Get at least one other person to stay with you all during the sale. You’re gonna have to pee sometime, you know. Plus you’ll have backup if someone tries to steal merchandise or money.
Lock the doors, lock the yard gate, lock the cars, lock EVERYTHING. Don’t let anyone in the house for anything. Know the locations of the nearest public restrooms, and your bathroom is not it. Nor is your yard.
Unless your dog is particularly well mannered, well trained, and good natured, put it in the house or yard or SOMEWHERE that the public can’t get to. Even then, expect some well meaning idiots to aggravate the dog. Similarly, put the cats in the house and tell them it’s for their own good. Adults and children both will try to pet the kitty, and if kitty doesn’t want to be petted, the claws might come out. Much unhappiness all around.
Make the merchandise easy to examine. I hate picking through a box of books just to be able to read the titles. The titles should be visible without even touching the books. Also, if you have something like cloth napkins, display one, have the others folded neatly under it. Be ready with a price per item and a cheaper price for the whole set. Since you have drinking glasses and plates, it’s a bit harder to fold them, but you’ll still want to offer them as a set at a cheaper price. I would suggest saving your newspapers now and getting some boxes from the liquor store if the breakable stuff is particularly nice, so that people can take take them home safely.
If you have some things that could be considered a collection, group them nicely. I will always look at owl stuff, and if you have a drinking glass with an owl on it (I actually have one), an owl figurine, an owl planter, etc., I will look at the first item, and then I will get excited because I can buy more owl crap (as opposed to owl pellets) and I will want every owl item you have for sale. This will make both of us happy.
Make sure you have a garbage can in a visable spot. People carry pop cans, water bottles etc. Make sure if they happen to empty it while browsing your sale they have a place to throw them away. Otherwise they will leave them on tables.
Set a small table or even an over turned bucket next to the garbage with an ashtray on it. People also smoke. Give them a place to put that butt instead of flicking on your lawn.
Make sure you have plenty of change. Those early birds like to bring twenties.
If there are any items in your garage or surrounding area that is not for sale put a sign on it or you will have ten people asking you the price of your lawn mower.
Consider just listing the big items on craigslist and just giving everything else away. Is it really worth your time to drive around putting up signs, stand around in the hot sun for hours, etc. to sell some dishware for $0.50 a piece? Anything that’s not worth $20 is Good Will material.
That said, if you like the actual process of a yard sale, have fun
And be sure that your helpers know what’s for sale, what’s not for sale, and any items that you’re not willing to budge on the price, or you may find that your table saw has been sold for twenty bucks.
I think you’re going down the wrong track with not advertising in advance and not opening early. For a while I sold classified advertising and as a result spent an insane amount of time talking to people about yard sales. I share this as a result of extensive, almost ethnographic research. If the Saturday paper is where yard sales are advertised in your area, you want to be in it. Yes, getting up early is a pain, but if you’re going to all the hassle of hauling your stuff into your yard, make the most of it. Like ripping the bandaid off in one fell swoop. That way a) people still have money for impulse purchases and b) people looking for specific items will buy yours instead of the other guy’s.
From my personal experience, don’t underestimate the crap that people will pay real American dollars for. I was amazed!
Agree about advertising the guy stuff, including specific large items. We had a wood chipper that was a tremendous draw.
Since it’s you, consider writing up stories about some of the crap and putting it on little index cards or something. I could see that working for you. “This plate miraculously survived being thrown at Uncle Henry by my Great-Aunt Myrtle in the battle over whether he was or was not allowed to keep goats in the house.”
Check with your neighbors and see if any of them are considering having sales. Rather than competing, some people will be more drawn to a “street of sales” kind of event.
If you have a daughter, don’t let her grandmother run into the house and come out with a box of daughter’s old underwear, because it will traumatize her then, and she still won’t forget about it when she is 29. Ahem.
+1 for checking with neighbors, bc if they have things to sell you can put up “Multi Family Garage Sale” and people will come and buy like crazy.
My biggest peeve with yard sales is the crucial, missing sign - the directions from the street took me into your neighbourhood, and now I’m at a crossroads and there is no sign here, so I am going to go home (slightly angrier than when I started out). This is also my peeve with real estate open houses - you know why no one showed up? Because no one could FIND it!
Is it really worth your time to give out your address and phone number to scamsters and nutcases from Craigslist, where even if they are neither, you have to arrange to meet them and do the exchange. Sure, that’s fine for something $100+ but for a $10 chair?:rolleyes:
