How to Accept Credit Cards at Your Next Garage Sale

How to accept credit cards at your next garage sale

By Cynthia Drake

Published: July 01, 2010

Garage sales have always been relatively low-tech affairs -- hand-labeled price stickers and an old cash box full of dollar bills are the usual tools of the trade. But if you want to sell a higher-priced item, such as a flat-screen TV or that barely used elliptical machine, the old-fashioned way might not be good enough anymore.

That's where credit cards come in. Because people tend to carry around more plastic than cash these days, it's worthwhile for garage sale proprietors to consider their options for taking credit cards. If you don't, you're limiting your audience to those who carry around a wad of cash, or perhaps risking getting ripped off by a bouncing personal check.



Here are a few ways you can accept credit cards at your next sale this summer, and take your garage, yard or moving sale into the 21st century.



Online payment services: quick and easy

If you've got a laptop and an Internet connection, you're set up to offer credit card payments through websites such as PayPal, ProPay and Google.



Consider creating a free website using Weebly or Google to make your checkout process look professional and reliable. You can incorporate a shopping cart into your website using code from the online pay service.



The advantages of using online payment services are the ease of setup and use. Many of your garage sale patrons will already be familiar with sites like PayPal and may have accounts already set up. If not, they will still be able to use any major credit card on these sites. Most of these sites also allow you to e-mail a receipt to your buyers.



Of course, there's a cost that comes with using these services. Each site comes with its own fee system.



PayPal and Google base their rates on your sales volume. As an average garage sale proprietor takes in less than $3,000, your charge on either site would be 2.9 percent plus 30 cents for every transaction ($3.20 on a $100 sale).



ProPay charges an annual fee to use their service plus 3.5 percent plus 35 cents for every transaction ($3.85 on a $100 sale). The company also offers a card reader for sale for swiping cards -- perhaps more useful for a flea marketer or someone with a regular side business.



Because the fees can add up, you might consider only offering a credit card payment option to your high-ticket item buyers.



The latest payment tech: Square

The latest technology available for credit card processing comes from Twitter creator Jack Dorsey. Square is a payment device that will allow you to turn your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch into a credit card reader.



Download the free Square application for your device, set up an account and order your free card reader, which plugs into your audio input jack. The app allows your iPhone to process buyer signatures and verify your customers' identities through photos. Plus you'll have ability to e-mail receipts to your customers.



Square's fees are competitive with other online pay sites, at 2.75 percent plus 15 cents per transaction using the card swipe or $2.90 per $100. (The service costs slightly more to key in rather than swipe credit card information.) There are no additional fees for the service or equipment.



One potential downside is that you might encounter some skepticism among your buyers when swiping their card information into your iPhone or other device. Especially since the concept of mobile payments is so new, people might shy away from handing over their cards.



How to head off security concerns

Your buyers may be understandably wary of sharing their credit card information, especially at an informal setting such as a garage sale. Though any credit card transaction carries a certain level of risk, dishonest merchants can use key tracking to cache credit card information -- and there's no foolproof way for buyers to establish that their information is safe.



In the event that they don't feel comfortable using your computer or iPhone to send you money, you can offer them the option of using their own. Many people carry their own smart phones and can send you money via PayPal or similar sites on the spot. Or they may wish to go home and send you the money from their own computer before picking up their purchase.



No matter which method you choose, the important part is to offer your garage sale patrons several payment options -- the easier you make it for them to pay you, the more luck you'll have in selling your unwanted stuff.

A Hot Summer Day

We are in the hot days of summer here that is for sure. I have a landscaping business and so I work outside every day no matter what the weather is. My day starts as any other by doing a few house things and then heading out for some mowing well not a lot just making places look neat. This time of year and this hot weather means lots of brown grass and weeds sticking up that need to be trimmed. I never mind doing this since work really slows this time of year and it keeps me working. There are a few customers that water their lawns and those I love.

