micmic66
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posted on August 13, 2003 07:03:58 PM new
I am sick and tired of the rat race, back stabbing, early bird, DAY BEFORE garage sale scene. When I say "day before" yes, you guessed it, there is a group of A-Holes reading the classifieds and knocking at peoples doors a day ahead of time looking to raid the garage sale homes before the G-Dam sales even start. Of course, many of the people agree, open thier doors and the rest is history. You read the add...circle it...go to the sale only to find out you are a day late (even though you are 1hr early!) Do I join this desperate group of jerks and become one or do I waste time driving to these "raided" sales the day they are advertised for? I am sick and tired of having to hit 50 freaking G-sales just to get a few finds. I HATE antique dealers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[ edited by micmic66 on Aug 13, 2003 07:05 PM ]
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fluffythewondercat
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posted on August 13, 2003 07:08:24 PM new
When it gets to the point where you have to become the kind of sharpie you despise in order to survive, obviously it's time to think about a different line of work.
Become one of the many entrepreneurs picking up big lots of shelf pulls or salvage. There's plenty of money to be made by smart merchandisers who know how to keep their costs low.
Then you can go back to stopping at the occasional garage sale for pleasure, rather than necessity.
I am not a bathtub full of brightly-colored machine tools on Vendio.
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trai
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posted on August 13, 2003 07:14:55 PM new
This has been going on for years. They are pushy, obnoxious and rude but its up to the homeowner to tell them to take a hike.
But my experience is that most of these aren't true antique dealers. My neighbors have had garage sales and I've seen these people arrive the day before. Some are flea market dealers, 2nd hand store dealers, people who resell on their own yard sales and now fellow ebayers. These are bottom feeders hoping to score something for next to nothing through intimidation.
Most of the antique dealers I know have more class than these guys.
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sparkz
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posted on August 13, 2003 07:36:18 PM new
micmic66...Why don't you have a garage sale of your own. Take out a big ad the day before and wait for these jerks to start showing up the day before. Have each one of the bas**rds arrested for trespassing. Better yet, leave your wife there to delay them with negotiations while you go out and hit the sales they are missing.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
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bigpeepa
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posted on August 13, 2003 07:51:54 PM new
Hello,
I have been a antique and collectible dealer full time for over 40 years now and proud of it. A lot of smart people that are planing a garage sales call me before the sale so I can buy their antiques and collectibles at a fair price. They fear the bottom feeding public will try to buy something for 10 cents that is worth a lot more. Yes, I believe the garage sale public are the biggest bottom feeders of all. They even brag about it on this board. You have all seen this kind of post "MY BIGGEST GARAGE SCORE". If any of you are planing a garage soon you will be much better off calling in a PRO to sell your better stuff to.
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MAH645
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posted on August 13, 2003 07:53:25 PM new
Around here all you would beat somebody to is a used pile of clothes or a bunch of junk in somebodys barn that the cows had crapped on.
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AuctionAce
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posted on August 13, 2003 07:54:21 PM new
Sparkz has a good idea there. And maybe borrow a friend's rottweiler for the day too. 
-------------- sig file ----------- He who angers you controls you
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trai
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posted on August 13, 2003 08:10:05 PM new
bigpeepa, good point!
If you see a dealer walking out of that house the day before with a smile on his face as he loads up his truck its because he was invited over because he pays lots more than the bottom feeders.
Better yet, the homeowner is passing the word all over town to call him first. His own reputation is just as important to that dealer.
OTOH, the one thing that pizzes me off the most are the ones who use that word "antique" in their ad just to suck you in.
