Author Topic: What's the best way to sell a garage full of stuff?  (Read 2475 times)

dividendman

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What's the best way to sell a garage full of stuff?
« on: June 23, 2020, 11:40:29 PM »
A friend of mine is moving and has a garage packed full of stuff. Some of it seems pretty valuable like luggage containers, bicycles that just have flat tires or seats missing, a bunch of tools, camping stuff, a bunch of things that aren't even open and I can't even see the stuff that's buried under all this other stuff!

They want sell it all but don't want to list each item on craigslist or something similar. Is there something akin to "storage wars" out there where someone will pay them some amount for everything in the garage and then take it all away?

AccidentialMustache

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Re: What's the best way to sell a garage full of stuff?
« Reply #1 on: June 24, 2020, 12:07:35 AM »
Got any local auction house/estate sale groups? I have no recommendation on how to choose one other than "do your research."

Peachtea

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Re: What's the best way to sell a garage full of stuff?
« Reply #2 on: June 24, 2020, 06:26:28 AM »
I suspect they don’t have enough stuff to make an auction worthwhile. They will get the most money for listing things individually, but there’s a middle ground too. Post on Craigslist or other local community board a “Moving Sale” for $1 (you have to enter a price), but in that post the list major items for sale with individual prices, include general descriptions of the other stuff for sale (dishes and cooking sets, camping accessories, baby clothes, etc.) The more detailed and itemized the better, but they don’t need to take pictures of the little stuff. Take a picture of the big items individually. If they want a chance at selling by lot, take photos of the other stuff grouped together or a picture of all the stuff in the garage...just make sure anything that is not for sale isn’t in the picture. They could post a lot price to see if they have any takers. Give a couple days reserved for buying as a lot, then a Saturday/Sunday for anyone whose interested in stuff to show up. Essentially a garage sale where your not neatly organizing everything and price tagging it.

Sugaree

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Re: What's the best way to sell a garage full of stuff?
« Reply #3 on: June 24, 2020, 06:29:27 AM »
List the more valuable things on FB, but also have a "Moving Sale" one weekend.  Bonus points if you can convince buyers from FB to pick it up at said moving sale.  Anything they don't want to deal with can usually be donated to (and picked up by) one of those groups that run thrift stores.

researcher1

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Re: What's the best way to sell a garage full of stuff?
« Reply #4 on: June 24, 2020, 06:53:31 AM »
A friend of mine is moving and has a garage packed full of stuff. Some of it seems pretty valuable...
None of the items you describe sound "pretty valuable."

And if they only want to sell the entire garage in one transaction, they will be getting pennies on the dollar.

K_in_the_kitchen

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Re: What's the best way to sell a garage full of stuff?
« Reply #5 on: June 24, 2020, 01:27:42 PM »
If they want to get rid of it they might be able to find an independent thrift store willing to haul estates.  They won't make any money, but they also won't have to hassle with finding buyers, etc.  Depending on their tax situation they may be able to take the donation as a deductible, assuming they itemize the most valuable things.

ixtap

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Re: What's the best way to sell a garage full of stuff?
« Reply #6 on: June 24, 2020, 01:34:26 PM »
I'm not even sure what a luggage container is, but if the bike wasn't valuable enough to them to fix themselves, why would it be to anyone else?

Car Jack

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Re: What's the best way to sell a garage full of stuff?
« Reply #7 on: June 24, 2020, 01:37:37 PM »
It sounds like your friend wants money but is unwilling to lift a finger to organize or sell the stuff.  I have a couple suggestions.  First, have a yard sale and drag things out into the yard that might sell, like the bikes.  Take literally any offer that comes along.  Bikes with flat tires or missing seats are going to be steel scrap value, which today is around 3 cents a pound or $1 a bike.  Tools will sell.  Keep them separate and guard them.  Put a price on a box of tools.  They will sell.  Spend the time during the sale pulling more stuff out of the garage.  Allow buyers to dig through the stuff still in the garage and sell it cheap.

The way to look at this is that instead of paying one of those "Got Junk" places a few thousand dollars (that's what it will cost), you get people to give you money to take your junk away.  I held a yard sale after my grandmother (a hoarder) passed away.  We got a ton of boxes and I'd fill a box and put it out.  We sold full boxes for $5 up to noon and $1 after noon.  We got rid of about the volume of a 30 yard dumpster in one day.  We filled several more dumpsters after the sale was done.  People will buy nearly anything.  Oh, one more hint....I had people asking about things like furniture during the sale.  I'd ask for an offer and they'd give me a low ball.  I'd respond, "I'll take the offer if you take 4 boxes of my choice too".  They'd always take me up on my offer and we offloaded an awful lot of junk like that.

dividendman

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Re: What's the best way to sell a garage full of stuff?
« Reply #8 on: June 24, 2020, 01:59:28 PM »
Thanks for all of the suggestions!

Yeah, I agree none of that stuff seems "valuable", I should have said the other stuff like power tools, a working car engine, fridges, exercise equipment, all sorts of stuff new in box.

But yeah, they'll probably do a craigslist type thing where we list a bunch of items and then just see.

kite

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Re: What's the best way to sell a garage full of stuff?
« Reply #9 on: June 24, 2020, 03:02:21 PM »
It’s not valuable.  It’s landfill stuffed in their garage that is declining in value and re-usability the longer it sits there.  If it has value, they would be willing to list items individually and sell them.  If it was precious, they would be taking it with them when they go.
Maybe they spent $200 on something that could sell for $125 second-hand.  Getting the $125 is the hard work of listing the item for sale, replying to a couple of texts and meeting the buyer.  This is how you ‘earn’ $125, otherwise, you have nothing but a hunk of sunk cost in a piece of landfill.  The ‘value’ to the seller is in the work it takes to sell, not the unneeded item sitting there, becoming a home to vermin.  If the garage is packed to the gills and they are more interested in having it empty than in getting 50% return of the purchase price of all that stuff, they can hire a person to staff a garage sale, throw open the doors and take any offer on anything.  Let the $75 bike go for $5, for example.     

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!