# Garage sale selling something way under value: do you tell them? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 12, 2018, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940 "2018-06-12T03:38:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HowSoonIsThen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@HowSoonIsThen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HowSoonIsThen)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/1 "2018-06-12T03:38:12Z")
Garage sales are meant to be for bargains, but if someone clearly isn’t aware that they’ve got something worth a lot, do you tell them? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/2 "2018-06-12T03:40:07Z")
If the person having the sale is a friend or relative, yes. ---
**Author:** ![HowSoonIsThen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@HowSoonIsThen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HowSoonIsThen)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/3 "2018-06-12T03:47:22Z")
Just in case it wasn’t clear, I mean underpriced even by garage sale standards. I was going to say yes, but then I remembered all the times I’ve snatched up things way way way below value. So I guess I’d like to think yes, but in the heat of the moment I’m probably a know. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/4 "2018-06-12T03:56:10Z")
I’m unlikely to be more of a connoisseur than the average garage sale proprietor, so I doubt I’d really recognize something valuable that they hadn’t spotted. But if I did manage to dispose of a yard-sale find for a major amount of money, I think it would be only fair, not to mention constructive, to split it with the original owner. After all, we want to encourage people to get cool (legally owned) stuff circulating in markets. Not graspingly hoard everything they own that they think might possibly be valuable but never get around to getting appraised. If people thought they had a good chance of getting five thousand dollars out of unknowingly selling a ten-thousand-dollar item for five bucks, they’d probably be more likely to get those potentially valuable items out of their attics and onto the sale tables. Win-win. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/5 "2018-06-12T04:02:21Z")
Well, just Saturday I bought three ratchets, a Vise-Grip locking pliers, a brake spring pliers set, and a brake adjusting tool, all for $2.00. Two of the ratchets are Craftsman, one’s a Wizard (old Western Auto brand), and the Vise-Grip is real, but the other two tools are Snap-On brand. The new price for the brake spring pliers is over a hundred dollars. So, I guess not. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/6 "2018-06-12T04:03:18Z")
Lots of times people are moving and just want to get rid of something that they already paid for some time ago and do not care what price they get for it. They just want it gone. They don’t have the time to wait for someone to come along and give them the item’s “true value”. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/7 "2018-06-12T04:04:29Z")
I said depends. I have rarely been to yard/garage/tag sales and don’t recall buying anything. I thought the whole idea was to get a bargain on something someone else didn’t want, but I know some people gather stuff to sell with the idea of turning a profit. I just would have to decide. I doubt I could spot something worth way, way, way more than it’s value anyway. If I bought it and I found out after the fact that it was worth a fortune, like the [rare purple pearl found around here at a yard sale](http://www.karipearls.com/quahog-pearls-amongst-the-rarest-of-gemstones.html), I’m not sure what I would do. > [@](#): > > Valuation and pricing vary enormously and ultimately, the price of any item is only that which a buyer is prepared to pay. An example will illustrate the point – in 2005 a rare quahog was discovered in a yard sale and bought for a mere $14 – when it came to auction, the piece was widely valued at anything between $8,000 and $1 million! The eventual sales price is unknown as it was sold to a private bidder in a sealed auction. ETA: I’m sure they meant to write ‘quahog pearl’ above. Quahogs are definitely not rare in these parts. ---
**Author:** ![BobBitchin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@BobBitchin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobBitchin)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/8 "2018-06-12T05:16:46Z")
> [@HowSoonIsThen](#): > > Garage sales are meant to be for bargains, but if someone clearly isn’t aware that they’ve got something worth a lot, do you tell them? No, in fact I’d try to haggle them down some more if I thought it wouldn’t blow the deal. These days,with the internet there is no reason for a person to be uninformed. Even if you can’t find and assess the item you have, the internet can help you find those who can. If a person won’t even type words on a keyboard to do research, they gave away their item. All this assumes I’m dealing with a mentally competent adult. I wont do business with those who don’t have the proper agency (if I’m using that word right:rolleyes:) ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/9 "2018-06-12T10:41:03Z")
This sort of happened at our last garage sale. A young man with Downs syndrome who lives up the street brought down a doghouse he wanted to sell. He wanted $5 for it. About an hour later his parents came racing down and wanted the doghouse back saying it was worth so much more plus the young man didnt have permission to sell it. Glad it hadnt sold yet. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/10 "2018-06-12T10:44:24Z")
