8.06.2011

First yard sale where I'm not the one buying...

This morning Tim and I got up at 6:00am to set up our first ever… YARD SALE!!!

*This isn't actually our yard sale, but it's a similar looking one.  I didn't take pictures :(

Since we’re moving, we went through all of our stuff and thought this would be the best way to get rid of it all at once. We were right. The haul? $563.75
But it wasn’t just luck. Tim and I did a lot of prep work and a fair amount of yard sale research before launching into things.
My favorite tip source was this article by Apartment Therapy (AT). Of special significance were these tips (narrated with my thoughts)…
  1. Set sale hours:  AT suggested 9-4 for a Saturday yard sale. We did 9-3 and ended up calling it a day at noon because we had sold almost everything. I think the rest of the AT tips helped make our short afternoon possible.
  2. Be Prepared for Early Birds: Oh my god yes so true. I am SUPER glad we followed this tip. We posted the sale start at 9am, but one guy showed up at 7:45 Other people were there shortly after, and most of our traffic was from 8-10am. Would have been annoying, but we were planning on being ready by 8am (per the AT tip) so we were almost all set up. The first guy bought $160 worth of stuff, so I’m glad we were.WARNING: these career garage sale early bird people are pretty savvy and know how to get a steal. Don’t let them shake you. Know your prices and remember you have all day to sell these things. I kind of wish we had stuck to our guns on a couple things we sold for super low prices to our early birds, but hey, a sale is a sale :)
  3. Price Everything: This was awesome. We set up price zones - we had 50 cents, $1, Free, and individually priced items with stickers. Then our own tip: shift things around the groups throughout the day. We moved things from the $2 to $1 and the $1 to 50 cents as the day moved on and we just wanted to sell things. It was nice not to have to re-sticker things, or forget/second guess prices.
  4. Price Realistically:  We chose prices to move things. For example, DVD sets were $3 and singles were $1, which is nothing. We figured you can rent movies for just a little more, so our prices were a deal. Two ladies came in and bought almost all of them. Score!
  5. Free Pile: As I mentioned above, we had one and it was great. Stuff went that wouldn’t have sold. We didn’t have to throw it out or drag it all to Goodwill. Plus, I think people stopped by who might not have otherwise. Everyone likes free right?
  6. Have change:  YES! We had a ton of 10s, 5s, 1s, and quarters. People bought things that they were “maybe” on because we were like “oh we have change.” It was just friendlier, nicer, and faster. No waiting for someone to come back with correct change. Do it.
  7. Advertise: We bought $7.50 worth of neon yellow and green poster board, cut them in half, and made the signs. They said YARD SALE in huge letters, then 9am-3pm, my address, and a giant arrow. A lady at the sale even complemented their size and clarity. We were competing with a lot of other yard sale signs today, but it seemed to work out. We also posted to Craig's List two nights before, then the night before with the info and a sample list of our things. As a result, someone came and bought our Gorilla Costume. Then someone else came and asked about it. Nice :)
  8. Get rid of the leftovers: I am so glad we did this. When a bunch of people came by and didn’t buy (there was NOTHING left) we packed up. Then, instead of taking a break - even though we were really tired and hot - we put everything in the car and took it straight to Good Will. Now we’re done. Period.  
People, this was so the way to do things. Tim and I are pumped about the results. It’s only 2pm now. We had a yard sale, made over $500, took down our signs, took the leftovers to Good Will, had lunch, showered, and I’m writing a blog. Seriously? Do it :)