Garage saleing is a wonderful time, a great way to find bargains, and for those brave enough to put on a garage sale it is a great way to make a little money. We used to run a garage sale each year as I was growing up and often we were successful making a little extra money (300-400 dollars) each Saturday that we ran it.

There are several things that effect the amount of money that can be made from a garage sale. Keep these things in mind as you are preparing for a garage sale.
-How easy is it going to be for people to find me?
-Am I selling my items for a bargain?

-Are things easy to see and find in my sale?

Success lies at your doorstep, all you have to do is walk through.

Location:
Figure out the best ways to mark your location. Find the street corners that will draw the most attention to your location and make sure that your signs are easy to follow. If soon to be customers get lost trying to follow your signs, they will miss you.

Bargains:
I know it is hard marking something that you paid a lot of money for at such a great bargain price. You maybe tempted to put ten dollars on it, but remember there are a lot of people who will not even ask about it if they wouldn't be willing to pay that price for it. They are looking for a bargain and you will make more money if you mark items at a bargain price.

Organization:
A garage sale certainly doesn't have to be an organized sales arena, but some organization is good. All items should be easily seen. Grouping items together helps people to skip over things they know they don't want to look at (the mom looking for kids clothes doesn't want to dig through the electronics to find them, and the dad looking for electronics doesn't want the kids clothes there either). Grouping items together a little helps them be seen by shoppers interested in those types of things.

A few last things to note. There are those who like to talk you down. Its always the man who picks of an item marked ten dollars and asks, "Will you take a quarter for this?" that gets me. However, you must be prepared to have people bargain. Think of what you are willing to let things sell for. Is this going to change as it gets closer to the end of the day?

Price tags. Yes they are a pain in the butt, but they do the job best. There are people (I tend to be one of them) who won't pick up an item if it doesn't have a price tag. Sure signs that say all clothes are 50 cents help until everything gets moved around and the shopper finds something they really want that isn't near the sign. You may be too busy to put things back, or answer questions. Price tags work best.

In any event, have fun, chit chat, and make a little money. No you won't get rich, but you will clean out your house and make room for new stuff.

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