How to handle the money with two families doing a yard sale?

[artvandalay]

I am having a yardsale at my house (it's my subdivision's annual sale) and a friend of mine is bringing a large amount of her things to my house to sell. SHe will be there the entire time.

What I usually do is start off with a $20 or $30 "kitty" worth of money so I have change for people. I then write everything down in a notebook that I sell.. just for my own purpose, I guess.

But I imagine people will be buying stuff of hers combined with stuff of mine. We both have a large amount of baby clothes/items.

SHould we just designate one of us to handle all the money and figure out who gets what at the end?

I was thinking of putting her stuff in one column and my stuff in another column (in a notebook) and then adding up everything at the end.

Also if you have any other yard sale advice, please share. I am looking forward to cleaning out alot of baby stuff and other items, but not really looking forward to dealing with strangers picking through my things.

[vonfirmath]

I've seen this done with using different colors of price tags for the different families. Then either take the price tag off/write it down as you suggested

Something to figure out: If someone wants to haggle, how are you going to handle it?

[new_mommy25]

I do this with my SIL all the time. We use different colored labels (we buy the colored dots) so we can differentiate. We have a clipboard with two columns and we just jot down the $$ with each purchase. Never had a problem.

Good luck! I've had a few and I must admit I sort of loathe garage sales. Sooo much work. Once we had someone steal an electric wok. Just picked it up and walked on out. *sigh*

eta: If someone wants to haggle I just redirect them to SIL.

[bekahjean]

That is exactly how my friends and I have handled multi family sales. We write our initial on the tag and just keep a running total on a pad or notebook and add it all at the end. Be sure to know how much you started with so that you can make sure it all adds up. Also, discuss ahead of time if your prices are firm or if you will haggle for each other if the other one is busy.

I hope it's a good sale! :)

[SkyrMommy]

I've seen this done with using different colors of price tags for the different families. Then either take the price tag off/write it down as you suggested

Something to figure out: If someone wants to haggle, how are you going to handle it?

We did different colored stickers for our family and my MIL's things, and pulled stickers off and stuck them on their sheet that was on their clipboard, if somthing was haggled down we stuck the original sticker and crossed off the price with the new price written next to it. Seemed to work well.

[artvandalay]

Great advice guys.. keep it coming.

What should I sell kids clothes for? I was thinking $1 per item? Most of it is playclothes, t shirts and shorts for the boys. I have lots of baby stuff... onesies and cute little outfits that have only been worn a handful of times. I have a bunch of little girl dresses that are in great shape.

[vonfirmath]

Great advice guys.. keep it coming.

What should I sell kids clothes for? I was thinking $1 per item? Most of it is playclothes, t shirts and shorts for the boys. I have lots of baby stuff... onesies and cute little outfits that have only been worn a handful of times. I have a bunch of little girl dresses that are in great shape.

Depends on brand/condition

Onesies should be 25cents, evidently (Another post recently) $1/outfit for baby stuff. (I just bought 6 brand new outfits at Babies R Us clearance for $13)

I am planning to sell (at Kids' Consignment, not garage sale) great condition boys Lands End shirts, size 3T for $3 each or 2 for $5.

You can generally price jeans/shorts higher than T-shirts.

[BabbyO]

I agree with PP's about colored or initialed price stickers. I've seen that a lot (and even ask when I see different colored stickers if the person needs to keep the sticker for bookkeeping).

Re: kids clothes. I won't pay more than about $2 at a garage sale for kids clothes, generally. Generally I see things for; pants $1-2, outfits (top and bottom) $1-$3, shirts $0.50 - $1, etc. Shoes are always a crap shoot...I've seen (and gotten them) for as little as $0.25/pair. I did pay about $5 for a 3 piece outfit that worked for christmas and included a pair of pants, sweater vest and shirt, but it was clear it had only been worn once, if at all.

Discuss if prices are firm ahead of time...and if you're willing to haggle...think about what your bottom line is. This is often affected by what your goal is, making $$ or getting stuff out of your house. If you're going to take it to a charity after the sale anyway...haggle. A quarter is better than nothing.

[khm]

We did different colored stickers for our family and my MIL's things, and pulled stickers off and stuck them on their sheet that was on their clipboard, if somthing was haggled down we stuck the original sticker and crossed off the price with the new price written next to it. Seemed to work well.

That's what we did. We ended the day spot on. I was impressed!

[mom2binsd]

If you really want to get rid of stuff, I'd do .50 cents for many tshirts and shorts unless they are really nice....cute jeans 1.50 or 2.00, dresses about 1.00, shoes 1.50...board books go big around here too, those I do 1.00 each for the nice ones.

Around here garage sales are a 4 day event, beginning Wed night and going till Sat morning...recently I bought girls jeans from one lady for .75 each, shirts were all .50...my big splurge was a new pair of GAP jeans for DS for 3.00.