With the prospect of having to do a 'double move' this summer on the horizon I've been thinking that it was time to down size alittle bit on the amount of junk that we have. Luckily, our complex was having a community garage sale to help me in endeaver. Honestly, it wasn't about making money for me, it was about getting crap out of my house. I would have been just as happy to drop everything off at the goodwill store and move on with my life. Trust me, until I have a house with my own garage this is what I will be doing. It was too much work for too little payoff. So below is a list of tips and tricks to have a sucessful garage sale.
Advertise, Advertise, Advertise. - Most big papers have a special section that lists garage and estate sales in the area. List any big ticket items that you have for sale, and the types of products you are selling (ie - baby clothes, crafting supplies). Signs on the street. Just one thing - make them big enough to read when someone is going by. I think the homemade signs are the best, include times, your address and an arrow indicating the direction. Place them throughout your nieghborhood to get traffic from all directions.
Mark each item. - People do not read signs, I had a sign up that said 'All books - 50 cents' - do you know how many times I was asked, 'How much for the books?' If I had a dime for each time I would have made more that way than I did on what I sold. Be resoureful with your labels. I used leftover Christmas address labels that I could never get to line up and hated, now they are gone.
Make small talk with your customers. - My big line was 'I thought the weather was suppose to be better today?' Then talk about the items that they seem to be interested in. Also, be able willing to work with them on the price of an item, if you are not willing to come down on a price, you shouldn't be selling the item at a garage sale. Use ebay and set a reserve.
Rally the troops. - This commuity sale was great. Get your neighbors involved. The more houses you have - the more traffic you will get. Also, the more word of mouth you will get. Also, this maybe a good time to have the kids put together that lemonade stand.
Set up a drop-off or pick-up with Goodwill, or another resale shop. - Remember the point of having a sale is clear out your house, not pay for a wedding (athough a bride once told me that). Nothing should go back in your house. Have a plan to drop-off these items or sell them in another way (ie. games and gaming consoles can be sold back some stores that specialize in that or use ebay to sell smaller items). I'm not a big fan of Craigs List - but I've had some friends who had luck giving away items like microwaves and furniture.
Couple of other quick things. Always check with your city offices to see if you need to get a permit. Also, check the weather a couple of days ahead - if it's going to rain the whole weekend, you may want to reschedule.
If you are attending a garage sale, here's alittle ettique lesson for you. Don't annouce to everyone, including the host, that there is 'nothing good here' take your mothers advice, if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all.
Have a awesome week!
