Mr Baker and I happened to go Garage Sale-ing this past Saturday to start stocking up on baby clothes for the Bubala. I see onesies going for $ 0.50 a pop and I'm like "that's half as much as the DI, SWEET and I start nabbing them up. Mr Baker had strongly encouraged me to haggle down prices. So I see a box with plenty of like new, plain, white, newborn onesies and offer the woman running the show $5 for the whole box (with 24 onesies in them that's about $.20 a onesie) She gladly accepted the deal and I beamed with pride as I made my way over to Mr. Baker to show what a good little haggler I was. At first he wasn't very impressed and thought I could have got much lower. However this changed after I counted out all the onesies for him. Apparently he thought I had purchased only a handful but when he saw I got more than half off the original asking price he was well pleased. At another garage sale I picked out about five baby clothes items. Mr. Baker then prodded me to start my bid at $.25 which I did expecting I'd later be forking out at least two more quarters, but to my astonishment the woman took the deal. Mr Baker's secret is simply get a group of items in some miscellaneous container and then offer lower than asking price--and it works! At first I was squeamish and embarrassed to be so petty but once I got the hang of it I realized it's kind of like flirty with a cute guy--what have you got to lose?, if he's not interested move on to another guy no big deal and if he is well then you've got a date (or in my case, a husband who doubles as Johnny Lingo Saturday mornings in the Summer). In the end we came home after spending $12.25 at sales and our treasures included
1 infant bath
1 high chair
1 baby carrier cover
1 baby bunting wrap
39 pairs of baby socks
24 pairs of newborn white onesies
1 baby blanket
1 bib
12 cloth diapers with covers
2 pairs of baby stockings
4 pairs of little bloomers
4 baby hats
4 dresses
10 sleepers ranging in sizes from 0-9 mos
8 pairs of baby pant 0-9 mos
23 baby tops 0-9 mos
HELLO! That's including my wopping $5 for 24 onesies! Considering everything else I got for another $7.25, I was less impressed with my initial bargain as well--I'll know better next time
I don't go down in prices until the end of my yardsale so don't come looking for deals from me. But I do haggle at yard sales myself. I once got 2 Foodsaver Vacuum sealers for $15 the asking price was $40 they both worked and I gave one to my Sister as a gift. Most all of the girls baby stuff came from Yard sales, we have area here that you can tell the people only want 1 baby but they would never buy used but they are willing to sale used and make money so that is where I like to go. I also watch trash pills for furniture my mother got and Antique HighChair from a trash pile then she and Dad refinished it for my little Brother. there are always ways of saving money you just have to try it.
ReplyDelete