Summer is coming, and the weather is warming around much of the United States. You know what that means: Yard sale season is upon us! Hosting a yard sale — or garage sale or tag sale or whatever you want to call it — can be a great way to clear out clutter and generate a bit of quick cash.
In fact, Kris and I joined some of our friends last weekend to clear out some of the Stuff we’ve collected since our last sale in 2006 — and some of the Stuff that neither of us wants since the divorce. We had a good time sitting around a driveway in southeast Portland, joking, eating donuts, and trying to convince people to buy our (former) treasures.
As a veteran of many profitable yard sales, here are some of my top tips:
- Be clear on the purpose of your sale. Are you selling things to make money or to get rid of them? This question affects everything you do, from how you price things to how willing you are to negotiate. (If your goal is to get top dollar, you should really be selling on eBay or Craigslist.) Last weekend, for instance, I just wanted to get rid of stuff. I was willing to take almost any offer.
- A group sale is better than selling alone. If you can coordinate a weekend sale with your neighbors, you’ll draw more traffic. Here in Portland, the Eastmoreland Garage Sale — which includes nearly 150 households — brings in thousands of people every June.
- Advertise effectively. Stick an ad in the newspaper. Put up a notice on Craigslist. Post clear, simple signs around the neighborhood. Make sure your signs are readable. It’s best to use big bold text like “HUGE SALE” with an arrow pointing the right direction. (The Yard Sale Queen has a great page highlighting the difference between good and bad yard sale signs.)
- Be prepared. Wear comfortable clothing. Have water and snacks at hand. Get plenty of one-dollar bills and a roll of quarters the day before. Move things out early. Good preparation will help things run smoothly. I’ll admit that I was unprepared for our sale this weekend, so I missed the first few hours (the hours when the most serious buyers arrive) because I was still getting my things ready to sell.
- Display items to their advantage. People will be more inclined to stop if you set up shop in your yard or driveway. Some folks are reluctant to enter a dark and dreary garage. Make your sale inviting and easy to browse. You can lure customers by placing highly desirable items near the road.
- Think like a customer. As soon as you’ve opened and fielded the initial flood of shoppers, walk through your sale as if you were there to buy something. How does it feel? Are things clearly marked? Is it easy to move around? Are your books on the ground in boxes? Or are they placed neatly on shelves or tables? Would you pay $10 for that porcelain cat?
- Do not bad-mouth your stuff. At one group garage sale, a friend consistently told customers what was wrong with the items they were buying. “Oh, that book is awful. That’s a terrible movie. That skillet doesn’t heat very well. That game is boring.” We sent this friend inside to drink beer ASAP. This year, Kris and her friends did the opposite. It was hilarious to watch them say things like, “Wow, that sweater looks great on you!”
- Be willing to bargain, but be less flexible at the start. On the first day, you want to get as much as you can for each item. Most people will still buy Aunt Lucy’s soup tureen at $5 even after asking you to sell it for $3. If they’re bargaining, it’s because they want the item. Don’t be completely rigid, but don’t give your stuff away at the start.
- Do not use a cash box. Carry your money with you at all times. Casual thieves and professional swindlers can both make off with cash boxes in an instant. We use a cheap cloth apron/utility belt from the local hardware store to carry our money. Some people use a fanny pack or a zippered bank deposit pouch. (Here are more tips for avoiding garage sale scams.)
- Have a plan for what you’ll do with your unsold merchandise. Some non-profits will pick up unsold stuff, so research this ahead of time. On Saturday, we loaded all of our unsold stuff into a Honda Element and hauled it to a local thrift store.
Running a yard sale isn’t rocket science. But if you put a little effort into creating an environment where it’s pleasant to browse and easy to find junk treasures, you’ll make a lot more money. Or some money, anyhow.
Last weekend, I was able to purge tons of old record albums, as well as some paperbound comic book compilations. These are things I needed to get rid of anyway because they were a mental and physical burden on my life. In exchange, I earned $105. Not bad.
On Friday, one man bought a bunch of kids’ stuff. “That’s a good haul,” Kris said. “It’ll keep somebody busy for a while.”
“I hope so,” said the man. “With kids, it’s all about the units, the units of time.”
“What?” we all said. We were a bit confused.
