I will be having a yard sale soon. What makes a "good yard" sale besides having a good variety of stuff. Any interesting ideas. What have you experienced, bad and good. I have alot to sell and am looking for some "short cut" ideas. I have not been to many yard sales, so I am not quite sure how to set up for one, a huge one that is.

By Janet on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 03:47 pm:

Price to sell, that's my advice. You will NOT get what an item is worth, nor will others value your things the way you did. I usually sell baby clothes for .25-.50 each, and they are gone (which is what I want). Also, a neat idea a friend of mine got me into years ago, was this: rather than arrange things nicely on a table (which will get messed up anyway), put like items into laundry baskets with a sign. For example, all onesies in a basket with a sign, "Onesies, .25 each." Or a basket of toddler pants, or socks, or sweatshirts, etc. You get the idea. I usually hang dresses, and only individually price the special things (like fancy dresses or never used clothes). I've also found that adult clothes don't sell, but you can try. Gee! I didn't know I had so much advice! Good luck!

By Coopaveryben on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 03:55 pm:

I agree, Price to sell...you don't want to bring the stuff back in. I put outfits together in large baggies...gallon size, put an index card with the price and description, it just keeps the outfits clean and together and you can get more for them that way.

I also make boxes of toys....25, .50., 1.00 and just throw stuff in, kids love going through it and it saves you time. I also do this for t-shirts and other misc. clothes.

By Texannie on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 04:08 pm:

We have had "everything's a dollar" sales and they have worked great. Sometimes, I might have to bundle items together (like 4 pairs of socks).

By Karen~moderator on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 04:10 pm:

Ditto.....price to sell. Baggies work for outfits, and safety pinning 2-piece outfits together works well.

Kids clothes and toys and stuff like strollers, bikes, etc. usually sell GREAT.

Houseware type stuff sells fairly well in my area simply because I live in an area where a lot of people have fishing/hunting camps and they are always looking for bedding, lamps, old furniture, dishes......whatever, doesn't matter if it matches or not.

The garage sales I've been involved in, near the end of the day, we'd put stuff into big boxes and sell the entire thing for a few $$. Just to get rid of it!

We also had previously arranged for Salvation Army or a similar foundation which works with donations to pick everything that was left up.

By Trina~moderator on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 04:48 pm:

If you plan to place baby gear in your yard sale make sure there are no recalls first.

CPSC - Find Recalls

PLEASE, please do not sell any car seats or boosters that are more than 6 yrs. old and/or do not meet these guidelines.
Used Seat Checklist

By Tunnia on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 04:55 pm:

Make sure that you have plenty of change on hand. Everyone who shows up at your garage sale in the first hour is going to hand you a $20 bill for a $1 item and you will run out of small bills and change very quickly. Also decide ahead of time if you are willing to take a check so you know what to tell someone when they ask.

Have plenty of grocery sacks on hand so that when someone buys several items you can bag them. Also have newspaper so you can wrap breakables.

If you have enough grocery sacks near the end of the sale then you can hand a sack to everyone who comes in the last hour of your garage sale and tell them they can fill the bag and pay $1 for the bag's contents. That's a good way to get rid of whatever is left over.

Make lots of big signs with big letters. There is no need to advertise what is at your garage sale just make a sign in huge letters on a poster board that says "Yard Sale" and a big arrow pointing the way. Make all signs identical so that people following your signs know when they've reached the right place.

Keep rearranging your stuff so that from the road so it always looks like there is plenty of stuff left to buy. Move things out of the garage to the driveway. Make the sale look as big as possible so that more people are inclined to stop and take a look.

Price everything if possible. A lot of people would rather not buy something than ask how much you want for it.

Good luck with your sale and be sure to take some of the proceeds and go out to dinner that night because you are going to be tired!

By Momaroze on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 05:16 pm:

Thanks guys!

No carseats for sale. Personally I wouldn't feel comfortable selling one. I do have an almost new stroller, I have 2 so I don't need the other. I thought of bags, but not newspaper to wrap the breakables in, Of course, what was I thinking! I love the everything for a dollar sale too. I am going to consider that one.

BOOKS, I have so many to sell. Lots of videos, some with jackets some without and mostly childrens videos. Lots of household knick knacks, kids clothing, plants, lamps....

I guess at yard sale prices you pretty much are giving the stuff away. My dh keeps telling me to price higher...I keep thinking though if I was to buy this item at a garage sale what would I be willing to pay for it. Good idea, right?

