Yard Sale Tips and Tricks Thread

[left210]

Have a counterfeit money pen handy. I have had a few bad experiences with people passing off "bad" money. It's cheap and it could prevent a headache.

Where do you get one of these? We are having a sale this weekend and always get some big bills like 50's and 100's and are always worried about this.

 

[grlpwrd]

Where do you get one of these? We are having a sale this weekend and always get some big bills like 50's and 100's and are always worried about this.

You can go to a place like Office Depot and they are sometimes sold in packs of 2 or 3 for less than $10, but usually go for around a few dollars each.

I mentioned this because I had bad bills at yard sales plus recently someone used a counterfeit $100 bill to pay for Girl Scout cookies. The bank refused it, of course, and the Secret Service conducted an investigation so it was a headache.

Our 2 Princesses, I love doing that 1/2 off sale, too, because things really sell.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

These have all been some really great ideas. Many seem so simple but I had never thought about them. Thanks so much...keep them coming.

 

[jenr812]

Great ideas! I'm planning a sale for the last weekend of this month. Bad timing, but the only weekend that will work for us I'm hoping to clear at least enough to pay for my new camera

 

[swilshire]

Don't end your sale too early. People who work 1/2 day or have a morning obligation will go if you're open to 3 or 5, but not if you close at 11. I ran into that last weekend. I had six or seven sales circled in the newspaper, but by the time I was able to go, they were all closed.

I love "bag sales", where it's everything you can stuff into a bag for $3 or $4. Great at the end of the day to get rid of the leftovers. People will stuff things into the bag that they'd never buy otherwise at any price.

Sheila

 

[staceyfe]

As a garage sale shopper addict, I might be pointing out the obvious, but be willing to negotiate. So many sales I go to, the owners think their stuff is *so good*. $5 for a t-shirt?? My rule of thumb is if I won't pay for what the sticker says, I'll offer the amount I will pay and I think is fair. But I rarely offer less than 1/2 what is on a sticker, and I don't haggle much if I know it's the beginning of the sale. As a seller, expect to negiotiate and don't have an attitude about your stuff. Nothing makes me run from a sale faster than a snobby attitude.

 

[LynnTH]

As a garage sale shopper addict, I might be pointing out the obvious, but be willing to negotiate. So many sales I go to, the owners think their stuff is *so good*. $5 for a t-shirt?? My rule of thumb is if I won't pay for what the sticker says, I'll offer the amount I will pay and I think is fair. But I rarely offer less than 1/2 what is on a sticker, and I don't haggle much if I know it's the beginning of the sale. As a seller, expect to negiotiate and don't have an attitude about your stuff. Nothing makes me run from a sale faster than a snobby attitude.

Most times I will negotiate with people, as most of them are really nice and will ask if I will take a lower price. No problem. But, in some cases the people are just so nasty that I say no just for the point of it. I have had items marked for a quarter and they come up and just hand me dime and don't even ask - just expect. Those people I say "no" to. The others are the ones when it is the first day of the sale and we just opened and they want to negotiate on everything. I usually say "no - we just opened" and if they really want it they will buy it. But 99% of the time the stuff they wanted cheaper sells for full price a short time later.

 

[staceyfe]

Most times I will negotiate with people, as most of them are really nice and will ask if I will take a lower price. No problem. But, in some cases the people are just so nasty that I say no just for the point of it. I have had items marked for a quarter and they come up and just hand me dime and don't even ask - just expect. Those people I say "no" to. The others are the ones when it is the first day of the sale and we just opened and they want to negotiate on everything. I usually say "no - we just opened" and if they really want it they will buy it. But 99% of the time the stuff they wanted cheaper sells for full price a short time later.

I never offer a smaller amount on something priced below $1--too tacky, IMHO. I know exactly what you're talking about--the people that expect it. My last yard sale taught me to say no to these people. I found it to be the older generation (60s-70s), mostly, that are the culprits. In fact, one man even said to me "you'll take 'x amount' for this, won't you?". (I did) He was sly. When an older gentleman offered me $2 on a barely used ice cream maker that I had priced at $5, i said no, and I sold it for $5 later.

 

[thelionqueen]

Had our annual garage sale today (Friday only) for 5 hours and it was a huge success. I had several comments on how good my signage was which just tickled me pink

We had gross earnings of exactly $472.50 Great success with kids clothes and my clothes (both together = $140.00) and toys (many Disney) tools and the like.

Weather was beautiful, and quick work. Just wanted to update everyone on our sale, hope yours is super too!

ps..I used a suggestion about putting things in baggies..BIG BUst, only sold 2 of 14!! Just my experience..seemed like it would be awesome

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Most times I will negotiate with people, as most of them are really nice and will ask if I will take a lower price. No problem. But, in some cases the people are just so nasty that I say no just for the point of it. I have had items marked for a quarter and they come up and just hand me dime and don't even ask - just expect. Those people I say "no" to. The others are the ones when it is the first day of the sale and we just opened and they want to negotiate on everything. I usually say "no - we just opened" and if they really want it they will buy it. But 99% of the time the stuff they wanted cheaper sells for full price a short time later.

