Swap meet, yard sale , flea market pricing

The Le Sueur Pioneer Power Swap Meet that some of you attended this weekend prompts me to ask this question: If you go to such events (yard sales, flea markets, swap meets), how do you feel about items lacking price information? I know you can just ask how much? but sometimes I'll see dozens of items spread out on a table or tarp, for example, without pricing, and it's tiring, annoying and a bit embarrassing to ask the price on item after item I might like to buy. And make me an offer is maybe even worse, since I don't like to price other people's merchandise. Maybe it's just me, but how do you feel about priceless things at these events?

For the most part, unless it's something that I really want or have been looking for, if it's not priced, I move on. If they don't care enough to price it, I don't care enough to buy it.

I have always enjoyed yard sales and flea markets and have run into nonpricing sellers. I don't like being sized up as a possible sucker BUT, I can either walk away or lowball an item. It is a 2 way street.
I do sell at flea markets and I put prices on my stuff. Either way, most people are fair. You get the occassional hard nose but that is doing business. Nothing that I'm buying or selling is worth hard feelings.

At those places when the seller says make me an offer on something that isn't marked I'll give them a price about 1/3 what I think its worth and add I've seen a couple for that price but seemed a little high.They can usually come up with a price they want pretty quick then.

We prefer that items be priced too - so we have an idea if were even playing in the same ballpark.

If something is reasonably priced, I'll pay full asking price. If not, I will try to negotiate a better price. If a seller won't deal... I just give them a genuine smile and say, Thanks and move on.

Swetfeet
Just want to know, How many fleas can you buy at a flea market?
I've never seen a single flea.
George

I dont go to alot of yard/garage sales but do enjoy flea markets at the tractor show. I agree I dont like it when things arent priced,often the seller isnt there and his wife will say oh I dont know what he wants for anything, youll have to come back. Or there is a couple people standing around visiting and when you ask them a question they say this isnt our stuff, we are just looking too. I feel not pricing most/all items makes for a lot of lost sales.When people put stuff out on tarps like you mention they could use several tarps and everything on a certain tarp have the same price.

Well, they are pretty small.

George,

Wellll, we've never actually bought any fleas... so I am unsure. GRIN!

Put the price on your items!!!! and dont waste my time just like poeple selling tractors on here.The ad will say call I dont want to talk to someone for a half hour to get a price and then they get pist because you make an offer of the going rate.I cant help you live out in bf Egypt and want poeple to talk to. .

Not fleas but out in a field at a tractor show the Chiggers are FREE.

"unless it's something that I really want or have been looking for, if it's not priced, I move on."

Ditto. Not worth their time to price it, not worth mine to buy it.
If I go to a yard sale/garage sale and nothing's priced, I just leave.

My attitude is, If I have to ask, I can't afford it! Price your junk!

I can understand a couple big items worth a lot, you want to engage a conversation, not let a customer walk on by and think about it.

Tables of stuff, needs prices.

I am like most, if its not priced I figure its not for me.

Paul

Sales where things are not marked, my thought is that the person really is not interested in selling something, because he hasn't put a price on something. Not everyone likes to dicker. Price your stuff.

I've been to a few sales where everything is piled up in a disorganized garage and you have to dig through it to find anything. I enjoy those because normally the seller will make a deal. If I'm told to make an offer I'll throw out a dirt cheap one, if they don't want to to put a price on it I don't want to pay much for it. If everything is neatly layed out and it doesn't have a price I'll ask about one thing and if it's high I'll walk away, same as if it has a ridiculous price on it.

I attend many swap meets and flea markets. My experience is that if the seller does not have it priced, usually it is pretty high when you do ask.

There are genuinely some of these folks that go to flea markets simply for something to do. It gets them out of the house for a couple of days every week through the summer.

They have no intention of selling anything because if they sell what they have they will have nothing put out for the next show.

One of the 'eyeglasses with exam' place has for a manager a lady I know from her days as a 'personal banker'. The frames are all marked with colored stickers and a price list. I asked her why not just label each with the price. She told me that company always sets up business in a 'strip mall' and the prices vary according to what vehicle you arrived in. Nice, clean vehicles get a higher price than older, dirty ones. The exam price doesn't change, just the frames. Those 'no price' yard sales could follow the same philosophy.

