which is better......

[cstwwt]

Ok budget friends....which is better/smarter having a rummage sale or donating your goods and taking the tax deduction?? Which nets more income?? Thanks for your wisdom!! Wendy

 

[msp2mco]

I've done both, and theoretically, it should be the same because you shouldn't value your donated goods any higher than you could sell them.

That said, I would not have a rummage sale again at my current house because I live in a rather remote area of a metro area. My neighbor and I had tons of signage up to 4 miles away to bring in traffic. Our best advertising was on Craigslist. However, I used to live in the city on a high-traffic street, and I would have a sale at that location in a heartbeat. It was so easy! I felt that was easier than packing everything into a car or truck and hauling it somewhere.

Good luck!

 

[LJSquishy]

It depends on how you file your income taxes. My husband and I have tried itemizing several years when we've had hundreds of dollars in donated goods but for us, it has always been best for us to take the standard deduction.

I happen to like garage sales but it does take a lot of effort. If you have large items to sell, Craigslist works really well and you will probably be able to sell things for more.

 

[Interpol]

When you donate goods, expect to get about 30% of the value you declared in the form of a tax saving/refund. It isn't 1:1. So if you could have sold something for $100 you can expect about $30 in tax savings.

 

[MrsPete]

Depends upon a number of things.

Pros /cons of donating:
- You can do your cleaning out a little at a time. If you don't have "enough" to have a big yard sale, you can still donate just a little boxful. (People won't stop for a small sale.) And driving by Goodwill takes only a few minutes. It's just easier.
- No need to advertise, tag, plan.
- This is the best choice for difficult-to-sell items like adult clothing.
- Donating tends to get you a little more money, but you don't get it today.

Pros /cons of yard sales:

- It's a great deal of work to gather the stuff up, tag it, move it outside. If it rains, you'll have to keep it all piled up another week.
- You'll never sell it all, and then you have to haul some of it away afterward.
- You'll have people walking through your yard, some of them trying to get into your house. You'll have people haggling over fifty cent items.
- People will buy baby or children's clothing.
- If you have a couple "big things" like furniture, large children's toys, etc., it'll bring people into your sale. If you just have clothes and miscelaneous kitchen items, people will drive right on by.
- You have cash in hand.

 

[ilovemk76]

Ok budget friends....which is better/smarter having a rummage sale or donating your goods and taking the tax deduction?? Which nets more income?? Thanks for your wisdom!! Wendy

With the tax donation you need to itemize. For every dollar you claim you will get back the % that your income results in. If you are in the 25% bracket then you get back a quarter for each dollar you claim. This is a simplified version but shows the point.

With a rummage sale you will invest many hours.

Generally the rummage sale will net more money but the amount of work you will do will also cost you.

We always take the tax deduction.

 

[Colleen27]

For us, the yard sale always works out better because we don't itemize, so the tax value of donating is $0. But my favorite option these days is Facebook; I'm part of two swap groups for my area and that is so much easier than an actual yard sale!

 

[chris31997]

Another option would be consignment sales. If you have one near by your nicer/higher end items you could sell there. We did alot of children clothes like that.

I would also only do the rummage/garage sale if you are in a "high traffic" area.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

For us, the amount of money a yard sale nets in comparison to the prep time it consumes would actually make it more worthwhile to take a part-time job for a couple weeks and just throw all our unwanted stuff in the trash. We'd be money ahead & eat up less time in the process.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

For us, taking the tax deduction is better.

We didn't make much money at our yard sale and it drove me nuts when I had things marked .50 cents and people wanted to give me a dime for it.

 

[ceecee]

In our area garage sales are hot. People pay for things around here. Sure we had some people ask if I would take less (so I priced accordingly so had them try on the last day of the sale.) We lived in an area with a lot of traffic so we did a garage sale every year and donated all that was left over. Kids clothes are really hot sellers as are toys and baby stuff. I made around $1000 as an average and up to $2500! I had some ladies that had DDs a few yrs younger than mine and they got their back to school clothes every year! I sold Gymboree and other name brands on Ebay. Where we live now we get no drive by traffic and our conventant won't allow garage sales. Our city also had garage sales days so free advertising and no fee to hold the sale (normally it was $10). This bought hoards of people!

 

[WaltsMartini]

My fiancee got on my case for not donating his clothing and trying to sell at a yard sale. Turns out that because adult stuff doesn't sell, we made out much better by donating.

I second the "kid" factor - kids toys, clothes, stuffed animals, etc.. are always the biggest sellers.

We've had two yard sales over the past few years and found that adult clothing, even gently worn and fairly new, doesn't sell well. I now take it to a consignment shop or just drop it at the Goodwill. Books, household stuff, and holiday items always sell well.

And the biggest money maker? Food! Friends of ours borrowed a hit dog roller, bought a bunch of dogs at Costco, and ended up making $150 off of the hot dogs!