Yard sales, garage sales, rummage sales, estate sales..whatever you want to call them they can be a great place to find a good deal or get rid of your own junk.
Here's some tips on how to make the most out of your garage sailing trip and how to have a successful garage sale of your own.
Going to Garage Sales
I've been going to garage sales for as long as I can remember. When my parents and I would go on weekend outings, we would stop at every garage sale we came across. Since becoming a mom, I have carried on the garage sailing tradition, as often as I can. For a few years, I staked out the local garage sales every weekend for items to sell on Ebay and Amazon for extra cash, with some success. Nowadays, I try to go to garage sales as often as I can, mostly to look for kids' clothes or stuff I need for around the house. I have learned a few things in my many years of going to garage sales that I'd like to share with you.
Try to find garage sales that are close to where you live or find as many garage sales in one area as you can. I used to go to three different cities on my garage sailing trips, and I would do this about 2-3 times a week. This was when I was selling stuff online. In the end, it's just not worth all the gas money it takes to cover that much ground. Even though it's tempting to branch out to try and find an incredible bargain, stay close to home. If you stay close to home, then try to find neighborhood sales or church rummage sales going on in your area. Church rummage sales are the best because they have a large amount of items from most of the members of their congregation all in one place. No walking from house to house or maneuvering through the traffic of a neighborhood sale.
Get up early. The old saying, "The early bird catches the worm" is especially true of garage sales. The earlier you get out, the more stuff will be at the sales and the stuff that is there will be of better quality. After about 10:30 am, most garage sales are pretty thoroughly picked through. If you're looking for anything besides clothes, you'll probably be out of luck if you wait until after that time. On the other hand, if you wait to go to the sales until about 2 pm in the afternoon, you may be able to get items for a reduced price because people are closing up and don't want to pack all their stuff back into the garage. Some people will give stuff away for free, or nearly free. One of my best friends and I had a garage sale a few years ago. My friend was moving and trying to get rid of extra stuff she didn't want to move. As we were closing the sale in the afternoon, a lady came by and made a deal with my friend to buy all the stuff she had left for $10. That lady's truck bed was filled with all my friend's unwanted stuff when she left and she only paid $10 for it all.
Don't be afraid to ask questions or haggle. The later in the day it is the better success you will find with haggling because, by then, people are really wanting to get rid of their stuff. Don't be unreasonable about it. No one wants to feel like some one's trying to get one over on them. Also, don't be afraid to ask the people that are having the sale any questions that you may have about any of their items. Some people don't price their items at all which, I feel, discourages people from buying (I know it has that effect on me). Just because there's no price on it, don't assume that it's too expensive. It never hurts to ask and you may be pleasantly surprised by the answer. Always ask if you can test out electronics and appliances. You want to make sure you know something works before you buy it because there's really no return policy at a garage sale.
Be sure to have lots of small bills and change with you. Even though they should, sometimes people won't have enough change on hand to break big bills. Be prepared with some quarters, dimes and nickles. Having $20 worth of $1 bills is always a good idea.
Having Your Own Garage Sale
My family and I try to have an annual garage sale to de-clutter in the Spring. The first garage sale I ever had was with my best friend that I mentioned before at her house. We had no idea what we were doing and hardly got any business. A few years ago, before my daughter was born, my family and friends got together and we had a huge charity garage sale to raise money for our hospital and travel expenses for her surgery. It was very successful and we raised almost $1700 in two days. Here's some do's and don't's of having a garage sale that I've learned through the years.
Location, location, location. It's true of real estate and it's true of garage sales. If you live very far out of town, you won't get many people to show up at your sale. My friend and I learned that with our first sale. No one came to our sale because she lived about four miles outside of town. Not too far, but far enough to make a huge difference in the amount of customers we saw. If you do live outside of town, find a friend that lives in town to team up with and have a sale at their house. Even though you have to haul all your stuff to their house you'll have a better chance of getting rid of it and making more money in town.
Put up signs. I used to use Craigslist to plan my garage sailing trips. I don't use it anymore because I've had too many bad experiences involving me going far out of my way chasing down a garage sale that wasn't happening because someone put a well-intentioned ad on Craigslist and then just didn't end up having the sale for one reason or another. I don't go to a sale unless I see a sign for it, anymore. You probably won't have many people come to yours if you don't put up signs, either. Make sure to put out your signs starting at a reasonable distance away from your sale. Find the busiest intersection nearby and start from there. Make sure to put out enough signs to guide people in without any confusion. Put a sign at every intersection, sharp corner, stop sign, etc. Also, make sure that you're signs are colorful and the writing is bold enough to be read from a distance. Place clearly drawn arrows on your signs and include the dates and time of the sale. Sometimes, people do not pick up their old signs , so it helps to be able to distinguish the old signs from the new. Which brings me to my next point, pick up your signs after the sale is over!
Have an organized set up. Get as many tables as you can round up so you can display your items without people having to stoop over to look at them. Hang up as many of the clothes as you possibly can. Try to limit the amount of stuff you have out on the ground or in boxes. People may not have time to go through a box or a pile of stuff on a blanket on the ground. Your stuff just looks more appealing if it's organized. Put similar items together. Keep pricier, smaller items close to you to prevent theft. Remember to start out with lots of change. I'm talking coins and plenty of small bills. Mark all of your items with a price tag, unless you constantly want to be asked how much things cost all day long. If you have lots of smaller items that you can group into similar groups, such as books or toys, it's okay to just put out a sign to let customers know that all the books are the same, set price. This saves you the trouble of having to spend hours marking prices on each little thing. It helps to have grocery bags around for people buying multiple items, as well.
Don't charge too much and keep track of your earnings. If you try to get away with charging too much for your items at a garage sale you won't make any money. The key is to not charge too much or too little. If you want to have a garage sale but are unsure of how to price things, try checking out a few sales yourself to see what others are charging. There is a sort of unspoken etiquette about yard sale pricing that all veterans of garage sailing are familiar with. These people are your core customers and you don't want to run them off by charging new prices for used items. While you're sale is going on, keep track of your earnings. This way at the end of the day, you will know how much money is from the change you started out with and how much is from sales.
Hope you enjoyed these tips and you're ready to hit the garage sales this year!
Bye, for now!
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