Make Buying Easy!
The best advice I can give to everyone having a garage sale is to be ready to sell first thing in the morning. No matter where you live, there are some serious garage sale officiandos who are up at the crack of dawn, reading garage sale ads in the paper, and hunting to find the best garage sale deals. I've lived all over this country, and this seems to be true everywhere. The people who are just starting to price stuff at 7:30 or 8 am lose money, pure and simple.
To get the most out of your garage sale, set the tables up in your garage a night or two before. Organize and price your items ahead of time. Go to the bank and get $30 or more in change, so you don't run out of quarters and dollar bills. Then set the alarm the morning of the sale for about 6am . Grab some coffee, put up signs around the neighborhood, and get back to your house by 6:45. If you prepared well, you should be able to just open the garage door and be ready to start making money. If you're having a yard sale, set up some tables in the living room the night before, and have two of you walk them out into the yard first thing in the morning. The point is, there will be people ready to buy stuff at 7:00 am, maybe sooner. Prepare ahead of time and take their money.
In my experience, there is usually a serious wave of hardcore garage sale shoppers hitting sales between 6:30 and 8 am. Some of these people are hagglers who offer really low prices, that's true. But a lot of the early shoppers are buyers, and you should be ready for these people. Then there's the morning lull. Usually there's a slow period in a garage sale between 8am and 9 or 10 am. That's the time to grab some breakfast while someone else watches the sale. Then the late risers head out, and most of the garage sale customers show up. In most areas, the garage sale customers fade out about 1 or 2pm.
So organize a day or two ahead of time, and be ready to sell first thing, the morning of the sale. You'll make the most of your sale, put some extra cash in your wallet, and get rid of a lot of the junk you have laying around. And that's the whole point of a garage sale, isn't it?
Check out The White Bear's Money Blog for more ideas on how to make money.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Check out my other blogs
Need a laugh to get through the day? Check out my comedy blog:
The White Bear's Comic Freak Show
For more ideas on how to make money, check out The White Bear's Money Blog.
The White Bear's Comic Freak Show
For more ideas on how to make money, check out The White Bear's Money Blog.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Sell one thing ridiculously cheap
Advertise a loss leader to get more people to your sale
Working Nordic Track for $5!!!
Used couch for 25 cents!
Slightly used child, 7 years old, good teeth, $10!
If you looked through the garage sale ads in the paper or online, would these headlines get your attention? OK, I know, you shouldn't sell your kids, even if you're offered a really good price and the kids bug you a lot. But the other two lines, or similar offers, would stand out among the garage sale ads. But why would you sell something super cheap? Doesn't that defeat the whole idea of making money at a garage sale?
Not if it brings more people to your sale. In marketing, this is called a loss leader. You see this in major store ads all the time. For example, a grocery store may advertise 2 liter bottles of soda for 59 cents a few days before the Superbowl. Those bottles of soda normally sell for $1.48, so why would they sell them so cheap? Because if you come for the cheap soda for your Superbowl party, you'll also buy chips, dip, salsa, beer, and all your other party supplies. The profit on all the other items more than makes up for you saving 80 cents on the soda.
You can use this same idea at your garage sale. Find one item you just want to get rid of. An old couch. The workout machine you never use. The reclining chair that Grandma died in. Whatever. Then advertise that item in your garage sale ad for a ridiculously low price. Hey you wanted to get rid of the thing, so let someone else get a great deal, and draw more people to your sale to buy all the other stuff.
If you do this, take a digital pic of the person with the sale item so everyone who shows up later knows you actually sold it. I bet most of those people will remember you the next time you have a sale.
For more ideas on how to make money, check out The White Bear's Money Blog.
Working Nordic Track for $5!!!
Used couch for 25 cents!
Slightly used child, 7 years old, good teeth, $10!