I'll price my fancy stuff- rebuilt magnetos, starters,, generators, oilers or carburettors and complete tractors, if I bring any.

That individually priced big buck swag goes on tables under a awning where it can be kept track of more easily. Then I'll price the greasy, rusty stuff I bring in bulk piles-A 25 dollar pile, a 10 dollar pile, etc.


I try and keep those piles separate and on their own canvases, but there is always some wise guy mistakenly picking up a 20 dollar part and putting it back in the dollar pile, then coming back a few minutes later to try and buy it on the cheap. Funny how they never mistakenly put a dollar part in a more expensive pile!

Instead of individually pricing everything, then re-pricing stuff depending on the crowd youre catering to (people at Le Sueur will pay more for a John Deere Dain tool box than folks at Hershey or my local swap meet ever would) I go with these bulk prices, then just re-shuffle the inventory as needed.

But even with those iron-clad pricing methods there are a few exceptions- friends usually get their parts free, pretty women get a 75% discount--unless they bring their husband/boyfriend. If I'm hungry, but dont have a helper around(I'll be back in 5 minutes they tell me, then I never see them again!) I'll trade parts for food and drink. A funny story, a dirty joke or some juicy gossip about some mutual friend will get you a good deal too.
kids under 18 get a discount- more than half, and mostly free if they actually need the parts, less so if they are just going around buying stuff up to restock and resell at their parents own swap spot, clearly visible just up the aisle.

Toddlers are the absolute worst, business wise. They are the bane of my existence and I shudder when I see one being pushed in a pram or staggering down the rows in my direction. If I bring any toy tractors to a sale, and no matter what price I assign to them, those little lamprey-like monsters will latch on to them and despite my best bargaining efforts they always end up getting them for free. If they have a good-looking Mama (the husband/boyfriend rule doesnt always apply here), I might even have pay them, usually with ANOTHER toy. They're no better than The Mafia.

Some times I'll have a pile full of free stuff that I've hauled to too many shows for too long, and when that doesnt work, a pile may appear where I'll PAY you a buck to take anything laying there. On a slow day it is cheap entertainment to watch the mathematical gymnastics in potential buyers minds over a tarp full of small bits marked >A dollar each, or 4 for 5 dollars.< or priced at >5 dollars each, five for a dollar each or 10 for 50 cents apiece.<.

When I do get a chance to wander the aisles I often see other vendors with parts priced and a lot of others that are not. Some sellers may not know what something is worth so they are just trolling for offers, or they may just be too lazy to mark all their treasures.

If it is something you are genuinely interested in, just ask. Who knows, it might be my junk pile, and I just might pay you a buck to take it!

There's an old saying, if you have to ask, you can't afford it! I think that referred to real estate, but could be anything. I like flea markets and garage/yard sales, but I like things to be marked. I won't ask the price unless it's something I really want.

You price, exactly as I do. When something, like a trailer load, goes to Le Seur, it's going home MT! I'm not in the for profit deal in a great hobby. + I've always been a buy high sell kind of guy anyway. It sure makes the ag thing easier.......... An earlier post kinda bugged me, a fellow was talking about Friday at Le Seur, he'd run around all day and a bought a lot of stuff he was putting in his space and make good $. Phooey on that stuff. Larry

No price -- keep walking -- Rarely do I ask for a price

Looks like most prefer prices. I don't go to swap meets, but if I have a garage sale, I just want stuff gone.

I've already wasted my time setting everything up - I'm not wasting more putting prices on things and I'm not going to waste my time "haggling" with you either. I only have the silly sale to mitigate my guilt of throwing something usable away - after I've tried to sell it - I don't feel guilty throwing it away. At a garage sale, I've never said no to an offer. If you are willing to pay me $1 AND haul it away, I've already gotten the better end of that deal! Besides, I could price everything for $0.10 and I guarantee someone will come up and ask if I will take $0.05. Good grief. If you need it that bad and a nickel is going to break you, just take it. If I'm selling it, I don't want it anyway. Anything left over after a garage sale is going to Good Will or the dump - whichever is closest or on my way somewhere else.

Though I do not set up as a dealer at flea markets I do set some of the indoor tractor shows. I try to have everything priced. I always joke with my brother when I see something not marked at another table, Well, that one must be free!. I don't think people want to sell it very badly if its not marked. So I agree with the poster who said to keep on walking.