Life of an Investor

14 May 2009

How to have a Successful Garage Sale

price_tag Last year, shortly after we had moved into our new house, we decided to purge quite a few of our belongings that we had just moved to the new house (thanks to our friends and family). This included several larger items such as furniture and piles of other random crap. I don’t remember the exact circumstances of the sale, but I believe that we ran the sale for two days and made over $600. Pretty successful overall. We were so happy with the results that we used some of that cash to buy ourselves a Nintendo Wii and accessories.

Over the last year, we have continued to accumulate and also to place items into our garage sale pile. It seemed like we had a lot of items to sell, but when it came time to set up for the sale, we started to fear that we really didn’t have much quality merchandise to present. That is except for one category of product, which I will reveal later. So, the end result of our one-day sale was over $800 in pure cash. I’m proud to say that since we no longer have any non-mortgage debt, half of this is going to our emergency fund and half is being saved and is available for spending on projects around our house.

So, how did we do it? What was the magic recipe? I think that a recipe is the right way to look at it. Without all of the ingredients, this wouldn’t have been as successful as it was.

1/2 Cup “Piggybacking on a Neighborhood Garage Sale”
2 Teaspoons “Advertising Online”
1 Tablespoon “Strategic Sign Placement”
2 Cups “Reasonable Pricing”
1 Cup “Adequate Displays (Tables, etc.)”
5 Gallons “Quality, In-Demand Products”

Put it all together and start counting the bills that flow in.

Let me break it down a bit for you here. Maybe you can pick up a tip or two for your upcoming sale this summer.

“Piggybacking on a Neighborhood Garage Sale”
We found out that the next neighborhood over (a slightly higher-class neighborhood that ends in “Estates”) was having a neighborhood sale, so we decided to have our sale on the same day and capitalize on the traffic. This was probably one of the best ideas we made. We only had one 5 minute lull all day long. There were cars lining both sides of our street most of the time.

“Advertising Online”
One of the specific product types that we were selling is a product that people search for on Craigslist often (at least my wife does), specifically looking for garage sales that are selling these items.

“Strategic Sign Placement”
We live near several busy streets. I placed signs at each of two busy intersections near our house as well as a large sign in our yard so passing cars couldn’t miss it. We happen to live on the corner which makes us very visible to passing cars. One word of advice here. Make your signs readable and make them stand out. We bought a few standard white garage sale signs from Home Depot and added the address and an arrow in large font with colored paint. There is nothing more annoying then trying to read a curled up paper sign or an address written in 1-inch lettering. By the way, don’t forget to pick up your signs when the sale is over! If you don’t live in a high-traffic area, you may want to talk to a friend or family member who may be interested in combining sales at their house.

“Reasonable Pricing”
Don’t price your products anywhere near store prices, even if you expect people to haggle. Many people won’t even consider barganing with you if your prices are outrageous. Remember that people are coming to find a bargain and also remember that you want to get rid of this stuff anyway. Most likely, you’re going to donate the leftovers to charity, so you might as well get rid of everything that you have even if you have to do a “Quarter Hour” to end up the day.

“Adequate Displays”
Make sure that you have enough tables and displays to properly showcase your items. Most people don’t want to dig through a pile of clothes on a table or on a blanket on the ground. Boxes full of items are not going to sell nearly as well as if those items were laid out nicely on a table. You want your products to be seen, not to force your customers to go hunting for them. If you are selling clothing, especially children’s clothing, then sort them by size. I even made a couple of clothes racks out of 2×4’s to display hanging clothes. This made a big difference.

“Quality, In-Demand Products”
This brings me to the most important factor of all in getting as much money as we did. Out of the $800 that we earned, over $500 of that came from baby clothes. Yes, you read that right. We sold over $500 worth of baby clothes at a garage sale. It felt like the feeding of the five thousand in the Bible (look it up), since afterwards we were able to still fill up tubs of leftover clothes. My wife is an avid discount kid’s clothes shopper. She often visits garage sales and thrift stores, specifically in search of quality, name-brand kid’s clothing at a drastic discount. Many of the items that we sold were likely priced higher than the amount that she origninally paid for them, but don’t tell our customers. Now many of you might think that she spent so many hours finding these clothes in the first place that it’s just not worth it, but there are many reasons I disagree. This is one of her hobbies. She enjoys the hunt. Also, our children wear these clothes and then we are still able to get our money back. When she comes home from the thrift store, she may have a bag full of good condition, quality name-brand clothes that she spent $6 for. The guy down the street’s wife is probably coming home with the one new outfit that she just bought for $25. And you can’t argue with $500 in one day.

Every garage sale is different, but hopefully some of the ideas above will get you thinking.

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6 Comments currently posted.

Xtina says:

Congrats on your good fortune that day. You really seem to have it together with all of your financial matters. I have never made that much money at a garage sale but I also am done selling small childrens clothing, which I know is a huge selling item.

P.L. Frederick says:

Well, I didn’t intend to read this entire post but you hooked me at “piles of other random crap”! I especially like the Garage Sale Recipe. Useful AND cute. Thanks!

Heidi L says:

Well isn’t this a cool post?!

A lot of people think of a garage sale as a if you build it they will come kinda thing which is partially true. But putting a little extra thought into it I think they may find that it can be even more successful than they realized.

The Nester says:

great post! I’m subscribing–and nice to meet you, thanks for stopping by the Nest!

I’m proud of my wife « Life of an Investor says:

[...] is not the first time that I’ve been proud of my wife with regards to financial matters, but I really don’t write about it a lot. This week, she [...]