I always start my day drinking water and as much as I can before I even leave. The cooler is filled with water and 2 ice teas since I love ice tea but try not to drink to much of it on days like this. I stopped for gas at our local WaWa and love the comments I get such as I can't believe you are working in this heat. Hello I do this for a living and really don't have a choice if I want to make some money. I of course don't say that but I think it. I tend to answer things like yes I have been doing this a long time and really don't mind the heat. Which believe it or not is usually true.

The funny thing is when it is a nice cool spring day about 70 and beautiful out I get lots of comments like oh you are so lucky you work outside. I always have to laugh to myself on those days knowing what is often ahead once summer gets here.

I know this is probably hard to believe but we don't have air conditioning in our house. I know many people think we are nuts but I learned a lot time ago that it is a lot easier to deal with the heat when you don't go back and forth in air conditioning. I use fans and lots of little tricks I have learned over the years. That doesn't mean that we don't own an air conditioner we just haven't put it in the window yet.

I know many people say they couldn't live without air conditioning but you would be amazed. I don't mean older people or people with illnesses that need it I mean young healthy people. The best thing of all is when I see my electric bill for the month and it is only $55.00 I am very happy.

About lunch time I heard on the radio it was official we hit 100 and broke the record of 98. I really am not sure how different 98 feels then 100 or even 90 really. Once you work outside hot is just hot and you learn to deal with it.

So since I spent the day out in this heat I thought I would write about it. I will be getting up tomorrow and doing the same thing and it looks like the end of the week it may start to cool down. The weather man's idea of cooling down is near 90 so we shall see. For many that work outside in any profession we just look at the weather as part of the job and dress and deal with it accordingly.

Christmas in July on eBay with your Online Business Success OBS Friends

Online Business Success (OBS) is a wonderful eBay sellers group. We are celebrating with a big Christmas in July event. The participating members, below, are having month long sales at our eBay stores. You will find great treasures on vintage and new items of all varieties. I hope you'll drop by and visit this month! The links below are clickable:


Birdhouse Books (15% storewide sale through July; 25% - 50% sales on vintage sewing patterns and music CDs)

KD More Crafts and More (10% sale)

Kats Kloset (5% sale)

Depression Glass Warehouse (10% sale)

This-N-That-Freeland-Enterprises (5% sale)

Treasures from Trish (25% sale)

Book Corner Cafe (15% sale)

FamilyNiteMovies (15% sale)

Udderly Good Stuff (5% sale)

My Moms Books (20% after July 10)

Bob's Neat Store (10%)

One Day Left In The 30 Day Blog Challenge

Back on May 30th I wrote a post about taking Jeanette Cates 30-day Blog Challenge. Well, tomorrow is day 30 and what a month it has been!



I took the challenge because I wanted to figure out exactly what my Sushiboofay blog should be about. In the end - I'm really not making many changes to it. It is going to remain my personal blog and will have my views about my life and things I find interesting.



I did, however, create two other blogs. Both titled The Freelance Misfit. One is on Blogger and the other Word Press. I quickly discovered that keeping up with that many blogs - is TOO MUCH WORK - so after the challenge I will rotate between the three and still continue contributing to this one -(this one - probably on a monthly or bi-weekly basis).



I decided with the Writing Blogs - the one here on Blogger will be about my adventures in freelance writing. The one at Word Press will be more of a business type blog - involving the mechanics of freelance writing. THAT blog will eventually (I hope) be used to generate more business leads.



Meanwhile, I'm thinking of listing an item a day on eBay. My childhood toys are now packed in tote boxes at my parent's new house, but the folks aren't too happy about it. I need to go through it and get it out of there. I also have a ton of stuff here that either needs to get sold or donated.



As usual, I am overwhelmed. It's all good though - at least I feel like I'm moving forward. Should I contribute all these thoughts I am having to my competing in a 30-day Blog Challenge? Probably not, but it did show me that I can complete something....or...at least it will...if I don't mess up and forget about blogging tomorrow! You'll just have to stop over to my blog to see if I remember! ;-)

ColderICE

John presenting eBay 2.0

Posted via email from katskloset's posterous

All the things I hate about DSRs to begin with

I'm going to put this out there and hope someone at eBay gives a tinkers dam as my mother used to say (I doubt it but I can dream): Forthwith....

