1st Yard Sale - Journal...

[sconnell]

This thread is my attempt at working through some of my issues this week as we prepare for our yard sale this Saturday. Maybe someone will have some tips or support for me, maybe someone will get something out of it or maybe nobody will read it anyway. I’m not going to read through or proof before I post, so forgive me. I’m tired and sweaty and I’ve been prying old toys out of the hands of my children all day.

So I'm a DISer who's been on sabbatical. I can’t go to WDW for a little while and so it’s easier to forget if I’m not on here… The Budget Board is another thing I’ve had to spend a little time without because of all the deals I had to buy. However, the DIS is the best source for so many other things.
For instance, how often do yard sale questions come up? Like 10 times a week, right? Lol. So here I am on the cusp of my very first yard sale as a grown up. I’ve participated in other people’s sales and I’ve been to plenty of them, but it’s different on this side of the sale…

 

[sconnell]

My DH & I are about 30 and we’ve been married 9 years. We have a 7 year old and a 4 year old. We’ve moved several times in 9 years, sometimes faster than I could handle. During my pregnancy with my first we bought our first house and it wasn’t ready before we had to move out so we lived with my in-laws for a few months (two moves) and another move while pregnant with the second child. I was working full time for both and had all day morning sickness. We have some boxes that didn’t get unpacked before we moved. I come from a long line of pack rats so there are LOTS of boxes in TWO storage units. We really aren’t nomads, even though it sounds like it. Lol.
Right now we are possibly moving again, but this time will take us to another state. I have enough time to prepare for this and thank GOD I’m not pregnant. (knock on wood) We may be moving into a house with plenty of room, storage and yard. However, if we move or if we don’t, we NEED to declutter like crazy! We need to get rid of at least one storage unit. We have bouncy seats, exersaucers, and a high-chair, OH MY!
Besides… We could use a little extra money right now… who couldn’t?
We chose this Saturday because my in-laws are out of town and we are house/dog sitting and have use of their 3 car garage for sorting our stuff. They will be back on Thursday and will be here to help us with the sale. That’s awesome because my MIL has personality coming out of her ears and can sell, sell, sell. DH will be my bouncer, er cashier. He’s a big tall guy with a commanding presence and is good with money. Lol

 

[sconnell]

Yesterday, we had arranged to borrow a box truck from work and we got up early to take the kiddos to breakfast and get started. DS4 threw up on the way to breakfast. I have no clue why… He didn't eat much dinner. Maybe he was just nauseated and hungry because he started feeling better after some sprite and 2 slices of toast (with a different kind of jelly one each half slice, of course.) At this point I’m thinking “What else could go wrong?” So should not have asked that… After over an hour we got the truck jump-started, it had TWO batteries and had to have TWO vehicles hooked up to it.
“So Seriously, What else could go wrong?” Well, how about the lock on the storage unit being rusted because of all of this stinking rain!?!?! Seriously? The key tore a bit with DH’s brute strength and luckily I had mine in the glove box. We check in the storage office and the guy working there was no help. We go get some WD-40 and soak it. Nope, not helping. We were hot and tired already and ended up taking it out on each other a little bit. (Ok, a lot. Poor kids, they shouldn’t hear me talk to Daddy like that, but that’s another thread altogether)
Decided to go to the other unit (same complex) and got quite a bit of stuff to sell. Lots of wedding presents that I cannot imagine what I was thinking when I registered for them. Then we went back to the other unit to see if even more soaking had helped… It didn’t and the $6 can of WD-40 from the convenience store was gone. Ugh.
Feeling pretty down and defeated, we headed back to the in-laws house and unloaded, ate some lunch, chilled out and cooled off. I googled lock picking and DH called a locksmith. “$65” Ok, well, if that’s what we have to do, then that’s what we have to do. So, we go meet the guy and he’s very nice. He tapped the key in with a hammer and it worked! YAY! Then told us that we got it in ourselves so there would be no charge! YAY YAY YAY! We gathered lots of stuff and brought it back and wow, what a day!
Every time we thought we were pretty much out of luck and out of control, we were put back on the right course. Praise the Lord! The kids were pretty good through all of it. Even if DS wanted to keep everything he saw. Man it felt good to get a shower and sit down for a while…

 

[sconnell]