Something similar happened to me a couple of years ago. I had all my clothes marked very fairly. I had a lady with 2 arm loads of nice clothes (about 10.00 worth) send her son up to me with three 1.00 bills. She was already loading it in her car. I stopped her. I probably would have sold it if she had asked but no.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Had our annual garage sale today (Friday only) for 5 hours and it was a huge success. I had several comments on how good my signage was which just tickled me pink

We had gross earnings of exactly $472.50 Great success with kids clothes and my clothes (both together = $140.00) and toys (many Disney) tools and the like.

Weather was beautiful, and quick work. Just wanted to update everyone on our sale, hope yours is super too!

ps..I used a suggestion about putting things in baggies..BIG BUst, only sold 2 of 14!! Just my experience..seemed like it would be awesome

Congrats on your sale
I have never had luck with baggies. People around here just want the stuff for free, so here is what I did. I filled and old kiddie swimming pool with as many happy meal cheapie toys that I can find. I then tell kids they pick 2 for free (more or less depending on how many toys I have accumulated). This gives kids something to do while the parents shop.

 

[CourtasanSatine]

Yard sales are rigged around events in this area(between the flea market and the chili cookoff especially)

 

[melag]

Another tip I have is for anyone having a mutli family yard sale. Mark the items for each different family and figure it out after the customer leaves. Do this any way you can without making the customer pay numerous people for each item you have. I do not have any tips on marking items that belong to different people, so any tips would help. But I have had to pay 5 different people in the same yard sale it was a pain and when I find another one like that I just leave.

You could mark the items from each family/person with a label that has a specific color. They sell multi colored circle labels at staples really cheap.

 

[bettyann29]

Thanks for all the tips... I had my garage sale today and made $230 yah.... I now have enough to get DH's recliner off layaway.. I was hoping I would make enough to do that as that was my goal..

 

[dizkids]

Another PRICING tip. PLEASE PLEASE~how about keeping everything rounded to 25 cents. I have had many successful garage sales. I only price 25/50/75 cents, $1, $1.50 $2 etc. This MAKES IS SIMPLE to add especially when you are getting slammed with customers.

ANd when I go to garage sales....it is SO annoying when i am ready to pay and they rip out the calculator because they cant add. And in most cases it is because they price things with 10 cents 5 cents. Why not put it in the FREE pile if it is under 25 cents. You will just be happy its gone.

Tis the season!

 

[emh1129]

Great tips! We are getting ready to have a yard sale in a few weeks and also getting ready to move, so it's great incentive to declutter!
I hope we're as successful as you all have been!

 

[IDoDis]

One mistake people make is starting their sale too late. Avid garage sale buyers are out in the car when the sun is just rising. If it is summer when the sun comes up at 5:30, your sale should start by 6:00am. For this time of year, 7:00 or 7:30am (depending on when your sun comes up) at the latest.

I get everything ready in the garage the night before (all set up on tables, etc.). I open my garage up at 5:30am and start pulling things out into the driveway and unpacking boxes that I need to place outside. DH leaves to put up the signs. Before he even gets back, I've usually had 5 or 6 customers by 5:45am!). If you place an ad in the paper and start early, the buyers will start at your house first. After reading the ads the night before, they map out their drive and strategically plan where to be depending on when each sale starts. If you start your sale at 8:00am or 9:00am with 200 other people, what are the chances they will make it to your sale? However, if you start at 6:00am with maybe 5 or 10 other people, you will make huge amounts of money before 8:00am. I also see the buyers who buy the larger items (like furniture) come in the wee early hours. Many of them have 2nd hand furniture stores and they know that the early bird gets the worm.

The other thing I can suggest is that when things start to slow down and you are not seeing as many people and most of your good stuff is gone, instead of closing up shop and hauling everything to Goodwill, get out your used Wal-Mart & Target bags and tell everyone that you are now selling for a buck a bag. Whatever they can stuff in the bag is a buck. IMO, I'd rather have people stuff their bags and take the stuff away from me (and make some more money), than to load it up and cart it to Goodwill. The "buck a bag" goes over great! Only do this if you plan on giving the rest of the unsold items away.

 

[neatokimmo]

I had my third yard sale today. The first one, I made over $400. The second one was a total bust because of the weather. Today was just $80 BUT it was a lot of little stuff. For me it's about clearing out the house

My only tip is to iron your nice clothing pieces. Clothing of all kinds sell really well here, especially church clothes. Wrinkled clothes look cheap no matter how much you originally paid for it. It's easy enough to do in between customers.

 

[peggster]

I just wanted to bump this. I'm having a yard sale this weekend, and these are some great tips. Thanks for sharing, and keep 'em coming!

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Thanks for the bump. I should look on the board every few days and give it a bump myself. With yardsale season underway we should keep it alive.