# Garage sales (and other secondhand vendors) who overcharge: Do you say anything? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 13, 2018, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sales-and-other-secondhand-vendors-who-overcharge-do-you-say-anything/816008 "2018-06-13T02:30:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sales-and-other-secondhand-vendors-who-overcharge-do-you-say-anything/816008/61 "2019-04-23T19:21:28Z")
> [@naita](#): > > You know what the used book shop has? Room to store books and wait for the customer who will pay two dollars for the book instead of the library’s 50 cents. They pay for that space. You known why libraries sell their books? Because they don’t want to pay for storage for books very few people are taking out, and because they can get a few cents in the process. > > Sure, the library could double as a used book store, but then it would have to take all the expenses of being a used book store along with the income. It’s similar with our parish. We have a huge collection of books. I sometimes volunteer to help lug them from the storage area, which isn’t being used for anything else, to set them out for sale in a couple of used book sales per year. The prices are rock bottom. Still, a lot of them are always left after each sale, and people are always donating more. If we were to actually try to value them book by book and price accordingly…that would be a big extra task. As would staffing a continuous year round sale. Kind of like being in the used book business :)… which the church isn’t. And like a public library, the institution is there in part for public service so if it ends up basically giving some people books they want but couldn’t make room for in their budgets at a bookstore price, that’s not the end of the world. OTOH if you go into the used book biz for profit you have to accept you’ll have competition from various sources (estate sales, libraries, churches, whatever) selling a random selection of books for almost nothing, that’s just how it is. You make your money from people who need particular titles at a particular time. We almost never buy day to day used items as from a yard sale or Craigslist. We’re at the age where we have to control the pile up of junk or it will overwhelm us. I have specific book interest so buy used books fairly often generally with [bookfinder.com](http://bookfinder.com) as my guide, sometimes on ebay. Even with some experience (no expert) on what various titles go for I also often think the high offers on those services are ridiculous. I mean if you can pull up bookfinder and see that somebody has it for $50 and you want $200, similar ostensible condition, what are you actually thinking? But you see that fairly often. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sales-and-other-secondhand-vendors-who-overcharge-do-you-say-anything/816008/62 "2019-04-23T21:09:35Z")
> [@Corry\_El](#): > > It’s similar with our parish. We have a huge collection of books. I sometimes volunteer to help lug them from the storage area, which isn’t being used for anything else, to set them out for sale in a couple of used book sales per year. The prices are rock bottom. Still, a lot of them are always left after each sale, and people are always donating more. If we were to actually try to value them book by book and price accordingly…that would be a big extra task. As would staffing a continuous year round sale. Kind of like being in the used book business :)… which the church isn’t. And like a public library, the institution is there in part for public service so if it ends up basically giving some people books they want but couldn’t make room for in their budgets at a bookstore price, that’s not the end of the world. OTOH if you go into the used book biz for profit you have to accept you’ll have competition from various sources (estate sales, libraries, churches, whatever) selling a random selection of books for almost nothing, that’s just how it is. You make your money from people who need particular titles at a particular time. > > We almost never buy day to day used items as from a yard sale or Craigslist. We’re at the age where we have to control the pile up of junk or it will overwhelm us. I have specific book interest so buy used books fairly often generally with [bookfinder.com](http://bookfinder.com) as my guide, sometimes on ebay. Even with some experience (no expert) on what various titles go for I also often think the high offers on those services are ridiculous. I mean if you can pull up bookfinder and see that somebody has it for $50 and you want $200, similar ostensible condition, what are you actually thinking? But you see that fairly often. If you don’t need the money why not price as high as you wish? Worst case is you don’t make a quick sale. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sales-and-other-secondhand-vendors-who-overcharge-do-you-say-anything/816008/63 "2019-04-23T21:22:51Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > This is why we just dump our unwanted stuff at the local charity drop off. Sure, we could make $20 if we held a garage sale next Saturday. Life is too short. Says Mr. Money Bags! I can feed my four urchins for a week on $20! Actually, we are even more lazy. The charity place picks up our stuff form the porch. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sales-and-other-secondhand-vendors-who-overcharge-do-you-say-anything/816008/64 "2019-04-25T12:05:47Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > …Actually, we are even more lazy. The charity place picks up our stuff form the porch. And I don’t really care if the place I give my stuff to is a charity, or a commercial establishment. I want it out of my life. If they can make money rehoming it, then: I win – I got rid of it They win – they made a profit The buyer wins – they got something they want The environment wins – less crap in the land fill I see no downside. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sales-and-other-secondhand-vendors-who-overcharge-do-you-say-anything/816008/65 "2019-04-25T13:10:23Z")
