I think you can group things together and have a general price--say, a sign that says "toys, $2-$8" or something like that. If most things didn't have any sense of price, I would be inclined to move on quickly because I'd be afraid stuff would be too expensive.

I just stopped by a multi-seller yard sale where items were not priced. It added to the chaos of the sale, because the right person had to be tracked down to get the price. Perhaps this could be alleviated with better organization (this sale placed similar items together, as opposed to sorting by seller).

Price the largest items individually and then group smaller, commonly valued items on card tables, in cardboard boxes or laid out on a blanket/tarp.
Example: A box with tapes or CDS- tape a flat price per item on the outside of the box

If I don't see prices, especially for larger items, then I don't buy. I take it to mean that the item is priced more than I'm willing to pay. Bargaining is part of the yard sale experience, but having a starting figure saves both the seller and the buyer a lot of BS and lets buyers know what you're looking for in regards to a serious offer.

You don't have to stick a price tag on everything. Group things on tables with a sign declaring everything is X dollars or assign a uniform price to categories of stuff (all paperbacks a dollar, hardbacks two dollars, shoes five dollars, etc. etc.). Anything exceptional that deviates from the pattern price individually (ex, all dresses are four dollars apiece but this prom dress is forty dollars).

I like yard sales, but I'm one of those quiet people who hates confrontation. The thought of haggling over a price would make me avoid purchasing. Also, sales can get crazy (especially if multiple people are selling stuff). Having prices makes things easy (if someone needs to make a beer run or something during the sale, someone else can take care of selling their stuff while they are gone).

Prices let me know immediately it things are in my range. If there's no price or at least general prices on the table then I usually just walk away. Most of the time it isn't worth the hassle.

We always price our stuff, but it's not like we go around to each item with price tags, it's sort of generalized. And of course, there's always bargaining.

As a buyer, I'd rather see things priced. I may want to bargain down, but I don't want to have to guess the value of an item.

I've never been to a yard sale where things weren't priced, and I think I'd be horribly put off by a sale with no prices. I don't necessarily have all day to stand around and ask you questions about all your old sweaters and used toys, and I certainly don't want to have to feel like I'm haggling over everything, or like I'm going to insult you if I ask you the price on some unmarked item, you say how much you want for it, and I say, oh, ok, nevermind then.

If it's not reasonable to mark every item, then for heaven's sake, please group items by general price (have an under $5 table, a $5-$10 table, and so on) so at least I know what ballpark you're in.

Is that the guy from cobra snake?

Price. Most people just want to buy your cr@p, they don't want to haggle with you.

I HATE yard sales where things aren't priced. Unless there's some super-special item I've been yearning for, I walk away. Life's too short to haggle over T-shirts and used board games.

people do move things around so just having things on a "one price" table doesn't always work. I've had sales where I say everything is $1 unless it's marked. Of course people can pull off price tags but most of them didn't. Also a good idea to have a sign with general prices (paperbacks 3 for $1 or whatever). many people don't want to talk or ask.

Also ALWAYS have a FREE box. You'd be shocked at the stuff people take...it's great recycling. Keep the free box close to the curb and away from your for sale stuff or of course it might get transferred.

Along the same lines, always make sure you have enough small bills and coin for change.

I imagine you might not want to put it up on the site but, if it's not a concern, can you say where your yard sale is?!

Much, much easier to price ahead of time. If you price things fairly people will just pay and not haggle. Haggling wastes time and is distracting when you have a lot of people at your sale.

P.S. If you don't price things, your fellow sellers will be asked all day to name a price for your things, and they might resent the extra work.

They also might not recognize which of your items are truly worth something. That's how people score original Eames at yard sales -- because the seller thought it was just some crappy old chair.

I buy and sell vintage items, so recently I went to a yard sale that promised to have all sorts of antiques and vintage pieces I was looking for. But nothing was priced, which lead me to believe that the seller wanted as much for these items as they would in an actual antique shop, so I passed on a lot of things they had.

There is nothing worse than asking what the price is and then being answered with "how much will you give me?" It's almost as if the seller is setting themselves up for a confrontation and or hurt feelings if they don't like my answer. I'd rather have the prices clearly marked and then make an offer based on that.

thats totally the cobrasnake dude and his girlfriend seated near him.

