How To Have Successful Sale:

A successful yard sale just doesn’t happen.  You have to plan, organize, advertise, and prepare for the day or weekend of the event.  

ADVERTISING

Advertise in as many publications as you can afford.  Maybe even advertise the weekend before the weekend of your sale.  Use local shopper papers, local newspapers, and weekly local TV Guides.  Use the local TV cable provider.   How you advertise is as important as what you advertise.  Use colorful and unique words to describe your sale.  Have the paper enlarge the print.  Use words like Humongous, Giganto, or other words to let people know how big the sale is.  Turn multi-family into multiple households.  Turns the thought of Gram and Pop having a sale with the kids and grandkids into the thought of a neighborhood sale and will generally draw more people.   

Making posters and placing them are every bit as important as the newspaper advertisements.   Use colorful poster board or use your computer printer.  However, never place up a 8-1/2” x 11” piece of paper on a telephone pole and expect people to read it when they are driving 25MPH past it.  USE BANNERS OR POSTERBOARD.  Better yet, recycle those political signs in the neighborhood and just reverse the printed sign.  Most signs are just placed on a metal rod shaped like a “U”.   USE LARGE TYPE.  Remember, these need to be about the size of print on a speed limit sign for people to see easily.   Use directional arrows to lead people to the sale.  

Please obey local ordinances when erecting signs and posters.  Many communities have laws against placing signs on telephone poles or other items.   When placing signs on poles or trees, use string or tape and don’t nail the items to the pole or tree!  Most of all, be sure to pick up your signs when done.   Nothing makes people madder than having a yard sale sign  up that says “Sale—FRI & SAT at 123 No Place” only to have them drive there and see nothing.  They might even later remember that your sale was the week before and purposely avoid your next sale. 

ORGANIZATION:

Just as important as being organized when going to yard sales, it is equally important to be organized in the way you prepare your items for your yard sale. 

To begin with, organize your items and don’t mix them.   To start with your organization, separate your items into categories:

Categories could include:

Household Items—everyday decorative items, knick knacks, etc

Kitchen Utensils, Pots, Pans, and Appliances

Electronics such as TV’s, Radios, Computers, CB’s, Calculators,

Toys

Games

Sporting Goods

Clothing

Jewelry

Holiday Items

You heard it all before, LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!  This not only applies to where you hold your sale, but how you display your items for sale.    Your items should be clean and presented in a pleasant manner and not just up on a heap.  More important, rent tables!  Nothing turns off more people than getting to a sale and everything is on piles on the ground.  We are not into bending over , looking at, or sorting through everything and generally will do a “Drive By” at these type of sales! Items that you want to sell the most should be in the front.   Clothing should be hung or folded neatly on a table by size and sex. 

Make the atmosphere as pleasant as possible.  Have tents set up a couple days in advance to draw attention to your house  which will let people know there will be something going on later.  In case of bad weather, you have a place that is like a sanctuary for the yard sale shopper.  If anything, you have a place where they feel comfortable and dry. and they tend to stay longer and look through things when it is raining.  Run the tents as close to parking areas as possible and set up as close to the street as you can. 

Stores use music to sell items and so can you!  You could have a Christmas in July sale and sell Christmas items and even play Christmas Music.   When it is 90 degrees, frosty the snow man doesn’t sound too bad!    You could have a beach party complete with a tiki hut as a tent and luau music or Beach Boys music.  Make your sale an event people will love and equally look forward to your next sale.   You may just have people that want to return to your next sale all that much more. 

At summer sales have food set up as well as refreshments.  Hot dogs, cookies, soda, water, and coffee can all be great items to help keep people around and shopping longer. (Be careful, some towns have regulations about selling food). Not to mention, if you have children, this will be a great thing for them to do and even a chance for them to get some money!  

Take time to talk with people that have questions.   Remember, if they are asking questions, they are interested in your items! 

Don’t have one sale after another after another.  We call them the “eternal yard sales”.   People will soon find out if you are “one of those” and avoid you like the plague!  Don’t have the same items sale after sale after sale.  This makes people think your prices are too high, or your items are not worth stopping at a third time.  

On multiple days, be prepared to bargain in the middle of the first day.  Mark your items down 1/2 price on the second day and have signs up to let people know that is what you plan on doing.  It may just make some people think, I need to buy that now, because it may not be here tomorrow when I come back!  Put up signs that “New Items will be added Daily” (even if they are not).  It keeps people coming back to see what else there is.  If nothing else, you could tell them that you had new items out, but the dealers came and got them first thing in the morning. 

Remember that you are having a yard sale to get rid of things that you don’t need!   Plan on having a fill a bag for a buck after a certain period on either the first or second day just to get rid of stuff.   It’s a lot cheaper to sell it for a buck then to pay the trash man $5.00 to cart it off!   Besides, you didn’t need the items anyway.  REMEMBER!