Yard Sale Portal: How to Have a Yard Sale

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Yard Sale Portal
June 24, 2006
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For higher priced and finer items have a separate area.
Start your yard sale or garage sale at or a little before the time you specify in your sale advertisement. If you are not ready for the sale on time many of the shoppers will leave and will never come back because they usually plan a route and don't back track too often.
Make sure there is enough room for your yard sale. Block your drive way and have your visitors park on the street. This helps the yard shale shoppers to freely move around.
To protect your property and to take into account the safety of the yard sale shoppers:
- Have at least one good size trash can near the entrance to your sale to avoid tossing trash on your property
- If you have sprinkler heads that stick up mark/cover them with something that is clearly seen
- Place a sawhorse across the front of your driveway so that cars can't use it to turn around there.
- Place a "Not Responsible For Accidents" sign up.
Do not place the clothing under direct sun to avoid sun fade. You can use a canopy, rig up some tarps or display clothes on the porch.
In advertising your yard sale or garage sale:
- Don't forget to advertise your yard sale online.
- Check into your local and community laws concerning yard sales.
- Some communities require a yard sale permit.
- Make your yard sale signs noticeable with big and bright letters and arrows. Standard pre-made reusable yard sale and garage sale signs can be very helpful.
- The more signs the better.
- You need a sign especially in front of the place where you are having your yard sale. Post this one on the morning of the sale, and only after you have most of your items laid out and ready to go
- Place the date and street name on your signs.
- It is important for you sign to be readable by people who are driving by. So get on the car and check to see if you can read your signs. Use bright fluorescent poster board on top of cardboard for extra strength in case of winds.
- Posting a "Garage Sale Tomorrow" sign attracts many of the garage sale shoppers. Yes, Psychology plays a big role!
- Do not forget to remove all signs after the yard sale is over.
Cleaned up the items are more likely to sell than dirty items. So clean the items up.
Be careful in pricing:
- Putting a price on everything helps to sell.
- Use standard removable preprinted price labels to price your items.
- Prices should be kept simple, ideally in multiples like, 10 cents, 25 cents, 50 cents, $1.00, etc. Pricing an item $2.99 does not work. It is not yard salish and it is difficult to add. Depend on the condition of an item price it about 20% or 1/3 of the new one.
- You have to be more generous when pricing clothes as they are harder to sell.
- Group your items and price them the same. For example, have a dollar table; all toys this group 50 cents; this group $1; all shoes $2 per pair; all clothes $1 per piece (this brings $2 for a two piece outfit)
- If you have a lot of clothes or books, consider offering a certain price per bag full or box full.
Hold a yard sale twice a year. Sell your winter stuff towards the end of summer, or in the fall. Sell your spring/summer things in spring or summer time.
Make sure that your yard sale doesn't fall on a holiday weekend. The best days to hold a yard sale seem to be on a Friday and Saturday.
Greet the garage sale shoppers warmly when then notice you.
Get help from family and friend. Depend on how large your garage sale is you will need two to three people to run the sale.
In dealing with the money:
- It is best to accept cash only.
- Make sure that you have lots of change! Especially quarters, one and five dollar bills. If someone doesn't have enough cash on them, offer to hold the item for them. It's a good idea to take down their name and number also.
- Keep your money safe by using a fanny pack or apron with pockets. This will also keep you from running back and forth to a money box.
- Keep a calculator handy to add the prices.
- Keep a roster of the items you sold and how much you received for each.
Have bags handy for people who purchase multiple items. Use saved grocery bags - paper and plastic (recycle) a few empty boxes would be nice too.
If someone makes an offer on an item that you aren't ready to come down on, offer to take their name and number in case you don't sell it during the yard sale.
Organize your items nicely:
- Group the similar items together (baby stuff all in one place, kitchen items together, etc. Some people don't like to go through piles of items to find something they would like to buy.
- Separate your clothes according to size.
- Place two piece outfits together with a safety pin. That way they won't get separated as people browse through them.
- Place coats, dresses, and nice dress clothes on hangers.
Make sure that everything is in working order. Have some batteries ready to test things that require batteries, and an extension cord to test appliances, etc. readily available.
Consider selling some beverages on the side. Sodas, coffee, etc. will bring in a little extra cash, and people may stay to browse longer.

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How to Have A yard Sale

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