Tis the season....I need your best garage sale advice :0)

[Tap]

The first week of April, I am going to have a mass garage sale. I want to get a lot ready ahead of time so I am starting to gather and sort now. What is your best advice...other than donate it and spend the day at a spa instead :D

 

I have furniture, clothes, toys, baby stuff, and misc. household items.

[Stacia]

Have good signs. You don't need to write a lot of info on them, really just "YARD SALE" in huge letters w/ an arrow. Stuff that is too small or hard to read just won't get noticed. Tie balloons onto your mailbox so people can find your house.

 

Price some things, but not everything. That gives everyone an idea of how you price, but might make them feel like you'll be reasonable if they ask about other things. Instead of pricing things individually, put up signs about like items (paperbacks 50 cents; hardbacks $1; kids books 3 for $1). Chat w/ people, tell them you're willing to make a deal, etc.... If they're buying a pile of stuff, just come up w/ a price for the whole thing ($5 or $7), rather than trying to count things like you have 3 things at 50 cents, and 6 things at 75 cents, and one dollar item, yada, yada. If you're terrible at counting or adding money (I'm not saying you are, just that I've seen it too many times), please do not price your stuff in a complex way. Stick to pricing things in increments of quarters. Have enough cash & change on hand when you start for the day. Don't be offended if someone asks for a greatly reduced price. (I've seen that too many times too.) LOL. My grandfather used to love going to garage sales & he said people fell into 2 categories: people who want to get rid of their stuff (and who price right &/or are willing to deal) and people who don't want to get rid of their stuff.

 

Keep your $$ in a waistpack. That way you don't have to keep an eye on a cash box -- your $$ stays w/ you.

 

If possible, have lots of your things on tables. It's easier for people to see/reach than everything being on the ground. Don't leave stuff piled up in boxes to rummage through. Many people won't take the time to do that.

 

If your kids want to help out, let them. My kids like baking & selling brownies & drinks (some sodas & water bottles).

 

Have some grocery bags handy in case people need one.

 

Put out a box filled w/ little toys that are really cheap (5 cents each) or something like one free per child. That keeps young kids busy & the adults who are with them will stay longer looking around. I always have a free box of stuff like magazines, etc....

 

My mom & I have done numerous sales (and gone to many more, lol) & have had lots of success starting our sales on Thursday & running them through Saturday.

 

Have fun & hope you have a great sale. :001_smile:

[Ottakee]

In addition to the ideas above, price things low. I don't want to pay almost as much for something used at a garage sale as I can get it new on clearance. I think 25 or 50 cents for most clothing items (except maybe some very nice name brand stuff).

 

Advertise---newspaper, Craig's list, etc. and specify that you have boys size 6-8 and girls size 2T-4T, etc. as that will draw more customers.

 

Do 1/2 price the last 1-2 hours of your sale if you really want to get rid of things.

[klmama]

Lots and lots of signs! We have 10 signs, and I think I'm going to make more this year. Think of all the directions people might come to your house, and put up signs accordingly at all turns, as well as one in the front yard. Put the signs out the afternoon before, preferably before 3:00. That way, people coming home from work at 3:00 and 5:00 will see them and can make their plans to stop.

 

The more you can put in the driveway, the more likely people are to stop. If everything is in the garage, some people won't bother. Better to have it all in the driveway, with the garage as backup in case of rain.

 

Arrange your things in the garage ahead of time so you can just carry out the tables a few minutes before you are supposed to open. If there is rain, you are ready to go. Make three rows of stuff, so there will be two "aisles." If you don't have enough tables for three rows of stuff, put the tables on the outside sections and the lower things in the middle. That way, you will have a good view of everyone at your sale.

 

Put the free stuff in a large box right by the road with a large "FREE" sign facing the driveway. People will feel comfortable digging through it without feeling like you are watching them, so more of it will go.

 

Put large items toward the end of the driveway to attract attention. Furniture, climbers, cribs, playpens, etc.

 

Anything small and valuable goes at the table closest to where you are sitting for people to pay. That way, you can keep an eye on it, keep kids from messing with it, and discourage shop lifting. (Yes, people do steal from garage sales.)

 

If you don't have racks for hanging clothes, hang them from a rope in the doorway to the garage (if you aren't using it) or from a metal bar hung from the rafters in the garage.

 

Money in a tummy pack so you don't have to worry about keeping an eye on it. Price everything in $.25 increments, including groups of small items - 2 for $.25, 4 for $.25. Put change in cups or other containers inside your fanny pack, for faster transactions. Have about $50 in cash to start, making sure to have lots of smaller bills. The first several people may try to pay with $20s, and you want to have change.

 

Plan to stay open 30 minutes longer than your sign said (if you posted hours), as some people will arrive late and buy a lot. Be willing to make great offers to them to get rid of your stuff!

 

If you are donating the leftovers, take a laptop outside and make a list as you pack the things up again during that extra half hour. Use that list for tax deduction purposes.

[Amy in OH]

Consider adding directions to your house in your ad; or at least the general vicinity of your location. People will skip your ad if they have no idea if the sale is close to them or not.

