A Dozen Tips For Holding The Best Garage Sale

A Dozen Tips For Holding The Best Garage Sale



A great way to get yourself some extra cash is to consider having a garage sale and selling all off those items you no longer need. Remember the motto; one man's junk is another man's treasure! To help you get started we have provided you with the top dozen tips to help make your garage sale a successful one.

1. Be clear with what you want to achieve from holding a garage sale. Do you want to just get rid of unwanted items, or are you trying to make money? This will affect how you price your items and whether or not you are willing to negotiate. If items are going into the bin if they don't sell, then you don't want to overprice your items as getting some cents / dollars here and there is better than getting nothing. If you are really trying to get top dollar for your wares, then maybe selling them through places such as eBay or the Trading Post might be a better option.

2. Advertise your garage sale. Use signs around the neighbourhood, advertise in the local paper, put up a note on your community notice board, etc. Make sure your signs can be clearly read from a distance, use enticing words to draw people to your sale and ensure you have your address clearly written.

3. Presentation is everything! Lay your items out so that they can be clearly seen and that people can easily walk around and look at them. Take time to carefully plan your presentation as you want people to be drawn to your sale and to stop to take a look. Perhaps sell your items in your driveway or front yard. Walk around yourself as if you were a customer. What can you see easily, what is hidden from view and what obstacles are in the way?

4. Place highly desirable items near the road in view of those driving by. People are then likely to stop to take a look around if the garage sale looks like it is fully of interesting wares.

5. Put like items together. Have a book shelf with all of the books you are selling, have a section with all of your old sporting equipment, have a table with all your old electrical items, have some racks with your old clothes etc. This way the buyers will be drawn to particular items that are of interest to them.

6. Go beyond. If selling electrical items, have a power point / extension lead nearby so that buyers can test that the equipment works well. If your wares need batteries, put new batteries in them. If you have working manuals / documents for your items, display them beside the item. Maybe see if you can get documentation from the internet else, and print these out. If an item has multiple parts / components display these so buyers can see you have all the relevant bits and pieces.

7. Have easy to read price tags / labels on your items. There is nothing worse than being at a sale and not knowing how much an item is. Most people are too scared to ask and will walk away. Take time to view your own items and ask yourself the question if you would pay that price for a 2nd hand item.

8. Use the old scout motto "Be Prepared". Set up your garage sale the night before so that you don't have a panic on the day of your sale.

9. Be friendly and wear a great big smile. People will feel more at ease looking at your wares if you greet them nicely and are friendly toward them. Perhaps consider playing some nice music also to avoid deathly silence.

10. Be willing to bargain your prices down. Everyone likes to think they got a great deal, so by taking a dollar off here or there it will make buyers feel good about themselves. So a trick might be to add a bit extra to your price tag with the view in mind that you are willing to negotiate down a bit. But remember, if the item is going in the bin if it doesn't sell then an offer to buy could be something worth holding onto.

11. Secure your home so that buyers can't go wandering off into areas of your property that you don't want them to.

12. Have plenty of change in your pockets so that people who arrive with large notes can still buy from you. This would include small notes and plenty of coins. You wouldn't want to miss a sale just because you couldn't give them change. Keep money on your person, and don't have a cash box laying around.

Consider asking your friends, family, neighbours to also bring along their unwanted items to your garage sale. They too might be able to make a few extra dollars. The more items your garage sale has the more attractive it will be to buyers plus the extra hands will also be able to help you out during the sale.

By putting in a bit of extra effort before you hold your garage sale it can make a big difference to whether you end up throwing your wares unsold into the garbage bin or whether you make quite a bit of money.