Today we woke up and got dressed, went to church, had a fast quiet lunch with just the 4 of us. Usually our Sundays are a bit on the crazy side, but I’m not going to get into that. It was just extra nice today. DH brought us home and I got in the bed with the kids for our usual Sunday nap. DH ran to Wal-Mart to pick up some things for his VBS costume tomorrow and when he got back, I was refreshed and the kiddos hadn’t even fallen asleep.
Eventually, DH and I decide to begin unloading boxes. I got as many standing fans as I could find around the house and set them up in the garage. The high was 94 today and I’m pretty sure the heat index was much higher. Pretty soon we realized that we need price stickers so we aren’t backtracking later. We loaded up the kids and headed to Kroger. We got 5 packs of stickers for $.74 each. We also got some canned drinks to sell at the yard sale and put them in the garage fridge. (pepsi was 5 12-packs for $12, so $.20 a can)
When we got home, DH got right to work and I’m very pleased with the amount of stuff that we were able to clean and price. I’m surprised by how hard it is to price things. Finding the right balance between too high (scaring them off from talking you down) and too low (not getting what you could have). We really do have some nice stuff that I should be taking the time to sell on ebay, but I honestly don’t want the hassle. Not right now. I found $5 in a purse… I think I’ll go look through some more purses! lol

 

[natmurr]

Yeah - pricing can be tricky but my advice is to go low! Try not to think of how much these items cost new, but rather how much it's costing you to keep them! I'm sure those storage units have been costing you a pretty penny - even if you "give" everything away you'll still be making money! Imagine how much savings you'll have if you put what you would have spent on storage into your Disney fund!

Then there's also the after the sale factor - you do not want to be packing up all that stuff again so set prices people can't refuse!

 

[FLAngie]

Sunny, I feel your pain And our yard sale isn't until October. I worried that it would be too hot hear and people wouldn't come. I am currently in the stage of prying unused toys from my kids. They don't play with a lot of them, but some how each item is their FAVORITE! Right now I am just trying to get the stuff out to the garage in bins. Some of it is tagged some not. Mostly I just don't know what price to put on them. I have a ton of gymboree clothes that look brand new, but I don't know if they will sell for anymore than .25 to .50 cents, which is what I am marking the rest of the nicer clothes. The rest went into my rag bin which is overflowing I also have two Britax booster seats with manufacture dates of 2006 & 2006. I have heard that you are not suppose to buy used car seats, but does that go for boosters as well?

You will have to let me know how many people you get with the heat. And also how low you had to go on prices to get things sold. At this point I think that I am just going to donate anything left over to charity.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[mom of 3G's]

I had a garage sale this past weekend and was very pleased with what I took in. I price things low to make sure that they sell. I figured I could price things high and they wouldn't sell and I'd be hauling all that stuff back in the house, or I could price things low and be done with it and also have money in my Disney fund. Good Luck!

 

[natmurr]

"I have a ton of gymboree clothes that look brand new, but I don't know if they will sell for anymore than .25 to .50 cents, which is what I am marking the rest of the nicer clothes. The rest went into my rag bin which is overflowing I also have two Britax booster seats with manufacture dates of 2006 & 2006. I have heard that you are not suppose to buy used car seats, but does that go for boosters as well?"

To bad you weren't closer - I'd gladly take all that Gymbo off your hands!!!

As for the Britax boosters if they are the Parkway models they may be worth more than you think! Those puppies were discontinued last year but are still wildly popular - I love mine!

 

[sconnell]

Thanks for the encouragment ladies!
Today was a very busy day at work, so we started a bit tired, but we were ready to go. Had dinner at Arby's so we wouldn't have to cook or clean-up.
We worked for a solid 2 ½ hours tonight and found lots of memories. We tried our best to price them low. We bundled little girl hair bows, little dolls, little blocks, little anything in ziplocs. I have LOTS of things new in the package. Crib sheets, crystal this and that, presents that were never opened. Lots of great baby gadgets, like a baby food to go case that I really loved. Some things were in really crappy condition and we just threw them out. Some things were in really awesome shape. We have been really blessed at the major occasions of our life and have had an abundance of gifts. Lots of those things are now going in our yard sale. Sigh.
However, I did find a Turbo Cooker that I didn’t remember having. I decided to go print up a little something about it to put with it and have decided to keep it. I found a group on Yahoo that shares Turbo Cooker recipes. Even if I just find a few dishes that I can cook in it fast, then that will be nice. They are selling for $69 on amazon right now, so I think I’ll try it out and see if I like it. I honestly don’t think it’s ever been used.
I think we’re on a pretty good schedule. We have TONS of clothes to go through. Anybody have a great idea for displaying clothes? I seriously mean we have WAY too many clothes to hang them all up. We’ll be doing good to categorize them all by size. They are mostly little girl clothes, but some little boy, ladies and clothes from when my DH was, um, pooh size. Whatever clothes don’t sell, will be going to charity.

