Is a garage sale worth all the work?

[mominwestlake]

I have only had 1 garage sale 5 years ago. My dh says he remembers me saying, "never again". My kids were little then and it would have been tough keeping an eye on them and running a garage sale. Now my youngest is 6 and I figure the kids could all help. I have kids clothing size 3T and up- including teen clothing for both girls and boys. I have kids' shoes. I have toys, games, craft kits, and children's books. I have general household items like dishes, framed artwork, vases, etc. I have adult paperbooks. I have some wooden chairs, perhaps a rod iron patio table and 6 chairs.

My questions are:
1. is it worth all the work of pricing items, setting up, renting tables, and running it for a day or two?
2. Thursday is garage sale day around here- do you think July 3rd would be a good or bad day to hold a sale?
3. Should I have it 2 days?

Thanks for any input!

 

[MoniqueU]

In our neighborhood it isn't My mom had one at my house before and said never again.

 

[justplaingoofy]

we had one last year because we had a bunch of furniture and a ton of other things...

I started going through our attic yeserday making piles...
trash & possible yardsale. I figured once I go through everything and see how big the pile is I will do a quick approx. price. I price things really CHEAP! If I don't think I'll end up with over $100 i'll just give everything to charity.


So to answer your question... I guess it depends what you have to sell

 

[neatokimmo]

I think that just because you have one bad sale doesn't mean the exact same stuff won't fly off the shelves the very next week.

The way I see it, I don't get paid extra for overtime so I can't make more money where I work. If I am able to get $100 for old stuff we don't need (and people give me stuff all the time too) then that puts me just that much closer to retirement!

 

[cnj]

We had a garage sale last weekend. It was the second one I have had in 5 years. I had priced my kids used regular everyday clothing for .50 cents each or 3 for $1. My nicer clothes I hung on bungee cords in the garage with color coded ribbon. I ended up selling these for $1, $2, and $3. All of my children's clothes sold. Then I had a .10 cent toy bin and a .50 cent toy bin. I had so many big nice things that I thought I had priced cheaply ($25 for a floormate that I only used twice), ($85 for an eliptical), but none of the big ticket items sold. I ended up making $215 on just junk. So, I do not think I would have another garage sale. I can just donate next time and take the tax write off.

 

[Grumpy'sWife4Ever]

It all depends on your neighborhood, and how big an event "garage saling" is in your community....Around our town, garage sales are big deals, and you are guaranteed at least a small return on your investment of nothing but time....

Sometimes I don't feel like pricing everything so I put colored dots on all the small items and hang signs with the "key" all around - yellow dot=25 cents, blue dot= 50 cents, etc. I price only the bigger items, but remember to be flexible on negotiating. It might be better to take $10 for something than have it still sitting there at the end of the sale.

In my experience, kids clothes ALWAYS go, as do lots of toys and other child items are usually big sellers too. And it is weird what does go, usually the things you think are junk excite someone to near ecstasy, while the things you see as treasures sit there without so much as a second glance. Go figure. In the end, you get to clear out some of your closets and make a few bucks.....

As for your kids - I get mine involved in our sales. I let them run their own cookie and lemonade stand, and they can keep the profits that they make. That gets 'em REALLY interested, LOL!

 

[bdcp]

It is not worth our time. We donate to charity and write it off at the end of the year. If I have something large or valuable I post it on the electronic bulletin board at work before I donate it, but that's as far as I'll go.

 

[Mkaz]

I think it depends on a few things.

The area you live in.
The day(s) you want to have your sale
How cheap you are willing to let your items go for.

We had one yesterday and today. We sold about $200 worth of stuff. We sold things like an oak corner shelf for $10, boot box/toy box for $35, and a toy woodstove for $15. These items were solid wood and made by my husband. We didn't get nearly what we had paid in materials for the items, but someting was better than nothing. They were all sitting in the basement getting very damp. We also sold a near new computer desk for $5. We sold a bunch of books for .10 each. I bet we sold 50 to 60 books that were our daughter's.

The only items that I wasn't willing to let go for nothing were my Wilton cake pans, my Mickey Mouse cake pan, and two Princess House items. All I wanted was $3 each for my pans, and $5.50 for my Princess House baking dish, and $3 for a set of PH glasses. Some guy had the nerve to tell me that my Wilton pans (that I have used one time each) were junk! I didn't say a word. I only sold one pan, but I wasn't going to give them away so it's fine.

On the flip side someone bought the Princess House glasses I had yesterday without batting an eye. Today a woman bought the baking dish that I had left. She said that she collects Princess House, and she knows how much that baking dish is worth (it's an older one). She actually gave me $10 and told me to keep it. I wasn't looking to make a killing off of it, but I knew it was worth $$.

We didn't make a killing, but we sure did unload a lot of stuff.

ETA: The one thing that really surprised me was that only a small amount of my son's clothing sold. Most were items from JcPenney and were priced at .50 to $1.00 each. Go figure huh.