That sounds like a major headache to me, especially if it's a lot of people selling their items together. I think the grouping of items would be a happy medium, but as a buyer, I wouldn't buy something if I didn't have an idea as to how much it costs. Someone shouldn't have to track down the seller and engage in a conversation about how much something is "worth" and how much they're willing to pay unless they want to. It seems like you're forcing conversation on people who may not want it. You'll still get plenty of chatty people if your ultimate goal is to make it a community-bonding experience.

I had a garage sale recently, and honestly, I just didn't have time to price things. It may have put some people off, but I was more than pleased with what I sold (I was moving). No one just walked away, everyone seemed comfortable enough to ask me how much certain items cost. That said, I was selling everything at amazingly cheap prices just to get rid of it, so I'm sure they were pleased. I go to garage sales often, and if I really want something, I have no problem asking how much they want for it if it isn't priced. Usually when items aren't priced, they're more willing to negotiate and bargain. The money I made paid for all my moving expenses - YAY!

If something isn't tagged, I walk away. Save yourself and your buyers the trouble- price your stuff.

Everyone has different ideas of what used items should cost, so I would give everything general prices to avoid the awkwardness... I don't want to have to ask you what each thing I am interested in purchasing costs. And I don't want to round up a bunch of things thinking "these can't cost more than a few bucks" only to find out you're asking much more than I am willing to pay.

Grouping is the easiest choice - one sign or table instead of a jillion little stickers. People appreciate not having to ask about every single item.

Not pricing items for sale is for high end stores where they're trying to alienate anyone but serious buyers. Yard sales should not take the same approach.

It's a yard sale, not the Istanbul Grand Bazaar. Price that junk.

No price=I won't bother. If you have a lot of things in one category (books, records, dishes) you can put up a sign that names the price-per-unit, or fill a bag for $5, or something, but don't just say nothing.

Also, you say this is a multi-seller sale--will you be upset when your friends sell your antique bedframe for five bucks because you couldn't be bothered to price it?

They make pre-printed garage sale price tags (5cents on up, with some blanks). We bought a pack at Home Depot or something- saves so much time.

Americans in general seem to hate haggling.

If something doesn't have a price, I don't even bother asking. Not worth the hassle.

They make very cheap yard sale stickers that you can buy at staples and such with prices already included, so you don't have to even write anything.

Another tactic I've seen was to simply use a few different rolls of painters tape in different colors. Assign a price to each color, tear off a little chunk, and stick that to the items. The painters tape comes off of everything easily so you don't have to worry about damage or anything either.

Price it, or I'll just get back in the car and drive off to the place that did price it.

As to the mingling and discussing, I'm probably going to ask to pay less than your price anyway if I'm buying multiples, so there's plenty of opportunity to get to know me.

Having done such and been to many over the years, (even estate sales) pricing is really the best way to go, better stuff, price individually but the lesser stuff such as many paperbacks, price w/ a sign saying, what they are going for, such as $1 each, 4 for $2 or some such and place on a table and LP's, tapes and CD's best to keep those out of the sun but easily accessable and lable the box or bin.

Occasionally for larger items it does not hurt to offer a bid (most reputable estate sellers will do this) and you just may get that nice dresser for less than the asking price and that's how my parents scored several furniture items and other stuff over the years.

Please, oh please, price it. For all the reasons already stated. I don't want to insult you by unknowingly lowballing. I don't want to haggle. I'm not there to chat and probably have other sales to get to. I don't want to have to track you down while you have a line of people all wanting to know how much THEIR items cost.

Look, you want our money. Please take some time to price your items (even if you only group them and put a sign in front). Making your customer do all the work isn't sporting and will lose sales.

BornSlippy said it best.

And I also agree with the comment about "FREE" stuff. It's especially fun for small kids to dig through while their parents shop.

I won't even bother to make an offer unless something is already priced....same goes for Craigslist too! Don't make the customer try to figure out what you want for an item.

It seems like the comments have reached a consensus, but I thought I'd add just one more vote.

If your stuff doesn't have a price, I'm not going to buy it unless I see something I can't live without. If you don't price your stuff all your yard sale is is a big pile of crap that you don't want spread out on your lawn. I realize that it's a bit of a pain to go through with stickers and price everything, but if you don't want to put any work into it than just haul it down to goodwill or something.

Price your stuff!

Nobody wants to be the jerk that asks how much something is and then laughs in their face if they want too much... it's just so easy to just group things by price ranges if there's too many things up for sale.

so glad people agreed upon how i feel as well.

