My yard sale story

heart4dis

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Aug 23, 2002
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552
I followed fellow DIS'ers advice on holding yard sales. I cleaned out everything, cleaned up everthing, labeled it all, bought ads, put out signs...I even went further and sent an email to friends to let them know (I called it "Help our family get to Disney World yard sale"--only to friends ;) ). We sold lemonade, cookies and zucchini muffins (zucchini from our garden). We held it on a Saturday. Then we held it again the following Friday and just for fun for that next Saturday for a few hours. We got rid of a lot of stuff (de-cluttered the house) which made DH happy. We agreed to split the money evenly among all 6 of us for spending money for Disney. After reimbursing ourselves for the ad, etc. We each made $27. We're pleased. That's a lot of stuff to sell at 50 cents a piece!!:D
 
Cool!
I am planning a yard sale tomorrow and Saturday- wish me luck! It's a lot of work getting prepared, dealing with 3 kids during it, then selling everything for peanuts because everyone around here is CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP. Okay I am too- but I'm not ridiculously cheap. Not like expecting a working computer for .50 or anything like that- like others around here are! LOL
 
We made $1000.00 on our annual garage sale this year (my mom and sister made $120.00). The highest priced item was $25.00 so we thought that ws pretty good. We normally do 1200.00 but in the past have had little tykes toys (outside playsets, etc) that bought a lot more than smaller items. I just found 2 boxes in the attic marked garage sale!!!!!! I knew I should have had more outgrown clothes. We are now thinking of having another in August, but are afraid people won't come if it's a repeat.
 

Originally posted by heart4dis
After reimbursing ourselves for the ad, etc. We each made $27. We're pleased. That's a lot of stuff to sell at 50 cents a piece!!:D

Hmmm .... $162 doesn't even sound worth it to me. My guess is you could have donated all your stuff over a couple of days and "made" the same amount after deducting from your taxes.

I am participating in my first yard sale 2 days after I get back from WDW. I hope I do OK.
 
My sister is having a grage sale tomorrow.
I am putting some things in it.

Tell me...am I asking too much for a Little Tykes workbench?
It's the one with the phone on the end with all the tools, I have extra tools to go with it, I am asking $15. It is in excellent condition.

Please tell me now before my husband has to haggle with someone tomorrow!!:D


Thanks.
Lisa
 
I think that is a great price for Little Tykes with all of the equipment still intact.

I would price it at $20 and then accept $15. That way the buyer feels like she is getting a deal also, and everyone is happy.
 
I'm not sure if anybody would be interested in a yard sale tip...but we usually have fairly good sales.

Our community has started holding an annual "Community Yard Sale." The Homeowners Assoc pays for a newspaper ad and they also put up several signs. The families who want to participate are asked to RSVP. The Assoc then places a balloon on the mailboxes of those families. It's GREAT! Folks that like to go to yardsales are really drawn by the opportunity to hit a number of sales in one area.


ps- ceecee, any tips? I'd love to have a big sale like that!! :D
 
Yes, I agree with the above poster.....price it at $20.00, they'll ask if you will take $15.00 and you can say $17.00? That stuff normally flys out the door at our sales.
 
Clean stuff sells well, I donate or throw away anything that looks too used. Zip lock baggies work good for socks or small things. I usually have a few bigger items in the driveway to draw them in......we've been really fortunate in our sales. We have a few that come every year looking for clothes. I usually have a lot of new or nearly new things as well, with one daughter and I love to shop she usually near wears anything out.
 
I'm having a yard sale in July..... I'm cleaning out my attic and basement and garage. If we haven't used it in 2 years, it's going to the yard sale. The only hard thing is my dh is a NEAT freak and the pile of stuff on our sun porch right now is making him lose his mind! He doesn't care about WDW so I can't use that to placate him.:rolleyes:
 
I think i paid $15 or 20 for that work bench around 7years ago. It seems like a good deal to me. When we had a yard sale I put all the clothes on a table (except good jeans) and had plastic bags. I let them fill the bags for two dollars. This seemed to go over well. I also had a large box with little toys labled 25cents apiece or five for a dollar. Made alot of money this way. People love to get a bargain. It's a great way to make money but alot of work. Good luck I hope you do great!
 
