Garage and yard sales can be held for many reasons. Charities and other organizations frequently use them as fund-raisers. Many individuals and families use this type of sales as a method to generate an income. Others use garage and yard sales as a way to find new homes for their unwanted items, because the stuff is too nice to just throw away.
However, holding garage and yard sales are more than merely profitable ways of ridding yourself of unwanted items. In most rural areas, and in smaller towns like we have here in Oklahoma, these sales become highly sociable events. The garage and yard sales here are considered entertainment, as it usually provides a way of meeting up with your friends, or making new ones. In some areas, a certain date is set, and everyone in the town sets up their own wares, in either one location or spread throughout town. This creates one giant flea market, with great bargains! In some cases, these sales are spread out from one town to another, all along the highway. There are even some that are interstate events, starting in one state and ending in another.
Whichever way you choose, or for whatever purpose you are having a sale, there are steps that ensure a successful event. The main key to success is to plan! You must check out the legalities, set a date, find the right location (with plenty of free parking), locate items to sell, and set the pricing on items, and advertise the event, so having a sale is not a spontaneous action.
The first step you take should be to check out the legalities of holding a garage or yard sale in your area. In some cities, you may not be allowed to hold a sale in a residential zone, but can hold it in a commercial zone. If you live in a city, you may need to check on obtaining a special permit, as some areas may not be zoned for garage and yard sales due to city ordinances and traffic concerns. In addition, you must keep track of everything sold, if you live in a state, county, or city that requires sales taxation. This sales taxation varies from state to state, so you should check on all local, county, and state laws. Many do not require taxation if you only hold one sale, but require it if you hold more than one sale per month, or per year, or if you make over a certain amount in sales. Some areas may require you to attain a vendor's license. There may also be limitations on what kind of signs you can post, or how long you may keep signs up.
The second step is to set a date for the event. This should be the nearest weekend to the first and third days of the month, as this is usually the time of month most people are paid. The next best days would be the weekend closest to the fifteenth and twentieth days of the month, as these are the most common paydays. It is better to hold a sale for two-three days, as this gives more buyers the opportunity to make it to your sale. Although some people do hold sales during the week, weekends are usually better for attracting the most customers, due to most people have more free time on weekends. However, family holiday weekends, like Christmas, Fourth of July, and Easter, are poor choices, as people are too busy to shop much. Once you have set the date, stay committed to that date! Make sure you allow yourself enough time to advertise, to find a good location, and to get all the items prepared. It's important to pick a date that is convenient to your customers, but it must also be convenient to you! Be sure to make a backup plan in case of bad weather, or an emergency arises, such as an illness occurs. Set up an alternative location, provide shelter from the weather for your customers and wares, or set up a rain check day in case of bad weather. Also, consider having someone else help with the sale. This way each of you can take breaks when needed. Make sure there will be someone available to run the sale in the case you have an emergency and can't make it on the date set. No one will appreciate driving miles to get to your advertised sale, just to find out it was cancelled at the last minute!
The third step is to choose a good location for the event. Although it may be more convenient to you to have it at your own home, it may not be the best place in regards to making a profit. The most successful sale is the one held where people can find it easily. Let's face it. Most people are impulse buyers. They are more likely to stop and shop if a garage sale is set up in a corner parking lot, with easy access to it, than if it is on some residential street, with very little parking and no easy access. Besides, the more visible a sale event is, the more people will stop by, even if they didn't see any advertisements for the sale. In addition, if held close to a commercially zoned area, a customer can run other errands on the same trip. Who knows? Maybe after spending hours searching through a mall or department store will put them in the mood to look through your items for that bargain they didn't find elsewhere. On the other hand, you will save them the trouble of shopping for hours, trying to find just the right item, at a much higher cost. That's why it's a good idea to open early in the morning! Most people want to get their errands done early in the day, so they can spend the rest of the day relaxing and having fun. Another good reason for holding the event on commercial property instead of residential is the psychological edge it gives you. People unconsciously associate businesses with having good quality, professionally made items. They also associate residential sales with unwanted used junk. By being located in a commercial area, the customers will think of you more as a business than as a junk dealer.