Price It

you have to put it al out right? not like you are just going to have a giant pile of crap people sort through, right? So as you put it out, price it. don't wait til the end, then it seems like a hassle.

Grouping doesn't work, because then you have no idea where it came from.

If you are really lazy get the colored stickers red = $1, blue =$5 and so on, stick then on everything, put a big sign up with the break down.

If it is a multi seller yard sale as you stated, how would you NOT price? What is to say this came from you and not your neighbor. If you are color coding or something to say it is yours, price it at the same time.

A free box is good as mentioned above

One of the BEST (BEST!) things you can do is have some coolers or a kiddie pool with ice, fill it with soda, water etc. 50 cents a can or whatever. You would make $6 a twelve pack, so $2-3 profit a pack? You can make more money with this then the garage sale itself. If it's near lunch time, fire up the grille and have hotdogs and bags of chips, you can make a ton of money doing this as well. People will love that while out saleing they don't have to stop for food and get fast food etc. If you want to get fancier you can, but hotdogs are easy. $4 for 8 dogs and buns, sell them for $1...yeah... exactly.

Like i said you can make more money selling soda then with your stuff. It's all about how to get people there.

Just wanted to add that I actually will ask about unmarked items if interested. I'm not shy. And in my experience the unmarked items are WAY overpriced. Not garage sale prices, but more like consignment store prices - in one case actually retail. Is that a joke or is she really that stuck on herself and her stuff?

I agree that you should price things. Was once at a flea market and made the mistake of offering a very low price for something which the seller was hoping to make 10 times as much for... needless to say the atmosphere was spoiled and no sale came to be. I might have offered more had a specific price been indicated.

Also think about reducing the prices later in the day to avoid getting stuck with a load of stuff.

I think it's absurd to even consider not pricing things. Even if for no other reason than your own sanity -- do you really want every person who stops by to ask you about every single item they consider purchasing?? Think of it like this: putting a sticker on something is like telling someone once how much something costs. If you don't price it, it's like having to put a sticker on that item every time someone asks about it. Why would you want to do that over and over again? It's hard enough running a busy garage sale, don't make it more difficult for yourself by not preparing for it.

And for the record, I am also one of those people who will only consider buying something if it's priced, whether it's at a garage sale or a store.

My thought would be "if they don't want to price it, I guess they don't want to sell it." If it's that bad, donate it the best stuff and put the rest out for free on the curb.

I'm willing to ask about unmarked items, and have purchased things that were unmarked. But it has to be something I really, REALLY want. If it's a random impulse purchase, and there's no price, fuhgeddaboudit.

Price it, but price it knowing that it's a yard sale and no matter how low you price it someone is going to ask you to take less for it. That said, I price my items but I make it a point, as a former retail store manager, to greet everyone who comes by and tell them that prices are negotiable and if they have any questions feel free to ask and when I feel it's appropriate I'll chat with them about whatever while they look. I've had repeat customers at my neighborhoods community yard sales for years now and always make a good profit.

The free box is a definite. At my last yard sale I went so far as to go over to a boy and his sister who were helping his Mom out with their yard sale and have them come over and take a look at the leftovers. I told them they could pick out whatever they wanted. The boy had a similar style to my husband so he scooped up several shirts and jackets that he had outgrown and his little sister found a few hats of mine. They were super grateful and their mom even called me over to look through their leftovers!

I had considered not pricing this year, but after reading most of the comments above I realized I better stick with it. I do see how the concept of "it's out of my price range if it's not priced" not only applies to high end retail store, but also yard sales. I know I sometimes won't ask how much things are at yard sales, because there is that awkward feeling of "oh, I'll pass then" if the answer is not to your liking.

I'm sure y'all are nice people, but honestly I'm probably not looking for interesting conversation or a sense of community brought about because I asked a price.

My thing is that if I don't want to take the trouble to ask the price and/or haggle, its not something I need. Usually I still ask the price when it is marked, Usually that makes it evident whether it was priced high for haggling, or whether it is pretty well what they want. If I know it is priced higher than what is expected, I consider whether I would pay that much in a store. If I would, I'll see what I can get it for.
I prefer no price, or just a few boxes with general prices. Its when things are really nice with no price that get me intimidated. If this is the case, price a few other items to give people an idea of what your price range might be. Really big items are too good for bargaining, so I would say don't price, just say what you think the person would pay at the most, or just say a bit over what you want if you don't think they can afford it.

