Yard Sale tomorrow!!! Need tips!

[bitty246]

Ok, so I've never had a garage sale before... Our community is having a big event, and I've decided to throw something together at the last moment.Not much time for researching, so please share your best tips! I have tons of toys, boy and girl clothes as well as household items. Everything is in great to excellent condition, how do you price? What things do you personally buy or look for at a yard sale?

Anyone in the DFW area, feel free to stop in and meet a fellow Disser!!! PM for info!

 

[katesorad]

There are a lot of ways that you can price things.. or not price them at all and ask for offers. If you want to price things, I'd say $1-$3 for clothing items, $10 tops for household items (depending on what they are), etc. I like to look for very inexpensive things that look to be worth a lot more, personally. I like to feel like I'm getting an awesome deal. Also, I look for antiques and stuff like that, hidden treasures.

Good luck!!

 

[shortbun]

Make sure everything has a price on it. People will come early. Have lots of change and protect it. don't let anyone come/go in your house unless you know them. Clothes need to be cleaned and pressed. I even have great luck putting little things in ziplocs so they look like they've been preserved-the little one's stuff. Get out your toothbrush and 409, clean everything well. Electronics go first. Have your coffee made early so you get some. Be ready to bargain or let things go at the end. Have boxes ready to pack up the leftovers and take them to Goodwill.

 

[Whistle]

Since you are running short on time, try to make things easier for you-- you can do this by:
*pricing like items at the same price (i.e. all books fifty cents, etc)
*you can color code prices (anything with a red sticker fifty cents, blue a dollar, etc)
*have change (lots of ones and coins)
*if you have kids, they can sell cookies, popcorn, drinks, etc
*have a price on EVERYTHING

I tend to price things low enought that they sell-- my rule for a yard sale is nothing comes back in the house.

 

[Auntie Sherry]

My neice and I had a yardsale last year. We orginized the stuff on tables in catagories. For the clothes we hung a rope between two to hang all the clothes on. We put up one sign that said all clothes $1 we wanted to sell it all. Our prices were mostly a quater fifty cents and 1 dollar. We had about a dozen things for five and ten. We made over three hundred dollars that we used for our Halloween trip to Disney World. We find it easier to price things because we would have a big rush were people were waiting in line to pay and if the stuff was not priced you would be getting questions all at once. This was our second time and it went well. Hope yours does
Good Luck!!!.
It s great you have good weather for a yardsale. We got snow last night.

 

[EKW]

You can purchase preprinted garage sale stickers at places like WalMart...or your local hardware store. That will help with pricing. Have everything marked unless you're just wanting to clear stuff out...if you leave it unmarked, you'll get folks offering .50 for a sofa!

Do have lots of change...small bills and coins.

Have a comfy chair. Cell phone handy. Don't keep all the money outside with you...occasionally have someone run the bigger bills inside. (Safety!)

There will be early birds...I suggest telling them there's a $5 premium for early entry, lol! These are folks who do this for a living and want to pick over your good stuff. Where I used to live the first two people at the sales both owned consignment shops!

List your sale on Craig's List...be specific about what you have to offer. There were numerous buyers at my last sale who said they came ONLY because of the detailed list I posted. Example: Don't say "toys". Say "Fisher Price Little People", etc.!

Good luck!

 

[chris31997]

Towards the end you can have $1 bags. Providing you want to get rid of stuff. Be prepared to barter but stand your ground also.

Good luck

 

[Kirby]

Keep your money in a fanny pack around your waist. Don't put it in a box on a table.

Watch out for people tag teaming. One will get your attention while the other takes stuff.

Place clothes and other items neatly for display. I refuse to rummage through stuff and if a garage sale looks disorganized from the street, I will not stop.

It's going to be warm tomorrow so definately have canned drinks/bottled water for sale.

 

[mom2t]

I had one this afternoon and did over $500 - I sold some furniture which was 200 of it. I priced all my clothes and books 1 price. I kept the expensive things near me. All household on 1 table, books on another and toys at a seperate one, etc. I run a nice add in the paper - my Dad was in advertising. I have alot of repeat customers and do 2 a year. Though I have agreed to run 1 for my Mom in May at my house if she wants me to. My Dad came and helped me watch until my husband got home at 4. Mine is to replenish our vacation fund that was spent in Jan. at Disney. Have lots of bags to place things in after people have paid. I put all my ones and change in one pocket and larger bills in the other.

