Thread: how to organise a.. bellydance garage sale

at our next hafla, rather than asking a vendor, i'd like to organise a bellydance garage sale. where students (and pro's that are dancing if they want), can bring costumes, hipscarves, dvds, etc, they want to sell.

has anyone organised anything like this? how did you do it.
it would NOT work to have everyone sit after a table looking after their own stuff as most people will have only a few items to ofload

from advice i got from others i was thinking of telling participants they need to clearly price their items, plus hand in a paper with their name and a list of what they are selling/prices, and then find a volunteer to sit behind the shop and play shop woman for all.

would this work? any forseeable problems?

would you have a % go to the hafla organising costs/a charity/the person manning the sales table?

or other ideas?

I had a swap table at one of my events once. I had everyone clearly mark each item with a price and their name. Then I made separate envelopes for each swapper. When an item sold, the money went directly into the envelope. (I think I had a cash box as well so I could make change). At the end of the event, swappers picked up their unsold stuff and their envelope. A percentage went to fund the event (don't remember how much... may 10-15%?). The swapper got the rest.

The envelopes made it easier to keep money straight. It can also contain a list of everything the seller brought. Things can be crossed off the list when they sell, creating an inventory.

Sellers need to agree that you are not responsible for anything lost or stolen, or for bounced personal checks. In fact, I asked each seller to state whether or not they would take checks. This info can also be kept on the envelope.

I had volunteers take shifts to man the table. Worked great!

Envelope is good.
Checking the Inventory sheet recommended.
You will probably need a coat rack and hangers as well.
Ask folks to put non-hanging items in individual zip lock bags if possible, with the prices CLEARLY marked.
Definately want a waiver on responsibility for shoplifted items.
If you don't set the clear rules that you need to save your sanity, folks will hand you an armful of items and expect you to deal with all the details!

We did exactly this at a recent hafla. Everything had to be priced and every price tag also needed to have the seller's name on it. As things were sold I took the price tags and wrote in a notebook what/who/how much. Then at the end of the evening I reconciled the money against the notebook. We had a rack with some hangers for some costume items, sorted together costume supplies, costumes, accessories, books, hip scarves.

We didn't do a waiver or inventory sheets, but then we're a very small group. For a larger one that would have been a great idea. The one BIG problem I had was a woman selling a $500 costume who couldn't stay til the end of the evening. A friend of hers offered to take it home for her... but then that friend offloaded that duty to another friend... and later I got the dreaded "where is my costume???" phone call. NEVER again on that one. I'd take it home myself rather than get into that.

Originally Posted by artemisia_danst

at our next hafla, rather than asking a vendor, i'd like to organise a bellydance garage sale. where students (and pro's that are dancing if they want), can bring costumes, hipscarves, dvds, etc, they want to sell.

has anyone organised anything like this? how did you do it.
it would NOT work to have everyone sit after a table looking after their own stuff as most people will have only a few items to ofload

from advice i got from others i was thinking of telling participants they need to clearly price their items, plus hand in a paper with their name and a list of what they are selling/prices, and then find a volunteer to sit behind the shop and play shop woman for all.

would this work? any forseeable problems?

would you have a % go to the hafla organising costs/a charity/the person manning the sales table?

or other ideas?

I've not done a this type of swap before. Interesting . . .

At our first swap meet last summer, we had 15 sellers (can't call them vendors, really, because we didn't have any commercial merchants). Fourteen of them had a single 6' table (one had a rack in addition to a table) and one had two 6' tables. Everything was required to be used or, if new, purchased by or given to the seller; new merchandise that was purchased/manufactured to be resold was disallowed.

Most of the sellers had very full tables so I wonder if having a central system for purchases would have worked for this relatively large amount of stuff. Hmmmm . . . Most sellers had a helper, so there was someone to watch their tables if the seller was also dancing. Hmmmm . . .

Very interesting concept. Extremely good organization on the part of both the sellers and the "cashiers" would be absolutely necessary, that's for sure!

If you do this, Artemisia, I'd like to know how it turns out!

Deborah

well, we're doing it. i'll let you all now how it worked out!

the "rules" are
-only clearly name labeled and priced items accepted
- hand in enveloppe with your name on it, and a paper with all your items and prices listed
- you need to pick up your unsold items/money before you leave
- 10% of sales going to Just Because......it's a matter of life and dance | Home

and i have two volunteers for the table

ooh, sweet! when's it gonna be? :) (see if i have any things i can bring ^^)

at the hannan hafla - 27th february

okidoke. still not sure if i'll be there, but if i am i'll gladly volunteer to hold the table as well :)

got the table volunteers already (nicole and friend)...

and we can ask around in class for you for transport/sleepover place!

Have had several experiences helping to organize swap meet haflas sponsored by the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of MECDA. How you organize it depends on the number of sellers you expect to participate and how much stuff they will expect to bring to the sale. If you have only a few sellers, for example fewer than 6 or 7, the single table with volunteers to do the selling will work. If you have more than that, then from our experience, I think it would be better to rent out table and rack space for a small amount, enough to cover table rent to each of the sellers and let them be responsible for their own sales and table monitoring.