 

Amy

[flyingmommy]

Put arrows on your signs! And make sure they're pointing in the right direction. LOL I usually make the arrows separately and then staple or tape them on the sign once I hang it so I don't have to figure out which sign is pointing the right way.

 

Personally, I say price everything. I despise asking for prices at garage sales and I absolutely do not want to haggle with anybody. If I see a price and I think it's worth it, I'll buy. If not, I move on.

 

Good luck! We're having a huge subdivision wide sale that same weekend. It's the first one for us so I hope it goes well.

 

jeannie

[Amy in OH]

Good advice here about the arrows!

 

Amy

[Sharon H in IL]

Borrow extra tables if you don't have enough. We have some plastic knock-together shelving in the basement that we re-purpose as tables when we have a garage sale.

 

Might want to put 'good' furniture, etc. in the shade if possible. I've seen nice older pieces that were not well served by sitting in the blazing hot sun for hours.

 

Label linens as to size.

 

Hang clothes on hangers, according to size, with big dividers indicating size. Saves a lot of time for people hunting for a particular item. It also keeps your clothing looking neater for longer. Clothing folded on tables will soon be a jumbled mass. Few people are sturdy enough to dig through a huge mess to find one or two items.

 

My boys loved earning some extra money selling soda and cookies. I was even able to leave them in charge of the whole garage sale while I looked at the other neighborhood sales last year. We enjoyed it a lot.

[springmama]

I've only skimmed the replies, but keep in mind the low sale prices in stores right now. I'm a really good bargain hunter so I know when to find boutique-y type brands on sale for less than $5 new and stuff like Old Navy or TCP for $1.50-3.00 on clearance new. People like me won't spend more than that at a yard sale. I am too cheap to shop at consignment stores, though....so take that with a grain of salt. I usually pay less than $1 for boutiquey stuff and .50 for mall brands since I can get such awesome prices buying my kids clothes new on clearance for such low prices.

 

Also, when placing your ad in the paper or on craigslist, put directions and use big clear arrows on your sign. no need to put the date and address. No one can read that anyway.

 

Price everything. I hate asking for prices too.

[katilac]

Personally, I say price everything. I despise asking for prices at garage sales and I absolutely do not want to haggle with anybody. If I see a price and I think it's worth it, I'll buy. If not, I move on.

 

jeannie

 

 

:iagree: I will not ask about anything that isn't priced. I think that not pricing things encourages hagglers, and discourages those willing to pay the listed price. Which customer do you want more of? :lol:

 

The only times I ever, ever request a lower price is if I am offering to buy a bunch of things, or the whole box of books, etc. and then it's generally, "If I buy them all, would you take $20 instead of $25?"

 

If items aren't priced, or are price stupid high, I'd just as well walk away and move on to greener pastures.

 

Pricing all like items the same is fine, no need for a price sticker on each one.

 

I second the the ideas of having everything up on tables, as neat as possibly, and not having boxes to rummage through. Boxed piled with stuff looky junky to me, and therefore I tend to think you have junky stuff that you probably didn't take care of.

 

If 5% of your clothes are stained, worn and nasty, it will have a spillover effect on the 95% of clean clothes in good condition. Likewise, trucks that are missing wheels, naked and disheveled Barbies, and scribbled in coloring books that only cost fifty cents to begin with have no place next to toys with plenty of life left in them. Some things just belong in the trash.

 

Good luck! I like going to garage sales but utterly despise having them.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

It's been a couple years since we did a sale. I found that books didn't sell well if they were above a quarter or so each or $0.50 for hardbacks. So expensive, good condition non fiction hardbacks that I thought $1-2 was a fair price for, didn't sell - in the garage sale environment.

 

I was able to sell most of these books at a used curriculum fair.

 

So if you are planning to include higher priced homeschool stuff, either separate it, put tags noting original price and your price or price it to sell.

[Nestof3]

I had two educational yard sales -- one month apart (the last one this past Sat), and the comments I kept receiving were that it was the most organized yard sale they had ever been to.

 

I guess people like that. I had things spread out in tables or in shallow containers with like items.

 

Everything was clearly priced (I personally prefer prices on everything).

 

I had books organized by subject. All of the 25 cent books were also 5 for $1.00 (these were in boxes according to subject as well). I also had my workbook type books in boxes according to subject with individual prices on them. All boxes were labeled.

 

My husband was there to help, so I used the toy cash register and had an adding machine. I called the prices out, he added them up. Yes, I can do the math -- but yard sales can get sort of chaotic. The first sale I had, I used a little waist pack, but it was so much quicker with a cash register. We took larger bills inside the house as needed.

 

I also had plastic grocery bags, so we bagged up small items. My husband helped carry items to the cars for people.

 

Since mine was educational in nature, I made up little cards with my first name, email address and blog for fellow teachers and homeschoolers. I met so many ladies just starting out or considering homeschooling.

 

When people bought a lot, I disregarded the 10 and 25 cent items to some degree. I also tend to round down, so if the person owed $2.40, I'd just call it $2.00.