Continuing with the sage or ridiculous offers, here it is, something I witnessed.
1990s, I am at this garage sale in Palo Alto CA. This guy, a cheap "I can't mention the word", well known by many of us garage sailing people, some Ebayers, me? a collector and gathering things to send back to my country of origin (for resale).
He gets earlier than us to this beautiful garage sale, very common those days, not anymore. He grabs this glass orb, something so beautiful, even if you didn't sell it, it would be a nice ornament on your mantle or desk.
The guy, finds the seller and ask for the price, the seller says $20. He yells What!? I will give you $5!
Seller replies: No way man! This is a rarity, my grandma had it before she got married.
Guy: It's not worth $20!...….we are waiting for him to drop the thing on the table, but he knows we are around.
Seller after 10 minutes of going back and forth with the price: Hey guy! Bring that thing here, and the guy obliges and hands him the glass thing.
Seller: How much did you say you wanted to pay?
Guy: $5 for that piece of sh...…..!
Seller: Grabs it, and slams it against the ground, the thing breaks in hundreds of pieces.
Guy: Deer eyes, jaw to the ground, he can't believe it. 
Seller: OK, there you are, can I have my $5 now? 
@escuintla wrote:Continuing with the sage or ridiculous offers, here it is, something I witnessed.
1990s, I am at this garage sale in Palo Alto CA. This guy, a cheap "I can't mention the word", well known by many of us garage sailing people, some Ebayers, me? a collector and gathering things to send back to my country of origin (for resale).
He gets earlier than us to this beautiful garage sale, very common those days, not anymore. He grabs this glass orb, something so beautiful, even if you didn't sell it, it would be a nice ornament on your mantle or desk.
The guy, finds the seller and ask for the price, the seller says $20. He yells What!? I will give you $5!
Seller replies: No way man! This is a rarity, my grandma had it before she got married.
Guy: It's not worth $20!...….we are waiting for him to drop the thing on the table, but he knows we are around.
Seller after 10 minutes of going back and forth with the price: Hey guy! Bring that thing here, and the guy obliges and hands him the glass thing.
Seller: How much did you say you wanted to pay?
Guy: $5 for that piece of sh...…..!
Seller: Grabs it, and slams it against the ground, the thing breaks in hundreds of pieces.
Guy: Deer eyes, jaw to the ground, he can't believe it.
Seller: OK, there you are, can I have my $5 now?
SO many ways that could have been handled better.
Sad.
@escuintla wrote:Here's another one. My fault...……..
I lived in East Palo Alto, I get to be bored this Sunday. I then didn't know about flea markets in my area. So, after navigating in Palo Alto, Atherton, and then Redwood City, I decided to go to San Carlos, a few miles away. Somehow, I ended up at this garage sale, lucky me, 2-3 buyers. The lady is bored, drinking a Coca Cola, it was very hot that day.
I got out of my car, and behind her, a big front yard is visible to my incredible eyes; 12 boxes 30" x 30" lying around. I get curious and dug into them. I would say each box had from 100 to 300 pair of socks. Among them, 49ers socks. They were so long so I didn't pay attention to them. What interested me was the other boxes with white dressing socks. Some had 49ers logo on them. Then, 3 boxes had socks for kids, as I said about 300 pairs in them.
Remember, no buyers, no pressure, I am kind of the only reseller. The other people were neighbors I guessed. They had a pair or two of socks in their hands. So, I asked the lady how much for each box. She replies...….$15 each...….I heard the sound of cash registers in my head. I bought the 3 boxes of socks for kids. Then, I thought about reselling the socks. Not on Ebay, at that time I wasn't interested at all, I barely heard of it. This was before the glass thing.
But, greed! Oh my goodness! I had to get greedy, don't we all get greedy sometimes?
so I replied: How about $10 each? She replied: No way! I am giving these socks for free at this price. You are lucky, I quit working for the 49ers so this is your chance to own some piece of history. Then, she handed me a package of those long, very long socks. As I said, they would be that long that if I wanted to wear them, they would be touching my private parts. I am 5.3"
I am there, pretending to be tough, you know, naïve, greedy, and dumb! So, I kept hammering her with my nonsense, "come on lady!", come on lady! $10 each! Come on, come on, come on...…….when out of nowhere this guy whom I knew, a flea market guy stops by, and without any good morning, how are you? goes and asked her for the whole thing. She says give me $15 each...…..and she didn't finished her response, the guy said "sold!"
