Garage/Yard Sale Tips
One of the easiest ways to find secondhand and vintage treasures is at garage sales, and they’re usually pretty available in whatever location you live in. But when you’re a buyer, there are times when the spaces in your home start to overflow, and a person just needs to clear out some junk! Time for someone else to get the opportunity to treasure hunt at your house! Today I’ll share the garage sale tips I’ve learned from attending a lot of other people’s sales, and having some of my own!
Signs:
Signs are oh, so important! If you put all the other details in place, and no one comes, it will all be a waste! When I’m garage saleing in a different neighborhood, addresses don’t mean anything to me, therefore I appreciate simple arrows and a distance estimation. I don’t want to follow signs for 5 miles…it’s kind of like being on hold. Let your customers know how close/far they will need to go.
Also, have all your signs look the same! Same color (fluorescent paper is good) same font, etc, so people will be able to hunt you down. And make the words LARGE! Can you read it, sitting at the stop sign across the intersection? You don’t want your signs causing accidents, because people are trying to read the small words.
Days and times are essential. When a dealer shows up at 7:30 AM, and you’re still brushing your teeth you can honestly say you’re not ready yet. But be ready at least 1/2 hour early.
A short description of what you have can be a teaser also: “Baby and Kid’s Items”, “Tools”, “DIY”, etc.
List your sale on Craig’s List with sneak peaks of what you have! Pictures will draw people to your sale! Make sure to include your address and sale times/days.
Note: We used a posterboard cut in half, stapled around a sharpened-at-one-end board. We left the end of the board open at the top, so we could hammer it into the ground. Unfortunately our first day they all got soaked and were flopping pretty badly. We had to spruce them up for the 2nd day by inserting a crib dowel in a T fashion between the paper, and then strengthening the top and bottom with duck tape.
Display:
When people are driving by, you want a wide variety of items to be seen, so they will want to stop. I’m not into plastic baby and kids items, so if that’s all I see…I will keep on driving. Have a variety of items visible from the road.
As people enter, purposely put items that appeal to different customers all up front. Plastic kids toys, older kids’ sports items, architectural/vintage items, and crafty/decor items show you’ve got something for everyone.
Group like items together:
A table of games, a boy’s toys table, a girl’s toys table, decor, clothes, linens, crafts… whatever customers are looking for, they can head to that table. Also putting toys down low at kids’ eye level will definitely increase your sales! Purposely place a long, low table of trucks near the clothes table, so mom’s can be shopping while their wiggly kids are playing with the trucks. Voila’…sales for both!
Have a “FREE” box!
It’s as fun as finding roadside treasures! Place it away from the checkout, so people don’t have to be embarrassed that they’re digging. I’ve found some of my best finds in free bins! And it’s so fun to see kids find a treasure. Items that you were maybe going to mark .25 or under…save your tape and put them here instead. Stacks of home decorator magazines are a great freebie, too!
Marking/Pricing:
You have to price your items! I hate going to sales where stuff is not marked! The rationalization is that people can just give you an offer. No. I am too nice and don’t want to insult you when I want to pay $2, and you’re thinking $15. If you want your stuff to go away, and don’t want to spend the time marking it…take it to a thrift store and get a donation. Sorry to be mean:( If you miss one or two items, totally understandable.
Don’t use too sticky of tape. Masking tape can be really hard to get off and can permanently damage some items. We used a combo of painter’s tape, duct tape and masking, depending on the material. Little circle tags like church sales use could make your job easier {see “Church Sales 101”}.
If you have several people selling items, have everyone use either a different color tape, or put their initials on the tape. Have a different sheet for each person to attach their tags to. It’ll be fun for the kids to see what they’ve sold and be adding it up throughout the day!
Checkout:
Have the kids run your checkout! With supervision, of course. It’s a great learning experience of organization, math and people skills. I taught the kids to take all the tags off and line them up on the table as they were adding, so the customer could see also. I then told them to leave out the bill they had been given until they gave the customer change, in case there was any question. I taught them how to count back the change, “3,4,5, and 5 makes 10, and 10 makes 20.” So many people never learned this valuable skill! After the customer left, they put all the tags on the different sheets. They also learned one of them always needed to be near the cash box, and we brought larger amounts into the house after awhile (lock your door or keep an eye on your house; burglars can take advantage of your distraction).
Have bags and packaging material available also.
Honestly, the whole thing is a lot of work and probably why I don’t do many garage sales! I enjoy attending them way more than having them! Most of the time I would rather just give my extra stuff to a local thrift store for a donation. But it is a great experience for the kids, and fun if you coordinate it with a friend or two, or family. It’s also fun to meet neighbors and other local residents! Kind of like trick or treating;) If you can schedule your sale with other neighbors or your town, that will help bring traffic also.
Last Tip: Someone will inevitably come to your door afterwards and want to buy something they saw at the sale! Don’t put everything away too fast!
Hope these Garage Sale Tips will help if you decide to clear out some junk! It’s always nice to make a little extra cash, too (then you can hit some “Estate Sales“, “Church Sales” or have cash for roadside junk, “Curbside Junking”). Or…just enjoy having less stuff for awhile!
Sharing at these lovely parties:
Great tips, Lora! I’ve walked away from more than one sale that didn’t have price tags! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!
You’re definitely not alone, Cecilia!
Loved your ideas. When I was foolish enough to do a yard sale, I used whole sheets of neon pink and green poster paper and painted the signs with 1″ foam brushes. Got their attention! I, too, hate unpriced stuff. I’ll usually ask the prices for a couple of things and if those are reasonable, I usually assume everything is reasonable–works for me!
Also, keep the bulk of your money in a pocket so thieves aren’t tempted to clean out your cash box, good jewelry, etc. Those people are out there; they often work in pairs; one to distract, the other to steal.
If kids aren’t selling their own stuff, let them have a lemonade, water, soda stand; yard saling is thirsty work!
Thanks for more tips, Kathy!
Thanks for the reminders! I need to have a garage sale, but it probably won’t be until the fall at this point.
Me, too, Fonda! Just can’t seem to have a date available:(