Please Give me Your Best Tips for Yard Sales

[Micday]

Love eveyone's help, thank you!!

Anyone else?

(did not mean to put the winking smilie)

 

[Ericandjenng]

As an avid garage sale attender, the cleaner, neater and more organized your things are, the better! And PLEASE price everything. Nothing turns me off more than a garage sale where nothing is priced or there is a sign that says "make an offer". I will usually leave quickly. It is really hard to know what something is worth to someone else.

We did the "make an offer" and did really well with it. But our goal was simply to get rid of what we were selling. Some people paid a $1 an item, some offered 25 cents. Some offered a $$ for so many things as a group.

My thinking is chances are the person has a price in mind already and wants to pay that so why argue when the point is to get rid of much "other person's treasure" as possible.

 

[mama4]

I made $370 on my last one. Went toward a vacation! I put large, enticing items on the end of driveway (closest to road) like a Firetruck toddler bed, pack n play, stroller. We had a table full of books we sold for .25 each...lots of people bought books. I had tons of unused toiletries that I'd received as gifts. I made up a couple of gift bags using nice fabric bags and ribbon. Those were both bought for a couple bucks each. The kids clothes flew off the table at anywhere from .50 to $5 for nice, barely worn dresses. None of the adult clothing sold -just donate those. DVD's -can't remember how much we sold them for but we had abot 30 really good ones that dh's Dad gave us. Those went fast. We just don't re-watch dvds (except Disney ones of course ) I did bag up small toys and they weren't selling (even at a nickle per bag) so I put them in a box marked free just so I didn't have bring the darned things back in the house. Also, after the sell...I was so ready to get rid of it all, I called a number on Craigslist offering to pick up junk for free. Lady said she ran an inhome daycare and would use the clothes and toys and would try to sell the rest. I know I've seen folks that make a career at selling things on the side of the road so who knows I just needed it gone at that point. OH! I also sold a 15 year old breadmaker and an unused electric cheese grater. Biggest tip for me as a garage sale shopper...clean stuff. One lady was trying to sell dishes that had rodent droppings on them.... I also feel having during our neighborhood bi-annual sale helped immensely.

Also, don't be surprised if people try to buy your tables or chairs that you use to sit things on!

 

[Crystal0608]

I LOVE yard sale season. I'm having one this Friday at my mama's house actually.

My #1 tip would be to ziploc small stuff. Buy the cheapie ziplocs from the dollar store in various sizes. Works for kids shoes, puzzles, hot wheel tracks, baby clothes, etc. It makes it easier to keep everything together and things in ziplocs for me sell better.

I hate fanny packs and my mama's doesn't quite fix around my waist, but they are very convenient when having a sale. Once I get a wad of money in my pocket, I give it to my mama b/c I have dropped bills a time or two. I also carry a pocket calculator, my brain gets tired of adding after a couple hours, lol. Also, have plenty of $1's and quarters. I price everything in quarter increments. For my kids clothes (my biggest seller) I sort them by gender, then size, then season in sections on a picnic table, then I refill from bins I've already organized on the ground. For clothes, I type a sign in list form for example: Boys sz 5, 6, 7- Coats $5, Jeans $2, Shorts $2, PJs $2, Shirts $1, Shoes $1 and tape to the front of the boys section. I have individually priced, but it takes forever or in my case 2 weeks.

Advertise for free on craigslist, yahoo groups, and facebook. Our local newspaper costs too much $$ IMO. Make your signs big and use black marker. I've passed too many signs written with pen that I couldn't read.

Have fun! Good luck!