Garage Sales: Tricks, Trades & Ideas

[BrookeTx]

I am having a garage sale this weekend. I have a variety of items and did not overprice them. I want them gone! Plus this money is going towards our Disney trip.

Any tricks that you have found that work best with garage sales?

TIA!

 

[Livin'4Disney]

My favorite tip:
Have it the first weekend of the month!

People have cash in hand from just getting paid and much more willing to spend it

 

[TinkerFairy]

We just had one last weekend and did pretty good.

My plan of attack was next to nothing over $1.00, except for a toddler bed and a wagon.

Advertise!
I used Craigslist and our local newspaper. We also put up signs on the two major streets near us.

Good luck with the sale and hopefully you make some Disney money!

 

[TNT21]

I am having a garage sale this weekend. I have a variety of items and did not overprice them. I want them gone! Plus this money is going towards our Disney trip.

Any tricks that you have found that work best with garage sales?

TIA!

Advertise it! List a few of the best items to get the people to your sale, and put up plenty of signs so they can find it easily, and be ready to start by opening time (not just pulling the boxes out of the garage as I have seen too many people doing!)
Have everything organized-on tables if possible- neat, clean and marked with the prices.
Make sure you have plenty of change- I once had to put back $15 of items at a sale because they didn't have $5 change to give for my twenty.
Have a half off after noon or some other sort of deal to help get rid of everything you can. If you really want to get rid of all of it, be willing to bargain. You can even post a sign- no resonable offer refused!
I love garage sales. We are having one in two weeks. Have fun!

I love this banana

 

[bellebuzzandpooh]

You can also have coffee, lemonade, brownies, rice crispie treats, cinnamon rolls, etc. for sale. Those tend to be big money makers and the kids can be in charge.

 

[Perditamarie]

If you have a lot of clothes, have a bag sale for $3 or $5, all the clothes they can stuff in a bag. I was also pleasantly surprised to sell a lot of VHS tapes at .50 cents a piece - so happy to see them go!

 

[comicguy]

MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS:

Priced

Clean

Organized in some sort of fashion

Have plenty of change

And if you really want the stuff gone, be willing to haggle with people

I had a sale 2 weeks ago and cleared 300 dollars selling little things for little money but it really adds up

 

[Tine731]

If you have a lot of clothes, have a bag sale for $3 or $5, all the clothes they can stuff in a bag. I was also pleasantly surprised to sell a lot of VHS tapes at .50 cents a piece - so happy to see them go!

Thats a great idea. I will have to remember that.

 

[JoyG]

I had a yard sale last weekend and did pretty well.

I had lots of small toys to sell. You know all those Burger King or McD's happy meal toys? Well I usually throw them out. This time I sorted them by kind and put them in ziploc bags. I sold soooo many bags of toys! Each bag was $1. I had a Nemo bag, Flushed Away, Star Wars, Shrek...etc. Parents with kids with them were snatching them up.

I suggest you hang your clothes to sell them. I put shoes in ziploc bags too and labeled their sizes.

I had so many people comment on how organized my sale was so really try to organize and label things. It makes shopping easier.

I advertised on Craigslist and did have a couple of customers tell me they saw my listing there. Also, I had a couple of big things that didn't sell that I listed on craigslist and they were sold almost immediately.

 

[BrookeTx]

Thanks for the tips and ideas! Keep em coming!

 

[js]

Good luck.
We had one last year and my goal, which I met, was to buy
4 - 10 day, non expiring, hopper with plus passes (But, this also included big ticket items I sold on craigslist)
If I didn't sell it, it was getting thrown away (my husband didn't want it back in the attic) so, like you, I priced to sell it and get rid of it.

I found that if I saw someone just looking at something that say I priced at $5, I would immediately say, do you want it, you can have it for $3 (whatever the price, I just dropped it). A lot of people would say ok instead of looking at the item and putting it down.

I also had lots of clothes. I started out fill a bag (the plastic bags you get at foodshopping) for $5. After an hour or two it was fill a bag for $3 and as it got closer to the end, $1. I did NOT want it so $1 was better than having it sit there.

Nicer clothes should be hung. I kept coats together, dress clothes together, etc.

I made sure I had an extension cord plugged in outside so people could make sure the electronics worked.

I saved McDs toys for a year (my kids are 9 and 13 and eat the kids meals and don't use the toys) and sold them .25 each 5 for $1. They sold very fast.

Shoes, especially childen's soccer and baseball cleats sold fast.

Like I mentioned above, I also used craigslist. I was in the middle of a big remodel and sold my family room furniture, two tvs, a dining room table, 6 chairs and china cabinet. Kitchen table, 4 chairs, microwave, Thomas Table (kept the trains and tracks) and fish tank.
I could have sold these at the garage sale but made much, much more money on craigslist. I found that site thanks to my dis friends last year.

Good luck and have fun at your sale. Let us know how you made out.

 

[cinamin27]

I had a garage sale mid July & did incredibly well, I was afraid not many people would come even though I live in a fairly large subdivision but it is far south end of town & I didnt think many people would come. I was way wrong!

I advertised big time on craigslist. what I mean by big time is my ad was long & listed most everthing I was selling that wasnt little knick-knack type stuff. I sold all of mine & my teen daughters cast off clothing at $1 each item if it was used & no more than $5 if the clothing still had store tags on it.