Whichever you choose, the location should be a well-maintained area, free of junk and other debris. The lawn should be mowed and raked, free of any items that would detract from the beauty, or that would cause safety hazards. The parking area, and wares display areas should be free of trash, especially any broken glass and other safety hazards. There shouldn't be any old junk vehicles around with the hoods up!
The location should also have convenient access to a clean restroom. Moreover, the location should also provide adequate space for displaying items properly. There should be enough room to set up plenty of tables, clothes racks or lines, and other display needs. The location should also be easily accessible for the handicapped, with plenty of room between tables and displays to allow for wheelchair or scooter access. A lot of garage and yard sales are passed by because they did not think about making the event handicapped accessible! Another consideration is that the location must be safe for children and senior citizens alike. It helps if there is room to set up a children's play area, with an adult supervisor for them.
The fourth step provides you with the fun of selecting items for your sales event! This is where you get to renew your acquaintance with old treasures. Alternatively, perhaps you will discover new treasures! The best policy is to go through all your belongings, and get rid of anything you haven't, or are not likely going to use within a year, unless they are collectibles and antiques. However, even these should go if you have not taken the time to display them within the past year.
Now that you have gone through all your own stuff, get your nearby relatives, friends, and neighbors to go through all their stuff too! Set a deadline of about a week or two before the actual event to place things into the sale. Utilizing a deadline ensures there is plenty of time to sort everything out, prepare it for the sale, and include the items in the advertisements. While you are getting all these people to donate items to the sale, get them to commit to participating at the event. Having people mulling around a sale, pretending to buy stuff, will bring in more customers! Besides, this gives them first choice of someone else's stuff they may have admired for years! If you decide to hold the sale at home, this is also a good way to keep your neighbors from getting angry about all the extra traffic and noise! It also makes them available to answer questions or negotiate prices for the items they donated, as well as provides a way for more customers to be served at one time, so there is no waiting to be helped. In addition, during this time, be sure to start gathering up all the bags and boxes you can! The customers will buy more if they have a way of carting it off. Also, think about arranging with someone with a truck ahead of time, so you can offer to deliver the bigger items to the buyer, if needed.
At this stage, it is also a good time to decide who is going to handle the money, and to start amassing lots of change and one dollar bills! In addition, now would be an excellent time to plan the marketing and sales techniques that will be utilized. Moreover, this would be a great time to decide what to do with leftover items. In other words, who will do what when! It is also a great time to discuss the clean-up tasks after the sale is over! No matter where you have the sale, the area should be left as clean and beautiful as possible. No one, especially businesses, like to have to clean up other people's messes! To maintain good public relations, and save work later, it would be wise to have several trash receptacles placed throughout the area, with separate ones for recyclable items, such as aluminum cans. Encouraging people to recycle items is an excellent way to add to your profits.
One of the most difficult steps comes next. That is setting the prices for everything! This is difficult because your emotions and reasoning may start to conflict. Your reasoning may say an item is junk, until your heart starts remembering all the good times you had involving that item. You may start out thinking an item isn't worth anything, and then you'll remember how much you originally paid for it. That's when you may go from the extreme of pricing an item too low to the extreme of pricing it too high. It is very hard to find a price that is fair to everyone involved. Just try to remember that most of your customers are impulse buying to begin with, and are not likely to pay high prices for anything. The customers who purposely came to the sale are looking for a bargain price on a specific item. People coming to garage and yard sales usually don't have much money to start out with, and are simply looking for good deals. If you have items of higher value, that you want to make a profit on, then consider selling the items through a different venue, saving your sale for only the low-priced items. Use an on-line auction, classified ads, or a consignment shop to sell the higher priced items. On the other hand, you could place the special items in a silent auction, with a minimum bid.