Oh, one more thing. We have a family friend who is a florist and has balloons so I asked him in passing today about getting some balloons for the sale and he calls and has some brought to the church. We’re having VBS this week and they got delivered to the wrong place and were put up as decorations before I could get them. So I decided to wait until the end of the day to get them. Well of course they were gone at the end of the day. I have no clue what happened to them. They were about 6 Silver Mylar balloons and I’m a bit sad about it. I was going to add some red ones to go with the signs we painted. The signs are white foam core board and I painted YARD SALE <- or -> (depending on where it was going) in big bold characters.
We’re going to borrow some more tables later this week. Hopefully we’ll take some pictures and get our Craigslist up later this week too. The ad for the paper should run Thurs & Fri. The lady from the paper called this morning because the ad went through twice and she wanted to make sure that I wanted to cancel one of them. YAY! It was nice that she called before I could call her. I love when a business is proactive.

 

[SummerGirl]

I have a ton of gymboree clothes that look brand new, but I don't know if they will sell for anymore than .25 to .50 cents, which is what I am marking the rest of the nicer clothes.
GOOD LUCK!

I'm sure every location is different in terms of garage sale success, but I have huge success on my girls' gymboree clothes. I make sure to put outfits together & price it. I'll also include the accessories such as tights, hairbows, hats, etc. I definitely would not price it too low especially if it looks good. I typically put an ad in the paper to include "gymboree clothing". Good luck! I know garage sales are not easy, but at the end of the day or two days in some cases you might be very, very pleased with the outcome!

 

[FLAngie]

I have quite a few nice gymboree skort & shirt outfits. (Darn kids keep growing too fast) No accessories to go with them. How much would you price them in your area?

 

[SummerGirl]

I have quite a few nice gymboree skort & shirt outfits. (Darn kids keep growing too fast) No accessories to go with them. How much would you price them in your area?

Winter or summer? Just the latest lines? For summer about $8.00/outfit (that's in excellent condition); winter, it depends how many pieces. If it's a sweater, with shirt, and skort, I would probably do $10.00. And I'm a big stickler about my gymboree prices being firm. I've never had anyone complain about the prices so they must be pretty fair. I don't mind adjusting on about anything else, but not gymboree. I've sold some outfits on ebay, but that is almost more stressful. At a yard sale people know exactly what they are paying for. Inspect away, try it on your children, and I never have to worry about feedback. It's surprising how quickly you can make money. Just think if you had 10 outfits priced between 8 & 10 dollars. My sister is trying to convince me to do a Just Between Friends Sale, maybe I will try it one of these days & see if I can make more money with that.

 

[kilee]

Clothing would NEVER sell for that much here. So really know your area and what you'll get. Traditionally, clothing at sales here is $.25-1.00 a pc--- you'd be hard pressed to get anything more......no matter the brand.

We had our yard sale this past Friday and Saturday. DH and I coordinated the entire thing. It was a 3 of his famiy members and us. We brought in a little over a grand...w/ almost $500.00 of it being ours alone. We started off w/ 48 bins/boxes of stuff and ended up w/ 2.5 when all was said and done.

 

[mantaz]

I have a ton of gymboree clothes that look brand new, but I don't know if they will sell for anymore than .25 to .50 cents, which is what I am marking the rest of the nicer clothes. The rest went into my rag bin which is overflowing I also have two Britax booster seats with manufacture dates of 2006 & 2006. I have heard that you are not suppose to buy used car seats, but does that go for boosters as well?

You will have to let me know how many people you get with the heat. And also how low you had to go on prices to get things sold. At this point I think that I am just going to donate anything left over to charity.

GOOD LUCK!

I priced regular clothes a $1 a piece and sold almost all of it. So I would put at least a $1 on each. I would look up boosters. They can probably be sold. To everyone having a yard sale....make sure you put an ad on craigslist.org. It is free and people are checking there for yard sales.

But most of all.... Good Luck!

 

[DopeysMommy]

I'm sure every location is different in terms of garage sale success, but I have huge success on my girls' gymboree clothes. I make sure to put outfits together & price it. I'll also include the accessories such as tights, hairbows, hats, etc. I definitely would not price it too low especially if it looks good. I typically put an ad in the paper to include "gymboree clothing". Good luck! I know garage sales are not easy, but at the end of the day or two days in some cases you might be very, very pleased with the outcome!

We did a garage sale on Friday, and one friend made lots of her gymboree stuff and put it in boxes. It was sold --all of it-- in the first hour. people loved the convenience of having all nice stuff together. One box went for $20!! I think it had 10 items in it.