If you looked through the garage sale ads in the paper or online, would these headlines get your attention? OK, I know, you shouldn't sell your kids, even if you're offered a really good price and the kids bug you a lot. But the other two lines, or similar offers, would stand out among the garage sale ads. But why would you sell something super cheap? Doesn't that defeat the whole idea of making money at a garage sale?
Not if it brings more people to your sale. In marketing, this is called a loss leader. You see this in major store ads all the time. For example, a grocery store may advertise 2 liter bottles of soda for 59 cents a few days before the Superbowl. Those bottles of soda normally sell for $1.48, so why would they sell them so cheap? Because if you come for the cheap soda for your Superbowl party, you'll also buy chips, dip, salsa, beer, and all your other party supplies. The profit on all the other items more than makes up for you saving 80 cents on the soda.
You can use this same idea at your garage sale. Find one item you just want to get rid of. An old couch. The workout machine you never use. The reclining chair that Grandma died in. Whatever. Then advertise that item in your garage sale ad for a ridiculously low price. Hey you wanted to get rid of the thing, so let someone else get a great deal, and draw more people to your sale to buy all the other stuff.
If you do this, take a digital pic of the person with the sale item so everyone who shows up later knows you actually sold it. I bet most of those people will remember you the next time you have a sale.
For more ideas on how to make money, check out The White Bear's Money Blog.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Garage Sale Check List
Did you forget anything?
1. Find stuff you plan to sell
2. Organize stuff to sell into general categories
3. Decide on location for sale: garage, yard, alley, a friend's house, flea market/swap meet, etc.
4. Place ad for sale in local newspaper
5. Place ad for sale on Craigslist and any other websites you think might help
6. Send email to friends locally to remind them of sale
7. Find tables to use for sale
8. Set up garage ahead of time and pre-price items if possible
9. Get materials to make garage sale signs
10. Make garage sale signs
11. Put signs up the morning of the sale... EARLY
12. Get $30 or more of assorted change for sale, From $5 bills on down to pennies
13. Get a comfortable chair to sit in during sale, and put some drinks in a cooler next to it for easy access during sale
14. Make sure you have friend or family member to watch sale so you can take breaks when needed
15. Open up sale and make some money$$$$!
Are you getting ready to move soon? If so, check out my moving tips blog:
Save $50 To $500 When You Move
For more ideas on how to make money, check out The White Bear's Money Blog.
1. Find stuff you plan to sell
2. Organize stuff to sell into general categories
3. Decide on location for sale: garage, yard, alley, a friend's house, flea market/swap meet, etc.
4. Place ad for sale in local newspaper
5. Place ad for sale on Craigslist and any other websites you think might help
6. Send email to friends locally to remind them of sale
7. Find tables to use for sale
8. Set up garage ahead of time and pre-price items if possible
9. Get materials to make garage sale signs
10. Make garage sale signs
11. Put signs up the morning of the sale... EARLY
12. Get $30 or more of assorted change for sale, From $5 bills on down to pennies
13. Get a comfortable chair to sit in during sale, and put some drinks in a cooler next to it for easy access during sale
14. Make sure you have friend or family member to watch sale so you can take breaks when needed
15. Open up sale and make some money$$$$!
Are you getting ready to move soon? If so, check out my moving tips blog:
Save $50 To $500 When You Move
For more ideas on how to make money, check out The White Bear's Money Blog.
Friday, February 19, 2010
The $1500 Garage Sale
How much money can you really make at a garage sale?
It's not unusual to hear of someone making $300 or more at a big garage sale, especially if they're moving and getting rid of a lot of stuff. But just how much can you possibly make on a garage sale? The biggest garage sale take I've heard of was from a guy I used to work with. Many years... and pounds... ago, I worked as a furniture mover. It's a brutal and entirely underpaid job. But I was definitely in the best shape of my life then. When you move a house, or sometimes two or three houses, full of furniture every day, you come across a lot of people who want to give things away. Good things sometimes, like couches, refrigerators, random pieces of furniture, and all kinds of stuff. Often, as movers, customers would just offer to give us stuff. I usually turned these offers down, because I didn't have a pick-up truck to haul stuff home, and I didn't really have a place to store stuff. It just seemed like too much trouble to deal with the stuff people offered us, though I did accept a custom leather couch and love seat once.