I bought that workshop at a garage sale 2 summers ago for $15 and it came with a bunch of tools and was in excellent condition. I went garage saling today and I'll tell you what peeves me. When they don't put prices on anything!!!! I NEVER buy anything from those sales because I don't want to ask the price for every single item I see. So my advice, put prices on everything!!!
 
I just got done with my garage sale. I held it three days at my house. Now, we have alot of stuff - we have three year old triplets. I have a garage sale EVERY year since they were one. I have carried over clothes that haven't sold though so I had some in each size, but mostly this last years out grown things, plus some outgrown toys. My big things three cribs - $75 each, one twin matress set amost new - $85, queen matress set and frame - $100. Those things and little together I made $850... but my garage still looked full of clothes and toys... so packed it in my van and took to my moms the next week for another (the van was PACKED full with no seat or other passengers).... made another $620 down there.... so almost $1500 total... that will basically pay for our trip!! YEAH!!

Some tips: I hang ALL my kids clothes on hanger and borrow round store type racks from a friend who owns them (you can buy at businesses going out of busness). I organize by size and label the racks.... people LOVE this! They look longer, look at everything and buy more! I can price outfit and such higher too. I price some things .25 or .50. However... nicer polo type shirt or kid jeans sell at $1.50 to $3 depending. Outfits up to $2.50 or $3.00. Plenty of table space for toys and other items to stread out is important too... we bought a big piece of plywood cheap and keep it for sale every year - just lay across two sawhorses and put an old sheet over it. I also borrow as many folding tables as possible. Laying blankets and rugs,etc that are for sale over a hanging pole, rod,etc is a good way to display them too.

Good luck to all. I am happy with this years $1500 and know it is one of my last "big" years of garage sale (most years I have done this).... since the bigger baby items in threes are done now... just clothes for now. But in the past we had the swings, saucers, bournders, carseats, etc etc, TIMES THREE. Yes, we make alot... but we spend even more.

Anyway... this trip in August is without kids since we brought them last October.

Julie P.
 
Boy am I glad my yard sale is over.
LOL
I was so wore out PLUS not sleeping more than 3hrs per night that I ended up sleeping almost 10hrs last night. LOL (which is way more than I ever sleep- my max is usually 7hrs or so- and rarely LOL)

I had to put it all out since I STUPIDLY started the yard sale at 7 when my husband didn't get home from work till 7:30 (on the night shift this week- he works rotating shifts) and that first day I had a lot of furniture, big items and even a king size mattress/box springs set! That about killed me getting it out and laying up against the garage door. LOL I also had to put everything back UP afterwards because the first day he was gone to get our oldest from Girl Scouts day camp and the 2nd day I kept it open later and he was already asleep for the evening when it was time to put it all up! I'm not a very strong person (and only 5'2 with weak arms LOL) -it was strenuous! Add to that the Texas summer heat. *phew* Did I mention I'm glad it's over? LOL

I did not price everything. I priced everything except the clothes. I had way way way way way WAY too many clothes to price everything. But when they asked I would just say most everything is $1 or under except a few items like sets that were still new with tags. They didn't seem to have a problem with that- they would just pick the things they wanted and were always willing to buy once they found out the true price of everything they'd picked. I'm sorry but I would have spent a fortune on stickies for all those clothes- and most were sold for .25 or .50 and it wouldn't hardly be worth all the cost of stickies plus the extra work to mark them all! I mean I had a TON of clothes- tables and tables covered, a ton hung up AND about 10 bins full because I ran out of table space and hangers. LOL

I made right at $900 after deducting cost of license to have the yard sale and newspaper ads, etc. That's including the laptop, digi camera and some furniture and big (as in not $1 or under in cost LOL) baby items. But not including the big items it was around $400 so I don't consider that bad. I also still have a ton of stuff and I hope my friend has her yard sale soon so I can just take it all over there and hopefully get rid of lots more instead of having to put it all back in storage. I will go through it and most will go to goodwill though.

I agree that $160 something hardly seems worth it. I would just donate it and claim on taxes. Which is what I normally do and have done for years- but I could just use the money right now because we recently purchased a travel trailer with cash.

