Yard sale tips please?

[NiteNicole]

I have never been very successful at the yard sale thing. I don't know how to price, I don't know what kinds of things sell. I've been really bad at choosing dates. We REALLY need to unload some stuff. We need to sell our house and a cluttered house doesn't show well. We also just have too much.

Do books and DVD sell well? How do you price them? What about things like picture frames and random kids toys?

On the one hand I think, given how much trouble and time a yard sale takes, I should just load it all up and donate it. Then I think...ok, if I could get a little $ out of it, is it irresponsible not to try? It is so tempting load it all up, make a few trips to Goodwill and the library and be DONE.

We are already trying somethings on ebay (some DVDs, a few books, comic books, things like that) but Craigslist is not big where we are.

We have had a really unfortunate perfect storm of job change, home repairs, and family illness. Pretty much every carefully considered decision we've made for the past three years has gone to poop. We NEED to sell this house and we have found ourselves very suddenly on shaky financial footing. I'm torn between trying to squeeze every penny out of every possible thing and the need to get this house in shape to list it as soon as possible.

Advice? Please?

[LilMama23]

The main thing about yard sales is traffic. If you don't live in a high-traffic area, you might see if there are community yard sales or schools having yard sales where you can purchase a table - just because these events tend to draw large crowds. And simple logic says that the more people there are to look at your stuff, the more people are likely to buy your stuff.

I have good luck selling baby/kid clothes, paperbacks (25 cents/each), DVDs ($1-2 each), etc. Frames & toys are good as long as you don't expect to get much for them and price accordingly. I think a lot of people worry about how much money they're making and forget that the real reason that they're doing it is to unload the items so that you no longer have them in your home. The money is just a bonus.

If you have kids, set them up with a table of their old toys, or a lemonade & homemade cookies stand. People love to give money to children.

[zinemama]

I agree about traffic. Without that, you're almost always sunk.

Remember that the point is to get rid of the stuff, not to make bank. Price things low, so they will move. No one wants to pay $2 for a book at a yard sale. More like .25

Ditto pp on the lemonade and cookies. Kids often get the "cute discount" i.e. tips.

[Softmama]

do you have a "half priced book" store near you? I get a lot more selling my books to them then at a yard sale. they take dvds and cds too. if you don't have one in your area, call any used book store to see if they'll buy.

I usually "join" my friends yard sale. She has four moms who all bring our stuff to her house, and we get an add in the paper and she convinces her neighbors to do sales that day too. You got to have the traffic or it's just no worth it.

ditto on the kids. People will haggle over 50 cents for a shirt but will give a kid a dollar for a cookie in fact, we put a "for donation" sign up for the kids and that way the people pay what they want and the kids dont have to worry about making change (they're pretty young). Adults pay way more "for donation" than what the kids would have ever asked for!

For your nicer clothing it might be worth a trip to a consignment store or a used clothing store to see what they'll buy it for.

edit to add: but if you don't have the time to deal with all that then getting it bagged and out of the house for goodwill is the way to go. getting your house sold a few weeks early is going to make MUCH more money than any yard sale. Get the house cleaned up and on the market ASAP. Do the yard sale only if it won't hold up that process!

[jennlyn]

As for pricing, think 10-20% of what the item cost new. It really does depend on where you live. In the town I used to live in whenever I had a yard sale I did very well. In my current home, not so great. I actually live in a more populated area now, but that means people have access to better thrift stores and more shopping in general so they aren't as dependant on yard sales. If you are in an affluent area, people don't need to buy at yard sales. If having the stuff around is stressing you and you don't think you really have enough high ticket items to make a sale worthwhile, take it to Goodwill and get a receipt for taxes.

[ps4624]

NAK

I always have a "free with purchase" bin - little stuff that's not worth much but needs to leave my house. People love free stuff!

Also, it helps to remember your goal is to get rid of stuff and make a little money on the side. I think most folks give the stuff they don't sell to goodwill, so be willing to negotiate. There's no reason to bring it all back in your house!

[NiteNicole]

If you have kids, set them up with a table of their old toys, or a lemonade & homemade cookies stand. People love to give money to children.

Oh, that's sneaky! I've never seen that around here but then again, I don't see a lot of yard sales in this area (but I haven't looked for them either).

I am taking all the clothes, toys, and baby gear in like-new condition to this really great consignment sale I found last year.

I don't know of any half price book stores in our area, but I'll look again.

I just have so many weird odds and ends - why did anyone ever think I wanted some kind of sticker making thing? I don't scrap book. And then there are all the various crafts people think I might enjoy and those kits. And the picture frames, OH the picture frames.

