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Five Tips for a Successful Yard Sale

This post has been sponsored by YardSales.net. All opinions here, however, are my own.

tips-for-a-successful-yard-sale

As we get closer to yard sale & garage sale season, here are my top five yard sale tips. We have a yard sale just about every year, because it’s a great chance to clear some of the clutter out of this house and make a little money on the side! So here are a few things I’ve learned over my years of running — and shopping at — yard and garage sales.

1. List your sale as many places as possible.

yardsales-net

Take advantage of the free yard sale & garage sale listings on popular sites like YardSales.Net and Gsalr.com, as well as on social media and any mom’s groups you are part of. Yard sale enthusiasts plan their outings in advance, and sales listed on these two sites also get broadcasted to GarageSaletracker.com, GarageSaleFinder.com, and YardSaleSearch.com — and emailed out to local yard sale enthusiasts.

When listing your sale on these sites, be descriptive. Include examples of the items that you think will be most popular, and be sure to mention if you’re part of a multi-family or neighborhood sale. For instance:

Multi-Family Yard Sale — Girl clothes up to 5T, baby gear, toys, strollers, more!

Include a couple of representative photos on sites that allow this, as well as the time, date, address, & major cross-streets near your sale. Be as descriptive as possible, and use bullet points to make popular or large items stand out.

  • Kids’ bikes
  • Bedroom set
  • Vintage kitchen tools

2. Use big, brightly colored signs — and make them all the same color.

yardsale

Remember that people driving around looking for garage sales or tempted by signs will be reading these from a moving vehicle, so a sign that seems perfectly legible to you closeup might be incomprehensible from far away. Think BIG print and BRIGHT colors. Don’t change colors halfway through, since people who see your first bright green sign will have their eye out for the next bright green sign to show them where to turn. Place these at the major intersections near your home, and add a sign with an arrow at every turn leading to your house. Add one final sign at the end of your driveway (bonus points for balloons) to show people they’ve arrived successfully.

3. Price your items competitively — and price everything!

garage-sale-price-tags

How many times have you been to a yard sale where nothing was marked and walked away annoyed? No one wants to have to hunt you down to ask about every little price, and people are more likely just to put things back and avoid the hassle. Make life as easy as possible for your yard sale shoppers. Pick up a pack of pre-priced stickers at your local dollar store and use these to make the process easier. For more tips on pricing check out the ultimate yard sale pricing guide here (accounting of course for an item’s condition, age, and wear).

4. Merchandise your sale items.

stuffed-animals

Think like stores do and group like items together — kitchen items on one table, boy’s 2T clothing in one bin, baby toys over here — so that people can easily find what they’re looking for. This also allows you to save time in pricing. Have a big box of stuffed animals to sell? Make them $.50 each and create a single sign rather than pricing each individually. Have a bunch of children’s clothing? Divide by size, type, and gender, and make each piece the same price.

5. Be willing to haggle.

salad-spinner

People come to garage sales looking for a bargain, and for some, haggling is half the fun. Look at the big picture — if you get $1.50 rather than $2.00 for that old salad spinner, it’s still out of your house and you’re $1.50 better off than you were before. If you have difficulty with this, try pricing your items just a bit higher than you’re willing to accept so everyone feels like they won after the haggling is done.

These are some of my tips — what are your suggestions for running a successful yard sale or garage sale?

Connie

Tuesday 23rd of February 2016

Definitely second what Barbara said!

Build good signs. After the primary, offer to pick up a few of the political signs and use their frames to make signs that stay up and don't sag or blow over in the wind.

Also, make sure to pick up signs after the sale is over. Nothing is more frustrating than seeing a good sign and then finding the sale is over a day or two (or weeks!) before.

In all online posts, include pictures. Make sure to list if you are willing to sell early or NOT. if you are willing to sell early, explain how you want them to contact you.

Post to your local FB groups. Most of the western suburbs have buy/sell/trade groups set up for this purpose.

Think about how you arrange your items so that they are easy to walk to or pick up. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to figure out how to do a Twister-like move over the shoes to get to the clothes behind them, for example. Or trying to get to see books in boxes all lined up next to each other - the middle ones are always impossible to reach.

If a toy or other unit requires batteries, take out the old ones. Have a few batteries on hand if people ask to test the item. Have an extension cord with a power strip for people to test items with plugs.

If its a nice day and you have kids, get them involved. I'm a sucker for a soda or lemonade sold by a cute kid :-)

Barbara

Monday 22nd of February 2016

Make sure your items are clean. And that your garage is clean. I've had so many comments on what a pleasure it was to shop at my sale because everything was so clean. People hesitate to pick up and look at dirty items. Also, if you have the instruction books that came with the appliance or whatever you are selling, attach them to the item. People who think they don't know how to operate it will think twice and maybe buy it.

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