Ten Tips for Hosting a Successful Yardsale

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.

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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. 

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.

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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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I originally posted this in May of 2006, and others had excellent points to add.  These included:

Peter M said: "Great advice, Ron! Also, when you advertise, don't forget to list your sale on craigslist-- at least if you're in a major metro area. When we had our sale last weekend, we had more people there off our free listing in the craiglist garage sale section than off any other form of advertising. "

Suzanne A said: "I would add---act like you are actually glad people are coming to your sale, and don't just stand around talking to friends. I've often walked away from a sale when I couldn't get the attention of the person running it, or if they seemed too busy to help me. Why have the sale at all in that case?"

Mandi said: "[The only] thing I would disagree with is the saturday thing... in our area, all the hard core yard salers come out early thursday morning. 3/4 of my stuff goes by thursday afternoon. Saving the weekend for fishing! [and] Oh, more thing to expland on what you said in #5 about prices... it aint worth it to haggle over a dollar or two.... sell it.. get rid of it... you don't have to move it back in...."

Prairie K had these 3 great points: "Get little colored dots. You know, those stickers that come in all sorts of colors? Post a large sign where people can see it listing the color code. Everything with an orange dot is $1. Yellow dots are 50 cents. Etc. 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."

Carl had this dubious advice: "I hired a topless hostess for my last yard sale. We sold everything."

And Karen T said: "My #1 tip is this: as soon as the sale is over, take everything that's left to a thrift store and donate it. That way the empty-out-your-house goal is achieved even if the sale didn't go well."

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And I leave you with the best garage sale sign I have ever seen.  I go here every year, and I don't even have to remember the address; I just end up there time and time again because they know the business.

 So, what are your ideas?  Any questions?  The first time around folks were answering one another's questions in the comment string.  I'm looking forward to your input, and also of course another great season of yard sales!

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