 

[iluvdiscruises]

Have you considered listing them on craigslist? I do very well on craigslist with gymboree (almost as good as ebay) and know that Britax boosters are huge around here too.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

Sell "lapel" clothes at either a consignment store or eBay. You are not going to get much at a yard sale. Clothes usually don't sell over a dollar.

I was planning on a yard sale this Saturday. I've spent the last two weeks planning and filling up my garage. Then I decided to wait until the Fall. Just couldn't get motivated enough. Everytime I have one I swear to never have one again, but we always seem to have our closets bursting.

Good luck to you!

 

[sconnell]

Ok, so I THINK we've gone through just about everything, except clothes. I'm so tired tonight. Several covers to things in the washer. (High chair, exersaucer, etc) I had the most awesome high chair ever. I mean, I loved that thing. I actually hear DH watching Sweet Home Alabama and I'm not even in there with him, so I think I'm going to cut it short and join him.
Tomorrow is oh and more We could clothe some small orphanages. I'm trying to decide how to push the clothes. We'll divide my gender and size. Should I just do a $1 an item? Should I do $.50 and item? Should I do a stuff a bag system? Have any of you ever done that? I have some clothes with tags on them. Some Bailey Boys (if you have ever heard of that...)
How about shoes? Small kid shoes in great shape? I have the cutest little pair of Timberland shoes. $1? IDK, I'm seriously thinking about putting put a sign that says, "ALL REASONABLE OFFERS CONSIDERED" lol

 

[TnTWalter]

Clothes work on tables also. We had laundry baskets also. Put nice outfits on the tables. If it's an outfit a big rubberband around to keep together works great. I had a printed sign that said Designer Labels $2 Other $1 Dresses $3 Bundled Designer Outfits $3 Bundled Outfits $2 PJs $2. I put nice outfits and designer stuff on table. The regular stuff went in the baskets [folded neatly] and the baskets were labeled well 'Girls Fall 5T' 'Boys Summer 2T' Etc. so no rummaging. [Alternative is to drop everything by half ...Designer Labels $1 Others .50 Dresses $2, etc.]

You will make a ton of money with all the big items you have. It helps draw them in....put big items closer to the street so drive bys will stop. People don't like going into a garage for some reason so try to keep as much out of garage as possible. The tables I'm talking about are the folding tables. Find as many friends to lend them as possible.

Books and CDs DVDs VHS also sell well. All those little kid books you have and pregnancy books, etc. Cookbooks. Self help books. DVDs $2 or $1 , same with CDs, VHS $1 or .50 if it's a Barney tape, etc. Little skinny kid books .10 or .25. Nicer board books .50 or $1 if excellent condition. Cookbooks Self Help books $1 maybe $2 if really popular. Paper back books .25 or .50. People will stock up and it will add up.

Bar stools, pictures, frames, appliances, furniture also sell well and are good for drive bys.

Good luck.

I also did buy 2 get 1 free....people are motivated to 'stock up' which you want...get it out of here!

Also people don't want to ask prices. So signs all over really help. And have paper bags and plastic bags ready to give stuff in. And don't forget the lock box for the money and lots of change!!

A lot of people don't want to offer prices and don't like to haggle so having things marked reasonably for your area is KEY.

Shoes are not very popular around here unless pristine. Kids boots do pretty well though. I would have your excellent shoes and boots $1 a pair and have them on tables by the outfits.

Winter coats, gloves, etc. go well here. Hang those with the dresses.

It's a lot of work. But it does pay. My first garage sale I made $900 and I didn't have near the stuff you sound like you have!

Trish

 

[eyor44]

I do a yard sale every once in a while. For clothes I make signs and list by items such as jeans $1, tshirts .50, etc. But I have found it works better to just say all pieces $1. For those more expensive items, I hang on racks and have individual prices on them. Childrens shoes I sell for .50 a pair. I use the clear rubbermaid containers and have signs on them with gender and size listed.

Have your 7yr old man the drink table. My DD did one last Fall and we made a sign saying "Earning money for Mickey Bars". I know someone people don't like to see kids selling drinks as they feel they have to buy from them. But in my experience people appreciate being able to get a cheap cold drink. DD made over $30 selling soda, water and homemade cookies. We sold the drinks for
.50 each.

My motto is, I price low because what isn't sold, I have to pack up. I have actually had people call friends and family from my driveway about items I had. At one point I had three people on the phone about a stroller I had that was in really good condition and I had $25 on it.

One more tip. If someone pays for something and asks you to hold it, get their name and phone number and give them yours. People sometimes forget where they bought something at.
Good Luck and have fun.