Garage Sale Articles

Setting Your Prices Right To Enjoy Garage Sale Success

The success of garage sales depends on a number of factors. Naturally, one of the most obvious factors used to gauge the success of garage sales is the kinds of products that are on sale. If you’re not selling anything of value or appealing, there’s no way that your garage sale is going to become lucrative or profitable.

One sadly underestimated factor is the garage sale owner’s ability to set the right prices for his items. Attaching the right price tag to the right product is one of the safest paths to take if you wish to enjoy financial success from your garage sale.

The following tips will teach you how to set the right prices for all the items in your garage sale.

The Importance of Motivating Your Employees Properly
If you don’t have enough time to supervise your garage sale personally, you’ll no doubt hire several people to provide sales support. Be sure to hire people who have adequate sales experience because garage sales can be especially chaotic. With customers hurriedly trying to best each other in finding bargain items, a novice salesperson can easily panic and lose control of the whole situation.

Explain to your sales crew that one of the reasons you can place relative high prices on your products is your ability to provide customer satisfaction. If you can’t address your customers’ needs satisfactorily, there is no way that the customers will come back – no matter how great your products are!

Categorizing Items under Appropriate Departments
Another way of ensuring shopping peace and comfort in your garage sale is categorizing your items clearly and in a system that your customers won’t have any difficulties understanding. Divide the products according to specific departments. Lastly, label the products neatly and logically so that your customers will know that baby mittens are under CLOTHING and not SMALL MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Not All Advice is Good Advice
Beware of websites and books that autocratically tell you how to price your products. Sales experts teach not by commanding their students but rather by letting their students explore their options and discovering for themselves what works best in which situations. Experience is still the best teacher any individual can have and having garage sales is no exception to the rule.

Making Benchmark Studies
Benchmarking is a comparison technique that big and small corporations alike use in order to find out how they’re performing vis a vis their competitors. This tool can also be used to determine the best prices for the items in your garage sale. Check the quality of the products they’re selling and how much they’re selling it for. Afterwards, compare it to what you’re selling to know if you’re overpricing or underpricing your products.
Relating Product Conditions with Prices
Make sure that your prices are also based on the product condition. Avoid attaching expensive tags to items that have been used for years, excessively flawed, exposed to wear and tear and are generally in bad condition. Likewise, don't place a lower price tag on items that are in good to excellent condition.

For brand new products or items that have never been used, be sure to ask for 75% of their original prices. As for other products that are slightly used, be sure to ask for at least 50% of their original value.

How to Successfully Price Books
Books are tricky items to sell in garage sales because most customers expect them to be sold at exceedingly low prices. The right knowledge on books will however help you set the right price for the right book.

Paperbacks sold in garage sales are dimes in a dozen but works of famous authors allow garage sale owners to price them higher than usual. If you’re not familiar with the books that you’re selling, ask for second opinions to gauge its bestselling status.

It’s Always Okay to Negotiate
Lastly, the success of your garage sale depends on your ability to negotiate. Not allowing the customers to haggle is the best way to lose profit. Garage sales are for haggling and there’s no way to change that. The only thing you can do is mentally set the lowest price you’re willing to accept for each item you’re selling. Allow your clients to haggle as much as they wish but be sure not to allow them to pay for any item for something less than what you’re mentally set on.