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Who to invite to your garage sale

Ever noticed how in a massive car park, or on an otherwise deserted beach, people will flock to the same few square yards of tarmac or sand? This is because people are social beings who feel comfortable doing what others before them have done.

By inviting a few close friends and relatives, you can use this psychology to build interest in your garage sale. That’s right- there’s nothing like a crowd to draw a crowd!

But who to invite? Well, here’s a list to get you going.

1. Start with those closest to you, like your best friends and closest relations.
2. From here you can fan out to work colleagues that you know well.
3. Inviting your immediate neighbors has the advantage of ‘keeping them in the loop’. You might also consider doing a letterbox drop around your street and neighborhood. The beauty of inviting neighbors is they haven’t got far to travel to your sale, and because everyone’s interested in what’s going on in their neighbourhood, a fair proportion of your neighbours is likely to turn up.
4. If your work has an intranet on its computer system that’s authorized for public use, send a short message of the address, date and time of your garage sale around on that.
5. From here, you should tell everyone you know in whatever sporting, social or church groups you belong to. Many of these groups have noticeboards both where they meet, and also online, which are worthwhile using .
6. For a wider audience you should definitely advertise on a good garage sale website, and in your local newspaper.

Finally, here’s a few techniques to make your sale look busy:

1. Park all your cars on the street near your house – not in front of your house, because this will block access, but around the street, so that when your customers do start to arrive they feel like there’s plenty of people around.
2. Decorate the front of your home with streamers and balloons, and play some festive music (not too loudly, for the neighbors’ sake) to generate a party atmosphere.
3. Set finite times for your sale so that everyone arrives at once. If there are people queuing outside your gates a few minutes before start time, don’t open the gates early. Queues stir anticipation and anticipation puts people in a buying frame of mind. By the same token, don’t make people wait beyond the advertised start time – this is just rude, and likely to turn customers away.

Follow these easy tips, and you’ll pull a garage sale crowd in no time!