The veteran mover at our company was a skinny, rocker looking guy with long hair. He was someone you'd never believe was a furniture mover by looking at him. But he was the best mover, and the strongest skinny guy I ever met. Unlike most of us, he had a pick-up and a big garage at home, and he would take anything that people were getting rid of. Sometimes one of us would ask why he wanted something the rest of us didn't, and he'd say, "Oh, maybe I'll fix it up."
Then one day he was in a better mood than usual, and I asked what was up. He said that he and his wife had a garage sale the day before, and it went pretty well. I asked what they sold, and he said it was mostly stuff moving customers had given him. So I asked, "How well did you do at the sale?" He sheepishly said, "Oh... a little over $1500." My jaw dropped. I tried to get more details, but he didn't really want to talk about it. H I think he was afraid I'd tell the owner, a nototirously greedy guy, who would want a cut. He did finally tell me that was the reason why he would take all the stuff, even crappy stuff, that customers offered him. He said he and his wife usually had a big garage sale every year, sometimes two sales. On average, the garage sale would pay their rent for a month, plus a little extra. Their rent was $1200.
Now I doubt many of you are furniture movers. But here's a thought. What if you checked Craigslist and the local papers once a week for what people in your area are giving away free, or sellign real cheap. What if you went and picked up the better items, and stored those things in your garage? What if you added your old stuff to the pile and had a big garage sale once or twice a year? What if you did that? How much money could you earn on the side? Is it worth the effort for you? That's for you to decide. But it gets you thinking, doesn't it?
For more ideas like this, check out another of my blogs, humorously titled Make Money Panhandling.
For more ideas on how to make money, check out The White Bear's Money Blog.
It's not unusual to hear of someone making $300 or more at a big garage sale, especially if they're moving and getting rid of a lot of stuff. But just how much can you possibly make on a garage sale? The biggest garage sale take I've heard of was from a guy I used to work with. Many years... and pounds... ago, I worked as a furniture mover. It's a brutal and entirely underpaid job. But I was definitely in the best shape of my life then. When you move a house, or sometimes two or three houses, full of furniture every day, you come across a lot of people who want to give things away. Good things sometimes, like couches, refrigerators, random pieces of furniture, and all kinds of stuff. Often, as movers, customers would just offer to give us stuff. I usually turned these offers down, because I didn't have a pick-up truck to haul stuff home, and I didn't really have a place to store stuff. It just seemed like too much trouble to deal with the stuff people offered us, though I did accept a custom leather couch and love seat once.
The veteran mover at our company was a skinny, rocker looking guy with long hair. He was someone you'd never believe was a furniture mover by looking at him. But he was the best mover, and the strongest skinny guy I ever met. Unlike most of us, he had a pick-up and a big garage at home, and he would take anything that people were getting rid of. Sometimes one of us would ask why he wanted something the rest of us didn't, and he'd say, "Oh, maybe I'll fix it up."
Then one day he was in a better mood than usual, and I asked what was up. He said that he and his wife had a garage sale the day before, and it went pretty well. I asked what they sold, and he said it was mostly stuff moving customers had given him. So I asked, "How well did you do at the sale?" He sheepishly said, "Oh... a little over $1500." My jaw dropped. I tried to get more details, but he didn't really want to talk about it. H I think he was afraid I'd tell the owner, a nototirously greedy guy, who would want a cut. He did finally tell me that was the reason why he would take all the stuff, even crappy stuff, that customers offered him. He said he and his wife usually had a big garage sale every year, sometimes two sales. On average, the garage sale would pay their rent for a month, plus a little extra. Their rent was $1200.