I think that's a great price for the Little Tykes work bench. In fact I sold one of those at this yard sale that did NOT have all the tools with it (although I did find the tools later in my son's toybox. Ohwell- he'll still play with them, he just never played with the work bench thing! LOL) and it had been outside for awhile because his room was too crowded for it after getting some other toys and another toybox recently- so it was kinda dirty from rain/etc. I still sold it for $15.
LOL Little tykes sell real well- atleast around here. All my little tykes toys and outside stuff sold very early in the morning the first day of my yard sale. :)
 
Hints for a great yard sale:

Wait until you have plenty of stuff OR combine efforts with a couple friends. People won't stop if you have just a few things.

Toss out the garbage. If people see a few good things amongst a bunch of junk, they'll leave.

Price everything -- people don't like to ask "how much is this?" If you have oodles of kids' clothing, consider a big sign that says "All kids' clothing in this box .50"

If your sale is just before a Disney trip, consider letting the kids have their own toy table. When Disney souvenier money is on the line, they're more likely to be willing to part with outgrown toys. (Just last week my 6-year old caught me bagging up some old toys, and she declared long and loud that she still LOVED that old wind-up baby radio and that she plays with it DAILY -- this is blatantly false.)

Selling food can be a money maker, but consider using canned drinks and packaged food (pop tarts, Little Debbie cakes). I personally will not buy homemade food from someone's front yard. Additional benefit: canned drinks will save, so you can confidently buy plenty.

A yard sale has two purposes: to raise money AND to clean out your house. Price things low so they'll move.

Your real yard sale crowd will show up early. Consider putting up an "Everything half price" sign at 10:00. Remember that what you don't sell, YOU have to pack up.

Location is everything. If you live off the beaten path, look for a friend with a better location.


Very important: something that people seem to forget about yard sales . . . you aren't really MAKING money at yard sales. You're recouping a portion of the money you've already spent. It's kind of like a tax refund. The government isn't sending you free money -- they're returning a portion of what you already gave them.

The point: Yard sale items tend to sell for 10 - 25% of their original cost. If you make $1000 at a yard sale, that means that you spent $2500 - 10,000 to buy those items originally.

Sometimes this is inevitable. Your kids NEED jeans; selling them once they're outgrown is a sensible thing to do. BUT if you're buying more jeans (or anything else) than your family actually needs and you're justifying it by saying, "I can sell it at a yard sale," then you're throwing money away. I know that LOTS of people do this because I see brand-new things at yard sales, and I see kids' clothing items that are worn only 1-2 times.

My point again, which I don't think I'm making very well: Instead of recouping pennies on your dollars at a yard sale, sometimes it makes sense to buy less in the first place. If you're able to have a BIG yard sale every year, you might be buying excessive, unnecessary stuff in the first place.

Personally, I had one really big, blow-out yard sale after my children passed the toddler stage. I sold the crib, the high chair, etc. These were things that we had needed and had used for years. Since my daughters' growth has slowed, they're wearing their clothes out, and I don't have much to put out at a yard sale; consequently, we have a sale every three years or so.
 
MRSPETE - I think you make a valid point about spending less in the first place.... however, in my situation, with triplets it has truly been unavoidable at times to have what seems to be "so much." I don't think that our sale this year with $1500 or last couple years of about the same is out of line.

On many of the kids items we are recouping more than the 10-25%... first off because I ONLY buying things on clearance, garage sales, receive as gifts or buy on a really good sale if we really need it. Plus, it is not passed down and used by numerous children. We bought three new cribs in 2000... I sold them this year for a little more than half what I paid...they were very nice and people could tell (all three sold pretty early the first day). I think the big baby items are coming to an end... we'll still have some bigger toys (little tykes) to sell maybe next year and then we are down to clothes only... and kids do start to wear them out more the older they get.

I guess my only point is that not everyone "overspends" on the things they are selling and having lots to sell several years in a row doesn't necessarily mean you have "over-bought".... like in the case of triplets.

Julie P.````
 
Jphillips_3

I don't have any experience with triplets -- I have two girls, born three years apart. I do expect your spending (and probably many other aspects of your life too) would be quite different from the majority!

I wasn't addressing my comments to you specifically, or to anyone else, for that matter -- I hope you didn't take offense at them. I was just commenting on what I see at yard sales every Saturday: tons of stuff that's barely used and is being sold at pennies on the dollar. I stand by my point: The vast majority of us could "make more money" by spending less.
 





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