The Finance Corner: Tag Sales and Thrift Stores

Tis the season to be frugal, and the season lasts all year long.  Unfortunately, the tag sale season is at an end for us in the northern states.  With the tag sale season over it is a good time to look back in retrospect and see what we have learned so we are even better prepared for tag sales coming next year.  The lessons learned from the summer tag sales can still be transferred to their winter-time sister, the thrift store.

Obviously, many people know that tag sales (and thrift stores) are an awesome way to save money, but that is not going to stop me from chewing your ear off about them.  There are a lot of tag sale tips and tricks you learn along the way.  No, no, take that candy dish out of your pocket.  There is no stealing in the Frugal Man school of tag sale hopping.  Here are the top tips/tricks/habits I suggest:

Makes Lists

I hunt for vintage board games and video games.  Others out there may be after books, Pez dispensers, or CDs.  Whatever you fancy, make a comprehensive list of what you already own (in the category that you are hunting for) and what you would really like to find.  Just keep it on hand for any time you are going to hit up a tag sale.  I have made the mistake of buying duplicates of things I owned before when I was unsure of what I had and I won’t make that mistake again.  A list is also a good way to make sure that you don’t waste money.  If you are on a really tight budget, the list can be invaluable.  Promise yourself you will only buy what is on your “would like to find” list, and only take enough money with you to cover what those items should reasonably cost.  Further, the list of things you are on the look out for will help any friends you take to the tag sale hunt for you.  Lastly, these lists can also help you for insurance purposes should you have a catastrophic accident with your residence and need a record of what you owned.  Keep in mind, they aren’t pictures, so they won’t serve as proof, but they could help.

Negotiate

I know that some of you out there wonder why I even mention this, but I also know that there are others out there that will never do this.  If you do not negotiate prices at tag sales then you are spending more that you have to.  I am not exaggerating when I say that 4 out of 5 times, the tag sale operators I deal with are open to negotiation.

There are multiple ways you can go.  Most simply, you can suggest a lower price for an object you want.  More realistically, I almost always am able to make a deal by buying multiple items together.  I feel most comfortable with this method.  If you want multiple items suggest a lower price or for one or two of the items to be free (depending on how many you are buying).  I have found that the easiest way to go about this is what I call the “Easy Round” method.

Advanced Negotiation

The “Easy Round” method combines several interesting mental phenomena.  You get a bunch of items that you want together, for this example lets say that you want 6 items at $3 each, so a normal total of $18.  First, the seller is more likely to strike a deal with you because you are purchasing multiple items.  In the back of the seller’s mind, they realize that they can sell to you at a lower combined price because you are purchasing more items, thus their profit per item can be lower to encourage a higher overall total.  Secondly, if you offer $15, this is perceived as a “round” offer.  Offers ending in “5″ or “0″ are perceived as round.  Offers ending in “0″ are even better and are considered “hard round” offers.  They are natural breaking points for prices in our minds.  There is something comforting about coming to agreement on price at a break point, this works in your favor.  If you have 5 items for $15, tack on a 6th item and try to get them down to the $15 with something like “lets call it an even $15″.  I have never had a rejection on an offer like this.  The only time that this will not work is if you try to low ball too much.  If you were to offer $10 instead of $15, they would mostly likely say no, but then you could enter into a back and forth negotiation, and possibly end up at less than $15, but this can be annoying and awkward.  This method is up to your personal comfort.

Pricing Psychology

Some of you who are business minded may have noticed that this method flies in the face of “Psychological Pricing”.  This field of study suggests that ending a price in an odd number such as $19.98 or $6.72 are more likely to compel people to purchase a product because the notion is that the price has been perfectly calculated to be as low as the dealer can offer.  However, there are two reasons this does not apply to tag sales.  First, as the buyer, you setting the price based on “Psychological Pricing” would have no impact since you are not the seller.  Second, in the “quick exchange” environment of a tag sale both the seller and buyer want to exchange money quickly and get it done with.  Round numbers to exchange on facilitate this speed, removing the requirement of having to exchange money back and forth.  However, it is good to know about “Psychological Pricing” so as not to fall into the trap as the buyer.  One psychological trick you can employ in your favor is to flash the cash you are offering.  When you offer the $15 for the $18 worth of merchandise and show the cash, the seller is enticed to accept your offer.  Twisting Gordon Geeko’s words a little, “Green is good.”

Conclusion
People fail to realize that there has been a transition back to the old ways of bargaining.  Even if you go into retail stores, if you pay sticker for a television or a car you are getting ripped off.  Bargaining is built into the price, and has become more socially acceptable than people are willing to admit.  You may feel uncomfortable negotiating, in that case I urge you to either give it a try or buddy up with someone who is comfortable negotiating and have them act as your proxy.

The goal of tag sale and thrift store hopping is to save yourself money.  Why not maximize your savings and bring those tag sale prices to rock bottom?

[If you have any money saving questions please post them below.  Whenever possible they will be answered in the next installment of the The Finance Corner.]