A beautiful day for a sale.

This weekend I set up at a parking lot sale with my parents.  This was no ordinary parking lot sale.  The event was sponsored by a local city and featured 50-60 individual selling ‘garage sale’ items in parking lot spaces.  There were several different kinds of people at the event:

• ‘Professionals’ like my parents make money flipping items from their hobby.  They enjoy getting out and going to garage sales and meeting people.  As an example, on the morning of the sale they picked up four ice cream parlor chairs for $15 and flipped them the same day for $45 at the parking lot sale.  They know what they can get for an item and won’t buy it if they can’t make a certain profit margin on the deal.
• ‘Purgers’ like the people who were setup at a spot next to us.  This was their annual garage sale and they were looking to clear items out.  Making money was not the name of the game, moving items is what they came for.  The husband and wife team had spent three days culling items from their garage and house to get things cleared out.
• Those with ‘nothing better to do.’  These are the folks that set up at every sale and call out prices from their chair in the back of their sales area.  Rarely do I see these people sell an item, they are a curious group.

My best sales associate knows how to have a good time where ever she is.

I was mixed in with the ‘professionals’ and ‘purgers.’  My parents were kind enough to let me have a spot in their sales area where I could set up three tables of tools from the auction lot I bought last year.  This is the second sale I have had with these tools and I am ready to be done with them.  To date I have made at least 5x my initial investment for this auction purchase.  My ‘professional’ prices gave way as the day progressed and my ‘purger’ instincts kicked in.  It was a successful day and those auction lots have had an amazing return on investment.

Looking around that parking lot I was struck by the question, “How much is enough?”  An older gentleman came by my tables at the end of the day and bought ten pairs of pliers.  “You can never have enough of these,” he said.  I asked, “How many pairs of pliers do you think you own?”  He postulated for a bit and said, “Hundreds.”  What could one man do with hundreds of pairs of pliers?  I heard the same logic again and again as men and women bought screwdrivers, hammers, tape measures and other tools they already owned at home.  “You can never have enough of these,” they all said.

It is no secret that my wife and I have been purging items from our home.  A few years back we installed some extra shelving in our closet that holds neatly organized and labeled boxes of items.  We haven’t touched but one or two of the boxes since they were put on those shelves.  I have been pulling those boxes down and following my own advice and posting at least one item a day for sale online.  Once momentum gets going on this activity it becomes addictive. If a week goes by without selling 4 or 5 items I know my prices are too high.  The only problem, purging and selling things online can be a messy business.  Sometimes it takes a mess to clean up one.

I’m selling my items in three different places, and here are some quick tips if you want to start moving some of your items or making a bit of extra cash for the holidays:

• Ebay is the perfect marketplace for specialty items.  My friend John wrote “How To Create A Successful eBay Listing” for my blog this summer.  It is a detailed and excellent guide for doing market research and getting an item sold.
• Craigslist is the place where I go ‘fishing.’  There is no cost (other than time) for putting an ad on Craigslist.  I will throw my item onto the site and see if there are any bites.  Two quick tips for Craigslist: 1) Always include at least one photo of the item you are selling  2) Be realistic with your pricing.  Most likely the item isn’t new, so you shouldn’t be charging a near retail price for it.
• Amazon is a new route I am trying for selling select items.  I made my first sell on Amazon after the item had been on for only one day.  As with eBay, watch your shipping costs when selling on Amazon.  High shipping rates can eat into your profit margin.

My youngest sales associate eats into the profit margin 🙂

The title of this post posed a question – How much is enough?  I don’t have the answer.  It is different for every individual.  I can tell you that we currently have too much.  As any parent of small children will tell you, it piles up almost faster than you can deal with it.  For now, I will keep selling stuff and setting the money back for some special plans I am dreaming about for 2014.

When you have too much, how do you get rid of stuff?  I’d be curious to hear your ideas.