This was our first Garage Sale and as far we are concerned it was a massive success. We put $750 into our sailing slush fund for stuff that we would have normally given away. Ashley had been going thru our closets all week and sorting thru stuff to sell. Our very good friend Bay deserves a ton of credit here. She held us accountable to pricing and really questioned why we were thinking of keeping some items. We’ve learnt a ton throughout the whole process. Here are some the tips Ashley thought you’all should know.

Mark Everything & Sort

Add prices to everything and sort your crap into categories per table. A big help were pre-printed price stickers purchased at the Dollar Store. At the end of the day we found that a lot of the items left didn’t have a price. Coincidence?

Find a Friend

Having an independent person in the mix is invaluable. The fun factor triples. That’s a Christmas tree skirt…

Reduce Reduce Reduce

You will have people standing at your door prior to opening. These are the professionals. They hit multiple garage sales and look for the high value items. Start marking stuff down after this first rush. Then mark it down again and again. This is a guaranteed way to move stuff.

Tell Stories

Hang out with your customers. Talk to them. You’d be amazed how much more they buy when you personalize your story or when you keep them an extra 30 seconds. They start piling stuff into their arms. It’s very odd but it works. This girl was a master at this.

Signage & Advertise

We live fairly close to downtown so I think this contributed to the massive amount of foot traffic we had. We had neon signs at the three major streets surrounding our neighbourhood.  Note: Balloons will be stolen the night prior by drunk teenagers. They are drawn to them like insects to light.

Haggle & Cut the Umbilical Cord

Ashley sold Frank. Frank was very dear to her. He was our frankenstein candy holder for Halloween. I’m not sure why she held him so close but she shed a tear. I sold my remote controlled boat. It was one of my first big toys I bought with my own money. Last time I used it was 14+ years ago. It had yellowed and who knows if it even still worked.

Things we would have changed

Up sell – Have a Cookie Stand or offer Tea & Coffee. Ashley sold a cookie for $1 yet people were haggling on $0.25 garage sale items. My guess is that they come focused on getting the rock bottom price on the ‘Garage Sale’  items so by offering something not garage sale related, you bypass their haggle mechanism.

 The Aftermath

Not much left..

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