Oh man, you speak the truth as I know it.
First of all, no matter whether it's vacuums, tools, old cars or whatever, there are always some nut-balls who think what they've got is worth a trip to the moon when it isn't. Who knows where they get their ideas, but I guess they are playing the game where they're hoping a rube or a "fish" will come along who doesn't know any better. And that probably works from time to time, too.
As to garage sales, they seem to attract the bottom feeders in my neighborhood. We had one years ago whereby one of my daughters wanted to clear out a bunch of stuff from earlier in her life and raise a little money. She had several pairs of shoes out, used but not very much. Some of them were priced at $2 a pair. I had a man come up to me and offer me a quarter for one pair. Well, he didn't want to buy them; he wanted to steal them legally.
You know, when you are selling used mdse. at a garage sale, swap meet or whatever, you can expect some haggling. What I don't tolerate is someone trying seriously for a reduction of 800 per cent on some item that is already very low in price. In this case, I removed the shoes from the sale and told the man they were no longer for sale. I'd rather give them to a charity than sell them to a chiseler. I'm just not that desparate to sell something for a quarter.
I'm not averse to haggling some, and in many countries it's an everyday way of life. However, there isn't any sense in my giving stuff away when I'm trying to make money by selling it. At that point, it's just a waste of time.
Some of the people going around to various garage sales are buying stuff for resale. This is especially so since the advent of Ebay. They have a real incentive to try to buy low as they are trying to make a profit on their finds.
