20 Tips for Selling at a Garage Sale
A friend and I are ardent garage salers.
Once the weather turns a little warmer we’re out on the trail of a good bargain. I’ve had a few garage sales myself but I’m more of an expert bargain finder than a seller. However, looking at it from that point of view I came up with a list of ways to have a successful sale that I’ve learned over the years and things that attract buyers.
- The ultimate goal of the sale is to get rid of as much stuff as possible. To do that you’re going to need to price low.
- Take out anything you want to get more money for and consider selling it in your local paper’s classifieds, eBay or Craigslist. What usually happens if you price it too high is you end up with it and end up taking it to Goodwill anyway.
- Consider re-gifting items with tags on or giving to friends.
- Take out sentimental items. They’ll be too hard to sell and you’ll overprice them because subconsciously you don’t want to get rid of them!
- Wash all clothes/Wipe down items.
- Remove stained clothes and place in a “free” bin. I know if we see one stained item we move on as we figure maybe it all is.
- Have a “free” basket and allow people/kids to take one item each.
- Price everything or have an easy pricing system.
- Price it to go or take it to Goodwill at the end. Remember Point #1.
- Sell food. Not only will this make you money but it draws crowds and crowds buy. Most places we see hot dogs, chips and pop for $2.
- Place big attractive items by the curb. That will draw in “drive by” people.
- Don’t have your sale two days running. If people see that in the paper they’ll assume it’s picked over.
- If you can, have it as part of a subdivision sale.
- A few hours before closing (say noon) start to mark items down. We met some ladies who every 30 minutes were getting up and marking stuff down. They had sold nearly all their stuff that way.
- Presentation is the difference between people driving by and stopping.
- Use flags and balloons to draw attention.
- Use already marked stickers that you can buy cheap at the dollar store to price your items for easy pricing.
- Advertise well. I went to a subdivision sale once which wasn’t in the paper. Needless to say they had hardly any visitors.
- People at garage sales are looking for deals. Be willing to deal if you want to sell things.
- Finally, remember, this is not new stuff! Price it low or…………….take it to Goodwill afterwards.
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