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sparkz
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posted on August 13, 2003 08:48:32 PM new
Does anyone here remember a post about 2 years ago on this board about a local antique dealer who found a vacant house in the country and ran a big ad in the paper advertising a large estate sale and listing all kinds of very collectable items and antiques? He stated it would start at 7:00 am and no early birds were allowed. All of his competitors showed up at the designated time and waited all morning for the sale to start. Naturally there was no sale, but the dealer who ran the ad had every estate sale in town to himself that day. That dealer would have had a great future in politics, or with Enron.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
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ahc3
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posted on August 13, 2003 09:06:06 PM new
Actually, you are better off knowing WHAT you are selling at a garage sale. An antique dealer will give you a fraction of what something is worth. You have to figure you will get about a third of what it is worth that way. If you want to do that because you know nothing, or don't have time to sell it, I guess that is fine, but the best thing you can do is learn about what you are selling, and get a fair price for it. Why not try if you are going to have the garage sale anyway? From my perspective from selling at a few garage sales, the public is mostly fine, it is the professional reseller that is the worst bottom feeder, they are the ones who really try to work you down in price...
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AuctionAce
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posted on August 13, 2003 09:07:06 PM new
Especially if the dealers waited more than a few minutes at a vacant house. I just can't see any dealer waiting at a vacant house very long.
-------------- sig file ----------- He who angers you controls you
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neroter12
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posted on August 13, 2003 09:22:50 PM new
I agree with AHC. Most people just go to garage sales to save a few dollars here and there. The dealers are the ones that bottom feed (some of them anyway). I've seen it over and over.
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Roadsmith
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posted on August 13, 2003 11:46:22 PM new
This is kind of long, but I wanted to show you a letter I sent to our local newspaper this spring (and it was published). I have had it on several fronts with the yard-sale stuff. This is a small town, and I could swear things have improved, but I'm probably taking more credit than I should here. 
THE LETTER
Our yard-sale season is in full force. May I offer a few suggestions to sellers from a yard-sale devotee?
* Get up early enough the morning of your sale to put all your merchandise out in time.
* No matter when you list a starting time, most buyers consider that you are OPEN once you've posted signs on street corners and in your neighborhood. Please don't be surprised if we show up earlier than you'd specified in a newspaper ad. Some of us won't have seen your ad, and most street signs don't indicate starting times.
* If you don't want buyers to arrive early, specify "no early birds" in your ad.
* And, if your ad reads "no early birds," mean it! There's nothing more frustrating than to arrive obediently at the stated time only to hear that several early birds have skimmed off the good stuff. This goes for the dealers who come the night before with the convenient excuse that they won't be in town the next day. Put some steel in your spine! All we ask is a level playing field.
* "Book value" doesn't mean diddly at a yard sale.
* Ditto for "you can sell this on Ebay for $200" or "this is going on Ebay for $200." If that's true, go ahead and SELL IT yourself, then! Go through all 13 steps to launching one simple auction, including using a digital camera, editing photos, researching categories, deciding shipping method and starting price, writing and uploading the auction, answering buyers' questions, notifying successful bidders and sometimes begging for payment, shipping the item, paying Ebay's seller fees. If YOU don't want to do this, recognize that you are wholesaling, not retailing, to internet sellers.
* If you're selling books with dust jackets, do NOT place price stickers on the jackets! This can ruin the value of an otherwise fine book.
* If you're postponing or cancelling your sale at the last moment, put a sign to that effect by the roadside where it can be clearly seen from an automobile. Don't make potential buyers park and trek to your door to read a small sign.
* When your sale is over, remove your signs from street corners and neighborhoods. Besides unsightly littering, you're also misleading buyers in future weeks.
Now, having said all this, I'm sure yard-sale sellers have a similar list of dos and don'ts for us buyers!
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micmic66
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posted on August 14, 2003 04:18:47 AM new
Oh.....I really like the Rotweiler idea. Just so happens I have a 110lb Rotty mix named Ringo. The problem is he would lick thier faces instead of biting thier asses!
