Timing matters. Try to have your garage sale on the first weekend of the month. EVERYONE -- people who are paid once a week, people who are paid bi-weekly, people who are paid once a month, even welfare recipients -- EVERYONE just got paid and has money on the first weekend of the month.
Location matters. If your house is too far off the beaten track, join forces with a friend who lives in a more populated area.
Advertising matters. Starting Wednesday before your sale put out signs -- LOTS of them. By that point you'll be fairly sure that the weather will cooperate, and the hard-core yard salers will be scoping out the weekend sales by that time. Be polite and take your signs down after your sale is over; it's irritating to other people to follow a sign, only to realize that the sale was obviously last week. Make your signs BIG; people're trying to read them as they drive down the road. Use arrows; people don't know the names of the streets in your neighborhood.
Don't make it a goal to hold a yard sale too often. For one thing, a BIG sale draws a big crowd, while many people pass right by a tiny sale. Wait until you have a bunch of stuff saved up.
If you can have a yard sale multiple times each year (and you're not moving, combining households, clearing out the baby gear, or some other unique event), then you can save more money by buying less stuff in the first place. Realize that no one MAKES money at a yard sale; instead, people RECOUP a portion of what they've spent on goods. Look at it this way: Suppose you make $500 from a yard sale -- how much money did you spend originally for those goods that you sold for $500? Probably several thousand. If you're buying things that you need, then re-selling them once you're finished with them (i.e., selling the crib or baby clothes, which you know you'll never use again), then you're getting back a portion of the money that you spent on necessities -- that's sensible. On the other hand, if your yard sales have a large quantity of never-used items, or if you re-do the colors in your kitchen twice a year and justify it by saying, "I can sell the old stuff at my next yard sale", then you might want to consider how much you can save by not spending in the first place.
Position a couple big things in a prominant position right by the road. Those big things will bring people into the sale, then they'll see other things. People will stop to look at a stroller or a crib -- they won't stop because they see a nice collection of glassware. These big things will also block your driveway so that people will park on the street instead of trying to pull into your driveway (some people are really amazingly rude).
Don't even bother with adult clothing; the majority of buyers just walk right by without looking. If you MUST sell adult clothing, price it low, low, low -- a quarter per item might draw attention.
Don't bother with badly stained or ripped children's clothing either. However, if you put those into a "FREE PLAYCLOTHES" box, people will haul away what's not sell-able AND they'll be more likely to stop and look at your other things. Or, if you're not feeling quite that generous, make it, "One item of free playclothes with every item purchased." It's fine to put out all your kids' clothes with a sign that reads, "All kids' clothing fifty cents." Or "All the kids' clothing you can stuff into a grocery bag for $3.
Display everything -- people will not look through boxes. If you must, put things out on tarps on the ground.
Price everything -- or put out signs to price it (all glassware and dishes .25 each). Lots of people won't bother to ask. Don't price things too high. If I go to a yard sale and see girls' everyday dresses marked $6 or $8, I won't even try to bargain -- I figure that their prices and my idea of "just right" are too far apart, and I won't try to bargain with them. Most things will sell for 10-25% of their original price.
Have something really old and yucky that you don't think'll sell? A 20-year old sofa, maybe? Put it out with a "free to the person who'll haul it away" sign. Some poor college student'll take it.
If you (or your child) must include drinks and snacks, make them something pre-wrapped. I might buy a Little Debbie snack cake and a canned Coke, but I don't trust even the most adorable children's sense of cleanliness enough to buy lemonaide in a cup or a doughnut that's in a box of a dozen.
BIG safety rule: Do not allow people into your house. You're only asking a quarter for the shirt -- they can take a chance on the size. Run an electrical cord out the door so people can test appliances outside. While it sounds unbelievable, some people come around with the intention of trying to get into your house so they can scope out a future robbery. Others'll try to get two people into the house so that while one "admires" your beautiful home, the other cleans you out. I'm pretty sure a family tried to do something like this to me at my last yard sale; they INSISTED that their child needed to use the restroom, and my husband told them (in not so nice terms) they'd just have to leave -- suddenly the urgency was gone, and they stayed another 20 minutes or so -- and they tried to steal dishes that were marked ten cents each! Be sure your children know the NO ONE in the house rule; some of these people are low enough to try to gain entry to your house by asking your child's permission. Everyone's not so nice -- don't take any chances.
A related safety rule: Wear a fanny pack and keep your change on your body. Start with plenty of ones and quarters, and when you get a wad of twenties, put them away in the house.
He just got a pool table and its in the garage so we are clearing away stuff we had in there and I figured this will give us the rest of the money that we need for his chair..
