Garage Sale season

[happysmileylady]

Garage sale season is nearly upon us. I myself plan to hold a garage sale next month and have begun to gather my stuff together.

I thought it might be nice fore everyone to share their tips for a productive garage sale. Also I thought it would be great to have a place for folks to ask questions about what others have done with their garage sales

My first tip is start early. I tried a sale last year and I didn't start early enough and in the end it actually ended up COSTING me money to have the sale and I didn't get rid of much.

And my first question is, how early do you put your ad in the newspaper?

[pidgeon92]

We had a "street sale" last year. I called up the alderman and got him to block off our street, then I passed out fliers to each of the neighbors on my block to let them know the day/time and to gather up whatever they wanted to get rid of. Everybody was responsible for their own tables/money. We set up the tables in the street so it was easy for the shoppers to walk around, and there was plenty of room for everybody. We invited other people we knew to set up a table as well. It poured all day long that day, and we still managed to get a ton of people onto our block.

Signage and advertising are so important. Get some signs you can stick in the lawns near busy intersections. Advertise at the grocery stores on the bulletin boards. Advertise at your local churches. Anywhere a lot of people pass.

I still have last year's fliers on the net if anybody is interested in having a look.

http://homepage.mac.com/pidgeon92/FileSharing1.html

[purplefdu]

We schedule ours around holidays or the local festival where everyone is already walking past my parents from parking. Other than that we advertise a couple weeks ahead of time in the local free paper as well as flyers starting that Friday morning (we have it Saturday normally).

We make sure to have plenty of change on hand, and have recently started using colored dots (stickies) to breakdown prices to make things easier. Dots go by price .50/1/2/5/10/20/etc. Makes it easy to sort things by type and cost into boxes and put a big posterboard up in a couple places with the pricing by color.

[amandajane]

Early early early is the key here in NZ. I advertise in the local papers which costs very little and sort out the goods the day before. It seems I always have something that other people want. Clothes go particularly well here as does kitchen equipment.

I have a ton of stuff to go through during the coming week when I don't have Uni. I'm sure I can get rid of heaps of stuff.

Does anyone do car boot sales here? It's a big thing in the Uk. Not so big in NZ but still worth a try.

[gt0163c]

This weekend, my church is having a garage sale to raise money for our summer mission trips this summer. (Fort Worth Presbyterian, Southwest Fort Worth, Texas for anyone in the DFW area that's interested)
As always with these sales, we have different people taking part who have different ideas about how to price items (both in terms of actual amounts as well as physical means of marking the items), how to organize areas, what stuff is "too nasty to sell", whether we should pull the really nice baby stuff out for the crisis pregnancy center before the sale starts or after it's over, how best to bargain during the sale, etc. Since I tend to be a major organizational freak (it's genetic, I'm an engineer ) I always have to take a step back and remember that other people have other ways of doing things that are, often just as good or better than how I would have done it. And, even if it's not, I don't have the time to do everything myself.

That said, there are a few things that make things much easier, especially for a larger sale like we're having.
- Everything except most clothing and books get a physical price attached to them somewhere that it's easy to see both when the item is displayed and at the cashier table (not on the bottom of cups. There's at least a dozen cups that I set out last night that had price stickers on the bottom, fixing those is on my "to do" list for this evening). Prices for most clothing and all books are printed on multiple signs throughout the sale area with at least one copy taped to the cashier table (so it doesn't blow away, get misplaced, etc).

- Items are cleaned up as much as possible prior to the sale and things are organized by type (housewares, clothing, sporting goods, electronics, linens, etc).

- Prices are roughly what thrift stores would charge or somewhere between 10-25% of retail. The only exception are fine collectibles or some larger items which are in excellent condition. Prices for those are determined by checking ebay/those who have a clue about such things and are then set slightly lower.

Day of the sale stuff:
- Only the adult (or equivalent high school student) currently in charge of the cashier table is allowed to open/close/add to or take money from the cash box. That person has an eye and/or a hand on the box at all times.

- Our "no early bird" policy is strictly enforced, generally by large men, mothers of multiple boys and those with multiple years of youth leadership experience. Since our sale takes place mostly inside, but large items are set outside, we always have an issue with people wanting to shop early. We allow people to look at items as we bring them out, as long as they don't get into our way, but we will not let a single person inside the building prior to our advertised time nor will we allow any sales prior to that time.

- People are allowed and encouraged to look through the open doors into the sanctuary, but may not enter without an adult church member. This helps protect the building as well as the people attending the sale, but still allows people to see more of the building (the architecture of our building is well known in the area).

- Having someone who speaks at least passable Spanish is helpful.

- Having at least one calculator which is able to be used by everyone (no HP scientific calculators that us RPN) at the cashier stand is required. Don't sell the calculator.

- We don't haggle or barter before about 10am. The amount of people we have through during the first two hours of our sale generally means that most things which will sell will sell at full price. Plus, we are usually very busy don't always have the time to devote to bargaining with individual people. However, after a given time (usually either noon or 1pm) everything is half-price. The only exception is if there's something that we have no idea what it is. If you can tell us what it's used for and offer us a seemingly fair price, we'll almost certain take it.

- Ruth Ann (that's me) will be taking at least 45 minutes for lunch. During which time she will be attending Free Comic Book Day at the nearby comic store. She will take up to four people with her. The time this occurs is open for debate, the occurance of it is not. Our sales seem to always fall on Free Comic Book Day.

[khorrell]

gt - I was LOL at the "don't sell the calculator." Thank you for my good morning chuckles.

[kav122]

I just have to say one thing:

I don't care if you spent a zillion dollars on your furniture/clothes/toys. I am not paying $400 for your old Room and Board dresser and $20 for a pair of your old jeans or $5 for a 2T shirt for my one-year old. Take note, those who think you can make a fortune off your old crap: YOU ARE PRICING TO SELL, NOT TO PAY FOR A NEW TAHOE!!!!

Sorry! I'm done now. I am so tired of going to garage sales only to find prices higher than department stores.

[khorrell]

Amen to that!

[Gootsy]

I say lots of posts on craigslist/paper starting 1 week in advance at least. Good directions as well!

Yesterday morning I was walking home from an errand when I saw a sign that said 'garage sale' with an arrow. I figured, "Heck why not." like 25 minutes later... I give up. I had checked side streets as well and nothin. Good directions!!!

[khorrell]

Isn't that frustrating? I wonder if it was an old sign.