“It’s from About a Boy,” the man explained. “In that movie, the main character breaks his life into units of time, where one unit is half an hour. Well, I think of units of time when I’m dealing with my kids. I try to buy units of time where they’re occupied, which means I’m able to do my own thing. Garage sales are the highest-efficiency unit purchaser for kids. I’m spending just a few bucks here, but I’m buying many units of time. Totally worth it.”
My friend Amy Jo laughed. “I get it,” she said. “Right now, every Lego in our house is earning its keep. They were expensive up front, but they’ve bought us hours and hours and hours and hours to do the things we need to do because they keep my son occupied. They were worth every penny.”
“Exactly,” the man said as he paid for the toys. All weekend long, I’ve been thinking about units of time. Love the concept — and not just for kids.
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Great article
Glad you mentioned the group garage sale. There’s one well-off part of my city that has a neighbourhood-wide garage sale weekend. You would think people would be afraid of the competition, but the opposite is true. Everyone knows it’s “the” garage sale to mark on your calendar, and the fact that there are so many so close together gets more people out.
One thing I would add to this post is to make sure that what you’re selling is safe. Not sure what the laws are like in the U.S., but in Canada sellers are legally responsible for the stuff they’re got for sale. (Most people don’t know it though).
Here’s the link: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/cps-spc/pubs/cons/garage-eng.php
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Re: competition, I think yard sales work just like retail. Put one enticing shop on an otherwise drive-by street and nobody stops. Put three shops, it’s a destination.
One yard sale may or may not be worth stopping for. A whole block? Definitely.
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What a great idea!
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Yard or garage sales are a great way to get rid of stuff. From my experience, they don’t make you a ton of money, but the value in getting rid of stuff you don’t need anymore is huge.
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Just a few comments on this:
1) get LOTS of change. there’s nothing like having the first group of early birds buy a few dollars worth of stuff with their crisp $20 bills from the ATM, and you have to give them each a ton of ones. We’ve always gotten $220 in change, which is a lot but makes it so no one has to leave the sale to go to the bank halfway through.
We always get: 5 – $10s, 10 – $5s, 100 – $1s and 2 rolls of quarters.
2) I disagree about the cash box, but I guess it depends on the layout of your sale. If you have a large area and you are doing the sale by yourself, then yes, walking around with an apron is best. However, if you have a smaller area or are working with a few other people, having a check-out table can be helpful. People know exactly where to go to ask questions, and placing the table near the exit allows you to welcome people in while watching that they don’t walk off with anything. During crazy busy times at our sales, I man the cash box but my Mom walks around with an apron to take money from people who just have a few things and don’t want to stand in line.
3) Always keep a pad of paper and pen by the cash box/in your apron. If someone tries to haggle you down early, offer to take their phone number, and say “I’m sorry, but I’m not comfortable selling it at that price. Would you like me to call you if it’s still here at the end of the day?”
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Displaying stuff to its advantage is really important. My wife and I drive around sometimes on sundays looking for garage/yard sales, and for each one we do the “drive by.” If it looks like there’s “good” stuff, we’ll stop, but if it looks like there’s not, we don’t even stop. Put that good stuff out front and make it look like you’ve got good stuff at your sale!
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Great tips, and I have a few to add.
Make sure you can actually have a garage sale. Some cities have restrictions on what time you can start your sale. In addition, permits might be required.
Your house needs to look appealing, too. I have passed on sales because the house looks dirty. It doesn’t have to look perfect, but making sure the lawn looks tidy can go a long way.
Have a box of small things to give away to customers.
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I was going to mention the permit thing as well. In my home town, not only do you need a permit, but you will not be granted multiple permits within a given amount of time. A friend of my parents wanted to have a second sale a week later to sell stuff that didn’t go at the first sale. The city wouldn’t let him do that though.
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One tip from me: organize an event on Facebook, or any big social network website. This can be really good word of mouth and can bring crowds to your sal and make you more money in the end.
Cheers!
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So how do you determine whether you’re better off donating your yard sale items straight to Goodwill or whatever, versus trying to sell them?
I live on a very low traffic street. Twice per year our neighborhood has a community yard sale and there will usually be one or two on my street, but little traffic. One year we participated and only made $40. It wasn’t worth it. There simply wasn’t any traffic!
Since then, we just drop off donations as we fill up a large black garbage bag. We get the receipt for our taxes and the stuff doesn’t sit in our basement for six months.
