Having a yard sale this coming Saturday - need some advice

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve got a bunch of PC equipment, stereo equipment and a few guitar amps and a host of similar misc. stuff I’m going to be trying to sell at a yard sale at my house from 8AM t 1PM this Saturday.

The PC systems are going to be well configured 450 to 733 Mhz internet ready Win ME and Win XP PC’s with monitors, keyboards etc. that I’ll be trying to sell for 125 - 195 for complete systems and 45- 75 for the 15 watt and 65 watt guitar amps. I want to have them all up and going so people can see that they work.

I’ll be doing this by myself, so I suppose my main concern is that people will be trying to walk off with items like the Peavy or Fender amps if I get busy with one person. I’ve never had a yard sale before so I’m kind of paranoid.

A few questions

1: What is the best method to have a friendly yet secure yard sale if you have some large, higher dollar (yard sale wise) items.

2: How much change should I get and what type - ie lots of ones or mostly higher denominations ?

3: Should I take checks or not? I would prefer to specify cash only.

4: Should I recruit one of my kids stand guard in the house to make sure no one tries to enter while I am busy in front?

5: If sales of well should I take some of the cash in at some point so the cash box is a less tempting target?

6: If people try to wander in early while I am setting up at 6:30 - 7AM or so, what’s the best way to tell them to beat it without being unfriendly?

7: Whats the most polite way to tell people that I am confident of the stability fo the systems, but I am not offering any warranties. Once they pay for it, it’s theirs.

8: Should I do some little string fence thing to define the yard area people are allowed in?

Any other suggestions appreciated.

2

Some comments based on my experience having a yard sale (actually, more of a driveway sale) with my sister last fall:

  • Have you placed an ad, or posted signs, giving a start time? Don’t be surprised if the yard sale fanatics to show up as much as an hour before the posted time, and don’t be afraid to tell him they’ll have to come back because you’re not ready. Also, don’t be shocked if they “help” you put your stuff out by rooting through your boxes before you’re ready.

  • Keep pricey stuff right next to wherever you plant your chair (assuming you’ll do that). Inexpensive stuff/bulky items are best placed furthest away from you.

  • I would not take checks at all. People cruising for bargains, especially on stereo equipment and the like, will come prepared with lots of cash, or else ask if they can make some alternate arrangement (money down, remainder to be paid when they come to pick it up).

  • That said, people will do their damnedest to bargain you down to ridiculously low prices, sometimes because they plan on re-selling at flea markets themselves. My sister and I made several hundred dollars, but only because we had a LOT of little things to get rid of.

  • People don’t generally try to walk into a house without asking. However, I think you ought to have one of your kids on hand to take cash for small items and keep an eye on things in case you need to run to the loo or whatever.

  • If you decide to put out small items, have lots of plastic grocery bags to put them in.

  • Make sure you have change of a $100 on hand to break bills for people. Again, if you decide to include smaller items, make sure you have plenty of singles and fives on hand. If you get to the point where you have a wad of bills in your pocket, yes I would bring some of that inside.

  • There should be no need to string off portions of your yard - people will figure out pretty quickly where the items of interest end (although we did have a couple people wander into my sister’s garage at the end of the driveway early on).

  • Feel free to tell people that the items go “as is.” They will say disparaging things about the condition/age of your items and try to bargain you down further. :wink: It’s all part of the game; you have to take it in stride.
    When we ran our sale (8:30 AM to 1 PM on consecutive days), we found that the biggest response came on the first day, in the first couple of hours. If you can’t have someone keeping you company the entire time, you may want to be sure you have help with set-up and the early part of the sale.

Good luck!

3

I’ve been holding yard sales for a long time, and setting up at flea markets. Here’s some tips for you:

**1: What is the best method to have a friendly yet secure yard sale if you have some large, higher dollar (yard sale wise) items. **

Keep the high dollar stuff near the back. Set up a “cashier station” with a card table and your chair. Use the card table to help you stage stuff people are buying so you can take an accurate count, and to give you a platform to bag stuff. Don’t use a cash box (I’ll get to that later.) Set up a picnic table or folding camp table or something like that right next to your cashier station, and use that big table for the high-dollar stuff so you can keep an eye on it.