I feel much the same way. I’m hoping the planned stuff on Monday goes well, after which I will have less excess furniture and someone in need of furniture will have their needs fulfilled. Hell, I’m even volunteering to use my pick up as transport. I suppose that means I’ll actually lose a bit on the deal from a financial viewpoint, but I don’t care - the good karma makes up for a quarter tank of gas and a few hours of my time. AND I’ll be reducing the stress-inducing clutter in my life. That’s worth a few pennies right there. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sales-and-other-secondhand-vendors-who-overcharge-do-you-say-anything/816008/66 "2019-04-26T03:38:30Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > i think the library should be charge amazon prices for donated/used books or do like what a lot of places do and just sell them online themselves and here’s why : > > we have an in library bookstore ran by volunteers … and down the street, there’s a used book shop. wanna know where she gets her stock for pretty much pennies on the dollar? the library … its sort of a joke amongst the volunteers Ex-library materials cannot be directly resold except by the library; if you see such things at a thrift store, etc. it was probably purchased from the library’s book store, and the person gave it to the thrift store when they were done reading it. They also cannot be donated except for some very limited recipients, so Friends of the Library sells them ourselves and the money goes for things that aren’t in the library’s budget. People donate books and other items of their own all the time, and probably 99.9% of it is not suitable for the collection and they know it. First priority in the store goes to ex-library materials, and then the donated materials if and when we have space, especially if they’re recent releases. We also have an Amazon account for things that aren’t suitable for the store, whether they are rare, valuable, contain explicit sex or violence but are not pornographic, etc. We also have a contract with a re-seller and ship a lot of things to them, and they periodically send us a check for our share. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sales-and-other-secondhand-vendors-who-overcharge-do-you-say-anything/816008/67 "2019-04-26T14:26:29Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > If you don’t need the money why not price as high as you wish? Worst case is you don’t make a quick sale. In cases like that, church book sale, (though library or estate sales could be similar) it’s because a) there are have more book donations always coming in b) it’s a labor input to price individual books at different levels and the volunteers don’t have the expertise to do that quickly off the cuff c) you find that rock bottom is the only across the board pricing level that makes the inventory move d) if the church gives away excess value it’s not the end of the world because one of the missions is service to the community, even though the direct purpose of the sale is to raise cash. Also wrt b) and d), you assume with books mainly donated by living people that those people mainly filtered out any highly valuable books. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sales-and-other-secondhand-vendors-who-overcharge-do-you-say-anything/816008/68 "2019-04-26T17:43:26Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > The people freaked out, telling her I wasn’t bargaining in good faith (I wasn’t bargaining period, actually) and they told her they would be seeing me in court. It took some patience on my part, but I eventually got my asking price. See the Choosing Beggars subreddit for endless loads of unreasonable demands from buyers and others. [https://old.reddit.com/r/ChoosingBeggars/](https://old.reddit.com/r/ChoosingBeggars/) ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sales-and-other-secondhand-vendors-who-overcharge-do-you-say-anything/816008/69 "2019-04-26T19:20:39Z")
our store sells donated books almost exclusively as unless its hardback the shelf life is 6 months or less… ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2019, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sales-and-other-secondhand-vendors-who-overcharge-do-you-say-anything/816008/70 "2019-04-27T11:15:31Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > See the Choosing Beggars subreddit for endless loads of unreasonable demands from buyers and others. > > [Beggars can't be choosers!](https://old.reddit.com/r/ChoosingBeggars/) Fun stuff there!! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sales-and-other-secondhand-vendors-who-overcharge-do-you-say-anything/816008.md?page=3)