I’m so excited for the community rummage sale this weekend! I have a pile of things by my front door, ready to be loaded into my car.
It will cost $10 for the use of a table at the sale, but I certainly expect to recoup that (and then some, hopefully!).
Today, I’ll put price stickers on my items. It seems that if people see the price on the item, they’re more willing to try to haggle with you.
Meredith at Merchant Ships had a great post the other day about yard sales, and she included a link to a helpful resource on maximizing your experience as a seller.
Check out these great tips, including ideas for pricing items and learning which items sell best.
I’m not going to bother to try to sell our used clothes. Those will go straight to Goodwill. However, here are a few items I’m going to try to sell and some prices I’m considering. If you think they sound too low or too high, will you please let me know? This is my first garage sale as an adult–I’ve just helped my parents and grandparents at their sales in the past, but I don’t remember much about pricing.
- Cooshy "leather" office chair $15
- Digital point-and-shoot camera and memory card $50 (it’s selling for $50-80 on eBay right now)
- Possibly selling an old but good condition Kirby vacuum with attachments. I need to check with my mom first to see if she wants it. Ideas on pricing?
- 12 identical glass vases $0.25 each
- 12 fake rose bunches $0.25 each
- 12 wedding pew bows with pew attachment $5 for the lot of them
- Assorted knicknacks and games $0.25 - $1 each
- Whatever else I can scrounge up
I know people always appreciate a "free" pile. I’m going to put my used magazines with the address label removed. I’ll give them away, as long as the recipients promise they’ll recycle them when they’re finished.
I have a roll and a half of quarters, $25 in singles, and a few other bills. I really hope that will be enough. Hopefully, my first sale of the day won’t be someone handing me a $20 for a $1 item!
Best of luck with your sale! I wish I lived near you…I’d be there in a New York minute. I’m SO looking forward to garage sale season!
Good luck on your sale!! I have never had a garage sale myself (but had been to tons). I hope you sell all of your stuff. BTW, have you considered bringing some snacks to sell? You can make a killing if you have a cooler with water and soda available.
Consider giving your old clothes to a shelter downtown, rather than Goodwill. Often times, charities such as Goodwill are flooded with donations and sell the bulk of their donations, which in turn perpetuate the “T-shirt resale industry” in many 2/3 world countries. Look it up online, if you don’t know what I’m talking about. I admire you for wanting to give your extra stuff to help others; generally speaking, a local shelter is much better situated to give clothes to those in need.
I love selling at a community yard sale - you get so much more traffic, your neighbors aren’t bothered, and your yard doesn’t get torn up! Last year I bundled up a year’s worth of Martha Stewart Living and sold it for a dollar! You would be amazed at what people will buy if you price it right. Good luck, and have fun!
You should post more photos on your blog!
Good luck with the sale! I hope it goes really well (and I can’t wait for it to get warm enough here so I can do a garage sale!!)
And thanks for the nice messages you left on my blog - it really meant a lot to get them - last week was a rough week and the messages were just wonderful to get.
Wow! good luck for the sale. I do at times sell items at ebay but i don’t have this community rummage sale experience. Must be interesting enough!
Thanks for posting this. Now that our second (and last child) is here and growing, we will have tons of stuff for a yard sale. Since we don’t get enough traffic at our house, I want to get into a community sale. Any ideas about where to find out about them? Good luck!
Oooh I am real busy today, you can read at my blog as to why—but I will definately be back to check into all these tips
We are planning to have a huge clean out my entire house yard sale around the first week in May–I am really working on decluttering and getting rid of a ton of stuff
We are currently just throwing all yard sale stuff in our storage building. It is getting quite full! But cleaning it out of the house feels so refreshing!
A good way to price is to see how much people list items on Craigslist for. I love Craigslist. You can get a buyer without having to get up early for a yard sale. Good luck with your sale! =-)