Garage Sale Tips?
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion: Archive September 2006:
Garage Sale Tips?
We are moving, I'm cleaning house! We have a crawl space full to the brim with stuff we don't need, use or even know we have anymore.
I want to have a garage sale on the weekend any tips or suggestions?
TIA
Have everything priced. I find that a lot of people will not ask a price. But if everything is already priced, they are more willing to buy it.
Do not have things in boxes, because people do not like to rummage through things, they like to be able to easily see what is there.
If possible, hang clothes up, if not, have them folded nicely and sorted into winter/summer and sizes and male/female.
If you have anything that needs to be plugged in, have an extension cord handy so people can see that it really works.
Place lots of different, eye catching things on tables facing the road/sidewalk so that people will see things that interest them. Catch their eye, and they will stop and then see the rest of the items.
I've always found that toys and children's clothing sell very well.
Good luck and have fun!
Thanks Adena,
I have lots of toys and children's clothing, any suggestions on pricing?
Also glad you mentioned placement, when I drive by a garage sale I'm always kind of shy to stop especially if the stuff is placed too close to the house rather than the road. We have a large driveway and my instinct said to place things near the garage, but after reading your post I'll place things closer to the road, further down the driveway.
Do you think I should advertise in the local paper or just put out large signs the night before? Which day do you think is better Sat. or Sun.?
Thanks again.
Around here, garage sales are best on Thursday and Friday. Saturday, we are busy in the morning but dead from about noon and after. Friday is packed and some are even starting on Thursday now!!
Oh, and I would definately put it in the paper. Garage salers often map out their route with ads in the paper. LOL And put your signs up a day or so before your sale with the dates and times.
Thank you, thank you!
I've been going through the crawl space for hours, I've found stuff I haven't seen in 5 years and stuff we haven't used in 10!
DH is going to fight me on this but it's going and he'll have to be here to pull it out of peoples hands if he want to keep it, in fact he'll have to pay me if he wants to keep it. LOL!
LOL...My suggestion is donate it and write if off your taxes or sell the good stuff on ebay. I wouldn't do a garage sale to save my life. LOL Too big of a pain. 
As far as pricing, regular clothes for kids, I have found, sell much better if they are a little cheaper. A person will just keep on picking things up to purchase if they are priced .50 or something. If they are priced 2 or 3 dollars, they are going to just pick out a couple things they like the most. Of course, as Deanna mentioned, you can also sell clothes on eBay and sometimes do well. But some don't find eBay worth the hassle of listing, and e-mailing, and shipping, etc. I find garage sales a lot of fun!
Well DH likes Deanna idea, he just wants to get rid of it and thinks a garage sale is too much of a hassle. He might be right, my family room is full and I'm only half done with the crawl space, then there is the garage and the furnace room and the kids bedrooms and the rest of their toys to go through. It will take me 2 weeks to put together a proper sale.
I'll call the Diabetes Association, I know they pick-up and resale and we also have a charity run store here called Value Village, but I don't know if they pick-up. There's no way I will be able to convince DH to load up the van and drop this stuff off. We used to donate to the Salvation Army but now they want to check every item before accepting it, so sometimes just leave stuff at the door after hours.
I'll keep you posted if we go ahead with the garage sale.
Thanks for all the helpful tips!
Any ads you do, say, "no early birds" or you'll have people knocking on your door at 6 am. Good luck. Price things low if you want them to sell.
Ame
I just personally think HAVING a garage is a pain and gets no $, and if I'm going to go through the hassle of tagging and sitting for 8 hours, I was some cash. LOL Now, I like GOING to garage sales but that's a different story.
I would call anyone that will pick up and let them take it! We did that right before we had Natalie and had several larger pieces of furniture that we got rid of, in addition to smaller things. For baby things, WOW on how great those go on ebay for great $. I'm always surprised what those baby items go for when they could be bought new for the same price?
I just got together a small load of "donate" items today. We generally do the Rescue Mission, the local Women's Shelter(domestic violence) and if you have lots of baby items, what about a home for unwed mothers? I usually make a donation to ours once a year with a new purchase of something they need, just because I haven't gotten rid of any baby things yet.
The other thing abouta garage sale is that it probably all won't go and you have to end up donating it anyway or taking it all to the dump, whatever you choose. It's a great tax write-off, but not sure how that works in Canada.
Deanna, I thought about donating all the baby stuff to a shelter but I can't find one! I wanted to donate all the baby stuff and my Mat. clothes. I'll look into it a bit more, I hope they pick-up though.
I'm pretty sure we can write off donations here as well, providing the charity gives receipts, I'll ask for sure. As DH works in the finance/tax field he really like your suggestion. Thanks.
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