 

[disneysteve]

I guess it depends on your neighborhood, what you've got to sell and how much you value your time.

We typically make $300-$400 for a garage sale. That's good, but there is a lot of time involved. Making and posting signs, placing ads, starting set-up around 5 am and being out there pretty much non-stop until about 2 pm when we pack up the unsold items and put them away. It is usually close to 4 pm before we're done and ready to hit the shower. So $300 for 11-plus hours work is pretty good in our book, plus it clears out space in the house and garage which is always our goal much more than making money.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

We did this twice in the past few years and for our area it totally was not worth it. We priced everything extremely cheap and people still were trying to get something for nothing. It was very frustrating and we now just bring all our items to the Salvation Army for donation.

 

[aladams2]

We have one every other year. It is a lot of work, but when we got $500 back it was all worth it. We sold my girls clothes only 4 and 5T. Toys, the girls got to pick out which toys they wanted to sell and use that money to buy new summer toys. They were so excited, they bought scooters and baseball equiptment. They even enjoyed hanging out and helping in the garage. They are 4 and 6. It sounds like you have lots of stuff to get rid of and a rummage sale is a great way to do it. IMO

 

[Suz D]

We had a garage sale last weekend. It was the second one I have had in 5 years. I had priced my kids used regular everyday clothing for .50 cents each or 3 for $1. My nicer clothes I hung on bungee cords in the garage with color coded ribbon. I ended up selling these for $1, $2, and $3. All of my children's clothes sold. Then I had a .10 cent toy bin and a .50 cent toy bin. I had so many big nice things that I thought I had priced cheaply ($25 for a floormate that I only used twice), ($85 for an eliptical), but none of the big ticket items sold. I ended up making $215 on just junk. So, I do not think I would have another garage sale. I can just donate next time and take the tax write off.

LOVE the color coded ribbon idea! Thanks so much for sharing. Did you just tie the ribbon to the hanger?

 

[CJMickeyMouse]

I have participated in my last garage sale. They are just not worth the trouble, IMO. People all want something for a nickel (even if it it priced $5!!) and then they come back to complain if they don't know how to make it work.

Can you tell I am a little bitter? I sold an OAK dining room set - table, leaf and six chairs - for $60. We DELIVERED IT to thier home - two blocks away.

They set it up wrong so the table wobbled. They came back mad and DEMANDED their money back. I went back up there - they had a large washer in the wrong place. I fixed it - and they still acted miffed that they couldn't get it to work.

Keep in mind the table was set up at our sale and they watched us take it apart!!

I would rather donate stuff or throw it away rather than listen to and deal with people that want to give me far less than items are worth. You know the people that bring up an armload of stuff (usually $10 or more) and say "I'll give you a dollar for all of this," like they are doing you a favor??!??!?!

I just don't have time for that kind of frustration!!!


OK, I'll stop now.

 

[Jakesmom504]

Have you ever thought about Ebay? I have made enough money to fund our entire Disney trip and airfare.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

I have participated in my last garage sale. They are just not worth the trouble, IMO. People all want something for a nickel (even if it it priced $5!!) and then they come back to complain if they don't know how to make it work.

Can you tell I am a little bitter? I sold an OAK dining room set - table, leaf and six chairs - for $60. We DELIVERED IT to thier home - two blocks away.

They set it up wrong so the table wobbled. They came back mad and DEMANDED their money back. I went back up there - they had a large washer in the wrong place. I fixed it - and they still acted miffed that they couldn't get it to work.

Keep in mind the table was set up at our sale and they watched us take it apart!!

I would rather donate stuff or throw it away rather than listen to and deal with people that want to give me far less than items are worth. You know the people that bring up an armload of stuff (usually $10 or more) and say "I'll give you a dollar for all of this," like they are doing you a favor??!??!?!

I just don't have time for that kind of frustration!!!


OK, I'll stop now.

I don't think it sounds bitter-just truthful. We had the same type of issues at our last two sales. Not worth the aggravation for us either.

 

[GJM]

I do one every year with my sister - we have the sale on Sat & Sun. We usually make about $400 each, last year my sister made more.

I just did a yard sale yesterday with 2 other friends - total we made $800 - it is alot of work but we have fun doing it - and everyone was great that came, not too much haggling of the price -

 

[coolbeans]

I think any extra money is better than no extra money. I get DH and DD to help out, usually DD has a friend over and we let them sell lemonade to make a buck or two for themselves. Last yard sale I made right at $100 which isn't too bad for a couple hours out in the sunshine.

 

[bdcp]

By donating we write off a heck of a lot more than we ever would make in cash, plus it's helping others, not just us.

 

[Kathi OD]

By donating we write off a heck of a lot more than we ever would make in cash, plus it's helping others, not just us.

ITA!

 

[Colinsmom]

We just made $1600 at our garage sale last weekend, but we only do sales when someone is coordinating a neighborhood garage sale. So, someone else handles advertising, and we tend to get 30+ houses participating, so lots of people come. I don't feel like it is worth it to do a garage sale on my own, in general.