Garage Sale Pet Peeves

[basementrita]

I like to go to garage sales, but I also host about 3-4 garage sales a year. My biggest pet peeves when selling are: 1) People who show up and ask if they can have the item for FREE. I don't give my stuff away! Garage sales are too much work.
2) Men who drive up the alley and yell out of their car "do you have any tools for sale?" I don't even answer them anymore. That's right I WILL NOT REPLY when they are doing this. They need to park their car, get out, and browse around like everyone else does.

 

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[flinthunter]

I have to agree with you. Here is another one to add to the list. A pair of women with a half dozen wild kids. While the kids are picking up everything on the tables and you are trying to keep them under control the women are huddled together over your best bluejean table, speaking in whispered spanish, and switching price tags. That will not happen again. We now use a tag gun like the stores use.

 

[clovis97]

One of my biggest pet peeves are the sales that are advertised as "HUGE-MULTI FAMILY", but when you arrive, after spending $6 in gas, you learn that they have two card tables set up and only have about 13 dirty stuffed animals and a broken curling iron for sale.

 

[clovis97]

Another one of my pet peeves...and this seems to be happening more and more these days:

The garage sale that is heaping full of thousands of items, and each one of them is way overpriced.

For instance, I looked at some Play Station games last summer.

"How much is this?" I asked about a Madden '06 game.
"$15" the guy replied.
"For a game that is 6 years old?" I asked.
"Yeah. I paid like $50 for that when it was new", he said, as if I were the biggest idiot he had ever met.

I literally saw the same game, without a case, at Game Stop for a mere $3 a few weeks later.

I am running into this mentality again and again.

I don't expect to buy everything for $1, but come on, this is a garage sale, not a "You get it for half the amount of what I paid".

 

[TreasureHunters]

NO PRICES and people that flat out refuse your offer and dont even counteroffer you.

 

[SilverForBrains]

I like to go to garage sales, but I also host about 3-4 garage sales a year. My biggest pet peeves when selling are: 1) People who show up and ask if they can have the item for FREE. I don't give my stuff away! Garage sales are too much work.
2) Men who drive up the alley and yell out of their car "do you have any tools for sale?" I don't even answer them anymore. That's right I WILL NOT REPLY when they are doing this. They need to park their car, get out, and browse around like everyone else does.

LOL, I should start pulling up to garage sales and yelling "Hey, do you have any gold or silver items that you didn't know about and priced for cheap!?"

 

[bethnbijoux]

As a seller, this has happened to me MORE THAN ONCE... someone who purchases an item, then COMES BACK a few hours later to see if they can "return it"!!!!! Seriously? What the heck, people

 

[Beans]

As a seller, this has happened to me MORE THAN ONCE... someone who purchases an item, then COMES BACK a few hours later to see if they can "return it"!!!!! Seriously? What the heck, people

What do you mean return it? You did not buy it here, I would not have that cheap junk in my Garage Sale.

 

[TreasureHunters]

I also hate when going to a house to find there's no sale and the sign is 3 weeks old, I swear they should be charged for littering, I want to make a company that sends invoices to those that leave their signs up or just grab there sign and find their address and leave it on their porch..

 

[Lafitte Deux]

One of my pet peeves are the husband and wife sales where they argue about the selling price of each item you ask about.

Another is the people who are totally uprepared. You show up at the sale time and they're just starting to put items out.
Then they say to "come back in an hour and everything will be ready".

 

[tennessee digger]

YOu all have some good ideas about this subject. Mine is usually nothing priced and if you show interest, the price is usually way out of line.

 

[dejapooh]

Most sales out here have no prices. I am used to that (Prices are nice, because they can not inflate it when they see me checking it on my phone.

 

[detectingarizona]

i have been to a garage sale asking about how much they would take for something, and they make a offer more then the price tag, people are not bright, i know a lady who can buy about 200 bucks worth of stuff at a store of just shoes and stuff like that for 50 bucks, and make 150.

 

[Jdett411]

Best story!!! my mom and sister have a garage sale few times a year. and my Mom had some old clothes she was selling. Some guy came browsing picking still out, one of his items was a pair of my moms jeans with some feminine print, thought nothing of it. Few months later they have another one. Who shows up?!?!? The same guy wearing my moms pants!!!!!! Hahahahaha

 

[spartacus53]

Sounds like a good deal of you have issues with yard sales, so take my solid advice.

Don't pet the peeves and stay away from those type of sales

 

[isabella1]

I paid $130 for it 10 yrs ago and I only used it twice!

I can't sell that I'm saving it for my grand kids.

It's really collectible, made by the franklin mint

Are you interested in some old Beanie babies?

 

[diggummup]

It's really collectible, made by the franklin mint

I just sold a Franklin Mint Twiggy Doll w/suitcase and outfits for $300. Some of their stuff is collectible. But I know what you mean. lol.


My pet peeve that hasn't already been mentioned is this reply from the person having the sale,"Oh I didn't know that was out here, it's not for sale". Happens to me at least once a week.

 

[clovis97]

I paid $130 for it 10 yrs ago and I only used it twice!

I can't sell that I'm saving it for my grand kids.

It's really collectible, made by the franklin mint

Are you interested in some old Beanie babies?

Now that is hysterical!!!!!!

FWIW, like Dig said, watch some of the Franklin Mint stuff. It is money sometimes!!!!

 

[Jack Ryan]

In some parts of the country, no one prices items in yard or garage sales. You have to ask everything like an Arabian market. When they price all the items they call it a "tag sale".

I wouldn't have a problem with people asking if I had any items.

We did have a sale when I lived in WI for a while and couldn't believe the difference in how people act at them. It was the first time I EVER saw some chintzy thieve trying to switch the tags at a frigging yard sale. I thought it was going to be a battle before I finally told her she couldn't buy anything at any price, just get out and don't come back. You'd have never thought it looking at her either. It was an EASY catch, the few times we have one my wife sets everything up and usually only has a few set prices. Everything on this table a quarter, that table a dollar, that table $5. Never more than a few items that matter enough to put individual tags on them.

Another first at that sale, as kids get older you get a collection of stuffed animals. Most people don't want used stuffed toys especially if they show any wear at all. We usually put out a box FULL of them with like a dime or quarter/pc on the box. Lots of times if a kid looks like they like something and especially if their parents are buying stuff we'll just give the kid one or two. By the end of the sale the box may even say free if there is a pile left so little kids can get something. Some grown adult guy was shopping and noticed the box and says "These free?" and I says "Sure take a couple if..." The tight____ already had the whole box and headed for his car before I could even finish the sentence. LOL, that first sale there was a learning experience for sure.

 

[clorox]

Ran into two annoying ones today:

-The first was a combo of the seller being preoccupied by the kids; "We got these coins appraised last year and I won't let you rip me off by paying less;" other shoppers being both loud and uninformed: "Silver half dollars? I hear those are worth $12 or $13!"; and then calling the husband, misrepresenting my offer, and letting me overhear "Just tell him they aren't for sale." At least her jewelry was cheap.

-The second was a classic "Oh that isn't for sale." But it didn't come after the assistant explicitly told me that everything in the room was for sale, or after I rummaged for ten minutes and found some really nice things in a really disgusting jewelry box, or after I waited for the real person in charge to show up, not even after I was told off because NOTHING in the room was for sale. It didn't come until the person in charge gave me a glimmer of hope when she asked "Well, what did you find, anyway?" I had just accepted the fact that I was going to leave empty-handed, giving me a glimmer of hope like that was just cruel!