In my ad, I offered people to come by and check out the stuff before the day of the sale. I had 2 families come by. The first family (cousins + kids) left here spending $165 in $1 items of clothing. They were here for a couple hours but I didnt mind, we were in the airconditioning in the evening & the longer they stayed, the more they bought. Another family came by another evening & spent $24. Not too bad to make that much even before the day of the sale.

I sold other things like a bakers rack, leather ottoman (most expensive item), small media stand, Disney VHS (surprised so many people bought VHS, all were $2 a piece), other used dvds & playstation 2 games, portable dvd player, regular dvd player, gamers chair, NEW shoes in box, a dish chair, and quite a bit of other stuff. I made a total of $815 at the garage sale. Some of the other bigger things that did not sell that Saturday I relisted on craigslist in the section they belonged , sold the exercise bike on Monday, the surround sound system by that next saturday, and finally my big screen tv sold last saturday, all from the craigs list ad.

 

[myAAbatteries&aTD]

We've had lots of garage sales (I have waaaaay too much stuff!) - advertise! I'll put a couple of my bigger items on craigslist in an ad by themselves and then state that we're having a garage sale and give a list of high interest items... also advertise it in the garage sale section and the local paper. LOTS of colorful signs w/ BIG lettering.

We started doing "buy 1, get 1 free" on clothing items after 11:00 on the 2nd day, or fill-a-bag, or .25 clothing (or 5/$1.00) - really helps move things!

Group like items together - makes for easier shopping.

It's easier to shop if things are clearly priced (or have a sign for clothes if everything is the same price), at least for me. I hate having to ask "how much is this?" 20 times....

Good luck!!!

 

[Ilovemyprincesses]

I am also having a BIG sale this weekend. I have been sorting my stuff for weeks. I need it gone but I really need the money. I mostly have baby stuff. Clothes, toys and baby equiptment. I hope I can move this stuff but it is killing me that people keep saying sell everything for .25.

Sure I have small stuff for .25, .50, 1.00 but I don't think you can get stuff at goodwill for $1?

 

[JoyG]

I am also having a BIG sale this weekend. I have been sorting my stuff for weeks. I need it gone but I really need the money. I mostly have baby stuff. Clothes, toys and baby equiptment. I hope I can move this stuff but it is killing me that people keep saying sell everything for .25.

Sure I have small stuff for .25, .50, 1.00 but I don't think you can get stuff at goodwill for $1?

I wouldn't sell your baby equipment for really cheap. List it on craigslist. If your clothes are brand name you might do better selling them on ebay. I had some brand name things sold at my yard sale and they were about $3-$4 a piece. I could have done better on ebay for them but I don't have the time to list all those things.

 

[ah1126]

It sounds really simple but my tip is to be friendly! I hate it when I go to a sale and can't figure out who is doing the selling, or they completly ignore me. Greet people as they come up, ask if they are looking for anything..... Somtimes I will buy something just because people are friendly and helpful! Good Luck!

 

[Neelloc]

Just wanted to chime in and thank everyone for the tips! I'm organizing a neighborhood sale for 9/1 and I'd like it to be successful!

 

[cinamin27]

It sounds really simple but my tip is to be friendly! I hate it when I go to a sale and can't figure out who is doing the selling, or they completly ignore me. Greet people as they come up, ask if they are looking for anything..... Somtimes I will buy something just because people are friendly and helpful! Good Luck!

ITA - I garage sale regualarly with a good friend (male) of a different race, alot of times we we have been to people's sales that dont even want to look our way, well - we are then happily on our way to the next sale. Wouldnt even bother to give those people a dime of my money. Doesnt happen often, but it happens often enough.

During sales I've had, I feel that it is important to greet everyone that walks up even if you may be talking to someone else, it at least lets them know "whos in charge" in case they have any questions. Not only that, its just plain common courtsey. I dont hover though, just allow them to browse to see if there is anything that catches their own eye. Its my own personal thing though cause I dont like people to hover over me, makes me nervous, dont like my personal space invaded LOL! Others like the socialization though.

 

[cinamin27]

Just wanted to chime in and thank everyone for the tips! I'm organizing a neighborhood sale for 9/1 and I'd like it to be successful!

If you live in a neighborhood that has actual entrances that have brick walls that display your subdivision name (or something like that) PLEASE hang up a banner advertising your neighborhood sale. An apartment complex I lived at a couple years ago had a community sponsored garage sale but didnt bother to put up a banner at the entrance, the complex was on a main road no less than a mile from the mall & less than 1/2 mile from target (same street as both). A banner outside would have brought in a huge amount of drive by traffic. A 3' x 6' banner would have cost them about $40 to make at someplace like Office Depot (I just had one made at my work a month ago, that was the total, no shipping) but the newspaper ad cost them something like $60 however way more people would have seen the banner rather than the newspaper ad.

 

[Ilovemyprincesses]

I wouldn't sell your baby equipment for really cheap. List it on craigslist. If your clothes are brand name you might do better selling them on ebay. I had some brand name things sold at my yard sale and they were about $3-$4 a piece. I could have done better on ebay for them but I don't have the time to list all those things.

I am already having the sale and I don't want 50 different people coming over to check out the stuff. Ebay has be tanking for a while now. I know a bunch of people that have sold their nice gymboree for .99. I would be fine with selling my nice stuff for $3-4. I am going to consign my Gymbo.