Having a garage sale. Tips needed

Good points. The sign idea is very smart. I plan on using a roll of yellow police line across the front of the (large) driveway until we open it. Went through the house again today for an hour to pull more stuff. Unreal the amount of stuff I'll be selling! When did I buy all this crap??? ( )

 

Ran an ad today that startes Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It highlights the large wood items at REALLY cheap prices. These should be very good 'loss-leaders'. Listed other catagories of items at 'It's all at make an offer'! Will be the only add that had a bold frame. I think I'll have a couple neightbor's come by to help bump the bid on the same item that a real buyer wants. Is that too ghetto?

I will have a jar that for every $5 spent, people can put in a ticket for a $50 drawing. At the end of the day. I'll deliver the $50 to the winner.

 

I got two calls this morning from people that wanted to come early (One tonight - Friday and another at 7AM Saturday). Since I did not list my phone number in the ad, the first called admitted that he got my name from a buddy at that works at the newspaper (Not real happy about that) and the second caller (who wanted to come at 7AM) got my number from public records!!! Unreal!

OK, I have 20 signs that I'll post tonight and early Sat AM for the sale. I swapped an old cell phone for eight tables to use at the sale. I made a few single shet signs for a few of the items. I have a Sharpie, change packed along with a cooler for my drinks.

Any last-minute things I am missing?

 

It's early, I'm cranky and my damn foot is killig me. I'm out the door to go run a garage sale. I better make a wallet ful today or I'm gonna be pissed!

 

Back at 3:00. Good day. Only sold one of the large items, the D.room table for $50 (Total steal) to a guy that bought a bunch of other stuff. People were as follows:

1) 60% of the sales: Buyers: "How much"...Me: "Make me an offer"..... 80% of the offers came in at what I would of sold the item for or 20-30% higher!

2) 30% of the people HAD to have a price come out of my mouth, which we negotiated to a sale.

3) 10% of the sales came from me talking to people, finding something for them to buy and making a deal they could not turn down.

Made $1245.00, 80% of it between opening at 9:00 to 10:30. It was a frenzy, as we could not help people fast enough. Got there at 8:15 with two people waiting and said people had ben pulling in since 7:15!!!

Have enough stuff for another sale in a couple of weeks that will focus on the large items (Beds, Amoire, freezer, TV's) at REALLY low prices to just get rid of them. All-in-all, the people that showed up were pleasant and fun to sell to! It's amazing that one mans junk is another mans treasure!

Thanks for all the great tips posted prior to the sale!

PS: Rigby (Zippy) decided to chew one of the wall bear's claws off, thus the price dropped from $100 to $50 (BBQ'd Rigby is on the menu tonight). The stuffed squirrel went for five bucks.

 

I listened to both you and Melodie and put a few bucks in our pockets. Swapped a Verizon Vcast phone for the eight tables we rented and spent $55 on a good ad that stood at very well in the paper three days prior to the sale. Thanks again.

 

YES! Quick money for a little bit of planing and prep.

 

Cal King pedistal bed with back shelf W/Seally pillow top mat.
Queen bed frame with deco leaves, front and back, arched,Bspring & Mat
Queen cedar pedistal bed. Mat optional with three rigby pee stains
Two-door walnut amiour that has two smoked glass doors with 4-drawers
Professional seties Sears JET table saw
Radial Arm saw
21 SF single door freezer, 2 years old.
Craftsman tool cabinet
32" color TV, one year old.
A LOT of nic-nak crap

Will sell all of the above for $800, U-Pack and U-haul it all! Sonora,CA.

 

I can take pics if I got my lazy butt to do it. The bed could be a piece of cake to ship UPS, but woould be $$$. The rool cab it a 5-drawer with a sep smaller 4 drawer on top. Its NOT a ball bearing though.

 

You have a PM

 

Here are the pics of the amoire and the Cal King bed I made. Will sell both for $250. This is a screaming deal (If you can lift them!).
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Ya, it may be more than you need, but it's pretty decent furniture (And was a lot of fun to build!). I used a very clean 7/8th" ash plywood for the backing and walnut veneer. The cap pieces (on both items) are all solid walnut. I have about 120 hours in building both pieces and probably $500 in materials. The pillow-top mattress that I'm giving with the bed cost me about $1700. I had my use out of it and it's time they have a new home.

Hell, if you are in college and REALLY on a budget but have the room, you can have both for $200.