 

[TammyNC]

A group of us is having a yard sale/bake sale this morning to help a Christmas Cheer family that we have been trying to help. Everything was donated so hopefully we will have good traffic. We priced like things all the same to help with the time. It has been years since I've had or been to a yard sale so this should be interesting.

 

[Redheadmom]

We are also getting ready to set up this morning. Hope we both have a good sale. Need disney money!!!

 

[jennyf2]

I LOVE yard sales.....The best advice is be orgainzed & make sure everything is priced... We have our annual one coming up in July--Disney $$$

Have fun & good luck

 

[bitty246]

Thanks everyone for the great tips! We made $330 before 11:00 am on toys and children's clothes only!!

I have to say it was quite an experience. It was supposed to start at 8am, so I started to put things out on the porch at 6:30.. people came out of nowhere!!! It was still dark outside! I intended to go get ice and change from the store, but didn't have a chance. I was still in pajamas!

The first customer of the day tried to steal something, so I casually reached into the bag and said "That's not included! Have a great day!" I took all the more expensive name brand things back in the house after a few people tried tearing the price tag off.. I figure I'll just put them on Craigslist or ebay.

Overall we did pretty well and had a few people come back to buy more, so I feel my pricing was pretty good for the quality of clothing. Not sure if I would do this again if I didn't have a trip to pay for, those people were like animals! BUT... an extra 300 for our trip makes me one happy lady!

 

[DisneyScraps]

I had 2 yard sales back to back weekends. We did that because we could never have put out everything. We were downsizing from a huge house to a small house it was a lifestyle change.

We made 7,000

Here are a few tips.

Price everything.

Group like things together.

We got tables for free from our church. The more tables the better. People can see things and of you have a lot of tables it makes it look like a bigger yard sale and that makes people stop. We had so much traffic that you could not drive down our street. We had people calling friends to tell them to stop by. It was nuts. Part of the hysteria was I was trying to cut my art studio down by half so I had table and tables for Scrapbooking.

Provide empty boxes and grocery bags for people that buy a lot of stuff.

Go to the bank and get a lot of 1.00 dollar bills.

Be ready for really obnoxious people. Some i met were so sweet but there were a few that were just so annoying.

Keep a notebook handy for number and notes. We had a few people offer us things and I would tell then that if I didn't sell I would call them.

Oh this May my new neighborhood is doing one so I am going to participate. I am never going to make that kind of money but I am hoping for 1,000. I have a bin in my house. anything I find that I don't need goes in there. Once the bin is full I get another.

Lisa

 

[mom2t]

I set mine up in my gargage. When it is time to open up, I raise the door. I had so many people cars were parked on both sides on the road in my development. I sold most of everything of mine in the first 30 minutes. I have a lot of repeat customers. Hate them & was exhausted last night because I put it all out and cleaned it all up in 1 day. Usually I slowly put it out in my garage all week leading up to the sale.

 

[Jeff_G]

I ran one once, had people drop off items thet bought at another garage sale saying they didnt want them and we could sell them! Funny thing is that I did sell some of the items.

 

[Kirby]

I love garage saleing but hate having them. My sister is having one in May at my mom's house with all the stuff she and her kids have stored there in my mom's garage. I hope she has it the weekend I'm gone because I know she's going to want me to help. Her grown (adult) kids need to be helping but that's not going to happen.

 

[Dizneydaz]

Great tips! For those who are will be having one soon-watch out for the thieves!

They will arrive in mass, pile out of their van, and distract you with small purchases while someone else steals something more expensive! Had this happen once during a neighbor sale-found the box for a drill behind one of our columns with the drill missing.

So the next time we arranged the tables so that buyers would have to exit past the cashier (me) on the way out and when that van showed up we were ready-we kept an eye on them and they moved on!

Never leave money out in a box. Too easy to steal. Keep it with you at all times.

Have friends/family help you out. Never have a garage sale on your own. Never, too dangerous!

Make sure your helpers know the pricing on the more expensive items. My DM was taken advantage of by a buyer of my Leap Frog system, with all the games. Only paid for one game, took the Leap Pad and all of the games, and the Ikea container I had them in. I lost a couple hundred on that thief!

 

[summerrluvv]

My number one rule is to price everything!! If I go to a garage sale and there are no prices, I leave. I absolutely hate having to ask how much something is.

 

[Dizneydaz]

My number one rule is to price everything!! If I go to a garage sale and there are no prices, I leave. I absolutely hate having to ask how much something is.

I couldn't agree more. If something's not marked, I won't buy it.