As this weekend’s sale was such a success for us, I
thought I’d share some tips on how to host a successful garage sale of your
own. For our friends in the USA this is what you refer to as a Yard Sale.
SCHEDULING
First things first.
Decide on a date and trading times for your sale!
Check to see if there are important events on your intended
sale date as this will mean less potential customers.
Work out whether a Saturday or a Sunday will work
better in your area. For instance we
live in an area densely populated by Jewish families so it wouldn’t make sense
for us to hold our sale on a Saturday as Jewish people celebrate Sabbath (day
of rest) on Saturdays which means they aren’t allowed to buy anything. So we made our sale on a Sunday in order to
not exclude the Jewish customers in our area.
Or maybe you will hold your garage sale over two
days if you’re really keen and have heaps of stuff to sell. But in my experience you won’t get as many customers
on the second day, so weigh up your time and effort to run your sale over two
consecutive days.
ADVERTISING
It’s one thing to have a bunch of great stuff to
sell that people would be quite happy to take off your hands, but it’s another
thing to actually get bodies to your sale.
Here are a couple of sites which are great and
worked well for us (please note these are Australian sites):
What
Garage Sale – PAID – for a small price of $5 you can advertise your garage
sale. Weekly on a Friday morning they send out an email to their database of
subscribers who have opted to receive a list of garage sales in their
area. I’ve been a subscriber for a
couple of years now and regularly attend garage sales I’ve found out about
through their emails.
Gumtree –
FREE – I’m sure you’ve heard of Gumtree if you live in Australia. They have a Garage Sale section under their ‘events’
category. It’s free to advertise with
them which is very cost effective as a complimentary ad to a paid one elsewhere!
Facebook –
FREE – set up an event for your garage sale and invite your (local)
friends. Make sure you set it up as a
public event so that other people can not only view it, but can opt to attend
and share it with their friends. Post
photos of some of your items for sale.
This will start getting people excited about what you’ll have on offer
on the day.
Twitter –
FREE – Start tweeting details the week leading up to your garage sale. Include a link to either your Facebook event
page or one of your paid or free online ads so that people can add it to their
list. You can also tweet photos of items that will be included in your sale.
SIGNAGE
The night before or the morning of the sale, stick
up some signs around the neighbourhood on light posts and anywhere that is
legally ok. Check with your local
council if you’re not sure. The last
thing you want is for a council fine to eat into your profits!
Make sure your signs are clear, easily readable by
passing-by traffic and include the basic details of how, where and when people
can find you. Make sure at the very
least to include these things:
- The words “GARAGE SALE”
- Date
- Time
- Address
My suggestion is to type up signs in a word-processing program in a simple font (try to only use one if you
can) as some hand-writing can be difficult to read, especially if you’re a
passing-by-car.
Create a few different versions with directional
arrows pointing in the direction of your sale so that when you stick them on poles
of the nearest intersections, people know to turn to find you! And if your lungs are feeling up to it, blow
up some balloons and attach them above the signs to attract attention.
I’ve included a link to a template of the sign which I create
for our own garage sale to make things easier for you. Feel free to use this as is (with your own
details of course) or amend it as you wish.
You’ll also want a big sign out the front of your
place to alert passing-by traffic and neighbours of your sale on the day. This can be a poster, A-frame sign or
anything you can find to write on in big letters.
PRICING
My husband and I love stopping at garage sales to
see if we can find a bargain. But gone are the days where you can find a
bargain easily. Remember that a garage
sale is a cleansing and purging experience for you just as much as it should be
a bargain for your potential customers.
So price things wisely.
Be prepared to accept less than the asking price,
especially if a person is purchasing multiple items. Remember that you are trying to get rid of
these things rather than hold onto them and that they are the ones who have to
lug things home with them – especially if they are purchasing a large
item. So make it worth their while and
price it accordingly.
Also consider offering a multiple same-item
discount on DVD’s, CD’s, books and clothing.
So you might price things at $2 each or 3 for $5 thereby enticing
customers to purchase multiple items at the same time giving them a discount.
And make sure everything has a price sticker on
it. You don’t want to miss out on a sale
because you have not made it easy for a customer. In some instances people will be too shy to
ask in case it is more than what they are prepared to pay.
Remember the key word here is: BARGAINS!
MERCHANDISING
AND DISPLAYING YOUR GOODS
Think about how things are laid out in shops. They are generally in sections such as
clothing, shoes and accessories grouped together. Toys, baby and kids stuff together. Kitchenalia all displayed together.
This is how your sale tables should be set up so
that people who are interested in tools are not looking through handbags and
ladies torture implements (read: eyelash curlers). Make it easy for your customers to shop and
they will purchase more.
Also, if you find that once you’ve priced your
items you have many items for 50c, $1 and $2 consider creating a bargain table
and putting up a sign that reads “everything on this table under $2”. People will flock to it, so position it at
the back of your set-up to ensure they are not just looking at the bargain
table and leaving without perusing all the other goodies.
Make sure you give everything a good dust/clean. There’s nothing more unappealing than picking
up some grimy filthy item which could have been cleaned in a couple of
minutes. It will greatly improve the
chance of a sale if it’s in good clean working order.
ON THE DAY
Here’s a little checklist for what to have ready
for your big sale day:- Signage – put up around the neighbourhood before the start time and out the front of your property
- Change – make sure you have plenty of change to give out – coins and small notes are key!
- Money pouch – don’t leave your money unattended. It’s best to have it on you at all times in the form of a money pouch or fanny pack
- Music – create a friendly environment by providing some music for shoppers. Just make sure it’s not offensive and appeals to the mass. One suggestion is to pop on a local radio station. That way you don’t have to monitor what’s being played for offensive language
- Bags – have a bunch of plastic bags on hand to place multiple customer purchases in
- Newspapers – these are handy for wrapping fragile items before you bag or box them
- Price stickers – have some of these on hand just in case you’ve missed pricing any items
- Marker – also handy if you need to change any pricing signs or mark things down
- Have your happy pants on! Nobody likes being served by a grumpy looking person
And if you’re not one for having strangers
rummaging through your goods, you can try your hand at picking up some bargains
of your own. Check out the Garage Sale Trail which is taking
place this Saturday 5 May around Australia.
At the time of publishing there were just over 4,800 garage sales registered
to take place on the one day! I can just
smell the bargains!
If you have any handy tips to add, I’d love
to hear them and I’m sure others would too.