1. DSRs are left by buyers for sellers. BUT Feedback is voluntary.  If you (ebay) are going to make my livelihood and my discount contingent on DSRs, then make feedback mandatory so ALL my buyers have to leave it or scrape the whole system

The reason feedback was so unique as an eBay attribute was because NO one else had it then.  Now everybody has it and it's useless.  Doesn't really tell you anything about a seller (because I know some who are incentivizing good feedback from buyers and some buyers are blackmailing sellers to incentivize themselves at the seller's expense). Buyers can't even get back feedback any more so there is NO honesty there even when they blatantly rip off a seller.

2. I sell approximately 100 things a month if I'm lucky these days. 50% of buyers don't leave ANY feedback. So if I get one or two low ratings or middle of the road "she's not really very good" then I'm stuck with them for a year.  What does that mean?? This:
A) - I lose the 20% discount that TRS sellers get and only get 5% - last month was $4.  ??? think that makes me work harder eBay?? Not so much, look how many listings I let expire or outright cancelled this last month, just an FYI.

B) I lost TRS because of 2 incidents a year ago...both for items that I couldn't fulfil for a variety of reasons.  I understand eBay wanting to delight buyers but Honey, even Walmart runs out of things. An unfulfilled order shouldn't create a year-long purgatory, added to the loss of the discount.

C) since I'm not a TOP-rated seller, I also became invisible in search.  Which would be bad enough but eBay made it MUCH worse by putting a check box on the left nav bar of the search page that said "Show only Top-Rated Sellers" like the rest of us didn't pay for our listings and don't deserve to be included in the results..

D) Shippng Costs - I am not yet the "EMPRESS OF THE UNIVERSE" the title I was born to hold.  So I do not control UPSP or even UPS unfortunately, So exactly how do I have control over this? Further more, if I offer two options and the buyer chooses one that costs more? And if I don't have control over it, or offer the least expensive and pay to ship it (sometimes more than the buyer paid me) THEN PLEASE EBAY GODS! ?? WHY am I being rated on it.   Tell the buyers NOT to buy if they don't like the shipping cost. GO Pay Walmart FULL PRICE (not for my antiques but you know shoes etc)

Heaven forbid I offer FREE shipping and the buyer can still rate me as a -1.. Makes perfect sense to me...NOT!

E) Shipping time.... I ship, normally, within 24 hrs of payment. The exception is Sunday's and Holidays...or high holy days. Then the shipper/aka POST OFFICE takes three weeks to deliver to the other side of Philadelphia.  This is MY fault how?? If eBay means "handling time from seller to shipping company" then that is what they should say. Because I'm seeing people who get 5.0 for packages who don't ship all that fast or even that often, while I'm getting 4.83 for next day shipping.  Doesn't seem fair does it?  Nope.  If you want to rate someone, give the USPS Dsr's... especially on their breakage rate.

So These are the major things stuck in my craw this morning about DSRS....NEXT? (oh yeah see my blog ON MY SOAPBOX ...there's a few things there

New Art Pendants

I have the pleasure of collaborating with jewelry designer Susy Paredes of Earthexpressions on Etsy to bring you my original painting print as an art pendant.

This lovely pendant is handmade from a square recycled glass tile decoupaged with a beautiful photography print of my original painting, "Orange Sunflower". Susy coated it with jewelry grade resin to give it a shiny glass-like finish and long lasting protection.  It has exceptionally vivid colors, a unique thick bevel, and a lovely sheen. I'm so pleased with her work!

Dimensions:
Measures 1" x 1" x 1/4". Large silver plated aanraku bail is attached for easy stringing.

Comes with a black leather 17" single strand necklace.
Gift box included.

Special Introductory Price~Only $15.00! Click here for my Etsy link to Orange Sunflower Art Pendant.

Maria Soto Robbins
msr107@gmail.com
http://artbymsr.etsy.com/
http://artbymsr.blogspot.com/

Too Big For Ebay?

