Hints and Tips for conducting your own Garage Sale or Yard Sale.

We are always adding to this list, so feel free to contribute your ideas at HintsandTips@gargesalehomepage.com

Planning:

1. Take your time, start planning ahead. For large organized group events you may need to plan a few months ahead.
2. Invite your family and neighbors to join in your sale (large neighborhood sales draw large crowds of shoppers)
3. Advertise - see below for many ideas
4. Gather your sale items
5. Pricing - see below
6. Visit some garage sales or yard sales with the intent to see how they are conducted.
7. Have some music to play so your sale is always alive. People won't feel awkward coming to your sale when they are the first or only ones there, they can also talk among themselves to work on their negotiating plans without you hearing. That's good, but stand firm.

Gather your sale items:

1. Pick a place to collect your sale items.
2. Do some "Spring Cleaning" to find extra items to add to your sale. If you haven't used it in a year sell it.
3. Go through each room in your house and look in each drawer and every closet.

Pricing:

1. Prices should be approximate 1/2 to 1/3 the original price for items in 'New' condition, adjust the price from there based on wear and age.
2. Price item visibly, don't place the price on the bottom
3. Include history on antique items on a piece of paper
4. Include information like "Requires batteries"
5. Include information on usability and condition
6. Sort your items by price and have separate "Bins". Have the bins marked 10¢, 50¢, etc.

Advertise:

1. Bulletin Boards:
   1. Local grocery stores have community bulletin boards neat the front of the store or near the main entrance.
   2. Large housing developments and other projects have community centers, these centers have popular bulletin boards and welcome postings of local garage or yard sale events
2. Signs:
   1. Don't forget to make some large signs. Be sure to view your signs from a distance to make sure they're readable.
   2. Some hardware stores sell Garage and yard sale signs.
   3. Post your signs a week before a single garage sale or a sale with a few families. For larger sales with Multi family or neighborhood events you should post signs a couple weeks ahead but keep it limited to the immediate area, you don't want your signs to become a nuisance. Large organized events like Home Owner Association events will post signs as much as a month before the event. My home is in an HOA and they have had special signs made to place at the entrances to our community. The HOA begins displaying the signs a month before the event. The large HOA's even have newsletters with the sale event information or a special flyer to notify the neighborhood of the event.
3. News Paper
   1. Advertise in the local classified news paper and ask for the Garage and Yard Sales section.
   2. Be sure to include your start time in the paper advertisement. Most early shoppers will want to start at 6:00. If 6:00 is to early for you to be ready adjust your ad accordingly.
4. Online Advertising:
   1. Post your sale information online at GarageSaleHomePage.com's Garage or Yard Sale Registry.

The day before your sale:

1. Have plenty of change, plenty of dollar bills
2. Find a garbage container to keep handy
3. Buy some extra sodas to sell to the thirsty shoppers. Buy what you would normally drink so you have a use for the left-over's.
4. Prepare the sale location. You may want to wash the driveway the day before so it will be dry in the morning.
5. Go to bed early, you will want to be ready for the early bird shoppers and they will expect to start at 6 AM. You may need to get up a couple hours early to setup your sale. You can sleep in a little if you get some of the preparation work done the night before.

After the Sale

1. Be sure to remove all your signs.
2. Sort your left over items and donate the low value items to charity
3. Create a free online garage sale and enter your remaining items in your online garage

Visiting a garage sale:

Plan your driving route, it's to expensive not to.
Keep an eye out for sales not in the classifieds
Arrive early, most sales start at 8 am but they are ready to sell early
Look under tables for items that have just not been placed on the table yet
Check the 'Free' box, many sales have a box of items they just want to get rid of.