Why do people look over someting at a lawn sale numerous times?

Question

I has 9 boxes of old comic books. People look them over, then look again. I think one man must have looked through the boxes 4 times. What are they expecting - is Donald Duck going to turn into Superman? The contents of a box isn't going to change.

Answer 1

While the contents of the box won't change, the potential buyer's willingness to buy something may.

They're weighing whether or not they're willing to spend some particular amount of money for some specific item. Perhaps they're trying to decide between two similar items. As long as they're not damaging the comics, let them look - they may be getting more willing to buy the longer they look.

Answer 2

With the economy the way it is right now, and if they are going to have to  shell out big bucks for a popular collectible, they want to make d**n sure of what they are getting. I know I wouldn't want to buy something used unless I examined it VERY carefully.

Answer 3

I think it's just psychology.  People go to yard sales expecting to get a great bargain.  The idea is that it's stuff the people don't want anymore, so they'd rather sell it really cheap to someone who does want it than to just throw it away.    It's not always like this, but that's how people are thinking as they walk up to a lawn sale.

It's well known that people will buy things they don't need or don't even really want if the price is low enough. It's just hard to pass up a bargain.

So if they see something they don't want, but the price is really low, they have an inner conflict.  Part of them is saying "Wow, look at that price!  You HAVE to buy this!"  The other part is saying "No, we don't need that.  We have a house full of junk we don't need already."

So they will come back and look at it again to allow both sides to argue again, to give the pro-purchase side another chance to convince the anti-purchase side.