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From the research I’ve done, the best way to make money from any items you have is to sell them yourself (through online classifieds, for instance). If it’s something worthwhile, you can also sell it through a consignment shop or auction and pay the commission. Selling at a garage sale is probably the worst in terms of cash (per individual item, that is), but has the advantage of clearing out a lot of stuff at once.
My rule of thumb is that something is either worth selling myself (or through consignment) or it’s given away. For me, having a garage sale isn’t worth it.
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We had a neighborhood yard sale – friends of ours were actually participating – we told them if they were willing to let us put stuff in their yard – they could have half of what they got from it. We only gave them good stuff – and we both made out pretty well.
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Any advice on hosting a yard sale in a big city? I live in a condo building in Chicago, so it’s not exactly as if I have a yard to throw a “yard sale” in…..in fact, the building itself doesn’t even have a yard. Just wondering what folks in big cities do to sell a mass amount of stuff you’d like to get rid of (as opposed to selling a few things on eBay/Craigslist)….
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Our high-rise condo in urban area has a yard sale each year. We take over the visitor’s parking area on the side of our condo. We still have parking for visitors in front of the building. We have to give advance notice to building occupants to not have their visitors park there during the yard sale, typically a Saturday morning. I think we even restrict the parking from midnight the night before, so the area will be clear in the morning. Also have to post signs in the parking area to let parkers know about the special time restriction.
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there are a handful of stoop sales here in brooklyn every weekend. people just come down and set up in front of their house, on their stoop if they have one or with just tables otherwise. super common.
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Sidewalk Sale! I live in Chicago and we did a sidewalk sale with our neighbors. It worked out fairly well. Make sure you get permission via your Alderman’s office because there are rules regarding yard and sidewalk sales in Chicago. I don’t think many people go through the hassle of getting the permit (it is free) but I feel it is worth it. I never want the city to have any excuse to fine me.
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Be careful with the sidewalk sale… I live in Chicago and during one of our yard sales, was visited by two of Chicago’s Finest telling me that we could not have our merchandise on the sidewalk or on the “public” grass nearer to the street. It had to be on our own land (which we do not have as we too live in a condo).
Of course, this happened because one of our neighbors called the cops on us in the first place, for not having a permit. And we did have one! So it’s not like the cops are driving around the city looking for people putting stuff on the sidewalks.
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Great post. I think people underestimate the power of yard/garage sales since the growth of e-commerce. A few thoughts:
1) You don’t need to have the sale at your house. With group sales, you can pick the best location. Find the location that easiest (or most recognizable) to draw the most traffic. The host gets a % of revenue as a fee.
2) Think like a retailer. Put the highest value items at eye level or clearly marked on a ‘high value’ table. As mentioned, ‘displaying items to their advantage’ is critical. Customers want bargains with the feel of a store.
3) Go to garage/yard/estate sales. Every month, I try to visit at least 1-2 yard sales to see how they operate, how items are displayed, what’s on sale, etc. I learn a ton just from watching.
4) Know your customer. Find the yard sale pro. People go to yard sales to find items they can resell. I know someone who makes $3000/month from reselling items she finds at garage/yard sales. She’s a pro. If you have ‘pros’ shopping, get to know them. They can give you great tips and draw in other buyers.
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‘Units of time’. That is a great concept. Just this weekend, I was thinking about divvying up my day into 30 minute ‘sessions’. I want a plan for every hour of my day which sounds a little obsessive I guess but is just a means for me to build a different routine from the time wasting one I seem to have fallen into. I plan to be self employed again very soon and so will definitely need to spend my days very differently from the way I have been spending them of late.
As for yard sales, I have held many and they have all been successful in the sense that I got rid of stuff and decluttered. Every day, I downsize and declutter little by little in preparation for the eventual sale of my house here in 3 years time. Stuff goes out and I do NOT bring stuff back in. As one who has always left everything until the last second, this time I am determined to prepare for this upcoming house sale. I do not want to take any clutter with me when I sell and leave. I want a clean slate for the second half of my life.
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Great timing on this post! I had a yard sale with my family this weekend and it went very well! We were able to get rid of clutter around the house and we made $650 for 6 hours of work – I will take that any day!
