Hello Everyone! I know I was not able to Post this last week but it was a Holiday Weekend and I was spending time with family!
If you missed the First few posts in the series Click Here to read them.
It is Summertime and you know what that means! Garage Sale Season!! :) I absolutely love hunting down deals and bargaining at garage sales.
This week in the series I am not talking about buying items at garage sales (although that is a GOOD way to save a lot of money – keep in mind the early bird gets the worm – but that is a double edge sword becuase the best deals are made at the end of the garage sale!) it is all about having a Garage Sale!
Having a Garage Sale is not that difficult. But I have a few tips that will help make it an easy day.
1. The first is to have a plan! This means asking yourself these questions
- How are you displaying your items? table or clothes rack?
- Do you have enough table space or clothes rack space?
- Do you need a licenses to have a Garage Sale in your town?
- Where are you putting up your signs to get people to the sale?
2. Try to have more than one Sale. Where I live I was lucky enough to have a Sub-Wide Sale. This is my next tip – if you can, join in when your Sub is having a Sale! As a frequent buyer at garage sales nothing is more appealing than a sub sale! If you are not able to have a Sub Sale – team up with neighbors – or see if friends or family want to bring items over to you to sell. My sister brought over a few purses (and they sold like wildfire!).
3. Make sure it is clear what the prices of items are. When I held my Garage Sale I was trying to unload a lot of stuff -mostly clothes…. I could not part with my shoes though :) I didn’t want to put a sticker on every t-shirt so I took a piece of paper and wrote “T-Shirts: 25 cents” (I really wanted to get rid of my items!) I did the same for sweaters, pants, and the rest of my items & their prices. I also wrote on the paper “unless priced otherwise” (I guess that was the law student in me sneaking out) because I wanted to have certain clothes priced differently.
4. This leads into my next tip – Price items to sell. If your expecting to receive $20 for an item you paid $30 for last year I have some bad news – you won’t sell it. Keep in mind bargan hunters come to garage sales – you don’t want to price yourself out of business. That was a problem with other garage sales in my Sub. Everyone who stopped by my sale told me I had the best prices (granted I just wanted the stuff gone – If it didn’t sell I was donating it) so my prices were low.
5. If it’s the last day Mark Down your items! If you want to get rid of it and by the time the last day rolls around you still have it – lower the price.
7. Advertise! My Sub did a lot of the advertising for me but I also utilized craigslist. This is because whenever I go on the hunt for a garage sale I look at Craigslist. If you decide to put an ad on Craigslist include Pictures – It seemed to help out my sale a LOT by including pictures (nothing fancy – i just took pictures of the tables full of items).
8. Talk to your customers. There is nothing more awkward than when you walk up to a garage sale and NO ONE says ANYTHING. I’m not suggesting to be pushy – but if you are selling toys – and a mom and her kids walk up – strike up a conversation- maybe say ‘it looks like they could use a stuffed animal’ or something like that. That’s how A LOT of my items sold. My mom is the Queen of this – she sold two little flower purses to a very ‘manly’ looking man all because his little girl wanted them (after my mom showed them to the little girl)!
9. Lemonade! Lemonade! Lemonade! If you have kids (or even if you don’t) set up a Lemonade stand (or even sell cookies). There is nothing better then a nice cold glass of lemonade at a garage sale, plus it is next to impossible to pass up little kids selling lemonade! Don’t have the price be something crazy though – it’s just lemonade.
Those are my tips! I was able to sell almost $200 worth of items at my sale – keep in mind I had the mentality of ‘just get it out of my house’ pricing :) I know I under-priced some of my clothes – but I no longer had the room so my options were sell them or donate them.
Having a Garage sale is a good way to get a little money back for items that you will no longer use – but are useful to someone else. Plus it helps declutter your home!
Please Feel Free to Comment with your savings Journey and remember it will not happen over night, but every little bit will add up! Remember to subscribe so you never miss a Post in this series and be sure to check back Next Friday for another way to save over $50!
Saved with this method: $100 (that’s a fairly low guess too)
Total Saved: $318
If you Missed any part of the Series be sure to Catch up:
1. Over 50 Ways to Save Over $50: #1 Use Coupons!
2. Over 50 ways to save Over $50: #2 wash clothes in cold water!
3. Over 50 ways to save Over $50: #3 Buy Meat in Bulk When It’s On Sale or Marked Down
[…] 4. Over 50 ways to save Over $50: #4 Have A Garage Sale […]