Now I doubt many of you are furniture movers. But here's a thought. What if you checked Craigslist and the local papers once a week for what people in your area are giving away free, or sellign real cheap. What if you went and picked up the better items, and stored those things in your garage? What if you added your old stuff to the pile and had a big garage sale once or twice a year? What if you did that? How much money could you earn on the side? Is it worth the effort for you? That's for you to decide. But it gets you thinking, doesn't it?
For more ideas like this, check out another of my blogs, humorously titled Make Money Panhandling.
For more ideas on how to make money, check out The White Bear's Money Blog.
Garage Sale vs.Flea Market or Swap Meet
Which is best for you?
First of all, what's the difference between a flea market and a swap meet? Simple, the difference is geographical location. Somewhere west of the Mississippi, flea markets become swap meets. They're just different names for the same type of sale. That said, does it make more sense for you to have a garage sale or go to the flea market/swap meet in your area?
Garage sales are easier, and if you don't expect to sell more than $100 worth of stuff, a garage or yard sale is probably the best bet. You don't have t pack up the car, you don't have to travel to it, and you don't have to pay the space fee like at a flea market.
So why consider a swap meet? There are lots of reasons. First and foremost, an average flea market has thousands of customers browsing, far more than you're likely to get at any garage sale. There is a fee for your space at the flea market, usually $20 to $35 these days. That seems like a lot of money if you're just selling junk. But you don't have to spend money to advertise, and you don't have to make signs like you do for a garage sale, and the money saved makes up for part of the space fee.
My general rule is that if I expect to make at least $150, and the stuff I'm selling is easily and safely moved, then it's time to consider the flea market.
I recommend checking out your local swap meet ahead of time, browse it and see what type of stuff people are selling, how many people are shopping, and ask sellers how business is. Out in Southern California where I was living, there are swap meets that are practically weekend shopping malls, with professional vendors in many of the booths. These draw tens of thousands of people per day and a lot of money changes hands. Now, due to family issues, I'm in North Carolina now, where the flea markets seem more geared towards garage sale items, collectibles, and antiques. The crowds aren't as big, and there's more garage sale type stuff, but the space fees are lower.
If you do decide on the flea market or swap meet, plan ahead. Often you have to buy a space in advance, or get a discount for buying in advance. You also need to have your car all packed up the night before, and yo usually have to be at the location by about 6 am. You'll also need tables to display stuff, and a pop-up canopy is a really good idea for shade. You can put stuff on blankets on the ground, which is fine for garage sale stuff, but table look more professional.
So which is best for you? If you have small, fairly high value items, like antiques, collectibles, or even home-made crafts, consider the flea market. If you have larger pieces of furniture, exercise equipment, and have a good place for a garage or yard sale, that's probably a better bet.
For more ideas on how to make money, check out The White Bear's Money Blog.
First of all, what's the difference between a flea market and a swap meet? Simple, the difference is geographical location. Somewhere west of the Mississippi, flea markets become swap meets. They're just different names for the same type of sale. That said, does it make more sense for you to have a garage sale or go to the flea market/swap meet in your area?
Garage sales are easier, and if you don't expect to sell more than $100 worth of stuff, a garage or yard sale is probably the best bet. You don't have t pack up the car, you don't have to travel to it, and you don't have to pay the space fee like at a flea market.
So why consider a swap meet? There are lots of reasons. First and foremost, an average flea market has thousands of customers browsing, far more than you're likely to get at any garage sale. There is a fee for your space at the flea market, usually $20 to $35 these days. That seems like a lot of money if you're just selling junk. But you don't have to spend money to advertise, and you don't have to make signs like you do for a garage sale, and the money saved makes up for part of the space fee.
My general rule is that if I expect to make at least $150, and the stuff I'm selling is easily and safely moved, then it's time to consider the flea market.
