Yard sale tips?

[catnapper]

I'm having a yard sale tomorrow. I've had them before, but nothing this organized! LOL

I have SO MUCH STUFF! Its boggling my mind how much junk I have. and its a broad range of junk, good junk to the right person. I just realized two major things are happening this weekend too --- there's a huge community flea market a few blocks west, and a huge non-profit family event a few blocks north. We'll be getting LOTS of traffic with people driving by to go to either event. I'm thinking I just might actually make out on this yard sale thanks to my organization, the timing, and the sheer amount of stuff (I made a whopping $90 at one and $50 at another yard sale in the past :rolleyes: )

Sooo...... a few questions for those who visit yard sales (and those that have sucessfully had one)
What time should I drag my butt outta bed.... I mean, should I start setting up?

Should I have items marked with prices or give them off the top of my head?

If I price them, should I price them much higher than I really expect to sell it, figuring people will haggle?



Anything else you can offer as advice that I didn't even ask? I'd LOVE To walk away a couple hundred dollars richer this weekend. :D

[Craftlady]

What time should I drag my butt outta bed.... I mean, should I start setting up? 7:00 a.m. set up - open 8:00 a.m. latest

Should I have items marked with prices or give them off the top of my head? Prices need to be marked. I hate going to yard sales and asking someone everytime I see something I like to buy. OR make sure your signs are clear "all books" .25 cents for example.



If I price them, should I price them much higher than I really expect to sell it, figuring people will haggle?
Price to sell. Unless you enjoy setting all that stuff up and then taking it back inside after the sale because it didnt sell.

Furniture items in excellant shape only, price little higher.
Otherwise price reasonable to sell. I got a neat upright stuffed chair for $5 last year. :)

[wombat2u2004]

[QUOTE=catnapper]
[COLOR=Indigo]What time should I drag my butt outta bed.... I mean, should I start setting up?

Should I have items marked with prices or give them off the top of my head?

If I price them, should I price them much higher than I really expect to sell it, figuring people will haggle?

Yeah mate, start early....I'll tell you why.....collectors and second hand shop owners etc etc, always want to be the first to get to these sales, so they can get the best pickings....and they usually hit early.
As for price tags....well....I never do....because you can always sort of tell who is going to bargain and who is not, so you have that advantage of raising the price a little to begin with. Also if someone picks up an item and notices someone around who wants that item to, they will tend to pay more for it (you'll have to pay attention to everyone around to be privy to that tho).
All the best with that sale mate......hope you make a pretty dollar ;)
Wombat

[kuhio98]

What time should I drag my butt outta bed.... I mean, should I start setting up? Early! We had everything set up the night before (in the garage) and put a sign out that we would open up at 9:00 and people showed up starting at 7:30!!!!

Should I have items marked with prices or give them off the top of my head? Signs like - All books 25 cents. This table $1.00 should cover it. But, it is best to have everything marked. Because if it turns into a madhouse, you won't be able to keep track of what table they got them off of.

If I price them, should I price them much higher than I really expect to sell it, figuring people will haggle? Price them to sell -- if the goal is to get that crap errr treasures out of the house. People will still haggle, that's okay.



Anything else you can offer as advice that I didn't even ask? I'd LOVE To walk away a couple hundred dollars richer this weekend. :D

Please tell me that you will have help from hubby or the kids. It was just Bobcat and I when we did ours (made $500 for iMOM) and we spelled each other off. On my watch, someone stole some tools while I was making change. :mad: :mad: It's just too much for 1 person to keep track of everything.

[applesmom]

What time should I drag my butt outta bed.... I mean, should I start setting up? 7:00 a.m. set up - open 8:00 a.m. latest

Should I have items marked with prices or give them off the top of my head? Prices need to be marked. I hate going to yard sales and asking someone everytime I see something I like to buy. OR make sure your signs are clear "all books" .25 cents for example.



If I price them, should I price them much higher than I really expect to sell it, figuring people will haggle?
Price to sell. Unless you enjoy setting all that stuff up and then taking it back inside after the sale because it didnt sell.

Furniture items in excellant shape only, price little higher.
Otherwise price reasonable to sell. I got a neat upright stuffed chair for $5 last year. :)

I argree! The earlier the better and mark everything. It will free up your time and ability to pay attention to other matters like hauling in the cash. ;)

If you get a lot of traffic you aren't going to have time to answer a bunch of questions about prices and keep an eye on everything at the same time.

With a lot of yard sales in the area people are going to be in a hurry to look through your stuff and get on to the next one. There's nothing more irritating to a dedicated yard sale shopper than having to waste time asking the price on every single item they're interested in.

Good luck with the sale!

[jackie]

Make lots of visible signs with arrows pointing in the direction is the only advice I have to give that hasn't already been said.

Have fun!

[AbbyMom]

On my watch, someone stole some tools while I was making change. :mad: :mad: It's just too much for 1 person to keep track of everything.