[wednesday2004]

I didn't read through all the tips, I just saw the one about a high traffic area. That's something that usually doesn't stop me from going. What will stop me is someone with teeny tiny little signs that you can't see without getting out of the car to read. I don't even bother with those anymore. I rarely get a newspaper so I go when I see a easy to read BIG sign and good directions along the route I usually take to the store or school. So my advice is big sign, good, easy to read directions, and have them along the main roads of your town.

[Sierra]

Several years ago when I was browsing online for yard sale tips, I read recommendations that you shouldn't price by the table, but actually mark each item. People might not notice a sign and don't like to have to try to figure out what price you are looking for. Apparently people also shop better when everything is on display rather than in boxes.

That said, I don't see anything wrong with putting a bunch of frames in an oversize box for example (oversize so folks can look through without taking each item out), putting a big sign on the box that says in large, clear writing "ALL FRAMES $1" or whatever, and then just setting out a few of the nicest frames in front of the box to attract people over.

I'm a fan of making things simple. Yard sales can be a ton of work.

With things like clothing (those you don't sell on consignment) or books (a bit less than clothes) and CDs, I've heard it recommended that you don't bother trying to sell them individually. The CDs you might be able to take to a pawn shop, but anyway, apparently the recommendation is to bag and box things up in like groupings (such as women's dresses size 14, all varieties) and market these as a "buy a bag" type purchase. Say, $5 a bag or box. People respond pretty well to the possibility that they might find a few gems in a big bag which may also have some things that don't work out for their tastes, etc. Especially with music when people might not know all the artist names. As the seller too, I personally would rather haggle with a couple people over two boxes of books, say for 0-2 year olds, than spend my day haggling over every book. And a lot of folks go to sales to find items to resell or give to their church's childcare or to grandchildren or whatever, so these people will buy up stuff like this quickly, apparently.

It probably wouldn't work so well for things like scrapbooking supplies, and items for which you don't have one big group of like typed items. Plus, you want to have enough out on display and placed out individually that there are things to catch the eyes of potential shoppers and get them to stop. Just be strategic.

Whatever you do, just be sure to call and get a charity to come pick up the leftovers the very next day (or plan to pack it up right away yourself and take it in), or packing everything back up and moving it in and then finding time to take it back out might defeat your purpose. My last yard sale was probably ten years ago, and we actually just closed up shop at 1pm or whenever it was that traffic really slowed down but hadn't completely stopped, put up a big, bright sign saying "Everything free! Help yourself!" We left the yard sale signs up to help keep folks coming, and we even put a sign on our door that said "Please don't ring the bell. Just take it!" And then we went over to our friend's house for the rest of the afternoon. When we came back, a number of items were gone, we decided to keep everything as it was overnight. We lived in a college neighborhood, and overnight we heard college students rummaging around, getting a little silly, and wondered how bad it would be in the morning. What was left in the morning was a bit of a mess, but they had hauled off so much it made it worth it. We devoted that morning to loading the rest up and hauling it off, as well as taking down our signs. All-in-all, it worked out well.

Of course, you could always try my mom's approach. For a few years, she got into a stretch during which she got "famous" in her neighborhood for her "25 cent sales." She'd put up big signs saying "25 cent yard sale" and would literally sell each item for a quarter. People liked the simplicity of it, including my mom. Certainly there were plenty of items she could have sold for more money, but it always balanced out because she generally sold more than she would have otherwise. Of course, that became her little niche, so it may have been her regular sales that became the key to the success of the method. If you had bigger items to sell too, like couches and chairs, you could do a 25-25 sale, with every item either being 25 cents or $25. While it is possible you could earn more money, like I said, I think sometimes just getting things sold is the way to go when otherwise you are looking at just donating and getting things over with.

Of course, like someone said, getting your house sold faster would make you more money in the longrun, so if the yardsale thing is slowing you down, don't do it.

As for location, I am with the person who said the signs are more important than the location. I like signs on the same, matching *bright* color of posterboard so you can follow them and know you are headed where you intended. Arrows, days, and hours are most important. BIG SIGN=BIG, BOLD LETTERS (in black). Don't crowd it out with unecessary info. That said, on the signs that are being hung on the main streets, consider posting the street number and name under the arrow, as some folks will just plug it into a GPS or check it out on a map at that spot before trying to follow signs that may turn out unreliable.

[peaceful_mama]

I say go in on a neighborhood rummage or more than one family. People are more likely to drive out of their way to go to a big neighborhood sale or stop if it's one that looks like it has a lot of good stuff.

The one we had last summer was 4 families one location.

The cute kid factor definently works!