The key for us was the advertising. I placed an add in my local paper for $20 and also placed an add on Craig’s List that detailed many of the items we were selling. I had so much interest I had people stopping the night before for pre-sales on baby items and baby equipment.
My two daughters also set up a lemonade stand and sold coffee, doughnuts, water, and lemonade. The sale of their goods paid for the items we purchased and made them $35 – not bad for a 7 and 5 year old! Moreover, it really helped teach them about investing in a business idea, sales, and how to make a profit. They were so excited by the process they have asked for more ways to learn to make money. They also decided to save a portion of their money and use a portion on our upcoming vacation.
Overall this was a great day – we made some extra cash to pay down more on the credit card and also taught our children a very valuable money lesson! We have decided to do this once per year as a great way to declutter, get our children involved in the process, and make a few bucks at the same time.
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I could hold a large yard sale with just the stuff I’ve bought at other people’s yard sales.
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This is a great post. Because we move a lot, and because we own rental property, we constantly have odds and ends of furniture to sell and hold at least one sale a year. My rule of thumb is to have at least two family members available at all times – one does the negotiating, one carries the cash. It can get overwhelming if you have 2 or 3 people at once handing you cash, and that is what it is all about. Second rule of thumb is price it to sell it – a nearly new metal filing cabinet seems like it should get $50 bucks, but what is the cost of NOT selling it? I would rather price the stuff low and move it – usually make a couple hundred bucks, and the remainder goes to charity (so I balance the “make some money” part with the “make a donation and get a tax write off” part). If you have electric devices, it helps to have an extension cord to prove to people the appliances work. Final rule of thumb – NO checks!
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May I add:
Make up a box of toys, knick knacks, little junk, etc. that you probably won’t sell and mark it “FREE”. You’ll be amazed at how many people/kids will relieve you of it, and it can encourage buying.
Even if your ad emphatically states NO EARLY BIRDS, be prepared for the “pros” – the collectors and dealers who come out at the crack of dawn and will start going through your stuff even as you put it out. They’re looking for valuables at bargain prices to resell. Feel free to charge them double, and resist the temptation to shoo them away. They’re always in a hurry, so ask them what they’re looking for. Respond (and price)accordingly)!
Be wary of the guy in the new Mercedes paying for a $1.00 item with a $50 bill. Let him get change somewhere else.
If you’ve asked friends or family to help you out, pony up and buy lunch!!!
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Your description of early birds is spot on and largely why I have never done a garage sell. I remember my mom advertising an estate sale to get rid of things after my grandmother died. The pros were there at the crack of dawn and were really awful, even bickering among themselves as to who was going to get what antique. It was pretty gross. This turned me off entirely. Frankly I’d rather take the tax deduction and sell what I can on Craigslist.
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Great post. Don’t forget to make sure that parking spaces are available. Move your cars to make space, and see if you can get your neighbors to do the same.
Also, rearrange as things sell so it doesn’t look too picked through.
And when the day is done, take those signs down!
Glad to hear your sale went well!
Katy
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Sales are not allowed where I live so I go to a friend’s house when a neighborhood realtor hosts a giant multi-family sale. The last two times, my friend wasn’t even home, I just used her driveway.
My best advice is to get things up off of the ground. I have two long pieces of plywood that were the sides of a big packing crate. I prop them up on plastic crates or boxes to create my own “store”.
As to a cash box, I absolutely agree. I wear jeans or capris and keep everything in my pockets.
Also, do not let anybody in your house for any reason unless you know them personally. Make sure you know where the nearest public restroom is so you can direct them there.
If you have a lot of clothes, figure out a way to hang them up and if you really have a lot of clothes, try to rig up a dressing room (but NOT inside your house).
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Concerning “units of time”, I’m a big fan of The Pomodoro Technique:
http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/
Basically a unit is around 25 minutes of uninterrupted work (controlled by a timer), then you take a 5 minute break, then start another 25 minute “pom”.
To Do lists items are broken down into how many “poms” you estimate they will take, then you track how accurate your estimates are. Much easier than things like GTD.
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GTD and Pomodoro aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. I use both.
Pomodoro helps you manage your energy and time and keep focus during long tasks or groups of small tasks. It also helps you get a better sense of your actual productivity so you don’t over- or underestimate the amount of work it takes to do things.