2: How much change should I get and what type - ie lots of ones or mostly higher denominations ?

Minimum should be $50 in change: 1-20, 1-10, 2-5s, 10-1s. $100 would be better since you have high-ticket items. A lot of people set out to go yard saling with a pocketful of twennies (damn 'em! :slight_smile: )

**3: Should I take checks or not? I would prefer to specify cash only. **

Not. Cash only.

**4: Should I recruit one of my kids stand guard in the house to make sure no one tries to enter while I am busy in front? **

No, just lock the house. Seriously.

**5: If sales of well should I take some of the cash in at some point so the cash box is a less tempting target? **

A cash box is a big mistake. Don’t do it. I can’t emphasize this enough. Get a cheapo canvas nail apron at Home Depot, or a simple cocktail waitress’ apron (the kind that consist of two deep cash pockets and nothing else.) Or just use your deep pockets. During the sale, you are going to need to walk around - answering questions, showing some features of your stuff, helping an old lady with that lamp she wants. You can’t be humping around a cash box when you do that, and you can’t leave it there.

**6: If people try to wander in early while I am setting up at 6:30 - 7AM or so, what’s the best way to tell them to beat it without being unfriendly? **

Earlybirds are generally rude assholes. I have gone as far as roping off the end of my driveway to keep 'em out while I’m setting up, and they still wander up and want to go through your stuff before you’re ready. If you want to be polite, just firmly tell them that you’re not set up yet, but they’re welcome to come back when you’re officially open. If you don’t want to be polite, ask them what part of the ad reading “NO EARLYBIRDS” did they have problems reading.
**7: Whats the most polite way to tell people that I am confident of the stability of the systems, but I am not offering any warranties. Once they pay for it, it’s theirs. **

When I’m selling appliances, stereo equipment, etc. I run an extension cord from the house and plug them in to demo them. Might be a good idea to do the same thing with your systems, to show that they run and they’re not gonna bluescreen. But put a card on them spelling out specifically that they are sold AS IS.

8: Should I do some little string fence thing to define the yard area people are allowed in?

Not necessary, the customers will pretty much stay by the merchandise. Keep the garage door closed if you’re not selling anything in there, though.

Also… what sunfish said.

4

All the tips you’ve received so far sound great. One tip I’ve heard is that you should designate only one person who receives money for selling items. Any helpers you have should direct buyers to your designated cashier for payment. The reason is that scammers can claim “Oh I was in a hurry, so I paid the nice young man over there” and wave and smile to your son who waves and smiles back just to be polite. Of course, later on you find out that the scammer got away without paying and your son is wondering why a stranger waved and smiled at him.

5

When my wife reviewed toys, we’d have a big toy sale just before Thanksgiving. I agree with most of the stuff said. We had multiple people, so we did use a cash box, but kept it in the garage far away from the stuff. Definitely lock your doors. We took checks, and have never had a problem, but I can understand you not wanting to. You should be willing to hold merchandise for a precisely defined amount of time to let people without the cash get it, though.

Roping off the driveway sounds like a good idea. People are crazy sometimes - we had to shoo away yard-salers when we were cleaning out our garage.

Though sellers are crazy also. One group near us, with baby clothes, both fences off the yard and charges admission! And they were incredibly busy.

6

Another puzzling bit of behavior I’ve run into when running yard sales: someone will agree to buy something, but they’ll need to go to the nearest ATM machine to get cash. You write “sold” on the item, but the buyer never comes back. Meanwhile, other potential buyers have gotten away from you.

Moral: don’t agree to “hold” something for someone without a meaningful cash deposit.

7

Thank’s much for suggestions.so far. They have been very helpful. I ddn’t even think about the cash box problem if I’m doing it myself.

8

For my last yard sale, I adopted a new policy and the flyers and ads stated it clearly: Early Birds Pay Double. It worked. :smiley: