Garage Sale Resource Center
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1. Select the date. Timing is everything. It helps to plan your
garage sale for a weekend when your neighbors have already bought a
newspaper ad and made signs to advertise theirs. Of course, it’s bad
form to sponge off your neighbors’ advertising if they have asked you to
pony up some dough for ads or to help them with signs. If they ask, go in
with them on the sale. It’ll be fun. Really. 2. Check the weather forecast, especially if your sale will be held outdoors. Persevering through the rain won’t help you sell those unwanted electronic items. And if your weather is like Seattle’s — rain/clear/ rain/sun/rain/rain/overcast — you can work up a sweat lugging the 19-inch TV repeatedly from house to curbside and back. 3. Gather up your sale items. Never underestimate the market for absolute junk. If you haven’t used something in the past year, pitch it in the pile. Chances are someone will buy it, and if you later want it back, it’ll probably be in their garage sale next year. 4. Set up an attractive sale area. The experts say everything should be sparkling clean and clothing also should be pressed and hung up. That means you should present it to strangers looking better than it ever has since you’ve owned it. Spiff up your sale area with eye-catching balloons, colorful tablecloths or flags. Think about how retail stores catch your eye. Merchandise is presented at eye level, not on tarps or cardboard boxes on the ground. Artfully arrange your knickknacks on tables and hang clothes on racks or clothes lines. Set big, eye-catching items out front to compel those drive-by looky-loos to stop. 5. Clear away clutter. Stray odd objects lying around, such as used pet chew toys and frayed extension cords, tend to go like hotcakes. But that doesn’t mean anybody will take weird Uncle Phil off your hands. Anyway, the point is to display items you want to get rid of and get everything else out of sight. You may have to put “Not for Sale” signs on the tables and clothes racks you’re using for the sale. 6. Clearly mark your sales area. One Seattle family held a sale in their living room, blocking off the kitchen and back bedrooms. But one shopper, not to be deterred, found his way to the back bedrooms, where he began rifling through the closets. He emerged with a box of baseball cards and offered $2 for them. The appalled seller’s reaction: “I don’t think so!” 7. Price items realistically. If your goal is to simply unload stuff, that means dirt cheap. If you want to make a little money, too, just make it cheap. Forget what you paid for it. Most Web garage sale sites recommend pricing items at 10 to 30 percent of retail. For more specific information on pricing, check out roo.com and Mrs. C’s Garage Sale Seminar 8. Develop a strategy to deal with hagglers. Don’t want to haggle? Price everything at twice the price you really want for it so you can accept offers to pay half-price. Ready to haggle? Price everything at twice the price you really want for it. 9. Begin your sale promptly. That means show no sign of life in your house unless you’re ready to open for business. One Kansas woman learned this when she flipped on the light in her bathroom at 6 a.m., only to have shoppers begin beating on her front door. 10. View the sale as a study in the human condition to get you through the long day. You’ll see people and behavior you swear are sick! sick! sick! Especially if you catch a glimpse of yourself in some castoff mirror. 11. Maximize your profit. Stay away from your neighbors’ garage sale! Repeat: Stay away from your neighbors’ garage sale! 12. Develop a plan for items that don’t sell. Donating them to charity is a good plan. Many make pickups; arrange it before the sale. Another idea is to give unsold items to an artist who specializes in “found objects.” Just imagine the possibilities! DO NOT, under any circumstances, simply put everything back in the garage. |
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