However, Pomodoro doesn’t help you catch and process every idea that crosses your mind 24/7, doesn’t help you track your every project (or your whole life), doesn’t provide you with a filing system, doesn’t have a reminder system comparable to the tickler, and doesn’t help you sort and remember tasks by context. GTD does all that and more. So it’s not really comparable.
For me, GTD provides the larger framework, an Pomodoro provides the blueprint for the individual workday. They work very well when combined.
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I’ve never heard of Pomodoro — are the breaks cumulative? If I had to stop every 25, I’d lose a lot of time just getting back into what I was doing.
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No, breaks are mandatory. You get longer breaks every 4 pomodoros. Great for studying, but clearly not a good system for time-sensitive things like restaurant kitchens or heart surgery or driving a cab. Or even things like “sorry I have to hang up on this important business call worth a million dollars, but my pomodoro clock is telling me I need to walk away for 5 minutes.”
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As a veteran of many successful garage sales and the organizer of our school’s yearly rummage sale, my thoughts are:
Friday is the best sale day, at least in my area. Three quarters of the profit from my sales is made in the first day. I no longer hold multi-day sales of my own. I just have a Friday sale and pack away the leftovers for the next sale or donate them.
If you don’t want early birds to show up, don’t put your entire address in your ad. I just put in my street name and general vicinity. Just before we open, we put out the signs and open the garage door. I’ve found that dealing with the early birds ends up costing me money and time. My experience is that they usually will try to harass you into taking bottom dollar for your good stuff.
I no longer put an ad in the local paper, which lowers my expenses. I just use Craigslist. Putting in a few pictures of some of your better stuff helps. I don’t respond to any emails I get from people wanting to come before the sale.
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Agree completely on the signs. Our best yard sales simply had huge, neon signs saying “yard sale —->” leading to our house from all the major roads nearby. We were a mile from each road but still got tons of traffic due to the signs. We made sure you could always see a sign as you were driving.
The key is to take the signs down when you’re done with the sale. That way, people know your signs are accurate and will come back. Usually, my dad would drive around to take down signs while my brothers and I finished up the sale. We waited to close up until he got back.
One summer, we had several sales due to major purging at our house (and gleaning from friends). We always made sure to have big items worth stopping for each time we held a sale, and we used the same huge signs. We got a ton of compliments from yard salers that year and definitely made some good play money over the summer.
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We do a big neighborhood garage sale every year and all money goes to our association to pay for happy hour and events.
A couple of pointers from our sales. We do not price everything, we group like stuff together on tables (and we mark by colored dot stickers, so we have a blue dot table, a green dot table, etc. so we know which table it came from) and set a price for the table or area (except for furniture and big stuff like lawn mowers).
Then as the morning progresses, it is easy to change a table from $5 an item to $3 an item, etc.
Since we are a group, we have one person in charge of the bargaining, she is also in charge of the money. It gets a little hectic for her, but it is much more consistent and enjoyable. We don’t do a lot of bargaining before 10:00 a.m.
We don’t take money, meaning no sales, until 7:00 a.m.
We have a couple of volunteers with trucks who will transport a large item within the city (which is pretty small).
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Love the dot idea! I hate peeling masking tape or stickers off items after they’ve been sitting in the sun for a while. ug.
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Another tip to add: educate yourself on how to spot counterfeit cash. For starters, look for watermarks. Also make sure it’s the CORRECT watermark (I’ve seen $5 bills be bleached and have a $50 printed on them. They have a watermark still, but it’s the wrong one). If the printing looks blurry, it’s probably counterfeit.
The last thing you want to do is give away your stuff and have nothing in return for it. If you were doing that, you would have gone to Salvation Army or Goodwill, not host a yardsale.
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I’ve made the same comment many times here, but for me the best way to have a yard sale is to not have one.
I don’t mean “be minimalist and holy, don’t gather useless stuff, blah blah”– No, I mean join a flea market or swap meet or some sort of place that’s ready for street commerce where thousands of people show up with pockets full of cash and ready to spend on things you can’t even imagine (but they do!)
Granted, this sort of venue may not be available for everyone, and you might require use of a large vehicle if you have a lot of things to sell, but if there is one reasonably near you consider giving it a try.
I’ve sold all manner of things from the very nice to the indescribably rotten and always made good money at it with minimal effort. Large markets are amazing– there’s always a buyer for everything at the right price.