Wow some people are quite strong willed to turn away from a sale for not having priced items.

I don't care. I'll look anyway, and even though I'm normally shy, I have no qualms about asking the price for something I've really been looking for. I don't mind bartering, but I am also fine with saying "I don't mean to insult you for the price, but I'm just going to use it for . Would you accept $x?" If the price stated isn't what I want to pay, and they don't want to barter, I say okay and put it back. People are selling their junk/stuff, and if they think that every single person that comes will immediately pick up everything of theirs in awe and desire, my piddly little "oh okay" is going to be a bit of reality to their expectations.

It's late and I couldn't figure out the best way to write that, but my point goes across, I hope. :)

No price, no purchase. I don't like to bargain.

The pre-printed price stickers that you can buy come in several colors (pink, green, yellow, etc.). This makes it easy to color-code for a multi-family sale.

Several people said it already, but colored stickers are the way to go. That, plus a big sign explaining color = price.

Or, set out your junk by price and label each table: the 25 cent table, the $1 table, etc.

I don't mind asking how much things are, but I much prefer to see items already priced so I know in general what the seller is looking for. When I was a kid my Mom threw a multi-family garage sale and used the following method: assigned every family a color (either colored paper or the round stickers) and then whoever was working the cash box took the sticker off and stuck it in a notebook. At the end of the day she just totalled up the different colors and sent people on their way! Great method if you hadn't already thought of something similar.

It would be a little silly to price each little thing, but you should group and post a sign next to it, examples "cups - $2","books - $1 for two", movies - $1", etc.

I don't like yard sales where they don't price unless its a really small one with enough people around to walk around to help out the potential "customers".

Biggest tip - don't overprice things. You aren't leaving room to barter...just scaring people off. With that in mind, I have scored a fabulous custom made coffee table (from 1941 - it's been authenticated) that just needs a tiny bit of refinishing from a few scratches - you'll never guess how little they asked for it.

Great topic for a post and great threads!

I like the color coded approaches mentioned by several people, and the idea of selling soda and hotdogs was cool, too.

We like to store/display our books and CDs and small miscellaneous items in those boxes that the markets get their produce and fruit in. The size is standard, and they often have interesting graphics and/or colors, which give the yard sale tables some coordination and order. Plus, it gets people talking when they notice the boxes the items are in. Also, after the sales over, any leftover things can be carted back to storage in these boxes and ready for the next yard sale.

Once a household item goes into one of these boxes, it never goes back into the apartments general population; it stays "yard sale status" ...

Thanks, Kyle for this fun topic.

Hope your sale went well!

If it's not priced, I tend to assume that the seller wants more than I'm willing to pay. Usually, I won't even bother asking what the price is... I just move on.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that AT readers have such strong feelings!

I don't care either way. Where I live, people generally sell things at a reasonable price. I wouldn't assume that just because it isn't labeled that its out of my price range. If I really like something I'll buy it- tagged or not.

Wow, so all the people who are leaving the bargains behind are HERE! I flea market every weekend, and almost none of the vendors I frequent price stuff -- they change their prices as the day progresses (the later, the cheaper). Haggling is a learned skill, one I was glad to have when I went to Egypt. It's fun! I actually don't MIND being the jerk who makes a remark when somebody puts an idiotic price on something -- I tell them if I saw the same thing in another aisle for half that amount... If I'm looking at something that is fairly priced and I don't want to pay that much, I usually say "would you be willing to take less for this?" I rarely pay the asking price (unless it's very low and I am happy with it.)

In a group yard sale, I'd price things merely to make it easier for everyone participating. You need a way to track whose sales are whose and the above mentioned system of saving the stickers and settling up at the end is very proctical. But the yard sale I plan to have soon won't have prices. I will probably donate the leftovers to a thrift shop, and they hate having to peel off yard sale stickers.

There is a thrift shop in my area - they benefit a dog rescue - that doesn't price things. Makes for a very interesting cash register experience, with her telling me the price, and me pulling it out of my pile for restocking... annoying. I'd go there more often, if not for this EMBARRASSING hassle.

I agree that you should price things but when I had a garage sale it took hours to price everything!

I agree with pricing. I keep a box in my garage and when I run across something in the house that should be sold I stick a preprinted sticker on it and into the box it goes. That way when it's time for the sale everything is already priced. Another good tip for sales is to hold them on the first weekend of the month when most people have money, welfare checks, social security checks, people who get paid monthly, etc.