OWN successful yard / garage sale.
You can read
Part 1 of this series by clicking here >>
Garage Sale Junkie – Tips for Buying Stuff at Garage Sales.
Trash or Cash? Knowing What to Put in Your Garage Sale:
As you’re going through your junk and trying to decide what to sell at your garage sale, how do you know which items will sell well and which ones don’t?
Here’s a few tips for knowing whether to sell something for cash or trash it, and some suggestions on what to put in your garage sale.
Clothing
Garage sales often have an abundance of clothing, and children’s clothing is often in great demand. Many people go to garage sales with clothing purchases in mind, and as body shapes and tastes change, one person’s trash can become another’s treasure.
Here’s some guidelines for selling clothing at your garage sale…
- Don’t price things too high. People are looking for bargains, and when they are in garage sale mode, they are not going to want to pay $30 for a blazer, even if it did cost you $250 when you bought it new. Clothing should be $2 an item at the maximum, and even $0.25 and $0.50 apiece is not out of the question.
- T-shirts with themes and pictures are not likely to sell. Tourist shirts and shirts that commemorate an event are the same way. The exception is shirts with cartoon characters – many people really like these.
- If you’re going to sell stained or damaged clothes, put them in a special pile. Call it “play clothes” or “painting clothes” or something like that, and offer the whole lot for a couple of dollars. Otherwise, it’s not a good idea to try to sell damaged or stained clothes.
- Fashions do change; a polyester leisure suit is probably not going to sell unless it’s around Halloween! Items that are really dated are best trashed.
Toys
Toys are nearly always a hit. Make sure they are in good condition, and that they work with all the parts present. Toys that are mere bits (like tiny Legos) or that are missing things (like dolls with no clothes) should probably be trashed.
Kitchen Items
People love to pick up kitchen items at garage sales – dishes, appliances, gadget and so forth. If you have owner’s manuals, include those. Dishes that are chipped or cracked probably aren’t going to sell; stick with pieces in good condition. Sell things in sets where it’s cheaper to buy the set – each glass could be $0.50, but the set of six could be $2.
Books
Books often sell pretty well at garage sales if you sell them really cheap. In fact, some people make a bit of side income buying up books at garage sales and selling them on major buying and selling websites. These folks will be looking for books that are somewhat in demand, like cookbooks on healthy cooking and popular novels. Other books that sell well are kids’ books, as long as they are not torn or scribbled in. If so, they’ll need to be trashed.
Skip the Collectibles
If you have an enormous set of baseball cards from the 1960s, and you know they must be worth something but you don’t know how much, sources suggest that you do not sell them or similar collectibles at your garage sale. Instead, research the item(s) to determine the real worth, and try selling online or to an antique store.
Pricing Your Garage Sale Items
It can be a bit difficult to figure out how to price the items you want to sell at your garage sale. This can be especially true if you are selling something with sentimental value, or that was very expensive when you bought it new.
*Remember – this is a garage sale, not a retail shop! You’ll want to sell at garage sale prices, so let’s talk about just what those are.
Here’s some tips to help you in pricing your garage sale items…
Price Your Stuff
Okay, this may seem a bit basic. But too many people give up on pricing altogether and just
put their stuff out. Then, everyone who comes to your sale has to ask you a price, and you’ll have to make one up off the cuff or remember what you’re charging, and you’ll likely lose sales.
People want to browse and compare and budget, and you can’t do that very well if you have to ask about every item. And people who are uncomfortable asking (
that’s me) might just leave your sale, even if there was something they would have bought if it had been priced.
In addition, clearly priced items help prevent haggling and bargaining more, which can get tiring pretty fast.
Pricing Items in Groups
Experienced garage sale folks claim that some visitors will ask how much something is no matter how clearly you have it marked. So choose a method that works for you and your stuff.
Price each item. This can get tedious, but at least it’s pretty obvious how much each thing is. You can use masking tape and a permanent marker, or those little round stickers.
What Should Items Cost?
According to various sources, here’s a rough guideline on what to ask for which items:
* Books: $0.50 to $1 each for hardback, $0.10 to $0.25 for paperback
* Clothing: $1 to $2 each for pants, jeans, sweaters, and skirts; $2 to $4 for dresses and pairs of shoes; kids’ clothes should be about half of what the adult clothing is priced as.
* Kitchen items: $.25 to $0.50 for glasses and mugs; $1 to $2 for pots and pans; plates $0.50 to $1 each. A rough guide for appliances is to ask 15% to 30% of the original cost of the appliance (you could sell a $60 microwave for $9 to $18, for example).
* Toys should be around $0.25 to $1 each
* VCRs: $5 to $15
* Analogue TVs: $5 to $10
* Radios: $0.25 to $3
* Furniture: $5 for small chairs; $10 for small tables; $25-$75 for large dressers, dining tables, and bureaus; $5 to $10 for simple shelves
Tips for Organizing a Garage Sale
So, another question is how do you organize all this stuff to sell it at your garage sale? It can seem quite overwhelming.
Here’s a list of tips that may help to get you organized, and hopefully make some money!
Categorize Your Stuff
Choose an area of your home to organize items into categories. Separate them into themes, like Kitchen, Home Decor, Toys, Adult Clothes, Kid Clothes, Books, etc. While you’re doing this, keep a bottle of spray cleaner and a few rags handy so you can clean up the items as you sort them. This prevents you having to run to the sink to clean items during your organization.
Decide on Your Setup
If you go with tables, figure out how you’ll set them up and where you’ll acquire them. You can make tables easily with sheets of plywood set on cinderblocks, bricks, paint cans, or even books. You can also use blankets and sheets spread out on the ground.
No Yard or Garage?
How do you sell stuff if you don’t have a proper yard, or if you have a difficult-to-access piece of property? Find out if you can hold your sale somewhere else. For a percentage of the proceeds, see if your neighbor will donate his or her yard or driveway. Or contact the owner of a local store and see if you can use the parking lot. Just ask around. Someone will be willing to earn a little bit of commission for using their place.
Advertise
Don’t forget in all your planning to “advertise”. Place the ad in your local paper, place ads online. Share some popular items in your ads that you’ll be selling. Make easy-to-read signs. Place balloons in your yard to draw attention to your sale. If you’re on Facebook tell your friends and ask them to share that information with their friends.
*Featured: All in one – 102 pc. garage sale kit
Pricing
If you just can’t get time to price each item as suggested above, one of the easiest ways is
to group items by price – “Everything on this table/blanket: $1.” You can put individual prices on just the larger single items. Be willing to come down on prices if people offer you something reasonable, especially if the sale is about to end.
Change
Be prepared with lots of small bills and coins on the day of the sale. Someone will inevitably hand you a $20 bill for a $1 item, and if you don’t have the correct change, you may just have to lower the price (they may not have $1 but they’ll probably have a quarter).
Unsold Items
Part of organizing a garage sale is to have a plan for items that don’t sell. You can give them away to a second-hand store or haul them to the dump; the point is, have a plan so you aren’t putting all your stuff back into your house at the end of the day. Borrow a truck if you need to, and have bags handy to stuff unsold items into and toss in the back.
The best thing to do is try to prevent having a lot of stuff leftover to deal with. Again, put items in your garage sale that are in good shape and in demand. Many sellers will inform people on their last day that everything will be half price in the last hour or two. In some areas, large items can be left at the curb for someone to haul off for free. This will help take it off your hands quickly and perhaps help someone in need.
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________]]>