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This would work for those of us who don’t have a yard
However, don’t you have to pay to rent a table? (unlike your yard, which is free.) Then again, you don’t have to pay to advertise…
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In my local gigantic flea market (Albuquerque, NM) it’s $20 for a parking space. Both times we’ve racked up over $500, so it’s well worth it. Even friends we’ve taken who made less have returned to sell.
Totally worth it for 3 reasons:
1) no weirdos in your home
2) crowds walking around with wads of cash burning a hole in their pockets.
3) always open, so if the weather is bad or you change your mind you can go another day with no headaches.
I’ve also sold crafts/non-junk in other markets, and parking spaces in this region are $15-$25.
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Units of time: second, minute, hour, day, week…
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A great idea that my husband learned from the Boy Scouts yard sale fundraisers is to offer coffee and donuts/cookies on a little table near the main sale. I swear we’ve made more money from selling coffee to the sleepy and donuts to the bored (kids) than the items we’re selling at the sale!
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I see garage sales as mostly a waste of my time, but we made an exception a few years back when cleaning out my deceased grandfather’s home. The weekend was unseasonably warm (for the Portland area), and my sister was smart enough to bring a cooler, ice, and bottled water. She sold a couple of cases of that water, marked up of course, over the weekend, for a tidy profit!
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Additionally, have kids (yours or not) sell lemonade. I always want to buy something from a kid!
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Oh man! Thanks for the reminders. I’m hoping to have a garage sale soon. Once my house is unpacked completely.
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Great article! Timely too. We are downsizing (even more!) and will hold a sale in 2 weeks. Thanks for the tips, JD.
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Until this week I never thought the reward was actually enough to compensate for the time it takes to get everything ready. My brothers’ girlfriend had a 2 day sale and made $752…that was enough to convince me to start planning my own sale!
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My wife and I are actually cleaning up our kids’ room right now, and I was just having a break when I chanced upon this article. What great timing! Now I know what to do with all these old toys and clothes.
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One more tip…have a large item or two that will draw people into your sale. If your neighborhood is anything like mine, plenty of “lookers” simply drive by at 5 mph checking your sale out from the road. If all they see is clothes and 20 year old dishes, they’re likely to just keep going, so display your quality stuff accordingly to bring them in for closer look. It’s like a window display at Macy’s. Last weekend we had a stainless steel grill front and center. It worked quite well.
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I had a yard sale last time I moved and we didn’t price anything. I think we could have made a bit more by pricing our items but at the same time I didn’t feel like going through the hassle. You get out of yard sales what you put into them.
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Great tips! I like the point about deciding on what you want to accomplish – is you goal to make money? or get rid of stuff?
I’ve been to a few garage sales where the seller refuses to budge on prices… as in no negotiation room at all! It always surprises me – because I’d think they were having a garage sale in order to “clear house”.
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Advertise it! Totally agree with the notion of being sure to advertise in multiple ways. Certainly not enough to stick signs in the ground. Advertise online is my suggestion, while keeping in mind the old signs in the neighborhood idea as a supplementary tactic.
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A few suggestions from a veteran yard sale shopper: (1) signs really need to be clear and large arrows are very helpful pointing in the correct direction. With dozens of yard sales to choose from, I just don’t waste any time with unclear signs. (2) drop sentimental attachments to your stuff — it doesn’t matter what you paid for it as I can probably get it at another yard sale next week for the price I offered before I walked away. People really get hung up on stuff occasionally. (3) really protect your money. I have cautioned numerous people when I attend their yard sales because I see them leave a cash box unintended. (4) just because a customer has English as a second language, doesn’t give you the right to make nasty comments when they leave. And for good measure, if you are a yard sale BUYER: a friendly smile and some chatter – weather, etc. – will almost always get you a better price. I have even helped people move their stuff out of the rain and I always leave with a nice comment like “hope you have a great sale” or something. Keeps the whole exchange much friendlier.
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Whenever one person in my extended family decides to hold a garage sale, we all search through our stuff to see what we can get rid of. This way, we can list the sale as a “Multi-family Sale”. It definitely draws more people.
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Great tips & hints so far! Thanks a lot!
I would suggest to all you yard-garage-sale lovers to check http://yardmama.com and http://blog.yardmama.com you can find great video tutorials with very useful information, useful links and more. Enjoy & Happy yard-selling!
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