Thanks God I had bought 3 boxes. All the kids in my former "neighborhood" received a pair of socks for Christmas. The rest were sold.
Learned my lesson. From that day, I never, ever tried to law ball anybody since I knew you had one, and only one chance to either make any garage or flea market seller happy or they would tell you to go to s-hell..….
Here is a slight twist of events that happened to me:
I went to an estate sale, haggled and got a great agreed to price, but, because I was not finished shopping I placed the item on the hold table. A hold table is a table where up put your things you have decided to buy. After finishing my shopping, I went to retrieve my things from the hold table and discovered the item I had haggled over was no longer there. (Long story short, I learned someone had offered a better price and the seller sold it, sure it was not the right thing to do, but what could I do about it.) So, from now on, if I see something I like regardless if I had to haggle to get a lower price or not, I pay for it then and there and take it to my car locking it in my truck; I then go back and complete my shopping. Sometimes during that same sale I made 3-4 trips to my car.
Moral of my story: when you get a good deal: seal the deal by making immediate payment, AND take that prized item out of the sight of others.
@escuintla wrote:Here's another one. My fault...……..
I lived in East Palo Alto, I get to be bored this Sunday. I then didn't know about flea markets in my area. So, after navigating in Palo Alto, Atherton, and then Redwood City, I decided to go to San Carlos, a few miles away. Somehow, I ended up at this garage sale, lucky me, 2-3 buyers. The lady is bored, drinking a Coca Cola, it was very hot that day.
I got out of my car, and behind her, a big front yard is visible to my incredible eyes; 12 boxes 30" x 30" lying around. I get curious and dug into them. I would say each box had from 100 to 300 pair of socks. Among them, 49ers socks. They were so long so I didn't pay attention to them. What interested me was the other boxes with white dressing socks. Some had 49ers logo on them. Then, 3 boxes had socks for kids, as I said about 300 pairs in them.
Remember, no buyers, no pressure, I am kind of the only reseller. The other people were neighbors I guessed. They had a pair or two of socks in their hands. So, I asked the lady how much for each box. She replies...….$15 each...….I heard the sound of cash registers in my head. I bought the 3 boxes of socks for kids. Then, I thought about reselling the socks. Not on Ebay, at that time I wasn't interested at all, I barely heard of it. This was before the glass thing.
But, greed! Oh my goodness! I had to get greedy, don't we all get greedy sometimes?
so I replied: How about $10 each? She replied: No way! I am giving these socks for free at this price. You are lucky, I quit working for the 49ers so this is your chance to own some piece of history. Then, she handed me a package of those long, very long socks. As I said, they would be that long that if I wanted to wear them, they would be touching my private parts. I am 5.3"
I am there, pretending to be tough, you know, naïve, greedy, and dumb! So, I kept hammering her with my nonsense, "come on lady!", come on lady! $10 each! Come on, come on, come on...…….when out of nowhere this guy whom I knew, a flea market guy stops by, and without any good morning, how are you? goes and asked her for the whole thing. She says give me $15 each...…..and she didn't finished her response, the guy said "sold!"
Thanks God I had bought 3 boxes. All the kids in my former "neighborhood" received a pair of socks for Christmas. The rest were sold.
Learned my lesson. From that day, I never, ever tried to law ball anybody since I knew you had one, and only one chance to either make any garage or flea market seller happy or they would tell you to go to s-hell..….
My cousin Shirley and her family lived in Redwood city CA. for many years before they moved to Penn valley . She was an avid bargain hunter. She had even managed to find three antique bathtubs at different times with the claw feet. She cleverly integrated them one at a time into her home decor . It wouldn't surprise me if you unknowingly had crossed paths with her at some point in the past. Tulips
So, from now on, if I see something I like regardless if I had to haggle to get a lower price or not, I pay for it then and there and take it to my car locking it in my truck; I then go back and complete my shopping.
Very true.
