Subject:
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Crowds & garage sales
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Thu, 11 Feb 1999 18:50:06 GMT
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Viewed:
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1969 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, blisses@worldnet.att.net (Steve Bliss) writes:
[...]
> I have a friend who sells at craft fairs. She reports that the thing
> that increases her sales volume is to have people looking at her stuff.
> When no one is looking, other people pass by. I'm guessing this happens
> because there's a subconsious trigger going on. Our brain notices that
> other people are doing something, and we get interested. Like two small
> kids who both ignore a toy, until one of them picks it up. Suddenly,
> both want the toy, they're fighting over it, and neither will be happy
> unless they have possession of the previously ignored item. Which is
> actually a pretty good analogy of bidding wars, I think. At least some
> of them. Oh, well, enough rambling and ranting.
[...]
I've noticed that sort of thing too! Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.
:)
Last summer, the nextdoor neighbors had a garage sale and asked us if we had
anything we wanted to put in. We had a bunch of plastic LEGO buckets in the
garage that were just gathering dust (we figured we'd donate 'em to a school
someday, but we don't have a pickup truck), so we figured, what the heck, we
might be able to sell a few.
We made up a sign -- 25¢ ea. or 5/$1 -- and people seemed to think it was
the right price. A lot of people wanted a couple buckets for sewing &
knitting supplies or fishing tackle accessories. We gave away 50 to a
preschool teacher who came back with a truck.
Anyway, it was really amazing how it all went in waves. 25 minutes would go
by with nobody stopping by at all, then it would ramp up and a swarm of
people would be there for 5-10 minutes and I could hardly bring the buckets
out of the garage fast enough to hand them out to people.
I think what really stopped the traffic was people walking across the street
with 5-foot-tall stacks of shiny bright red buckets. Once street traffic
near a garage sale slows to a crawl, random passers-by have time to glance
out their side window and see what's for sale.
We got rid of 400 buckets in 2 hours! It was a lot of fun.
--Todd
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: shills on eBay
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| (...) Because adding bids increases demand for the item. So any bidding activity from the seller is suspect. It's a matter of trust. I have a friend who sells at craft fairs. She reports that the thing that increases her sales volume is to have (...) (28 years ago, 11-Feb-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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