10 Tips For Garage Sale Negotiating

1. Be Friendly. Say Hello when you walk up. No one wants to negotiate with a jerk.
2. Bring small bills. If you’re asking someone to drop a price from $10 to $5, the last thing you want to do is have to have them give you change from your $10 bill.
3. When items aren’t priced rather than asking, “How much is this?” offer a specific amount. What you offer may be less than they were thinking, but it is easier for them to say yes to you than for you to try to negotiate their price down.
4. When items are priced, simply ask, “Is this the lowest you’ll go?”. Often they will offer a lower price.
5. If you’re buying clothing with assorted prices, ask if they would take the same amount for each item. For example if you find clothes marked $.50 and $1 ask if they would take .$50 for each item.
6. Mention why you want the item, “My grandma had one of these I loved”, or “This would make my son so happy”, or “These pillowcases will be awesome for the pillowcase dresses I make for a charity”. Recently after mentioning this the lady came out with even more pillowcases and gave them to me for free!
7. If it’s the last day of the sale ask if they’ll go half price on everything. Most people would rather sell their items for something than have to load them and bring them to donate.
8. If you’re buying a few things, ask if they’ll “throw something in”. Just this weekend I purchased $4 of kids clothes and asked if the would “throw in” the two $.25 toys my boys were getting. It was a simple request that saved me $.50!
9. If you notice something is broken, torn, stained, or dirty politely point out the imperfection and offer less.
10. When you find something that is a great deal, ask if they have any more! This weekend I found a cheap fan that I liked and asked if they had another, they then ran into the house and came out with a $100 antique fan that they sold me for $2.50!

If you liked these tips, you’ll love 10 Tips for Garage Saleing Success, How to Garage Sale for Name Brand Kid’s Clothes and The 5 Do’s and Don’ts of Garage Saleing (from my blogging buddy Amber)!

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