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Great Garage Sale Tips

by Jennifer Thompson

Garage sales are an easy way to unload unwanted things from around your home with relatively little work involved. Here are some tips to help you have your own successful garage sale.

BUYERS:

• Look in the paper or drive around the neighborhoods to see where the sales might be. Where I live, there are certain areas that always seem to have at least one sale on any given Saturday. Use newspaper listings and a map to plot out your path.
  
  
• Get an early start for the best selection, especially if you're in search of a big-ticket item. Most sales start by 8 a.m.
  
  
• Don't be afraid to haggle. Sellers often price an item at one price but have a lower price in mind that they would accept. It's all a part of the game. As my mom always told me, "It never hurts to ask. The worst they can say is no!"
  
  
• Don't be afraid to rummage through things. Clothes and smaller items often get messy at sales, but you'll never know what's there if you don't look.
  
  
• Bring cash - don't plan on anyone taking a check.
  
  
• Have an open mind - you never know what you might find.
  
  
• If you're looking for a certain item, you'll be wise to spend a little bit of time looking through ads in the local newspaper or Pennysaver to see if anyone is listing what you're looking for (skis, baby clothes, TV, etc).
  
  

SELLERS:

• Advertise. Put up brightly colored garage sale signs with arrows to help direct traffic to your house.
  
  
• Place an ad in a local newspaper or Pennysaver if you have big ticket items, unique items or are in a remote location not easily found.
  
  
• Price small items in increments of 25 cents, for easy change-making. Make sure you have plenty of change on hand before your first customer drives up.
  
  
• Keep your money on your person.
  
  
• Enlist help from family and friends, either before or during the sale, or both. Having extra people around makes it easy leave your sale to grab something to eat, use the restroom, etc.
  
  
• Let other families on your street know about your sale ahead of time, so that they can arrange to have one too and increase traffic even more.
  
  
• Be prepared for people to come before you're ready to sell, especially if you've advertised in the newspaper.
  
  
• Don't bargain too much early in the day, especially with people who are probably dealers and will resell your stuff.
  
  
• Know ahead of time what your goal is. Is it to make maximum profit or unload a maximum volume of things?
  
  
• Decide whether you'll price things ahead of time or not. Pricing ahead of time takes longer but takes some of the pressure off to remember what you're charging for this item or that.
  
  
• Organize items by type. One garage sale I went to recently had children's clothing sorted in boxes, and the boxes were labelled by size.
  
  
• Have extra bags on hand for people who buy more than one or two things from you.