posted on April 12, 2004 10:44:30 AM new
Have you noticed you cannot by anything at Garage Sales or Estate Sales any more, all you hear is EBAY EBAY EBAY EBAY!!!!!! and GREEDY SHARKS that will step on your HEAD!!!!
and Cut you up if they can.
posted on April 12, 2004 12:57:55 PM new
I'm not fond of it as well, but I also understand that with our current economy and the loss of so many jobs, people are doing what they can to make some money. I have seen 4 trends in the Garage Sale market over the last few years.
1) The hosts of the sales are charging close to retail or sometimes over retail for items they are selling. They aren't necessarily trying to clean up and get rid of things, they want, and perhaps need the money.
2) Many hosts are using Ebay as a rule of thumb in pricing their items. I have seen people print up ebay auctions and tape them to an item so that we can see what it sold for. I love to ask them if they choose the highest priced auction or one of the lower priced ones, and if they can get so much for it on ebay, why haven't they??? They don't like those questions.
3) Attendees are getting more aggressive and rude. I have visions of a woman being trampled in Wal Mart to save $5.00 on a DVD player during Christmas. It won't be long before we see this at an estate or garage sale.
4) Professional Garage Sales: You know them. They use A board signs that last years on end. they have price guns and price everything as if it was new. They have sales every week or two, and for some stupid reason, you manage to forget it is them after a few sales, and stop.
All of these are a way of life. We have to accept the changes, and learn to work around them, otherwise you'll fail miserably and will spend all your time on Vendio complaining about it instead of selling.
posted on April 12, 2004 09:06:14 PM new
breglm, I used to love going to sales down the shore area. That whole Redbank Freehold area; they always had some nice sales and lots of historical stuff that sold close to nothing. But that was eons ago before ebay.
posted on April 12, 2004 11:55:11 PM new
Wow, this is totally not my experience. I find garage sales range from dirt cheap to hideously expensive on the items, I guess it depends what your motivation is. I had 2 garage sales before I moved 1000 miles, my motivation was to sell everything, because anything that was not sold got given to charity. I was accepting most offers, and my prices were good to begin with. If you are looking to make a few bucks but don't need to sell, you might be high in price. I rarely hear ebay talked about at garage sales, and even then I have still gotten good deals. Even the professional garage sales I can cherrypick and get some good stuff....oh, and the walmart lady, she is a professional lawsuit filer - If she got trampled, then she deserves it. If she really was hurt, she probably planned it and it got out of control. That woman filed something like a dozen lawsuits in a few years. Nobody is THAT unlucky!
Oh, one more thing, as far as the rudeness factor, I rarely encounter that too. Maybe it is because of the area I live in, for the most part most everyone is pretty nice here!