My neighborhood had a similar problem with a couple of men that went from home to home trying to conduct rip-offs.

I was home alone and one tried to swipe something while the other was paying.

At another house, he pulled a fast one with the money (something like "I gave you a 20 when he really only gave her a 10). She didn't want to call the police, but she did go around warning others.

Have someone with you at all times!!!

[catland]

regarding getting ripped off: have the cheaper stuff out front, and the more valuable stuff further from the street and this should help.

As one who likes to frequent garage sales in the summer, I know that I don't care much for overpriced sales. If I want to pay near retail, I'll go to the retail stores - when it comes to garage sales, I want BARGAINS :D :D

Also, a FREE pile up front is a great way to get rid of trash - its amazing what people will cart home when its free.


Have fun. :D

[Blue_Frog]

We haven't done a garage sale in years -- I should have asked my Nana, she spends almost every saturday all summer out at them with her SIL.

Last time we did ours, we bought some of those coloured dot stickers from the office store, and did things in batches with a price sheets posted around indicating what color was what price ...

so anything with a blue sticker is $1, anything with a red is $2, etc. -- good for bulk items like books, or things that you want to price all the same. Big things like tools or things that are worth more got an individual price sticker on them :)

Good luck with your sale! :D

[beeniesmom]

Make sure you have at least 30 dollars in singles, fives and change in case someone shows up with a 20 dollar bill and wants to pay for a dollar item.

Also, get yourself one of those little aprons with pockets to keep all the money in. That way it can't "disappear" while you are tending to more than one person.

Good luck and hope you sell everything! :)

[catnapper]

Thanks everyone!

As for the free stuff -- everything that could have been free was freecycled last week. Anything left over will be freecycled this week. :)

We had theft at our last yard sale. Really, if you're that desperate, take it! Hubby will not be here but Ashley will be. It'll depends on how Cameron is to see just how much she'll be able ot help me. I have the feeling that we'll sell more with him out "helping" ;)

I gotta tag everything tonight. What a job - not looking forward to getting everything out and ready. But more prep I do tonight, the less I do tomorrow morning with just carting everything outside.

[catnapper]

Its 10:00 here and just ran in for a quick potty break. I am selling things like hotcakes!! So far I made well over $150. I still have stuff to pull out to put out but I'm gonna leave what I have out for the rest of the day and pull the additional stuff out for tomorrow! It would be so stinkin' awesome to net near $300 for the whole weekend! I doubt I will.... but I DO have porcellain dolls to pull out for tomorrow. ;)

Wow... this is fun! Money for my junk that I would have given away! :D :D

[Craftlady]

Glad your doing so well on your yard sale.
I've given up on doing them but love going to sales.
It's not worth the time nor energy on my street. So I give our stuff to Goodwill and the Mountain Mission (at church) Organization. Especially the mountain mission, the people their serve have nothing or close to it.

[catnapper]

Grand total for the day: $285!!! Woohoooooo!

Ashley was an awesome help this afternoon. We're letting Cameron nap and then we're headed to Target for a new car seat and some other essentials.

Cam was such a big help too; he kept breaking breakables :p

In the meantime, I'm sweaty and exhausted. Maybe grandma will take a nap too ;)

[kuhio98]

Kim ~ I'm glad it was a success.

[K9karen]

WOW! That's terrific!! I'm having a yard sale in May and have been working for weeks, cleaning the house and finding brand new stuff my mom packed in boxes. I'm not so emotionally attached now so it'll be easier. My neighbor, who is a pro at yard sales, saw my stuff (piled in the living room) and said I should do really well. She's going to post in the local banks and put up street signs for me and I will do a newspaper ad. (have to remember-no early birds or antiques dealers) Her hubby works for Pepsi so she's going to provide water and I'll supply soft pretzels as a come on!! I hope I make at least what you did, Kim! I'd be thrilled!!!

[catnapper]

Karen, I read on a website to also post a sign that says "Prices will be doubled before 8:00" and that keeps the early birds away!

One other thing I learned: On the expensive pieces, don't budge an inch on pricing. Once I budged from $10 down to $4 just to get rid of it, and not even 2 minutes later a guy came looking for it and was ready to spend $10! Another guy offered $5 for another $10 item. I was adamant I wasn't going to settle for less and he gave me the $10. And where you are, you should do as well.... my area is notorius for not having successful yard sales.

I also know what you mean about not being so sentimentally attached. I threw out my childhood Raggedy Ann yesterday. I have no one to pass it on to. The stuffing was feeling "crunchy" and she was stained worse than I remember. I've got to be realisitc and think if we ever move, will I want to move and extra 5 or 6 boxes of sentiment? I found a box of "sentiment" yesterday... still wrapped in the same newspaper from December 2, 1987. If its been 20 years since I last looked at it, I don't need it any more!!! LOL

PS: I made $87 yesterday. Not bad for two days' workl! Of course I spent $200 of it already on such exciting things like a car seat, cleaning supplies, food. ;)