I think I am going to call our classified dept and tell them how me and my 6yr old son look through the ads in search of fishing gear to save a few $$. Then I will tell them how every stinking ad that notes fishing equipment gets sniped a day early. I will also tell them how sad the 6yr old is when we hear the people tell us how "all the fishing equipment sold yesterday" I will not tell them I dont really have any children, but why not throw a little BS around like the lowlife dealers do?? Hopefully the end result will be "the day the sale starts is the day the add starts"
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CBlev65252
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posted on August 14, 2003 04:22:54 AM new
You can also do what I did. Make a friend out of a dealer. I met a dealer at a shop, we got to talking and discovered a friendship. Now he will call to see if I want to accompany him to estate or garage sales. It's great fun. The majority of sales he goes to he is called by the seller and invited to come before the sale starts. You get more when you make friends out of people rather than feeling like they are the enemy.
Cheryl
Power to the people. Power to the people, right on. - John Lennon
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Twelvepole
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posted on August 14, 2003 05:05:08 AM new
Bravo Cheryl.... sort of the "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" eh?
OTOH, the one thing that pizzes me off the most are the ones who use that word "antique" in their ad just to suck you in
Yes but isn't that good "salesmanship" to get the most lookers?
AIN'T LIFE GRAND... 
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Damariscotta
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posted on August 14, 2003 05:08:07 AM new
When I was young and nasty (as opposed to being middle-aged and nasty) we had occasional yard sales (actually, indoor sales, since we had no yard space.
When early birds rang the bell, I would answer the door, casually wiping something from my mother's collection with a dish-towel (usually a large cut glass vase or some such). I would tell them "no early birds".
It was amazing how the people who came by the night before because "they were SURE the ad said Friday night" or because "I have to go to my sister's wedding out of state tomorrow" would be camped on the sidewalk an hour before the sale the next morning. Unfortunately, none of them asked about the "treasure" - I would have told them I relented and sold it to someone earlier.
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neglus
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posted on August 14, 2003 05:36:56 AM new
It's not the dealers who are "out of hand"...it's the people holding the sales who open the doors to them. Back in the days when I held annual sales (to get rid of kiddie clothes and toys) I was very strict about "no early sales" because the lookers just got in the way and made my set-up work difficult.
Garage Sales in my area used to be held Sat-Sun and then morphed into Fr-Sat sales. Soon they became Thurs-Fri sales...and now the trend is "weds pm-thurs-fri am". Who wants to "waste" their weekend by holding a garage sale?? I am sure the trend to holding them earlier was due, in part, to the "early birds".
Unless you can train the sellers in your area to state "no early birds" in their ads and then stick to it, I am afraid you are SOL.
Dealers (at least in my neighborhood) come from far and wide...no way to put the reins to them!
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greatlakes
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posted on August 14, 2003 06:02:36 AM new
It's the run for it, grab it, pile it up, cherry pick through it, people who drive me crazy.
They're particularly bad at book sales, where they run from table to table grabbing arm loads of books which they pile up in a corner.
Then they sit and cherry pick through their huge pile of books, while everyone else has to look through half empty tables.
I see them at yard sales, too.
To me these people are the worst.
They usually end up rejecting 60% to 75% of the items they grab.
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Libra63
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posted on August 14, 2003 06:34:41 AM new
We have had this discussion before and what some are doing in our area is early sales are charged double. That helps a little, but the people that open their garage at 7:30 and their sale doesn't start until 9:00 have no gripes about people coming early. They need to take control of their own garage sale and not be dictated by the early buyers.
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paloma91
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posted on August 14, 2003 08:06:35 AM new
I have had lot of stuff to get out of the garage for an 830 am garage sale, started early and get the early birds but polite.They ask if I am ready for them yet. What gets me is when I have a garage sale on a saturday and sunday: When the sale ends on saturday, I put the stuff in the boxes and leave it under the canapy in driveway (Yes I bought a canapy just for this reason) and park my HUGE ford F250 pick up truck in front of it. People have the B#@$^LS to walk past the truck and to the boxes. I've caught people opening them up at 8 - 10pm at night! These are some VERY wealthy people doing this that live right around the corner. !! Unbelievable
[ edited by paloma91 on Aug 14, 2003 08:27 AM ]
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REAMOND
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posted on August 14, 2003 11:29:01 AM new
There is another angle to "early sales". Some people advertise things they don't have just to bring in traffic. When the buyer asks where the advertised itme is, they say it sold early.