> [@BobBitchin](#): > > No, in fact I’d try to haggle them down some more if I thought it wouldn’t blow the deal. > > These days,with the internet there is no reason for a person to be uninformed. > Even if you can’t find and assess the item you have, the internet can help you find those who can. > > If a person won’t even type words on a keyboard to do research, they gave away their item. > > All this assumes I’m dealing with a mentally competent adult. I wont do business with those who don’t have the proper agency (if I’m using that word right:rolleyes:) Or family. Consider say a wife, husband, kids or whoever putting on a garage sale, selling her husbands, wives, grandparents, etc… “old junk” and not knowing what it was worth. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/11 "2018-06-12T11:03:32Z")
If I somehow knew something very rare and valuable was on the 50¢ table, I’d probably mention it to the seller and give them a chance to set it aside. If they didn’t seem to care, I’d buy it myself. But if I happened to buy something for cheap and it turned out to be valuable, I doubt that I’d share with the seller unless it was family or a close friend. Not that it’ll ever happen, since I almost never stop at garage sales and I wouldn’t know a Ming vase from a Franklin Mint Collectible. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/12 "2018-06-12T11:07:06Z")
There is nothing unethical with paying what the seller asks. There is nothing unethical in haggling. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/13 "2018-06-12T12:01:28Z")
If I wanted to buy it, I wouldn’t tell them. I definitely wouldn’t haggle down. If I didn’t want to buy it, I would _like_ to tell them but my experience with sellers it that it does no good whatsoever and most are actually annoyed at the comment. I found from being on the selling end that you do get comments about how valuable some piece of junk is that is total malarky. E.g., some idjit told me a used ladder was actually worth X dollars which I knew was $50 more than the current price for it new at Home Depot. And on and on. So I can see how sellers treat all such advice as nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/14 "2018-06-12T12:13:12Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > This sort of happened at our last garage sale. > > A young man with Downs syndrome who lives up the street brought down a doghouse he wanted to sell. He wanted $5 for it. > > About an hour later his parents came racing down and wanted the doghouse back saying it was worth so much more plus the young man didnt have permission to sell it. > > Glad it hadnt sold yet. IANAL but assuming he was a minor then the transaction could have been cancelled anyway. Doing any sort of business with a minor is risky. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/15 "2018-06-12T13:09:33Z")
Probably not. I wouldn’t if it was just “I want a widget and they have one for $5 and I know it’s worth $50”. I mean, that’s why you go to these sorts of sales, to get bargains. But I suppose if I identified Excalibur in a box of kitchen knives and didn’t want to own Excalibur, I’d mention it to the owners so, if nothing else, Excalibur didn’t spend its days spreading butter in some random guy’s kitchen. I don’t know if I have any actual eye for antiquities or art pieces to make that happen though. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/16 "2018-06-12T13:36:31Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Probably not. I wouldn’t if it was just “I want a widget and they have one for $5 and I know it’s worth $50”. I mean, that’s why you go to these sorts of sales, to get bargains. > > But I suppose if I identified Excalibur in a box of kitchen knives and didn’t want to own Excalibur, I’d mention it to the owners so, if nothing else, Excalibur didn’t spend its days spreading butter in some random guy’s kitchen. I don’t know if I have any actual eye for antiquities or art pieces to make that happen though. It would be spending its days spreading butter in some random King of England’s kitchen. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/17 "2018-06-12T13:39:28Z")
Nope. Their responsibility to know what they have. When I’ve had yard sales, I generally price stuff at double what I actually want for it and whoever wants it can negotiate down. If something is priced well below its value, I’ll assume they just _really_ want to get rid of it. ETA: And maybe it’s just me, but it seems somehow _more_ dishonest to only speak up if I’m not interested. Why fuck up someone else’s great deal just because I don’t want it? . ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/18 "2018-06-12T13:43:31Z")
I’ve picked up things for far less than the actual value. If sellers want more for it, they should ask more for it. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/19 "2018-06-12T14:33:19Z")
Are we talking the difference between “I saw this same shirt at _\_ for $40 and I just paid $2” and “That guy’s asking $3 for a priceless antique space modulator”? Seems to me there’s a difference between wanting to just be rid of something at any price and accidentally pricing a rare heirloom with a thrift store value. But what do I know? My family “heirlooms” have only sentimental value - maybe they’ll be rare and priceless when my granddaughter inherits them. ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940/20 "2018-06-12T15:48:20Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Are we talking the difference between “I saw this same shirt at _\_ for $40 and I just paid $2” and “That guy’s asking $3 for a priceless antique space modulator”? Seems to me there’s a difference between wanting to just be rid of something at any price and accidentally pricing a rare heirloom with a thrift store value. That’s my attitude. Garage sales(and I stop at a lot of them) are places to pick up things that the seller just wants to get rid of. I _expect_ to pay only pennies on the dollar. Now, in the impossible scenario that I see a little old lady selling a genuine Rembrandt for ten bucks I would tell her about it. But if she’s getting rid of her deceased husband’s $200.00 surf rod for $10.00 I wouldn’t bat an eye - and maybe ask if she would take $8.00 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-selling-something-way-under-value-do-you-tell-them/815940.md?page=2)