How to Make Money from a Garage Sale
Posted on 28/10/2020
Garage Sale Tips That Will Make You Money
You endeavoured in some house clearance efforts and ended up with a ton of things that you have no use for, but most of them are too well-kept to be added to a junk disposal heap. What is the first thought that pops up into your mind? Why, garage sale, of course! You can get rid of the items, make sure that they don’t end up in the bottom of a landfill, and win money from it. Garage sales are incredibly beneficial projects for everybody involved, but they do require a lot of work. You have to take out all the items, bring the unsold ones back in the garage for the next day, keep track of all you sale, and set lucrative prices. So how do you go on having a successful one? Here is some good advice for you.
1. Get help.
You will need partners in this endeavour. A helping hand from a family member would be excellent, but even better would be a friend or a neighbour who also has plenty of unneeded items and wants to sell them. Then you can both partner up, help each other with introducing the wares, keeping track of them, and moving them in and out of the garage. Now you have twice as many wares, and even if your own don’t get sold, you will still make a profit.
2. Have a theme.
If the garage sale has a theme, people will know whether they will find something there and will save you the trouble of dealing with customers who are simply randomly browsing. If you have a full stock of random wares, you will mostly attract curious people and not customers who are seeking a specific thing and are more probable to buy something. The number of customers will be halved at best, but most of the people who get to your sale will probably end up spending money on it.
3. Advertise.
With today’s media world, there is a variety of ways to advertise your garage sale. Print out flyers, set up signs, put an ad in the local newspaper, advertise in Facebook – the variety of advertising tactics are many, and you should make use of at least some, if not all of them.
4. Have smart prices.
Let’s be real – the customers who come know that if you don’t sell these items, they will end up in a waste disposal heap, and they know that you want to make a profit by getting rid of them, so sell cheap. At the same time, don’t sell too cheap – you don’t want to spend days upon days of setting up shop for hours in your yard, and at the end of the day coming out with just about enough money for a skip hire to get rid of the leftover stocks. Find the golden middle, and be open to negotiations with the customers. Also, let the customer set the first price – he or she might be willing to spend more money on an item than you have anticipated. It’s not cheating if the customer offers it!
5. Have smart working hours.
Since you are setting up shop mostly for the neighbourhood, don’t set it up between 9 and 5 o’clock when everybody is busy with work. Set up the sale for after work hours and keep the stands there till sunset – these are the hours when your neighbours and passers-by will be active in the street and somebody might spot something he or she likes.
And with those strategies, you should have a pretty successful garage sale. Just channel your inner salesman and relax as you wait for customers to gather and start negotiating for better prices. And don’t forget to keep an eye on all your stocks at all times – you can never be too trusty with random people walking by.
