I've gone to yard sales for decades now, and from time to time I would call my purchasing there a commercial activity. After being through thousands of sales, and hosting a half dozen of my own, I'd like to share some pointers.
Many of the rest of you are avid yardsalers. If you have pointers please feel free to include them. Or maybe you want to take issue with a point. Gather loves controversy after all =:/
1) Make signs that can be read at a glance by a driver. Place them at every busy intersection up to 3 blocks away (but not further because that's a waste of your time). A regular sheet of typing paper is too small. Go at least twice that big, and then make sure you can read the street and number at 10 paces. Put firm backing on it so the wind doesn't fold it over.
2) Make the sale visible. If you're anywhere near a busy street, have the sale out front, rather than in back. Put up flags and balloons in the front yard (even if your sale is in back). If a friend has a house on a corner lot, consider getting permission to have your sale there.
3) Think about parking. The advantage of corner lots is you have parking in four directions. The decision of whether or not to stop will be driven largely by parking.
4) Have lots of stuff. Bring it all out. Get friends to bring over their unwanted items. This is another visibility issue and a get-them-to-stop strategy.
5) Don't make people ask, "How much is this?" First of all, they won't ask. They'll look around to see if there's something they really want and then maybe ask about that. You'll also want to focus your interactions on closing sales, not running back into the house to see whether Mike wants a quarter or fifty cents for something.Â
And someone you don't want to talk to at all will show up and ask, "What about this? What about this? What about this? What about this? What about this? What about this?" I guarantee it.
6) Don't put a ten cent price tag on anything. While you want the cost of things to be obvious, low price tags are a poor use of your time. Instead, set up a quarter table and a dollar table. If someone wants to offer you a dime, you can always say yes, but a dime and a quarter are the same thing to most people.
7) Get neighbor buy in. Two sales will attract a lot more people. A block sale or alley sale will bring 5 times as many. A neighborhood yard sale, with 40 or 50 or more sales will be like a 4th of July picnic. I could do a whole list of ten on neighborhood sales.
8) Take out an ad. Lots of people plan their routes. Don't limit yourself to the few who wander aimlessly.
9) Avoid abbreviations in your ad. Spell out the words "block", "alley", and "neighborhood". Include your zip code. Many shoppers search the newspapers website for community or "multi-family" (not "multi-fam") yard sales.
10) Have it on Saturday only. If you play your cards right, everything desireable is going to be gone after one day anyway. Eighty dollars per hour over one day beats thirty dollars per hour spread over three days. This will also let you put "saturday only" (in this case do both that and "sat only") in your ad. You can also put that on your signs. People use one-day-only as criteria for adding a sale to their list or skipping it. It will also stop Saturday shoppers that whiz on by "Thurs-Sat" signs.
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Honestly, I don't want to stop here. There's more. I'll either add those as they occur to me, or I'll do a followup post.
Okay, do any other yardsalers want to advise the sellers? What makes a good yard sale? Feel free to disagree.
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Click here for links to other Yard-Sale-oriented tales, including my weekly blog, To Buy or Not to Buy.
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Comments: 36
AMEN TO #1.... GEEZ I can't stress that enough! ALSO keep all of your signs similar in how you write them so that if there are two signs (2 people having sales on the same road) we know after looking at your sale that there is another one down the road. PUT 8AM or 7AM LARGE and the ARROW LARGE .... Oh and by all means ... after your yardsale TAKE DOWN YOUR SIGNS!
11) Put an arrow on your signs - I said there was a lot more and that could have easily been in the top 10. If I know which way to turn, I may turn that way a block down the road even if I didn't see the address. Good one.
12) Take your signs down - this doesn't really change the effectiveness of the yard sale, but it's a bigger ethical issue. Don't waste people's time. The signs are unsightly, especially after being rained on for a couple weeks. They'll fall off eventually, helping your neighborhood look run-down.
Chosen like a true pro, Pam.
Thanks again for this!
14) Hit multiple day sales on the first day (like Thursday). You may be very right Mandi, I'm being somewhat of a contrarian, and the only practical day for me at this time is Saturday. I also like community yard sales and those are always on Saturday, occasionally on Friday.
15) Don't "haggle over a dollar or two". I agree. I'd add in return that holding hard to a price when other shoppers are listening could make them get back in the car and go. A yard sale should be fun. This holds true for a gift shop or a haircut or any business; if it can be fun, it's clueless to have it be anything else.
when I am shopping at yard sales, I really appreciate the dots because I can see at a glance what fits in my price range and I don't have to chase someone down to ask. Also, another thing.. distinguish yourself from your customers. If the owner is walking around fiddling with the stuff, there is nothing to distinguish him or her from the customers. I've left yard sales because I was in a hurry and didn't know who to pay. Oh, one more thing... if the sale isn't under a carport, put up a canopy. It provides shade in the summer and acts like an umbrella in the rain. Also keeps things like candles from melting too bad or things like silk from getting wet.
PK
16) Use the colored dots and have a sign explaining the prices! Yes! You bet. I like it.
17) Look like the sale owner. It might not have occurred to me to add this, but you're so right. One thing I always look for is someone wearing a carpenter's apron with change in it. Also, keeping nearby a little "desk" with a cash box would work well too (though keep the money on your person, not in the cash box - that's just a prop). The clothing though really needs to be the clue, since you may leave the desk to go answer questions.
18) Put up a canopy for shade and rain. This is work, but if you're serious I think it's an excellent idea. For one thing, people don't stop shopping when it rains. They just assume there will be better pickings for them because the wimps will stay home. Janie and I gave gone out into rainy Saturdays that never let up, and were rewarded.
Again - great tips!
Early bird buyers are the best though! Our first sale yesterday brought in over $100....from one of my neighbors.Sweet!
David, for neighborhood sales strongly recommend printing more maps than you think are necessary. They should be distributed to sales, and a couple local businesses (open long hours) mentioned in your ad. The maps need to be available the night before (early in the evening, not late). One thing I've never seen that would be extraordinarily helpful - indicate on the map (not in writing on the other side, but on the map itself), whether the sale is in front or in the alley.
Priscilla, I'll be unable to make it up your way, but I sure hope these pointers have been helpful.
Many thanks to the others who provided tips. If I can think of another ten, I'll do a part two to this, but the way things are going I suspect everything I could say will end up being said here : )
I especially liked the table idea. Last time we had a sale at home, we spent 3 days in advance putting $0.10 and other weird prices on hundreds of items.
When we had a family garage sale, as all had our items scattered around the tables. Mom kept track in a book of whose item sold, and that family member would get the money.