Make sure that the item's owner is clearly marked if more than one person is contributing items to the sale. This can be easily be done by using masking tape and marker, or using a variety of color tabs. For instance, let's say that Penny, Cathy, and John all donated items. To keep it sorted out so each person gets his or her fair share of the money; everyone has agreed to separate the money by whose item was sold. So Penny marked all her items with green tags, Cathy marked all hers with yellow tags, and John used all blue tags for his items. They used a joint cash box, and separated the money by placing the dollar bills in rubber bands that matched that person's colored tags. For the change, they each had envelopes with their names and colors. They took turns being the cashier, and when change was given, it was always given out of the money of the person whose item was being purchased. These three also kept a journal that listed each item, the owner, and the asking price (just in case any of the tags came off the item), and the price the item sold for. That way, there was a record of everything and less confusion at the end of the sale event.
The next step is to start advertising the garage/yard sale. Your own creative ability and whatever legalities that applies to you are the only limits in this area. However, the event should be as well advertised as you can make it, at least a couple of days in advance of the sale. Running ads in all the local newspapers is a good idea. Making fliers and posters, with some of the items listed, is a great idea too. Placing notices on any bulletin boards where people can easily see them is also a good idea. Don't forget to use word of mouth advertising for your sale! Make sure to give excellent driving directions (maybe include a map in your fliers and posters), and accurate contact information. It doesn't do any good to advertise if no one can find you!
Now you are more than ready to have your garage/yard sale. Remember to have fun! You will get a lot more sales if you are friendly, smiling, and enjoying yourself! Try to make the shopping experience as much fun as it can be for everyone! A good marketing tip to utilize is that people buy a product according to what it can do for them, not because of what features it may have. Get involved with the shoppers; entertain them! Play with the toys with the children, tell the adults how much pleasure you got from the item they are interested in, or share a story about the item's history.
Remember that this is a social event, so provide food and drinks, either free or for a really bargain price. People buy more when they are relaxed, fed, and having fun. Make sure the items are easy to see and easy to reach (preferably no bending or reaching high, as this is hard for elderly and handicapped people to do). Have all the items clean, and ready to go, so the customer doesn't have to get anything else in order to use the product properly. If possible, have an electric outlet handy to demonstrate electrical items work. Have batteries in the items requiring batteries, or at least have the right batteries handy for demonstrating the item works.
Display each item to show off its advantages. Hang clothes on hangers, on a clothesline or clothes rack. Set up toys so they look like they're ready to be played with, not just another toy that will be thrown in a toy box and forgotten. Place all similar items together (sorted by price, size and gender, when applicable), so the customer doesn't have to go far to compare items or find what they are looking for. Place a fragile or a valuable item out of children's reach, and out of harm's way.
If possible, provide a safe play area for the kids, and provide seating for the adults! If it's a really hot day, provide a way for people to cool off. This makes it easier for the shoppers to stay longer, and more likely to purchase more items. Most people attend several yard sales on the same day. This tends to wear out the youngsters, the handicapped, and elderly quickly. Having to consider others may make the people who are with them feel pressured into rushing through your displays. By providing a play area for the kids, you are giving their guardians a break, and saving wear and tear on your merchandise. Since the kids are having a good time, they will not want to leave too quickly. By providing seating, you are giving the adults a chance to rest, socialize, and regain their mood for shopping. The pressure is thus relieved for those who are still ready to shop, so they will stay longer and look harder! So make sure you have something for all ages! Remember that even the youngsters may have money to spend!
This sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? It is hard work at first, but it does get easier the more often you have garage/yard sales. Once you get the preliminary work finished, most of the stuff can be used time after time. If you create the fliers and ads on your computer, it is easy to reuse them as templates later. All you have to do is change the date, place, and whatever items that have changed. The display racks and tables can be used repeatedly, even for other types of events. The play area items are great to keep around for when you have children visiting you, and everyone can always use extra seating! If not, these can become items for sale in your next garage sale! It may start out as hard work, but garage/yard sales can end up being lots of fun, and quite rewarding in many ways.