I held a garage sale last weekend and it got me thinking about what makes successful garage sale. Obviously, if you’re going to take the time to get up early and lug things out into your front yard, you want do everything you can to ensure that you hold a great garage sale.
Here are some tips I hope you find helpful:
- Make sure you throughly go through all your things before the garage sale so that you can have as many items as possible available. The more items you display, the more it will make people get out of their cars and not just drive past.
- Think about holding your sale at the beginning of the month. Many people get paid on the first of the month and will have some extra spending money.
- Advertise your sale. I wouldn’t pay to advertise unless you have a lot of stuff to sell, but there’s tons of free advertising to be had. Share it with your friends, post it on your Facebook page, list it on Craigslist and check out Yahoo groups. For example. there are some Yahoo Groups in my town that deal with reselling items – it’s a perfect place to advertise. If you have a few unique items, make sure to mention them too.
- Signs, signs, signs. I cannot say enough about making sure that you have plenty of brightly colored, legible signs. Drive around your neighorhood ahead of time. Notice which trees or stop signs are able to be seen by lots of passing traffic. The night before, head out and hang them up. That way on the morning of the sale you only have to worry about getting your items out.
- Make sure the price is right. This is always a hard issue because usually we’ve paid full price for these items and know what they are worth retail. It’s very hard to part with a $50 pair of jeans for $2. But in the end it is all about cleaning out and moving on. And DO PRICE YOUR ITEMS. This way people know what you are asking for up front. Some people do not like asking you a price or if you are busy with someone else, they will just walk away. Dollar stores often have labels for sale, so you don’t have to spend a lot of time making them ahead of time. If you have a large amount of the same item (books, clothing, etc.) take the time to make a nice typewritten sign with the price of these items. “Books $.50 each.”
- Display eye catching items in the front! When people drive by, if all they see is a few tables with items, they might not stop. You want your sale to be worth the time to park and get out. So, if you have a great chair for sale, put it up front rather than in the back.
- Schedule a donation truck for the next business day. To me this is so important! If you are holding your garage sale, not only to make a little money, but also to clean out your garage, you definitely don’t want all those items going back inside and sitting forever. Salvation Army has what they call a “Garage Sale pickup.” Call or go online and schedule a pick up for the next business day. With this type of collection, you don’t even have to specify what you have. Your garage will soon be clean!
If you have any other tips, I would love to hear them.
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