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micmic66
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posted on August 14, 2003 12:10:06 PM new
REAMOND,
With the overall popularity of G-Sales is kinda doubt your theory....My neighbor nailed a sign to a telephone pole a few saturdays back and had an army of cars pull up, 3 miles from the sign up until 7pm that eve!
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sanmar
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posted on August 14, 2003 12:54:08 PM new
Not only does it pay to become friends with a dealer, it pays to be friends with the poprs that put on Estate sales. Over the past 10 yrs. I have established a relationship with the 3 biggies in this area. I almost always get a call 2 or 3 dayus before the sale starts, especially if there is a set of fine china. Works for me.
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cherishedclutter
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posted on August 14, 2003 06:39:44 PM new
I am a bargain hunter. I enjoy going to yard sales, estate sales, private sales and auctions, etc. and finding and buying things I can sell for profit. However, it seems to me that knocking on some stranger's door a day before their yard sale takes a lot of nerve and could only be motivated by greed. To me that is definitely over the line. But I do sometimes wonder where the line is - or where other people think the line is.
When do you cease being a bargain hunter (or even an honest business person) and start being a bottom feeder? I'd really like to know what the difference is in the minds of the people who hate bottom feeders.
BTW, I have been a part-time antiques and collectibles dealer for about 13 years and I've always hated the anti-dealer sentiment that is so prevalent. Not all of us deserve it.
(edited - because I forgot this won't accept html)
[ edited by cherishedclutter on Aug 14, 2003 06:55 PM ]
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Libra63
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posted on August 14, 2003 07:16:11 PM new
I agree with you cherishedclutter but maybe it's time we enter their game. It's always the same people. Today there was a garage sale 10-6. I had to take my grandaughter to daycare at 9 then I went to the bank. It was about 9:15 so I decided to ride over to the garage sale. All good things were gone. They opened before 8. It just doesn't pay to get up in the morning. The seller still had the rollers in her hair. I have a friend that only deals in her news paper ads. Every 3 months or so she runs an add for Jewelry. Wow does she get some nice pieces. She has to pay a little more for the jewelry but it saves all the hassel.
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neroter12
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posted on August 14, 2003 07:46:44 PM new
cherished,
I thought the same thing myself today. The dealers consider the nickel and dime bargain hunters bottom feeders. The nickel and dimers consider the dealers bottom feeders. And people who turn their nose up entirely at garage and estate sales, etc. consider all who go bottom feeders.
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meowmix71
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posted on August 14, 2003 08:10:30 PM new
Paloma91,
My worst garage sale experience came a few years ago when a few friends and I were having a sale. We had a two day sale and on the second day we packed everything up and put it inside. We just happened to be relaxing after pulling everything inside and someone had the nerve to walk inside my house (without knocking) and ask to see the garage sale items. We just glared at this man and told him that we were closed. What nerve some people have.
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cherishedclutter
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posted on August 15, 2003 02:18:21 AM new
Libra and Neroter thanks for the supportive posts.
Maybe I'm just naive, but we don't seem to have the garage sale problems to the degree that some of the others on the board do. We do have people who go early the morning of the sale, but I myself have had several (5 or so) yard sales over the years and no one every turned up the day before the sale. There is one woman in this area who is notorious for actually grabbing items out of other people's hands at yard sales.
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AuctionAce
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posted on August 15, 2003 06:43:51 AM new
This whole thread points out the major flaws of garage sales such as if you're not at the sale early then the sharpies and dealers have gotten the bargains. ( at least in relation to reselling )
Why go after the first hour of the sale then? Why doesn't the seller just close down the sale after the first hour if that's when the majority of sales occur? You see a lot of vendors at flea markets leaving by 9 or 10 and they must know that their best stuff is gone and the rest of the day will only get them a few extra sales so why bother.
-------------- sig file ----------- He who angers you controls you
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