We had a garage sale over Labor Day Weekend. It was our most successful garage sale ever, we sold most everything we put out! I want to tell you about what I learned and what I think worked to make our garage sale a success.
1.Price To Sell
Don't think of how much you paid for it when you got it, and price it that way.
Price it to sell!
Remember that you are selling it used, and people came looking for a good deal.
That being said, make sure to make SOME money don't price everything for a quarter or you
will be wasting your most precious resource, time. Also, take into account that most people will want to pay less than you marked so keep it at a fair price but something you could negotiate down too.
2. Be Willing to Negotiate
People almost always haggle at garage sales. If what they are negotiating a price for is something that you know no one else has picked up, looked at or seemed interested in then negotiate a price you and the person buying it feel is fair. Remember that getting something for it is better than nothing at all. Also, when you see people who are getting a lot of things make them an extra deal to get them to buy even more. We did a lot of buy 2 get 1 or 3 for a certain price. This worked wonders.
3. Have Lots of Signs
This one was key to our yard sale success. Advertising is important and you will never get as good of advertising as you will with well places signs. Invest in some bright poster board (dollar store sells them for .50 each) and some sign stakes. Make sure if you are a little ways away from major streets to have extra signs pointing people to your house.
4. Advertise!!
There are many ways to advertise your sale. I prefer to use the free ones.
Craigslist is a great way to advertise for free. Make sure you list a lot of things you are selling so your ad will show up when people are searching for more than just yard sale. List baby clothes, specific toys, products and furniture. It will drive more traffic to your ad. Make sure to take a lot of pictures of your items, pictures always help to get more people to your sale.
Facebook buy/sell/trade pages are a fantastic way to advertise for free too. Try to find one for your specific neighborhood and neighborhoods close by. Don't forget to add lots of great pictures of the things you are selling.
5. Half Price At The End Of The Sale
At the last couple of hours of your sale of even the last day. Make everything half off! Make a new ad on Facebook and Craigslist and make an extra small sign to put on your neighborhood signs saying that everything is half price. You will get A LOT of traffic at that point and remember what I said earlier, it's far better to get something for it than nothing at all.
