Garage sale!

[TigerLily]

We're having our first ever garage sale this weekend. Any tips from old pros? We aren't even big garage sale shoppers, so I don't know what to do! We got a bunch of change and a few tables to put stuff on. Should I make cookies or something?

[lovelight]

Love having garage sales!! My tips - price everything in advance. It's much easier when ppl can just look at a price and haggle from there. If they have to ask, they might just leave instead.

We always put a box labeled "free" in huge letters right by the road and throw in stupid stuff that we don't want and know nobody would buy...people will stop just to go through that and then end up looking at everything else. And you get the added bonus of ridding yourself of junk. Our free box is always emptied completely so we pace ourselves with adding "junk" do it never goes dry. I'm talking random keychains, magazines, plastic cups...you'd be surprised what ppl take when it's free.

[weeniegeniewife]

I'm your gal!

* Price things appropriately, but don't give your stuff away. People will haggle and want you to agree to rock-bottom prices.
* If you have clothes to sell: spread out a large tarp and put clothes on the tarp in groups (mens, womens, kids, jeans, jackets, etc). Make a sign for each group: "Men's jeans $5 each", or whatever. People will rifle through the clothes and find what they want. It's much easier than trying to stack clothes on tables.
* Consider putting an ad in the paper or at the very least, in the garage sale section on Craigslist.
* Baby/kids items go really fast!
* Have lots of change handy (dollar bills and coins)
* Gather up any extra paper bags, boxes, etc that you have for people to carry things home in. They really appreciate it!

That's a start.

[TigerLily]

Oh such great ideas guys. I hadn't thought of having a free box but I LOVE that idea! I actually do have a lot of crap that I wanted to throw away or give away, but I didn't know exactly how to do it! And I'm totally loving the spreading clothes on a tarp idea too. I was actually stressing out about how I was going to fit clothes on a skinny long table. And bags! Finally I have a use for all of the grocery bags that I keep around!
We have everything priced now. I think I'm a little confused about pricing though. I think I might price things based on my personal preferences. Like..ohh I like this castle cake pan. It cost me 20 bucks, so I'll price it at $4. But that might seem like a high price to someone. I can't tell! And kid's clothes, we have a lot of Target clothes, and a lot things that are a little nicer Tea, Laura Ashley, Zutano...Should I price it all the same? Like dresses 50 cents etc.?

[weeniegeniewife]

Someone will pick up the cake pan and say: "Will you take $2 for this?", and then you say sure. It's ok if you don't know on the pricing; people will haggle on everything!

[SoonerTexan]

Keep the stuff you don't want to sell hidden and away and make sure your doors are locked!

[TigerLily]

Seriously ST? I was going to sit at a table at the front of the garage so I can have the baby in the shade. But I might just have to risk the sun if people are going to be crazy like that!

[BonBon]

My mother insisted on having 2 sales while we were living in her basement and of course, I had to help. Even though in the ad I put in all caps "no early birds" we had people knocking on the door. Because I have no shame in shaming people, I answered the door in my towel and asked if they had trouble understanding the plain English of the ad. People haggle over everything, it's so freaking annoying. It's 50 freaking cents. Either you want it or you don't. I will never ever have a sale again.

My advice: sell nice clothes on ebay, large items on Craigslist, donate the rest to the Salvation Army or put it on freecycle.

[medpedspouse]

People will steal and lie. I am not a fan of GS sales. You meet some really nice people 90% of the time but there will be 10% will try to steal crap you are selling for a buck. Made my skin crawl.
Also, do not be afraid to barter. I got the kid in the hood to help me with some yrd work in exchange for some athletic gear and found the woman that helps me clean after she took some home decor stuff in exchange for house cleaning.

[Thirteen]

Keep the stuff you don't want to sell hidden and away and make sure your doors are locked!

Yep.

We used to just put unwanted stuff on the curb in LA and put up a curb alert on CL.
Fastest turn around?
10 minutes for our old bedroom furniture.


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[TigerLily]

Day one complete! I think we made around $200 which is more than I thought we would make on both days together! Everyone was nice, aside from the creepy guy who came into our garage as we were pulling everything in and asked us about buying wine. weird. Anyway, thank you guys for all of the advice! It would have been a disaster without it. Hopefully tomorrow we'll get rid of the rest of it!

[ladymoreta]

Yay! Not bad at all! I hope today goes as well.

[lovelight]

Wow, nice. I can't believe you made that much on a weekday!!

[TigerLily]

IKR! It was a neighborhood yard sale, so we didn't chose the days, and I was considering not even putting stuff out this morning because I thought Friday would be too slow. But my yard saling neighbor informed me that Friday can be a big day because a lot of moms come out with their kids. We hardly have anything left! Our Saturday yard sale is going to be twirpy!

[MrsK]

Here, yard sales are Thurs/Fri/Sat. I don't even bother going on Sat unless it's advertized as a one day only sale. Thurs is the best for kid-stuff; by the afternoon, it's picked over.