HOW TO MAKE $5,000
A MONTH OR MORE WITH GARAGE SALES
In this day and age, everyone seemingly knows how to put together and hold a garage
sale. Yet if this is so, why is it that some people are lucky to gross $150 while others
consistently make $1,500 or more from their garage sales.
Pick almost any city or town in the country. Drive through any middle class
neighborhood or residential area on any weekend. You're sure to spot at least a half dozen
garage sales. And what's being sold at these garage sales? The accumulated
"junk" that a lot of people no longer use or want taking up space in or around
their homes.
Is it hard to hold a profitable garage sale? Not in the least! All it really takes is
some of your time, and an awareness of a few merchandising tactics. But to be really
profitable you must know how and exercise careful planning.
First, let's look at some of the background. Everyone accumulates items that other
people are searching for, and are willing to buy. These items range from discarded or
outgrown items of clothing to furniture, tools, knickknacks, books, pictures and
toys.
Start by taking an inventory of all the things you have "just taking up
space" around your home. Decide which items you'd be better off getting rid of, and
make a list of these things. These are the things you are going to put up for sale. And if
you are honest about what you really want and need, the pile will grow if you look over
your household a second and third time! Remember that many garage sale offerings are items
of merchandise purchased on impulse and later found to be not what the buyer wanted. It is
the human condition: We discover too late that we don't like or have use for things
purchased. We "outgrow" in size or taste articles that once fit or pleased us.
You'll find that many items offered at garage sales are gifts that have been given to the
seller but not really suited to the recipient. In other words, it will be to your benefit,
before you stage your first garage sale, to take a week or so to browse through all the
garage sales you can find.
The problem is that most people just don't have the time or energy to gather up all the
items taking up space around their homes, and putting on a garage sale is just too much
bother and work.
This is where you enter the picture. Your enterprise will be an ongoing garage sale of
items donated and collected from those people who lack the initiative to put on garage
sales of their own. In other words, you can become a "liquidator of people's
junk" via super garage sales that you promote.
We've already suggested that you spend a few weeks visiting the garage sales, swap
meets, and flea markets in your area. Your purpose will be to see what is being offered
for sale, what the people in your area are buying, and how the merchandise is being sold.
One of the things to notice is how the merchandise is displayed. You'll also want to find
out how the sellers handle customer browsing and the prices they charge for the
merchandise offered. You'll discover most items tagged with a price sticker, but generally
the seller is open to either price negotiation or a reasonable offer made by the customer.
Begin your enterprise by cleaning out your own attic, closets, and basement or garage.
Talk with your relatives and friends. Tell them what you're doing and ask for donations
(or at least consignments) of unwanted items. It's here that you'll get your first
experience in negotiating and you'll usually get enthusiastic cooperation. You'll find
people explaining that they really don't have a use for a specific item, don't want to
keep on storing it, but for sentimental or other reasons they have just hung on to it.
Once you have a little bit of experience, you'll be able to advertise in the newspaper
that you purchase garage sale items, or take them on consignment for a percentage of the
final sale price.
It's best if at least two persons handle the garage sale together. Greet the potential
customers, show them around, and generally engage them in conversation. While you are out
digging up more items for display and sale your coworker can "mind the
store". And if you are running a really big sale a third person can be very useful in
selling and generally keeping an eye on things.
The advertising angle is really quite simple and shouldn't cost you very much. Check
area newspapers and select the one that carries the most ads for garage sales. You
shouldn't concern yourself too much with competition from other ads. People who go to
garage sales either go to all of them they can locate or else only to those within a
threetofive mile radius of their homes.
You should run a small classified ad in the newspaper of your choice for about three
days in advance and up through the day of your sale. Once you're operating on a fulltime,
everydayoftheweek schedule you'll want to change your ad schedule and
the style of your advertising. But in getting started, stay with small classified ads
simply announcing the fact that you're holding a garage sale, emphasizing that you've got
everything from A to Z something of interest to everyone. Such an ad might read:
BIG GARAGE SALE! Hundreds
of interesting items. Through
Saturday, July 16th. (address)
To get ideas on how to write your ad check your newspapers for a week or two. Cut out
all the garage sale ads you can find. Paste them up onto a piece of paper. With a bit of
critical analysis you will be able to determine how to write a good ad of your own from
identifying the good and bad features of the ads you've collected. Keep in mind that the
bigger and better your sale, the bigger and better you should make your "getting
started" ads.
Always remember that in order to increase your profits in any business you must
increase rather than decrease your advertising. At the bottom line you'll find that the
greatest single reason for a garage sale failing to turn a profit is the lack of promotion
and advertising used to publicize it.
Have an oldfashioned "sandwich board" type sign to display in front of
your house when your garage sale is open for business. The purpose, of course, is to call
attention to the fact that you're holding a garage sale and are open for business. This
will pull in your neighbors (if you haven't already informed them) and attract passers by.
Sandwich boards are also sometimes set out at key traffic intersections not far from the
site of the garage sale. These will attract attention and point the way. Check your local
ordinances to be sure that this sort of advertising is permitted.
Another "sign idea" practiced by a few really sharp operators is the old
"Burma Shave" type roadside pointers. You simply make up a few cute sayings
(verse or oneliners), write them on pieces cardboard, tack them onto the power poles
at about 200 yard interval on the thoroughfare leading to your garage sale, and you're
sure to create a lot of traffic for yourself. People are amused by and drawn to people who
do something a little different, unusual, and creative in promoting a sale of any kind.
