Are Yard Sales worth it???

[DVC-Don]

We had one years ago. Now a days we bring a pickup truck load of stuff to our church for their yard sale every year. Just dropped our truck load this morning.

 

[Jeafl]

My mom, sister and I went in on one at my sister's house. We made about $2700 total, although only about $1100 of it was mine. It was mostly clothes, some household items and some toys. The most expensive item I sold was $50 for an old Beta movie camera and some blank tapes. I still can't believe someone actually bought THAT. We had it for three days (Thurs.-Sat) from about 9-3.

The funniest part is that it was a neighborhood garage sale, so about 40 houses were having one. My nephew put up a stand and sold hot dogs, bottled water and soda. He made over $175 profit! We had a ton of business just from the people who came for hot dogs and stayed to look at our merchandise. My dad helped him set everything up, made sure he used gloves to serve the hot dogs and kept things at the proper temperature. We bought all the supplies at Sam's Club, and sold the hot dogs for $1.00, bottled water and soda for 75 cents. I never thought he'd make any money but he did great!

 

[liznboys]

WOW Jill!!! That is incredible!! Good for you!

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Liz - I say go for it. You'll never know if you don't give it a chance

If you find out it isn't for you then you know that from now on to just donate or eBay. You might have more luck and have a tidy profit (to put towards a WDW trip maybe?? )

If you don't mind spending a little time and effort and you are a people person who doesn't mind interacting with others then what have you got to lose (well besides half a day and a little aches and pains the next morning )

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Whoops - I posted under my husbands name!!

The above post was by MeanLaureen

 

[kilee]

Our village has a "law" against yard/garage sales. They set aside one day a year-- and that's the only day they are allowed. We usually participate, as it really draws the crowds. It is A LOT of work. However, my whole family gets involved and ours is always HUGE, and we make a day of it.
We have 2 rules for our sale-- #1 NO JUNK #2 CHEAP. I go to garage sales every week in the summer (to find stuff to resell on ebay). Anyhow, I hate it when it's nothing but junk-- such a waste of time. The second thing-- we don't want to haul anything back in or to goodwill-- so it all needs to sell. We usually have less than 10% of the items left at the end of the day. We each usually make only a $100-200, but it's more for the "bonding" w/ each other.
Ebay will bring you a lot more money, but it's just as much work in a different way. Anyhow, there's still some stuff that just goes better at yard sales than on ebay. So we do both.

 

[HollyJoy]

While I've often thought about having one, I've never done it. Well, tried once w/a couple friends, but it was a rainy day.. no customers.. lol. Seems more of a pain to me. I'll stick with donating my stuff.

 

[browneyes]

I've never had one. I'd figure I'd lose more money than I'd make. I don't go to yard sales either. I never can find anything. My mom and SIL love yard sales. They think I'm weird because I don't get excited about them like they do. They love that 600 mile one. They only do about a third of that one though.

 

[nativetxn]

I've made more than $2000 on a yard sale but I don't think I'll have another one anytime soon

 

[Rock'n Robin]

I had one last year and a friend did it with me. She had a 5 year old girl and had never sold any of her clothes. She had everything set in little outfits for ages 1-5 and made a mint! I had many clothes out for boys 3-5 and some 6-8 girls stuff but sold next to nothing. I never do well at these. The best I've ever done is $200 and that is if DH sells some tools or something--my stuff just sits. I can't tell you how many times I've hauled my LPs up and down stairs, and the last two times my Beanies just gathered dust even for $2 a pop. I don't have enough junk right now, but my vacation flies by quickly enough without wasting a weekend on a garage sale.
BTW, we are only allowed to put signs in yards with neighbor's permission; if we put them on the right of way a city worker will yank them up. We live on the first cul-de-sac of a subdivision so there is no "thru" traffic", the only customers see our ad in the paper or a sign. And the guy who lived where you pull into the subdivision last year kept throwing our sign on the ground, although it was on the "common" area, not his lawn.
As soon as I figure out how to post a digital picture I will start doing EBay.
Robin M.

 

[Cindy B]

Originally posted by Rock'n Robin
I had one last year and a friend did it with me. She had a 5 year old girl and had never sold any of her clothes. She had everything set in little outfits for ages 1-5 and made a mint! I had many clothes out for boys 3-5 and some 6-8 girls stuff but sold next to nothing. I never do well at these. The best I've ever done is $200 and that is if DH sells some tools or something--my stuff just sits. I can't tell you how many times I've hauled my LPs up and down stairs, and the last two times my Beanies just gathered dust even for $2 a pop. I don't have enough junk right now, but my vacation flies by quickly enough without wasting a weekend on a garage sale.
As soon as I figure out how to post a digital picture I will start doing EBay.
Robin M.

LP's never do well on a garage sale. We gave up trying. Now they sit in my basement, just waiting for a turntable. Hey, to have them keeps my DH happy, so its not a HUGE deal.

Tools do well. Even old nasty, rusty tools. I have bought old nasty, rusty tools (made sure they were Craftsman) and gone to Sears for a NEW one of the same kind of tool. (It was only a screwdriver, but hey it was NEW!)

As for posting a digital picture, you dont have to be really fancy for Ebay. They do go through a tutorial. I don't know how to do it here on a post, but I can post on Ebay.. the free one that Ebay does is more like an attachment than a posting if that makes sense.

 

[Jeafl]

I do think ours was so successful because everything was very clean and very well organized. We spent a couple of days washing and cleaning everything and setting it up in departments. Very little was on the ground, because people tend to look at stuff on tables more. We spent the whole three days constantly refolding and organizing the clothes and rearranging "stock".

Also, we advertised a lot. We put ads in all the local papers, including the free one called the Advertiser. We also asked to put up an flyer in Spanish at the Hispanic grocery store in the next town. We also priced things to move. What cracked me up is that even if you pried something at a dime, you always get someone who'll ask if you'll take a nickel.