By Bellajoe on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 05:19 pm:

When we had a sale a few years ago, we wanted to make money but mostly wanted to GET RID OF THE STUFF so my brother made a HUGE banner and wrote "MAKE US AN OFFER" on it. We did have prices on things, but we got a lot of lower offers and sold a lot of stuff that way. We still made a few hundred dollars also!

When the sale was over we put everything that was left into my brothers truck and took it up to Salvation Army, our rule was "None of this stuff goes back into the house."

By Mommyathome on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 05:20 pm:

We were actually out "yard sale-ing" this past weekend. We usually don't buy anything....just go to look. Once we found a beautiful wooden rocking horse for 2 dollars. We bought it We still have it, and love it!
Anyway, I hate to go to yard sales where the stuff is dirty/dusty. I like things to be cleaned, and organized and priced.
I think that the yard sale needs to look good from the street. Sometimes we drive by yard sales and look from the street and decide to keep on driving because it looks dirty or trashy with things just thrown where ever.
Also, I would make sure that your yard is clean and freshly mowed.
I don't know if it's just me, or if everyone is like this.....but we will pass by a yard sale based on what the house looks like. I figure if the house looks a little dumpy, that the stuff they are selling has probably been treated dumpy as well.
Good luck with the sale! Hope you make LOTS of money!!

By Amecmom on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 05:48 pm:

When you do ads and signs post specific hours and specify "No Early Birds" In my area, the antique hunters come out a dawn to try and snatch up the stuff they think is worth something.

Bagged lots are good. A bunch of baby clothes or similar items in a bag for a few bucks. This way, you get rid of the good with the not so great.

We did several before we moved and then one after we moved.

If you do a weekend, use tables that you can move in and out of your garage so you don't have to set up everything again.

Keep your door locked. If someone you don't know asks to use the bathroom - say you'd love to let them, but you're pet sitting a large dog for a friend and you know he does not take well to strangers. Better safe than sorry.

Most of all - have fun! If you can, set up a break in the hours so you can have some down time.
Ame

By Annie2 on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 10:37 pm:

Be ready for the early birds. These are the people that will buy things right off the bat, while you are still setting up, the larger items, etc. They usually buy them to resell them at their own flea markets. STAY FIRM on the price of items with these people.
They go for the larger, resaleable (sp)items such as bikes, furniture, strollers, doll houses, etc.
These are also the items which draw other people to your sale, so you don't want to get rid of them dirt cheap. They will sell on their own throughout the am.

Good luck!

By Bea on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 11:09 pm:

If you don't live on a main road, be sure to have signs out directing folks to your place. I've found that those wire signs that politicians place in yards at election time are great. Turn the plastic sleeve inside out on the wire, and write on the white plastic with a Sharpie. Tie a few balloons to it, and post them anywhere you find a strip of grass. They are easy to collect at the end of the sale also. The staked signs with balloons seem to catch my eye much faster than those nailed to telephone poles. Near the end of the day post CLEARANCE on all your signs.

By Bellajoe on Tuesday, April 27, 2004 - 09:49 am:

Also, NEVER NEVER NEVER leave your money unattended...my sister once told me to wear an apron with pockets and put money in that if you decide to walk around or something.

I also agree with Robin, make everything look neat and organized, if something you want to sell is dirty, clean it...it is more likely to sell if it looks clean. bring some of it out of the garage onto the driveway...it looks like you have more stuff this way. Organize your stuff, put baby items in one section, books in another section, household items in another sections, etc.

Ask people if they are looking for something specific, that may help you sell stuff that the buyer looks right past.

By Momaroze on Tuesday, April 27, 2004 - 10:07 am:

More great suggestions!!

By Karen~moderator on Tuesday, April 27, 2004 - 10:13 am:

Ditto those who mentioned having change on hand and bags too. When my neighbors and I used to have garage sales, we'd all save our grocery bags for that purpose. We also had a LOT of change, and we had a cashbox we kept all the money in. Since there were usually 4 families involved in the garage sale, one of us sat at a card table we had set up with the cashbox and a notebook to record the sales for each of us. To make this easier, we all used different color stickers/tags on our items. The person who was doing this did nothing else, just the sales themselves, and was responsible for the money. At the busy times, we frequently removed money from the cashbox and put it in the house. We actually had a couple of the DH's on hand as *security* guys to make sure we weren't getting ripped off. You'd be surprised, carloads of people would show up with these huge purses/bags and start asking all kinds of questions in different areas to distract us. We learned this the hard way the first time.

The earlybird thing stated above is true too. Definitely stand firm on the big item prices early on because people with flea markets definitely show up early to get those things.