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"Twelve Tips for Successful Garage Sale Product Sourcing"
by Rob Wilson, Worldwide Brands Marketing Director
With Home-based EBiz roots in the pioneering days of eBay (now over a decade ago!), garage sales are still a great place to buy low and sell high for those looking for unique, single items to sell online.
The largest, most trusted resource online for auction information Worldwide Brands, Inc
Here are Twelve Tips to help you buy right at garage sales.
- Go! Go regularly, go to lots of places. This is a numbers game. You need to be buying week-in, week-out to get the inventory you need, and to snag those really great buys. Garage sale “inventory” has a very short life span on the day of the sale, as in a few hours at most. Remember to keep moving to the next and the next and the next garage sale. As soon as you know the one you’re at is a time-waster, go onto the next one. The more good sales you hit on a Saturday morning, the more good stuff you’ll find.
- Early bird gets the…best stuff. Garage sales are competitive. So get up and at ‘em early. First come, first served and good items go fast. But be respectful, too. Instead of waking people up too early (like 6 am!), show up 15 minutes before the advertised time.
- Small cash is king. You can buy faster and better if you have tons of small bills and change. Your wallet ought to look like this when you head out:
$1 bills=20 $5 bills=10 $10 bills=10 $20 bills=10 $50 bills=5 Total:=$620
- Ask for more. Sometimes, people holding garage sales have items they couldn’t get at, or forgot to put out. Jog their memory - ask if they have anything else for sale. I watched someone do just that once. They walked off with a leather sofa, a matching entertainment center and étagère, and two framed prints for pennies on the dollar. Too big to get out the back door – but easily bought right in the living room and carried out the front door. Lesson learned.
- Take notes. Sounds simple and it is. Here are notes to make to help buy better and smarter.
a) Get the seller’s name and number when your offer is refused. Call back to see if it sold or not. Many times Lady Luck will let you can scoop it up after the crowds are gone.
b) Network. Jot down the names of people you meet who are on the prowl for special items. Share with them what you are looking for. And when you find something they want, call and let them know. You’ll slowly build a top-quality referral network.c) Write down items you think are good but not sure about. Check around later and find out if it is good (and call the seller back and see if it’s still for sale.) Then the next one you see becomes a “must buy”.
- Dress for success. Fancy duds (and cars) work against you when bargaining. Don’t dress like a bum, either. You want to be seen as a middle class, clean, acceptable and polite person. Dress accordingly and remember to check the weather forcast!
- Make an offer! Don’t hesitate to make an offer on an item – it’s why you are there! No need to whip out your cash and pay “sticker” price. Better still, put a group of things you want together and make an offer.
- But don’t haggle on a good deal. The idea is not to beat the seller into the ground. It’s to get merchandise at a low price that you can sell at a much higher price. So when you see a good item fairly priced, just buy it. Trying to bargain the price down could put it right into the hands of the smarter guy behind you.
- Be respectful. Wait until the person before you has finished with his negotiations or questioning. Be courteous to the other people there. Treat the seller the way you would like to be treated. And above all, do not take things away from others. A good reputation takes a long time to build. A bad one can be created in an instant.
- Get a grip on what you want. When you find a bargain, PICK IT UP and carry it around with you. And don’t let go until you are counting out the money to buy it. Otherwise, by the time you get back to it, it could easily – and most likely will be – in the hands of a happy buyer.
- Take what you can. Sometimes you’ll buy something that you can’t take with you right away. So take a part of it – drawers from a dresser, chairs from a dining set – anything that will make it impossible for someone else to buy it before you can get back to pick it up. And make sure you get the name, phone number and address of the seller. It’s easy to forget such critical info when hitting a number of sales in a given day.
- Pull the trigger. You’ll come across items that you cannot make up your mind about. Should I, shouldn’t I. Maybe, maybe not. If you think you can make a profit, just buy it. It’s not often you’ll regret buying, but there will be many times where you play the “woulda, shoulda, coulda” game. Establish a risk $$ limit and stick to it – then make the buy.
There you have it. Twelve Tips on making smarter, more profitable garage sale Product Sourcing purchases. Establish a weekend routine and stick to it – make it a habit to hit “x” number of garage sales every weekend, and follow these tips. Before you know it, you’ll have the extra inventory you need to fill out the unique items you want to sell online.
Rob Wilson
Marketing Director for Worldwide Brands, Inc
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