This week, my girlfriends daughter is getting ready to move out of our home, and in with her boyfriend. She is 23 years old, and should know better than this, but as always, she has waited to the last minute to do ANYTHING other than fill my garage with empty boxes. As she's laying on the couch during a perfectly good saturday, I snap and tell her it's time for a garage sale.
To my surprise, she actually seemed excited about the idea. Over the past 2 weeks, we've planned, sold, and packed together. It's been a great time, and we even managed to come up with our home-made "Garage Sale Check List" Hopefully our mistakes can help other people, because pretty much everything on this list, we did the opposite. Enjoy!
1. Take either a few days to a week to prepare.
2. It's probably not a good idea to have your garage sale on Christmas, Halloween, or any other holidays, especially Columbus Day.
3. Weekends will attract more people.
4. You may be more successfull if you team up with someone else, to create a super garage sale.
5. Good things to sell: Bikes, Toys, Jewelry, Games, Decorations, Sports equiptment.
N.B. **** IF YOU ARE GOING TO SELL CLOTHES, you must create a "dressing room" type area. ***
6. Make table or tables look neat and presentable. Group similar things together. Place the more expensive objects in the back of the garage, so that people are forced to browse in order to get there.
7. Have a 25 cent, or 1$ table for kids to shop.
8. Don't sell anything that is broken or in bad shape, just chuck it. Make sure clothes are hung up somewhere and sized correctly.
9. If you are selling appliances, make sure you place them near a plug so you can prove they work.
10. Make sure there is enough room for people to park, pull over, or load something into their car.
11. Have paper bags available for people who buy multiple items.
12. Put an ad in the paper, include directions, times, and maybe even a few special items
13. Place ads in local grocery stores and shoppes.
14. Make sure you use signs around your area and neighborhood directing people to your home.
15. Remember that shoppers are looking for bargains. Be prepared to sell for low prices.
16. Really valuable items should probably not be sold at a garage sale, but at the same time, there is nothing so worthless that SOMEONE might not want it. Have a "free" table to get rid of things not worth charging for.
17. Make a sign noting Cash Only - and that there are no returns
18. Have plenty of change in a box in a private place.
Make it an awesome Day!
Glen Russell 610.792.3000
For all your real estate needs...www.glenrussell.com
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