Garage Sale Tactics

It's finally spring. The crocuses and daffodils have come and gone, the magnolias and cherry trees are in bloom. And garage sales are everywhere.

The next time you stop by a stranger's garage sale, you might want to think twice about bargaining in order to save some money. There are better ways to lure sellers to part ways with their prized possessions at a minimal price.

Try talking about the history of a desired item, suggests a team of international researchers. Their studies show that for sellers, finding a good home for a possession often outweighs the economic benefits that can be obtained from selling it.

Sellers tend to believe that buyers who exhibit a common identity and reveal a shared field of knowledge about a particular item will continue the possession's meaningful legacy. Items that might not be sold under normal circumstances are eagerly divested to buyers for very favorable prices.

Every year, more than 9 million garage sales take place in the United States, and $19 billion worth of consumer-to-consumer online auctions occur. Many of the sold items have personal stories and private meanings attached to them.

John Lastovicka of Arizona State University and Karen Fernandez of the University of Auckland collected data from 11 garage sales across the country and 39 online auctions, in order to uncover how possessions migrate across seller-buyer boundaries. Their research revealed three paths of disposition that meaningful possessions take as they change hands.

In one, common identity facilitates a sense of shared self between the two parties. The buyer is able to depart with an important possession knowing that it can still maintain its positive meaning with someone else.

The trouble is, sellers are not always so in love with their possessions. A second path involves a situation in which consumers are eager to get rid of a possession in order to forget negatively charged private meanings associated with it. Presents from a former spouse might fall into this category.

On a third path are sellers who employ a wide range of divestment rituals to manipulate the meaning of a possession. Without performing this process, shedding the item is emotionally difficult.

For example, a woman might wash, iron, fold, wrap and price her wedding dress from a former marriage when putting it up for sale. Through such ritual cleansing she washes away traces of herself from the dress. Thus, it is easier for her to turn this personal item into a marketplace commodity.

While such actions enable sellers to mentally distance themselves from items, some take this process more literally -- by placing meaningful possessions apart from other items for sale. Often, the researchers found, a seller's most prized possessions are displayed along the interior walls of an attached garage.

Call it symbolic clinging -- it demonstrates that the seller is reluctant to get rid of the item. The seller is also more likely to point out items being sold on the driveway or near the garage door opening.

So, as you browse seemingly dull items at garage sales this spring, take a moment to ask the seller about the history behind some of them. Who knows -- maybe someone's family treasure will become your new prized possession.