I freaking HATE that. Every time we have a big neighborhood garage sale they show up.
2008-11-19 12:46 am (UTC)
2008-11-19 12:49 am (UTC)
My neighbor across the street came running over after that (because we had the girls playing out front in the yard that day too) and she said "OMG OMG OMG Watch out for the Jamaican ladies!"
I said "Yeah, I know, they scam you" LOL!
She said "Oh no! Even WORSE!"
And she went on to tell me that her husband left to get change and she looked over by her front door and one of them was squatting over her bushes PEEING!!! She said she couldnt believe it and didnt even know what to say. She said the lady pulled up her pants and went on to the next house to shop.
Is that not the NASTIEST thing you have ever heard? She said she wanted to warn me because she didnt want our girls seeing stuff like that.
(Anonymous)
2008-11-19 04:05 am (UTC)
Makes me so mad. I think I would have to call the cops if someone peed right there on my property. Holy Cow!