I have held a grand total of four garage sales in my life. Only four. So, I am obviously by no means an expert. However, all four of my sales have been successful.
For the first one, I was living in a house in Nebraska and had some pretty big ticket items to sell. My Grandma came over and helped me and we sold almost everything.
My second one was sort of an ‘unconventional’ sale….I was moving and I was living in an apartment and I had no garage or yard to speak of. So I held an ‘indoor’ moving sale. I basically sold ¾ of my belongings (which really wasn't a lot). I pretty much moved everything I was going to keep to one corner of my living room, draped a huge sheet over it, and then left everything else right where it was and put a price on it. I priced things to sell (like an entire bedroom set for $75), because I HAD to sell everything. I made almost $800 which paid for my move to New Mexico with money leftover.
My third sale was 2 years ago at my mother-in-law’s house. She had a couple of big-ticket items (anything over $50 to me is a ‘big ticket’ item ha ha) and we sold about 90% of the stuff we had set out.
And my last one was earlier today. It also was successful. We sold almost everything we put out and everything that didn't sell I loaded into my CRV and dropped off at the Goodwill on my way home.
Here are my tips:
1. This is the MOST important tip of all and I cannot stress this enough: Do NOT think of your garage sale as a way to make money. Think of it as a way to get people to come and haul away your crap for free. The money is just a bonus. If you go into it expecting to make a certain amount of money, you will be disappointed. I guarantee it.
2. PRICE THINGS TO SELL. People who shop at garage sales are looking for great deals. What kind of prices do YOU like to see at garage sales? Are you going to pay $1 for a 3-year-old spatula? No. But would you pay a quarter? Maybe. The general rule is to price things ¼ of their original price. But I tend to go a lot lower than that. Mostly because I WANT THINGS GONE. That is the whole point of my sale. I am not trying to make money. You will NEVER get what you think the item is actually worth. I know that sounds negative, but it’s true. That’s why you have to change your mindset and not think about the money. About 90% of people that have garage sales end up disappointed because they thought they would make more money. Let me tell you something….your stuff is not worth nearly as much to someone else as it is to you. They don’t care how much you paid for it brand new. They just want a great deal.
3. Advertise for free on Craigslist. For my first garage sale (more than 10 years ago) I put an ad in the local paper. For my second garage sale, I handed out flyers to my friends (I didn’t want strangers in my apartment). For my 3rd and 4th garage sales, I only advertised on Craigslist. I did put out a couple of signs on the main road with arrows pointing the way, but that’s it. And we had plenty of traffic, just from the Craigslist ad alone.
4. Have plenty of change on hand. I recommend going to the bank and getting $100 worth of change: 4 $10s, 5 $5s, 25 $1s, and one roll of quarters. Keep the money on you at all times. I have a wristlet pouch that I keep all of the money in that I carry around. It also holds a small calculator for adding up things.
5. Put a price on EVERYTHING. There is nothing more annoying than going to a garage sale and picking up something and looking for a price tag that isn’t there. I’ve done that and then put the item right back down because I don’t want to ask. Price everything. Both Target and Walmart sell pre-printed neon colored garage sale stickers that are inexpensive and huge time savers.
6. Make large signs for the larger items. They don’t have to be fancy, a sharpie and a plain piece of paper work just fine.
7. Have plastic bags ready for people that are buying more than one or two things.
8. As things start to sell, rearrange what you have left. Consolidate what’s left so that your tables don’t look bare. Move things towards the front of the driveway towards the street.
9. Don’t hover. Many garage sale tip sites will tell you to be engaged with your customers and talk to them. I think completely the opposite. My theory is to be AVAILABLE if someone has questions, but don’t hover or try to make conversation with them. Do sales people do that to you at Target? No. But they are available if you need them.
10. If someone offers to give you a lower price on something, take it. Remember, your objective is NOT to make money but to get rid of your stuff. So negotiating is always an option unless you’re planning to keep the item if it doesn’t sell (which I don’t recommend either).
11. If you have anything left at the end of your garage sale, load it up in your car and IMMEDIATELY drive it to Goodwill. Do NOT save it for a possible future sale. What if you don't have another sale next year? Do you really want to hang on to $20 worth of stuff in the corner of your garage for a year in the off-chance that it might sell? No. Get rid of it immediately.
12. Only have your sale one day. It’s way too much work to have a 2-day sale, and everyone knows that all of the good stuff will be gone after the first day anyways.
13. Mark things down in the afternoon. At our last garage sale, most everything was gone around noon. From noon until 2:00, we told everyone that came by that everything was ½ off. By 2:30, I had one small box of stuff in my CRV to drop off at the Goodwill. If you want to get rid of your stuff, LET IT GO. Today, we had a mad rush from 8:30 - 9:30, then a huge lull until about noon, then a rush again from noon - 1:00. After noon, we told everyone that came that everything was half off and everything was negotiable.
Close up shop when you're done. We closed down today at 1:00. So our garage sale lasted only 4.5 hours and we got rid of tons of stuff and made a little money too! We were both pleased with the outcome. Our general rule of thumb is to close down shop when you can fit everything that's left into one carload for Goodwill.
And that's it! Here's a poor picture of what we started out with today:
It's hard to tell here but we had a grill and also an entire set of patio furniture (both sold), a bathroom cabinet (sold) and some bookshelves and a mirror and dresser (all sold). And we weren't even totally set up at this point, there was more in the garage. This was around 8:30.
And here's what was left at noon:
At this point we told everyone that came that everything was 1/2 off. So most all of it went from noon until 1:00. It was great! My mother-in-law had the big ticket items and she was so glad to get rid of them.
And there's my garage sale tips. :)
