Pricing help (offering a price for yarn)

[AngieLanigan]

There's a woman, locally, whose mother passed away last month, so she's selling large amounts of yarn, new in packaging.

Most of it is Briggs & Little pure wool (which is made right here in New Brunswick), and some others (Mohair, Harris Tweed, Truro yarn, Shetland Wool). Some of it is in large hanks, some in barrels of 20 skeins, some in bags... mostly original packaging.

I emailed her for prices, and she wants me to call her to discuss a fair price, as she's not sure. Well, I'm not sure, either LOL I really suck at bartering, best offer type buying.

I'm going to add a couple of photos she sent me. Any advice on what sorts of prices you might think would be a fair offer? I don't have a ton of money to spend, but would like to get some if I can get a decent price, because my only other options are Michaels (overpriced, for the most part) or online (pricey with the US/Canada exchange right now). Thanks!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/AngieLuvBug/3182371903_463d837cf0.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/AngieLuvBug/3183207510_8b2a53d445.jpg

[AngieLanigan]

Well, I just got off the phone with this woman, she was so nice. Apparantly, what's in the photos isn't even 1/8th of the yarn she's in the process of sorting through. She said there's probably 20 of the big hanks, and dozens of the boxes with 20 balls each, and bags upon bags else.

She has a friend who's going to try and give her some pricing ideas, but said that I'm welcome to come by and look through it and make an offer on anything I want. I'm planning on going probably Tuesday evening, so if anyone more experienced in bartering can give any guidelines for me? It'd be very appreciated!

[Marria]

I'd look and see if you can find these on eBay to get an idea of what the price is for non-store bought skeins, and then try to find out what the price is for new hanks/balls/skeins are. This might give you an idea of where to start.

[campbellmom549]

I would think it would be easiest to think of things in terms of fiber content. Think of what you could typically purchase a ball/skein/hank of each fiber type for. Then make an offer of maybe half that. That's probably what I would do.