Are you going to shop the garage sales this weekend? You might find things to be a little different than they were last year. I’m talking about how the recession may be affecting garage sale shopping. If you missed the first part of this article, please click here: The Recession and Garage Sales.
Now let’s talk about pricing.
When the economy is bad, you might think that garage sale items would decrease in value like everything else and go down in pricing. But the opposite might happen. People may feel that because buying new stuff is expensive then their old stuff must also be expensive. They want to make as much as they can off of it. So prices on garage sale items may increase. In some cases, items that cost as much as retail or more may be offered. I saw a garage sale advertised for today that includes a new Nintendo Wii. You know that they don’t intend to give that away for less than what they paid!
Another bit of bad news may be in the fact that there may be more competition at garage sales than ever before. This is because economizing and shopping at garage sales is now in vogue, thanks to the economy and all of the expert advice we see in the media. There are hundred and thousands of articles out there talking about “discovering” yard sales as a way to shop, something that we frugal people have known for years. People who turned their noses up at garage sales in previous years are now feeling hip for buying used. Think of it as the shabby chic movement of the moment, with garage sales being substitutes for flea markets.
There may be more competition in the form of shoppers who are resellers. While resellers have been around since Ebay took off, many more people are discovering the profit that can be made by shopping at garage sales and then reselling the items online. So while you may be going to the yard sale to outfit your youngest child, you may find that an early bird has beat you to the sale and bought up all of the clothes in a lot, regardless of size.
I’ll be going out this weekend to hunt some sales, and I’ll let you know what I find.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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The Recession and Garage Sales
Finding the Best Garage Sales 2
Yard Sale Frustration: Has This Happened to You?