How to organize for a 1st time yard sale?

Question

How to organize for a 1st time yard sale?

Answer 1

This is the answer I just posted regarding organizing clothes at a yard sale, and has other tips you might find useful.:

I have always tried to hang in the past. But, I have discovered that you can make more cash if you toss them onto a large 4ft by 8 ft board (say OSB or thick paneling section) on top of simple sawhorses. Put breakable glass on tables if you can. Leave other items randomly in boxes in rows right on the yard. It seems that serious buyers make yard sales a sport. They are on the hunt. They like digging for treasure. Just make sure to keep clothing well off of the ground. Even in laundry baskets or neatly folded by sizes, they will not be touched if on the ground.

Make a single poster board that gives pricing for types of clothing items, or make it up as you go. Do not price each piece individually. This invites little arguments. (I do not know why).

I personally know the hunt method works. We hold several yard sales a year at different houses. We had one two weeks ago and made just under $1,000 in two days with enough stuff left over that the homeowner is holding another next weekend before releasing the leftovers.

4 more yard sale tips - Thursdays and Fridays make more money with less haggling than Saturdays. On Thursdays and Fridays staying "open" until 7 pm has always given us another $100 - $200 give or take in our pockets (we have learned to stop at 4 - 5 on Sat.). And always put an ad in the paper. Putting bottled water in a big cooler or tub will give you some extra change, but more importantly will make sure you always have cold water on hand for your self.

Hope this helps.

And I just thought of one more - make sure to put big items like furniture and large kids items up front so they can be seen as people drive by.  Think of these as your neon signs to draw people in.  Also make sure to keep a pen and pad nearby to take notes on.  You will be surprised how many people will want you to call them if something doesn't sell for your asking price or for other things that will come up during random conversations you will engage in with your customers.    

While in theory, having things all well displayed makes it easier to find things and definitely prettier to look at, we accidentally discovered the box method works financially.  I do not know if it is because when people invest time in looking they feel they have to walk away with something for their trouble, or if it is the mentality that they have been able to find something worthwhile that everyone else has simply overlooked.  I just know that it has been my experience that this doubled our earnings over how we did it in the past.    

We do put preprinted stickers on the items in the boxes.

I know that this completely contradicts the previous comment, which will be frustrating and make it hard for you to decide, but I wanted to give you my honest answer.

Answer 2

I haven't had a garage sale since I was a kid living with my parents, but they are so fun :) I don't think I'm going to be much help, but we always had a cash box for change, and the night before we'd spend hours writing prices on little round stickers to stick on everything so that it was easy for the customers. If you have books or cds...stuff like that you can put them all in a bin and label the bin with the price. Hmmmm...not sure how else you could organize. Good Luck!

Oh...and if you have kids...it's extra fun if they get to have a lemonade stand out front. Cool drinks for the customers on a hot sunny day and fun times for the kids :)

Answer 3

We have had MANYYYYY garage sales and people always compliment on how we took the time to organize everything and not just throw everything out and expect people to look thru the c**p. We also get a lot of visitors since we put up lots of signs around our neighborhood. We also put an add in the newspaper, its kind of expensive like 40-50 bucks so if you want its best to partner up with your neighbor!! You can split the costs of the adds in the paper and the signs around the neighborhood.

When setting up on your lawn or in the garage, use lots of tables. Also the pricing, people love to take off the stickers and say "Oh there wasnt a price on this" uh huh sureeee. Well just make some kind of system that helps you think of a good price right when someone says something like that.

Also signs help. And if you have younger kids that are helping you with the sale, make sure they dont get blamed for something "they said" even though they may not have. This has happened to us before, a lady said "Oh that girl over there said that i could get 3 wallets for 10 bucks or something"and we were like no, no one said that. and she like ripped us off cause we couldnt get her to stop arguing with us. So make sure you are firm with the prices and dont be a push over and make sure your kids dont be wimpy either!!

Make sure you organize the clothes by size, this helps people shop through your stuff easier and faster so they can be out of there as fast as possible so they wont take time to steal anything!!

MAKE SURE you keep your eyes on the little kids that come !! They easily take things and run off without paying for them and you never see because they are little!!

Clothes racks help if you have any. OUr neighbor we teamed up with owns a clothing and stuff store and she hadsome extra clothing racks. So see if you can borrow some from a store near by!

Laying things out on tables so people can see is a must! And if you are selling things that are like collectables make sure you state that on the signs, this helps attract customers, BUT there are always consignment store people that try to come before your sale opens to get things for cheaper DO NOT FALL FOR THIS SCAM!! There was this one guy that almost did that to us!! He came like 30 mins earlier while we were setting some thigns out and he was all like can i have these 2 things for like 3 dollars lower and we were like well hmmmm shoudl we and he kept trying to make us let him ahve things for A LOT lower and was trying to take a lot of things before we even opened!! and just dont fall for it!! it may seem like a good buy at first but then later...you figure out people would have paid full price for what you had!!

Also if you have things like a ton of yarn things, sell them in bulk dont do it by one or two more like 5 - 10 for like 5 bucks or something, one lady came by and bought like 50 new yarn things for 20 bucks!! it was a good deal cause she needed it for her grandma that was sick and she loved to crochet and we wanted to get rid of the yarn quickly cause we had no use!!

And if you have things that are expensive, even if it was only used ONCE people expect a REALLY LOW price wich is stupid, but thats what yard and garage sales are for!! haha

Also if like its half way thru the sale day and something has been looked at alot but not bought, mark out the price and put the new lower price next to it, so people will know u marked it down!

Also if you have books, some people like haveing a 2 for like 3 bucks that always works. Price them at like $2 each or 2 for 3 bucks. people like that

And some more advice would be to talk to the people and ask them if they are looking for something inparticular, and sell SELL SELL your items to your customers like regular sales people would!! THIS HELPS SOOOOOO much you have noooooo idea!!

And make sure you have change, people always bring bigger bills and will need change. Also count your change before they leave you so you dont get ripped off. and do not tkae checks, !!!!!!!!!! If they say oh i dont have enough money can i write you a check?? Say NO!! lol i can not stress that enough!! people willlllll rip you off that way. Tell them you can hold the item for them while they go get some money!! Do not let them take the item and then trust them to bring the money back ahah totall scam.

ONe more thing, selling drinks always helps. If its a hot day that is. Also offer plastic bags liek grocery bags to put their purchased items in to help them!

Good luck and I hope this helps!!!!