I recommend checking out your local swap meet ahead of time, browse it and see what type of stuff people are selling, how many people are shopping, and ask sellers how business is. Out in Southern California where I was living, there are swap meets that are practically weekend shopping malls, with professional vendors in many of the booths. These draw tens of thousands of people per day and a lot of money changes hands. Now, due to family issues, I'm in North Carolina now, where the flea markets seem more geared towards garage sale items, collectibles, and antiques. The crowds aren't as big, and there's more garage sale type stuff, but the space fees are lower.
If you do decide on the flea market or swap meet, plan ahead. Often you have to buy a space in advance, or get a discount for buying in advance. You also need to have your car all packed up the night before, and yo usually have to be at the location by about 6 am. You'll also need tables to display stuff, and a pop-up canopy is a really good idea for shade. You can put stuff on blankets on the ground, which is fine for garage sale stuff, but table look more professional.
So which is best for you? If you have small, fairly high value items, like antiques, collectibles, or even home-made crafts, consider the flea market. If you have larger pieces of furniture, exercise equipment, and have a good place for a garage or yard sale, that's probably a better bet.
For more ideas on how to make money, check out The White Bear's Money Blog.
What if I don't have a garage?
Other types of personal sales
You have a bunch of stuff you want to get rid of, you could use some extra cash, but you don't have a garage, what do you do? The most obvious answer is to have a yard sale. Who needs a garage anyway? But this is the 21st century, a lot of us live in apartments or condos and don't really have yards anymore. In most large complexes, yard sales are frowned upon, or you have to get manager's approval, which is a big hassle. So what other options do you have?
You can have your sale in an empty lot nearby, I've seen this done several times before. This won't go over to well in an upscale neighborhood, but in middle and lower income areas, or rural areas, nobody usually minds. Just make sure there's a place for cars to park.
You can also have an inside sale, which works best in apartment complexes where front doors are visible from the parking area. Just advertise your sale like a garage sale in local papers and on the web, put up signs where possible, and put a big sale sign on your front door, as long as that sign can be seen by people driving up. This isn't the ideal situation for a sale, but it will work.
If you've got quite a bit of stuff, and no garage or yard, consider a flea market or swap meet. You do have to pay a fee for a space, usually $20 to $35 these days, so only do this if you have enough to sell and that makes sense. You don't want to lose money selling your stuff.
Another simple idea is to have your sale at someone else's garage or yard. You have to talk them into having it at their place, and you should be willing to do most of the work to make it happen. If you do the work, use their garage or yard, and hand them some money for their stuff that sold, your friends should be pretty happy with the deal.
For more ideas on how to make money, check out The White Bear's Money Blog.
You have a bunch of stuff you want to get rid of, you could use some extra cash, but you don't have a garage, what do you do? The most obvious answer is to have a yard sale. Who needs a garage anyway? But this is the 21st century, a lot of us live in apartments or condos and don't really have yards anymore. In most large complexes, yard sales are frowned upon, or you have to get manager's approval, which is a big hassle. So what other options do you have?
You can have your sale in an empty lot nearby, I've seen this done several times before. This won't go over to well in an upscale neighborhood, but in middle and lower income areas, or rural areas, nobody usually minds. Just make sure there's a place for cars to park.
You can also have an inside sale, which works best in apartment complexes where front doors are visible from the parking area. Just advertise your sale like a garage sale in local papers and on the web, put up signs where possible, and put a big sale sign on your front door, as long as that sign can be seen by people driving up. This isn't the ideal situation for a sale, but it will work.
If you've got quite a bit of stuff, and no garage or yard, consider a flea market or swap meet. You do have to pay a fee for a space, usually $20 to $35 these days, so only do this if you have enough to sell and that makes sense. You don't want to lose money selling your stuff.
Another simple idea is to have your sale at someone else's garage or yard. You have to talk them into having it at their place, and you should be willing to do most of the work to make it happen. If you do the work, use their garage or yard, and hand them some money for their stuff that sold, your friends should be pretty happy with the deal.
For more ideas on how to make money, check out The White Bear's Money Blog.
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