Most people probably don't think of Craigslist first when it comes to selling online, but let me tell ya... it is fantastic! I have made tons of money and moved some large items through Craigslist as well as finding and buying many items.

First of all - create a user account so that you can sign in and see all your listings on one page. No one else sees your name or account information so just use something you can remember.

Next list your item using the same principles you would anywhere else good keywords in your title as well as making it sound enticing, so let's sell a child's dresser for instance.

Used Dresser for Kids OR Adorable Functional White Painted Dresser Great for Kids

Then describe it in your listing but something to know with Craigslist, don't make it too wordy, I have found less is better! So give size, color and basic info but don't go into great detail, since the person is probably coming to your home or meeting you somewhere to pick it up they will see before paying... a little sales trick get them there and committed!

Craigslist allows you 4 pictures - make them good ones! A picture speaks a thousand words. And if it is something you don't have a picture for - then put a picture of a for sale sign or something that triggers the listing to get the pic symbol next to it because most people will not click into an item without pictures.

Now I know the rules say one listing in one category every 3 days... here are some workarounds... shhhhh don't tell them I told you this!

Take that same kids dresser - list it in the furniture category AND here's how to get it in a second category... change up the title and description a bit for instance:
White Children's Dresser Chest ADORABLE! Functional! and then move things around in the listing.

Now if it's something that is going to get lost in say the furniture category which posts hundreds of items a day (in my city anyways), figure out ways to change up the listing so you can trick the bots into letting you list it every day!

I find if something is going to sell I will at least get some questions in the first 24 hours - otherwise I may need to look at my price... that seems to be the key on Craigslist! Shoppers are looking to find that item they want or need quickly!

Some tips when the emails come in... you will get spam! If there are no indicators someone is a real person it's probably spam, better to use a return email address like yahoo or gmail that can weed these out if you do respond. A serious buyer is more likely to ask some specifics about the item, not just ask still available? Also need I even mention if someone wants to pay by cashier's check and it's a million dollars over the amount but they trust you and all... run! Scammers delight on Craigslist.

All that being said, Craigslist gives you a way to negotiate with a real person via phone or email. You can sell just about anything there! Of course things like firearms and pets are no no's. There are no fees so nothing ventured nothing gained!

My Birthday Weekend

I celebrated a birthday today and a milestone one at that yes 50 and wow so hard to believe. I sit here thinking about that number and am amazed that I am now that old. LOL I truly believe it is only a number and one that no one can change. I am pretty good about not worrying about things I can't change and age falls in that category

I am very lucky to have a wonderful mom who is very comfortable with her age in fact I got married on her 50th birthday and she thought that was a neat thing. She was born on Dec 7th and my husband loved the fact he would always remember both her birthday and our anniversary since he is a history buff. The fact that I was born on June 6th (D-Day) also helps him remember my birthday.

I had a great weekend and enjoyed my birthday and today was my day to write for our group blog. I had another idea to write about but will save that until next time.

I came home to a ton of emails and notes from friends and family and plan on cathing up tomorrow with everyone.

I just wanted to thank our online family for all the very special birthday wishes and how much I appreciate them. I hope you all know how much you all mean to me.

Do You Have Any Diapers?

This week I have been listing some vintage baby items in mymomsbooksattic




As you know when we list we check out what similar items sold for on ebay. My wasn’t I pleasantly surprised when I saw vintage boxes of Pampers from the 1970-1980 era worth money. New in sealed boxes. Now who would still have those hanging around the attic?

Vintage Pampers Toddler Diapers Unopened 12 pack 43 BidsSold $227.50

Vintage Huggies Ultratrim diapers for him step 4 Buy It Now Sold $59.99

Not in My Moms Book Attic!

I just never thought to keep a few boxes to sell in 20 plus years. Who would want these, they were pre sticky tab era, remember we had to struggle getting Diaper Pins thru the disposable diapers. Of course it was our finger that got pricked not our precious babe.

We are always pleasantly surprised where research will take us and what we learn in the journey. So keep your eyes peeled while you are out Garage Sailing….

http://www.mymomsbooks.com
“Where the shelves are full”