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jayfurrI've been involved in a yard sale as a seller ONCE, years ago. It was held at the house of some friends in North Carolina and I remember very little about it, other than being immensely surprised when my old Packard-Bell computer, loaded only with DOS and no programs, was snapped up for $15.
But I understand that people have done fairly well with yard sales to raise funds for the Breast Cancer 3-Day, and as I was reading Nancy Brinker's recently-released bestseller, Promise Me: How a Sister's Love Launched the Global Movement to End Breast Cancer
the other day, and re-read it again tonight on my flight from San Francisco to San Antonio, I found myself thinking how I've really got to push beyond the means I've been using for fundraising and try some more innovative steps. I mean, the sun doesn't rise and set exclusively on wheedling posts shared on Livejournal, Facebook, and Twitter. The people who get the special Top Fundraiser Tent at each 3-Day tend to go the extra distance, leaving no stone unturned, and after re-reading the extremely graphic descriptions of what breast cancer is really like in Nancy's book, I'm reminded that I need to do likewise.
So I thought, hey, I've got tons of books and clothes and kitchen stuff that I really don't want cluttering the house. I'd love to clear out lots of my old CDs, too, but I honestly don't know if there's any market for old CDs in this day and age. It's a bit late in the season for a Vermont yard sale, I expect, but the die-hards of the yard sale scene would probably come out for a yard sale in a blizzard.
My problem: how do you know what price to put on each item? Put too much, people will just sneer or try to haggle me down. Charge too little, people will chuckle "sucker" under their breath and go off and re-sell the stuff at their local flea market for ten times what I charged. Even if I charge exactly the right amount, people will still try to haggle. From what I understand, it's what makes going to yard sales fun -- buying utter crap from a suburban family becomes TONS more fun if you get it for half the asking price.
So: any ideas out there? Is there some guide to pricing yard sale merchandise that everyone but me knows about? Any other suggestions for running a good yard sale?
(Oh, and in the event that someone out there does want to just donate, I'm still raising funds for the 2010 3-Day. My donation page for the upcoming Tampa Bay walk is here: http://www.the3day.org/goto/jayfurr -- and, as always, many thanks.)
But I understand that people have done fairly well with yard sales to raise funds for the Breast Cancer 3-Day, and as I was reading Nancy Brinker's recently-released bestseller, Promise Me: How a Sister's Love Launched the Global Movement to End Breast Cancer
the other day, and re-read it again tonight on my flight from San Francisco to San Antonio, I found myself thinking how I've really got to push beyond the means I've been using for fundraising and try some more innovative steps. I mean, the sun doesn't rise and set exclusively on wheedling posts shared on Livejournal, Facebook, and Twitter. The people who get the special Top Fundraiser Tent at each 3-Day tend to go the extra distance, leaving no stone unturned, and after re-reading the extremely graphic descriptions of what breast cancer is really like in Nancy's book, I'm reminded that I need to do likewise. So I thought, hey, I've got tons of books and clothes and kitchen stuff that I really don't want cluttering the house. I'd love to clear out lots of my old CDs, too, but I honestly don't know if there's any market for old CDs in this day and age. It's a bit late in the season for a Vermont yard sale, I expect, but the die-hards of the yard sale scene would probably come out for a yard sale in a blizzard.
My problem: how do you know what price to put on each item? Put too much, people will just sneer or try to haggle me down. Charge too little, people will chuckle "sucker" under their breath and go off and re-sell the stuff at their local flea market for ten times what I charged. Even if I charge exactly the right amount, people will still try to haggle. From what I understand, it's what makes going to yard sales fun -- buying utter crap from a suburban family becomes TONS more fun if you get it for half the asking price.
So: any ideas out there? Is there some guide to pricing yard sale merchandise that everyone but me knows about? Any other suggestions for running a good yard sale?
(Oh, and in the event that someone out there does want to just donate, I'm still raising funds for the 2010 3-Day. My donation page for the upcoming Tampa Bay walk is here: http://www.the3day.org/goto/jayfurr -- and, as always, many thanks.)