Yes, you want traffic. This is why we chose my friend's place a block off a main road and across from a park.

With many families involved, you are more likely to get a variety of sizes and both 'genders' of clothing.
Kid clothes sell well. People go looking for that.

For easy pricing, what we did was have one "special price" rack for like really cute complete outfits. Then it was sorted by size and signs were posted ONESIES--X price
PANTS Y, T-shirts, Z you get the idea so all anybody had to do was look at one large well-printed sign and easily see the price.

I think things like little matchbox car toys, happymeal toys, and things like books and DVD's go best at X amount for $1 or something like that. Bag the little toys several in a bag and put a price or have them in a box---I just went in a Goodwill today that had little cars in a box by the cash register, pick the ones you want 4 for a buck. So my kid got 4 little cars.

I like yard sales where the clothes and toys are priced fairly inexpensive--price it like you want to get rid of it! Nothing worse than going and looking at a used name-brand kid's Tshirt that somebody wants 15 bucks for on the yard sale, because after all, they paid 30 for it new!

toward the end do a price for a bag of stuff--people like that, gets rid of your stuff. You still get the cash, unlike donating.

[Vaske]

I think the keys are good signs and good presentation to the street and clear pricing and the right days of the week.

A good sign is on a nearby main road, has SALE in huge huge dark letters, and a big dark arrow pointing which direction to go. Remember that the driver has to see the sign and have time to decide whether to pursue it before the turn goes by. Address, distance from main road, hours open, and specs like multi-family or moving sale are bonuses, and can be in smaller letters (that they read while slowed down for the turn). Drive past your sign while going the speed limit, to see if it's readable.

"Presentation to the street" means how the sale looks from the street. I size up a sale before I even stop my car, if it doesn't look like they will have my kind of stuff, I won't stop. I am drawn to lots of stuff, lots of tables in the driveway, large pieces of furniture for sale, and a pile/box of Free items out by the curb.

Clear pricing: if I have to ask how much it is, I almost certainly won't buy it. Nearly everything should be under $10, but give yourself a little haggling room on the higher-priced stuff.

Right days of the week: best yard sale days around here are Thursday-Saturday. If there are multiple yard sales close together (within short walking distance), I'm more likely to stop. Weather is a big factor, unfortunately.

[Vaske]

Forgot to add that if you're going to sell clothes, sort them by size and post the size by them. Otherwise, you might as well donate them.

[NiteNicole]

Wow, that's a lot to think about, thanks!

My mom just reminded me today that the nursing home here will take books, DVDs, and games so that is probably where those will end up.

At this point, I am so leaning towards giving it away because I want to get this house on the market, but as I see the things pile up I think...well, if there are a few hundred dollars here, isn't that worth a Saturday morning?

[Ruthiegirl]

I only do yard sales when I have something too heavy for me to move by myself. Then I let someone else pay me to haul it away. We had a bunch of heavy bookcases my mom gave us and a huge sectional sofa my bil dumped on us. I sold those in a yard sale and was delighted to make money on stuff I was unable to haul myself.

Books, clothing, little stuff I haul to one of the many thrift stores around me.

[Freedom~Mama]

subbing. These are some great tips!

[lilyka]

I usually price the larger things like furniture and tools etc, if i have some really nice clothes and stuff I may have a rack for just those. everything else is $.25. People don't think twice about buying something that is a quarter. no hemming or hawing, no fussing if it isn't clean enough or well presented enough etc. they just start grabbing. you may not get what some stuff is worth but at the end of the day everything balances out. Also you have not wasted any time marking stuff (and then unmarking it before you donate it). you just lay it out the morning of the sale. done. and scoop it into boxes for goodwill to pick up hen the sale is done.

advertise somewhere. dins out where the professional rummage sale shoppers looks. here is the free advertising paper. a garage sale add is about $15 but anyone looking for a deal is looking there and they give you free signs to hang around the neighborhood and such. Be specific in your advertisement. if you have a dresser, carseat, couch - state that. if you have name brand clothes go with that. If everything is a quarter advertise that.

[zebra15]

When I did yard sales I was fairly successful. They do take some planning and work but the $$ is what I was about. Now that we are roommates I tend to take stuff to resale shoppes . Honestly, Resale pays worse then my yardsale money ever did LOL.

Once I had the 25c sale it was a blast.... I made 50$ IN JUST A COUPLE HOURS.... and all my junk was gone.... even got rid of the old tires my ex left that way. (other wise i wouldve had to figure out how to get haz-mat to come p/u, reg trash wont take them).....

SO IMO if you have time plan for a couple yard sales.... if you dont have traffic and time, then just donate and be done with it.