I was at the flea market when this guy pulled into an empty space. Whatsoever, tens of people went to check on him while I was like "what's going on?". Then I realize that the early bird eats the worms or something like that. So, the guy had 3 helpers and by the time I mingled into the crowd they had boxes and boxes thrown everywhere.
Then, I noticed one of those old plastic milk crates and in it there were lamps, I can't remember the brand. So, stupid me, I took a quick look at the brand and turned on my phone and the darn phone was too slow, not enough signal I guessed. The box was at my feet, but by the time I had the results on the price they commanded, $700 total, a guy had grabbed it and asked the seller the price. I almost had a heart attack when I heard $4...…..
Once the other people heard he was selling everything so cheap, the boxes disappeared from the ground while I was left to wonder how dumb you can be by not grabbing something and then ask questions. 
@escuintla wrote:Continuing with the sage or ridiculous offers, here it is, something I witnessed.
1990s, I am at this garage sale in Palo Alto CA. This guy, a cheap "I can't mention the word", well known by many of us garage sailing people, some Ebayers, me? a collector and gathering things to send back to my country of origin (for resale).
He gets earlier than us to this beautiful garage sale, very common those days, not anymore. He grabs this glass orb, something so beautiful, even if you didn't sell it, it would be a nice ornament on your mantle or desk.
The guy, finds the seller and ask for the price, the seller says $20. He yells What!? I will give you $5!
Seller replies: No way man! This is a rarity, my grandma had it before she got married.
Guy: It's not worth $20!...….we are waiting for him to drop the thing on the table, but he knows we are around.
Seller after 10 minutes of going back and forth with the price: Hey guy! Bring that thing here, and the guy obliges and hands him the glass thing.
Seller: How much did you say you wanted to pay?
Guy: $5 for that piece of sh...…..!
Seller: Grabs it, and slams it against the ground, the thing breaks in hundreds of pieces.
Guy: Deer eyes, jaw to the ground, he can't believe it.
Seller: OK, there you are, can I have my $5 now?
LMAO!
@escuintla wrote:So, from now on, if I see something I like regardless if I had to haggle to get a lower price or not, I pay for it then and there and take it to my car locking it in my truck; I then go back and complete my shopping.
Very true.
I was at the flea market when this guy pulled into an empty space. Whatsoever, tens of people went to check on him while I was like "what's going on?". Then I realize that the early bird eats the worms or something like that. So, the guy had 3 helpers and by the time I mingled into the crowd they had boxes and boxes thrown everywhere.
Then, I noticed one of those old plastic milk crates and in it there were lamps, I can't remember the brand. So, stupid me, I took a quick look at the brand and turned on my phone and the darn phone was too slow, not enough signal I guessed. The box was at my feet, but by the time I had the results on the price they commanded, $700 total, a guy had grabbed it and asked the seller the price. I almost had a heart attack when I heard $4...…..
Once the other people heard he was selling everything so cheap, the boxes disappeared from the ground while I was left to wonder how dumb you can be by not grabbing something and then ask questions.
I got burned like that as well. Had the item right next to me; got busy looking it up on my phone and someone swiped it from under my nose.
@escuintla wrote:So, from now on, if I see something I like regardless if I had to haggle to get a lower price or not, I pay for it then and there and take it to my car locking it in my truck; I then go back and complete my shopping.
Very true.
I was at the flea market when this guy pulled into an empty space. Whatsoever, tens of people went to check on him while I was like "what's going on?". Then I realize that the early bird eats the worms or something like that. So, the guy had 3 helpers and by the time I mingled into the crowd they had boxes and boxes thrown everywhere.
Then, I noticed one of those old plastic milk crates and in it there were lamps, I can't remember the brand. So, stupid me, I took a quick look at the brand and turned on my phone and the darn phone was too slow, not enough signal I guessed. The box was at my feet, but by the time I had the results on the price they commanded, $700 total, a guy had grabbed it and asked the seller the price. I almost had a heart attack when I heard $4...…..
Once the other people heard he was selling everything so cheap, the boxes disappeared from the ground while I was left to wonder how dumb you can be by not grabbing something and then ask questions.
I got burned like that as well. Had the item right next to me; got busy looking it up on my phone and someone swiped it from under my nose.
