After all, it is a lot of work to run a
yard sale. At the end of the day, often I regret my pricing wasn’t done well. I
feel bad for myself after I realized I sold stuff too cheap; I also feel bad for
buyers after I realized I priced too high. These are small amount of money, not
big items. But I just want to be fair.
Some of buyers were very tough. I want to
sale my microwave for $20. This older gentleman insisted me to sell him for $15.
I told him I already cut the price from $25, but welling to cut a couple dollars.
He slowly walked away, repeatedly asked me for $15. I patiently told him $18. He
ended up didn’t buy.
This happened to a lady also. A pair brand
new shoe I priced $3, already down from $5. This lady insisted I should sell
her for a dollar. She did the same as the old man. At the end, I didn’t sell to
her either. A buyer saw the whole negotiation. After she left, he told me” you
are tough. I like you.” I laugh. I said” I am very nice too.” He said"my wife
was tough but very nice too, before she passed away”. I told him” I am sorry to
hear that.” He also said he does not like people here. They are so not
respectful. I didn’t ask more details about why he'd think that. I just said” it’s ok. I don’t care much.”
Earlier, an old gentleman stopped by. He
joked with me when he first walked in” Are you behaving yourself?” I jokily stood
straight and answered” Yes. I am.” We both laugh. He started talking about
someone he knows (I didn’t get his story. It’s about someone from foreign
country became his long term friend. I guess he had station somewhere at South-East
Asia long time ago.) He said, one time on his friend birthday, he decided to
buy a birthday cake for the friend. Since, he is doing it every year. And now,
his son is already 38. I joked” too bad you don’t know me. Otherwise, you could
do the same for me.” We both laugh again. When he left, he drove by me and
honked. I waved. It’s unusual for an American honk in general. Then, I remembered
it is Saturday morning. Thank god it’s after 9am. (Someone would be upset if
trying to sleep in on the weekend.) I
know he had good time with our short conversations.
For me, it’s always interesting to see many people
with so different purpose when doing garage sale shopping. Like me, sometime I
am looking something. But most of time, I shop for fun – find interesting stuff
for cheap. Sometime I do ask for cheaper, but I don’t force people to sell the
price I think “right.” The seller has history with each item. It’s not my
decision for the price as a buyer. In contract, I decided my price disregard
buyer’s “strategy”. The two incidents above, seems to me that they really like
the item and welling to spend so much time to confirm their price. I don’t understand, if they like it so much,
for a couple dollars, why not just buy it? Mumm… they must not need it.
Well, from my observation, I concluded that
garage sale is all about right person show up at right place at right time to
get the right item.
How interesting!
