Here are some steps to help you have your own garage sale:
INVENTORY:
Everything is worth something to someone - The old proverb "one man's trash is another man's treasure" rings true at garage sales. Therefore, everything you no longer use in your home or even want to throw away, can turn you a profit in a garage sale.
The best way to go about collecting stuff to sell is to have a large (or several large) moving boxes in a garage or storage room. As your kids outgrow their clothing and toys, as you replace things like towels, tupperware, cups, plates, don't throw it away or store it in your house. Simply put it in your garage sale box. This can be anything from leftover diapers that your baby has outgrown, half used cosmetics (believe it or not!), purses, clothing, fast food toys, unfinished cup sets, old electronics, cd's, and even broken electronics (labeled broken of course - must be honest!).
Begin building up your garage sale inventory until it reaches a point where you and two other friends can calendar a sale. Don't try to do it on your own.
PRICING
This is hard part!
To make it easier, Walmart sells garage sale stickers in the stationary and/or sign section. The stickers are blank or already labeled with prices to simply stick on to the item you are selling. Dana uses another kind of label and thought they were great...they were more like clothing tags that hung off a string...she could loop the tag onto things and the benefit to this was that it would not fall off like the sticker labels tend to do.
How to price....this is tricky too...Pricing at garage sales is not like resale shops...People expect to get a much better deal in your garage than they would if you put it on ebay or in the paper or put in in a consignment shop. So know that they will quickly walk away if you try to sell things anywhere close to half of what you paid for them. Clothing all goes for 1 - 5 dollars depending on the brand..not the quality. T-shirts go for 50 cents. Hard back books go for 1 dollar while paper backs go for 50 cents. Toys and decorative accessories will vary...Dana likes to price a bit higher because people often try to bargain and this leaves a little wiggle room. Nicer toys like big drivable cars and train tables you can price in the double digits. Furniture as well can be double even triple digits, but be prepared to prove it's value and bargain quite a bit. A good line to use when bargaining is, "I would rather keep that then sell it for that price. I still like it." Or something along those lines. Also, remember that the bargaining room increases as the day progresses...the buyer knows this too. Don't be afraid, it is stuff and you are selling it. Be sure to put your initials on all labels so you get the credit for it when it sells.
It helps to have a stash of these stickers on hand so that as you place things in your "garage sale" stash you can price them as you put them in. This part takes the longest and if you have things already priced, it cuts down on set up time a ton!
PLACING AN AD or SIGNS ONLY?
There are pros and cons to placing an add...the pro is simple...the serious shoppers will be hitting your sale if they saw your add...they don't go to the sales that just put out sighs...these shoppers are looking for specific things...electronics, furniture, specific items that they want to find first thing in the morning...they come early and buy a lot! If you have big items or lots of furniture, then certainly place an add and state what items you will have to sell...like baby crib set, or twin bunk beds or "lots of furniture" If you have lot's of toys and kid things, state it in the add. The negative of placing an add is that you are really committed to have the sale in you get to busy and cancel, you will seriously have people knocking on your door or waiting outside you garage wondering where you are. Another negative is that the sale begins very early...like 7:30 am...the early birds with newspapers in hand begin to line up while you are still opening your garage door and setting up the money table. The pros and cons of signs only are easy too...with signs only ...you have to place a lot of signs telling people how to get to your sale and mapping the way with arrows...the best signs are found in the garage sale section at Walmart. Just get garage sale sings and the little wooden stakes (63 cents) and put them out early enough to catch the early birds. If you house is really hard to get to and there are lots of turns off the main streets you might be better off placing an add so people can google a map to your house and do the work for you....either way you still need a few signs. Dana and I have had both kinds of sales...(Ad and signs only) and we have done well at both...the signs only sales are a bit easier in the a.m., so if you are a beginner, I would suggest this one.
THE DAY BEFORE
This is the big day of preparation...
1. Everyone needs there stuff in the garage by lunch time and all parties involved need to be prepared for a full days work...but the earlier you get it set up the earlier you can order dinner (on the sale) and hang out and relax. Also, all parties involved need to bring their stuff priced...this is HUGE!!!! Setting up is so easy, when all items are priced.
2. Divide the garage in to sections. Set up tables and even label the sections to make it easier for new folks to bring their items in and place them in the appropriate places. Some of the sections we have are: Kitchen, Bath, Home Decor, Electronics, Children's, Seasonal, Clothes, Books, and Shoes. Our clothes are hung up in the back of the garage on an old curtain rod. T-Shirts are placed in a big box for folks to sift through. We also have boxes of girls clothes and boys clothes (we have found it is too hard to separate those by size. We have underwear, pjs and shorts in boxes too. Be sure and leave room for folks to walk. It is a good idea to leave the garage closed until the morning of so we place stuff right in front of the garage doors that we plan to pull out on the driveway the morning of. This usually includes toys, shoes, and a few tables of home decor.
3. Details:
* Make sure someone is in charge of money. This should be one person - gets too confusing when more than one is doing it. We usually get 50 or so dollars in change. Mostly 1's and 5's and only get quarters, nickels and dimes. No need for pennies. I do one roll of each. You have to do this before the banks close because if you go to Walmart or a grocery store late at night - they do not always want to help. Dana and her sister had a garage sale in Colorado and no one would give them change late one night as they were setting up - so they went to a car wash center and got change for their dollar bills. :)
* Make sure someone is in charge of coffee and donuts for the morning of. :)
* Snacks - make sure someone brings snacks and drinks.
* Someone has to put out signs on the morning of. Spending the night is not a bad idea - we have a blast, make it a party - order some fun food and take it out of earnings. Make the signs the night before and label where they go.
* Have fun! Make it a party. Be sure and enjoy the day and relax.
THE DAY OF:
* Allow an hour before the garage sale starts to get things set up. If you have placed an ad you need to have a rope or something set up because folks will try to come in before you are ready. Don't be afraid to say we are not open yet.
* First, put out signs.
* We get up and have some coffee and hopefully some donuts as we pull things out of the garage. Try to put as much as you can on the driveway - it draws folks in.
* Check out table is very important. Have it set up on the end or close to the end of the driveway. Two folks need to be working it. One to do the tally of money and one to help call out prices and bag them up (we save grocery bags all year to give folks). You can organize the check out however you want but make sure all know what is going on and that if you have a lot of big bills, run them inside every now and then.
* Make sure to go around and tidy up the garage as the day goes on - it helps things to sell.
* If it gets slow be sure and check your signs - sometimes they fall or are taken away - so that can be a reason why you are slow.
CLEAN UP:
* Make sure you communicate the need for everyone to help clean up. It is a messy day! This means taking their stuff back, or getting arrangements made for Purple Heart to come and pick the items up. It can also mean helping the host clean up the kitchen and the messy areas of the house.
* Then go home, put on your pj's and watch a movie. :)
Other Garage Sale Tips!
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