Tips for a craigslist yardsale?

[~Adorkable~]

i am moving during the next few weeks, movers come to get most everything in one week, we leave with the last carload full in 2.

i would like to have a quick yard sale before i haul the rest to goodwill this weekend.

can anyone give me any pointers on how or what to say on craigslist about the yard sale?
im figuring the more details i list the more folks might see something that they will be drawn in by, specially since some of the things cater to special hobbies (orchid growing, burningman camping gear, tools)
but im also a private person that is kinda freeking out, so this has to be a one time yard sale and then big goodwill dump, i do not have the stomach to sell things one at a time anywhere.

never had a yard sale before, do i need to price everything, or can i have sections, like a $1 table and stuff like that and just price the larger things?


and with the goodwill donations at the end, can i just call them and ask them to come get it all? do they really do that?

[Denvergirlie]

I price everything.
Putting out a .25, .50, $1 table doesn't work for long. What if a person picks something up and puts it down later on a different table? Are you going to know what table that itme was on 5 hours after you put it out? Are you willing to argue with customers about which table they picked the item up off of? Not worth it for me.

CL posting... I give a "list" of some top items, maybe a top 25 items or groups of items (baby stuff, kitchen stuff, women's bike, chairs, misc, etc)

Give good directions
The times and date

I put up posting 3 days before and then take down posting and re-post the night before (watch out, CL won't let you post more than every 48 hours)

I put up a photo of my yard sale sign, which is a hot pink sign cut in shape of arrow, with words "Yard Sale" within the arrow on my posting on Craigslist.
One piece of card board from office store will give me 3 signs. Then just poistion the arrow in correct direction of your sale the morning off with staple gun or tape to tree/ light posts

I always get comments on how great my signs are. Do not try to write lots of verbiage on your sign like dates and times, if the sign is up, the sale is ongoing at that time. No one can read much of anything driving by at 30 miles per hour.


Best of luck and hope you make lots of money!

[~Adorkable~]

oh that sign thing is a great idea, thanks for al the imput, didnt know about the 48hr thing either

[crunchy_mommy]

I would list your yard sale in several categories on CL (don't spam it obviously but you can list things in Furniture, Farm/Garden, Sporting, etc.) and in each category show pictures of a few of the major/best items for that category... and a list of other types of things.

I would price each thing (or "Everything on this table $3") and try to make your better/most sought-after items visible from the road.

ETA: You might have to title it differently in each category or else they won't allow you to x-post -- so i.e. "Camping gear & more, yard sale Saturday"

[HappyMommy2]

Yes - I agree with multiple CL posts. Be careful they don't have overlapping info. Don't list everything in every ad, just the relevant items for that category. I didn't mention "yard sale" in the other categories, I just said the address and stop by Sat morning 9-12.

I had one yard sale ad, another one for "gadgets and flashlights galore", another for camping gear, kids clothes. etc.

Create lots of signs -10 or 12. Make them all a similar style so that people know they are following the right ones.

If I see a sign, my hubby says "oops, already passed it" and I never get to stop. So I made sure that people had ample warning, time to convince hubbies, before the turn!!! :-)

[HappyMommy2]

One more thought: Save yourself some time, don't pack it up for goodwill!

After the garage sale, take down the CL ads, and and new ones: "yard sale leftovers, everything FREE!!!"

People will come take ANYTHING off of your front lawn. Our yard was clean by 9 am the next morning. Plus once we figured this out, we ran thru the house finding more things to get rid of!!!

-----

Have the kids do a lemonade stand. We had everything for 50 cents. I went to the snack section of the store and found anything individually wrapped for less than 50 cents. People liked individually wrapped stuff for sanitary reasons. (ie they didn't have to drink the juice now, but they felt tlike they HAD to buy something, so they took it with them!! haha)

My son made 30 bucks! He sold juice boxes, crackers, chips, granola bars, bread sticks, bananas, oranges, etc. People REALLY liked having a couple healthy options.

Gave him something to do, and something to be proud of. And money to spend on a new toy!

Oh - oops, just saw that you are pg with your first - and twins at that! Congrats! We are in the same due date club!!

[Punchy Kaby]

Post pictures of your bigger items, I always like to see pics on craigs list. Tell your neighbors and see if they want to have a garage sale also. Even if someone just sets up a table in your yard to sell their stuff, you can say 'multi family garage sale'.

[~Adorkable~]

We are the last house on a one block dead end road, so yeah signs will be important, thankfully we are right off a very traveled road that has great turn lanes.

As for the giving everything away at the end? Part of me once I have sold what I can wants to help a charity, but yeah I also want it to be easy. I'll think about that.

Thanks for all the posting tips, they are great, going to work on writing it tonight, posting it by tomorrow.
What does that 48hr posting restriction affect? Is that just for the same post in the same area?

[crunchy_mommy]

I didn't know there was an official '48 hour' restriction -- the problem I've have is trying to repost something to bump it up. Maybe that's OK but only after 48 hours? You can get around it by having a different title etc. So you can't post 10 posts saying "Yard Sale Saturday" but you can title each post with some key items for that category & make sure each post is a little different, and post as many as you want. They just don't want the board spammed with 100 of the same post by the same person. Also make sure to delete your post before reposting to bump it.