2 Comments on How to make a lot of money off a yard sale?

Michael L on Tue, 31st Mar 2009 9:42 am


The things that sell best at yard sales are small priced items. The way to make a lot of money is to have a lot of items. If you paid $40 bucks for a vase 25 years ago.. don't expect $40 bucks today. You have to learn to let go of things cheap and accept the fact that people will not care about sentimental value.

As for the crib. I wouldn't bother with a yard sale. Someone will want it for $20 and its worth a lot more. Clean it up, take a picture of it and put it on Craig's List. Search the current value of new and place it up there for 65% of that value. If you get it great, if someone bargains with you and you get at least 50% great too. You're not in the business of making profit here.. just making cash.

Clear out the house, garage, crawl space, attic kids rooms. Your junk is someone else's treasure.

Be realistic when pricing items. Have fun with the people when they want to bargain with you.. and bargain.. garage sale denisons love to think they're getting a deal on top of a deal. The worst thing you can have everyone hear you say is .. "The price marked IS the final price"

Make it 2 days, Saturday and Sunday. Don't be afraid to drop prices. If someone looks at something and starts to walk away just say… If you like it…make me an offer..

Remember.. this is junk if it is left unsold, so any sale is a good sale.

Have shopping bags for your customers, have water and ice tea if its hot. Make it comfortable to stay… have fun.. smile… talk..

If you have extra tools / fishing tackle / sporting equipment that you no longer use… guys LOVE to buy tools and will spend reasonable cash for value.

If you have old music records (the stuff that came before CD's and MP3s) find a collector through Craig's List… you'll get better value that way.

Jessica on Tue, 31st Mar 2009 9:42 am


Advertise!! That's probably your best option, when we do yard sales we combine them with our neighbor so its more of an eye catcher and we both put a car on the main streets with our address on it and an arrow pointing in the direction. I know you can also put an ad up in the newspaper but it'll cost you, and also on craigslist you can advertise.
Also make some flyer's and stick them in local grocery stores, pet stores, laundry mats, convenience stores, and anywhere else they'd allow you to hang something up.
The other things we do for our yard sales is we put our items that will attract men in front, car supplies, tools etc. A lot of times men are with woman and they don't see anything for them so they don't want to stop.
We also do the same with toys, because if kids see toys and start begging there parents to stop they usually do.
Lastly, the last day we do a sale like "for every item you buy you get 50% your next item" obviously you take 50% off the lower priced items out of there stuff, or we always have a lot of clothes and depending on there price range well give them a grocery bag and tell them if they buy a bags worth you'll take 1-2 dollars off the total. Or you'll sell them the whole bag of stuff from a certain table for like $5 or whatever is reasonable.

Oh! lastly for real now. We've noticed if you price clothing cheaper they'll buy ten times more. My neighbor had shirts for a quater I had mine for 50 cents and she sold twice as many as I did even when they people buying them were more my size!

Good luck! I love doing yard sales!!

and the toddler bed mark up an extra like $10 dollars or so, then reason with them so they'll think they got a good deal, and you got what you really wanted

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