Hold a Profitable Garage Sale

Depending on how much free time you have, you may want to begin preparing one month prior to sale day. This time will be used for locating and pricing as many things as you can. The more you offer, the more profitable you can be.

Choose a seldom used room, large closet, or section of your garage for gathering the items you plan to offer for sale. Look through your clothes closets, linen closets, garage, china cabinet, game cabinet, hobby areas, attic and basement to find things that are just taking up space.

Begin making lists

The first list is for the things you plan to sell. Even if you have a space for setting aside the items, there will probably be things you don't want to move until sale day. List them so you won't forget anything at the last minute. Also, begin thinking about and researching prices.

The second list will contain all the things you need to do. Put up signs, place an ad, research prices, apply prices, setup a money box for making change, gather bags, boxes, and paper for packaging sold items for your buyers.

Decide how you will display your sale items. Do you need to hang clothing, draperies, etc? How much flat surfaces will you need. Try to imagine how many tables you will need and what tables you have available. If you don't have enough tables, what other surfaces can be used to improvise? Perhaps a door across something or shelves borrowed from some place in your house.

In our garage sale, we used a utility trailer with sheets of plywood across the sides in addition to the folding tables we had on hand and the patio table. For hanging items, we attached a hook to the wall and ran a line to the basketball post.

As you begin noting the prices you will ask for sale items, you will want to price things so that people can't resist, but also high enough to get back some of the value. The better the condition, the closer to top price you can ask. Go to Ebay or visit thrift shops to see what similar things are going for. Think about what you might be willing to pay as a buyer of used goods. 50%, 25% of retail or just a round number. Give this some thought so that you don't ask too little for things. Remember you paid full price for some of these things. On the other hand, if you price too high, you could end up with nothing back. Be willing to negotiate a little too. Build in room to haggle and set the price at the high end so when someone makes an offer you can still be happy about giving them a discount. That way both of you are happy with the sale.

Plan for Smart Yard Sale Pricing

People don't like to ask the price and this can hurt your sales. You will have more success if the garage sale prices are clearly marked.

Marking prices is much more of a chore than you expect, so be sure you have plenty of time to do this. There are ways to lessen the work, such as by using color codes for different price categories. You can get colored stickers at the office supply store, then make a chart showing the price for yellow, red, and blue stickers. Use white stickers for unique prices that don't have a color category. You can also bundle things together to get a higher price or to reduce the number of price categories.

Another approach is to have a section for each price. The problem with this one is that you may forget which section something came from when its time to settle up.

Let as many people as possible know what you have and when they can get it. Your garage sale ad should list some of the best items you plan to offer, and you may even want to include the prices on larger items.

I used Craigslist, the local newspaper and signs at nearby crossroads. If you want to maximize your profit, skip the paid ads, since many yard sale fans use Craigslist and this can bring lots of buyers on its own.

In Craigslist I advertised the sale 2 weeks in advance but did not give the address until 2 days before the sale. Also, people like to see photos in Craigslist ads, so if you can, take pictures of some of the best items. I put out different ads for different types of items, such as baby things and household items. I also used a general ad to list most of the things to be offered.

Use signs and balloons to draw attention to your yard sale. You can get passersby who never saw the ad, but who are always on the lookout for local sales. Consider nearby cross streets in addition to the yard sale sign at your home. Many people simply go for a drive on Saturday mornings looking for yard sales, tag sales, and rummage sales.

Be prepared for buyers.

Make sure you have enough cash on hand to give change at "checkout" time. If you can, provide a way to carry things. Reuse grocery and shopping bags. Have extra bags or newspaper on hand for wrapping any breakables for the trip to their new home. If you don't know the sizes of everything, have a measuring tape on hand.

There will be early birds visiting your yard sale to find the best things before the crowd, so get an early start setting up. Try to recruit a helper too, so you can take turns manning the garage sale.

What if it rains?

Decide whether you will continue with the sale if it rains or whether you will reschedule. Turnout will be lower if the weather is bad, but a few die-hards will still show up. It may not be worth the trouble, and you may need to have a 2nd sale anyway if you are left with everything unsold. You should mention your plans in case of rain in your advertisements, but be prepared to see people anyway.

Try not to schedule your yard sale when there is a big event in town. Our turnout was low last time because there was a fall festival that we didn't find out about until it was too late.

If you don't sell everything, what will you do with the leftovers? I had planned to donate my leftovers to Goodwill, but I received a response to my ad from a very smart thrift shop owner that changed my mind. She offered to help with the cleanup in exchange for donating the leftovers to her shop. The email she sent in response to my Craigslist ad was very professional and I was extremely impressed by her entrepreneurial spirit. If you've never held a yard sale, you don't know yet how very tired you will be when its all over. Having extra hands for cleanup means a lot!