To come up with some cute verses, visit your public library and check out a book on
limericks. Adapt the ones that you feel are most humorous and start making signs. Again, a
word of caution before you get too deeply involved: Be sure to check your local ordinances
before you start nailing signs to power poles.
By all means, search out and use all the free bulletin boards in your area. It's
better, and usually much more profitable, to take the time to make up an attention
grabbing circular you can post on these bulletin boards than just to use a scribbled 3 by
5 card announcement.
Pick up some "transfer lettering." Go through your newspapers and old
magazines for interesting illustrations, graphics and pictures. With a little bit of
imagination and flamboyance make up an 8 1/2 by 11 poster announcement of your sale. When
you have it pasted up take it to a quick print shop and have them make up several hundred
copies. A small print order should be well under twenty dollars.
If you make this circular/poster up with versatility and longtime usage in mind,
you can use it over and over again simply by pasting on a new date. In case you feel
"leftout" when we talk of "pastingup" things, this simply
means pasting a piece of paper onto the overall page you're putting together. Say you have
made up your circular with a date of Wednesday, May 1st, and want to change it to read
Thursday, July 16th. Rather than do the entire thing over, simply write out a new date
with your transfer letters on a separate sheet of paper, cut this out to fit in the space
occupied by the old date, and paste the new date over the old date. The artwork master is
now up to date, and the printer does the rest. For paste or glue, drop by just about any
stationery store and pick up a tube of "glue stick." This is a small tube of
paste about the size of a tube of lipstick, and generally sold for less than one dollar.
The tube glue stick works much better than regular glue or paste, and is not as messy as
rubber cement.
Your signs have to be effective, but you have to remember to keep them simple. Don't
try to cut corners on your signs. Signs announcing and pointing the way to your garage
sale should be placed at each intersection within a one mile radius of your sale location.
If it takes 50 signs then make 50 signs. The important thing is to let people know that
you're holding a garage sale.
Signs can be made simply by cutting and using the sides of cardboard boxes and writing
on them with a heavy felt tip marking pen. Make it easy for your signs to be seen and for
people to read what's on them. About all you really need is great big block letters
reading "GARAGE SALE" with the street address and an arrow pointing in that
direction. Don't think for a minute that people driving by are going to stop and read a
lot of "stuff" you've written on your sign. You just want them to see your sign
and proceed in the direction necessary to reach the location of the sale. They'll be
moving by your sign too fast to see or read anything else you may have written.
The ads you place, the bulletin board announcements you post, and the signs you put up
will bring many people to your garage sale location. A lot of people will drive by slowly
and just look, but most will stop to browse around. But you still have to contend with the
huge number of people who just drive by without stopping. So, let's talk about the
"inside secrets" of drawing people into your sale and the merchandising gimmicks
that will result in the maximum number of sales for you.
You must call attention to your sale. Don't be shy, bashful or selfconscious about
letting everybody for miles around know that you're having a garage sale. If you could
afford to get the Goodyear Blimp to "hover" over your garage sale then by all
means you should do it!
Some sharp operators do the next best thing. They rent miniature blimps, send them up
above the housetops, and tether them there on their sale days. Of course, this giant
balloon or miniature blimp has some sort of sign on the side of it inviting people to your
garage sale. This is one of the strongest available advertising ideas for pulling traffic
to a sale of any kind. For more details check your local telephone directory to see if
there is a local outlet for this kind of advertising merchandise for rent.
You have to give your sale some flair. Put some posts up across the front of your
property and run some twisted crepe paper between them. Better than crepe paper, run
brightly colored ribbons. Invest in some colorful pennants and fly them from temporary
flag poles. And don't forget the balloons! Make your garage sale a fun kind of event, with
clusters of balloons anchored to your display tables and racks. Be sure to
"float" them well above the heads of your customers as they're browsing through
your merchandise displays.
Cover your display tables with colorful cloths. Don't hesitate to use bright colors and
busy patterns. Regardless of what you sell, effective display (packaging the event) is
still absolutely essential to your success.
The secret to outstanding garage sale profits is in having the largest selection of
merchandise possible. And part of the process is taking great care in displaying and
labeling your merchandise. You cannot simply dump items haphazardly on a table, sit down,
and expect to realize great profits. The people doing the most business and holding the
most sales are the ones with interesting displays, action, and color.
Have as wide a selection of colors as possible in your clothing racks, and mix them for
"rainbow" effect. Make sure that your jewelry items shine and sparkle. Arrange
them in and on jewelry boxes, jewelry ladders. Show off your jewelry while keeping it
neatly organized. Some people have even gone so far as hooking up battery operated 'lazy
susans' and arranging their jewelry on these. Having the jewelry slowly turn on the 'lazy
susan' will not only catch the eye, but it will catch the light as well, making an
attractive display even more attractive because it sparkles and gleams.
Study the methods of display used by the "rack jobbers" in the stores in your
area. These are wire racks that usually hold card packaged items. Such a rack or kind of
display would lend itself beautifully for anchoring a cluster of balloons. Keep such
things in mind and build your individual displays as part of the whole. Make it pleasing
to the eye as well as convenient for your customers to browse through and select the items
that appeal to them or catch their fancy.
At many garage sales some of the merchandise (particularly the clothing) is dirty.
Notice this when you visit other people's garage sales, and then take it upon yourself to
make sure that every item positively everything you show is clean and sparkling
bright. A bar of soap, a bucket of water, and a few old rags will do wonders for shop
tools, garden equipment, and bicycles. The same goes for furniture polish on old
furniture, and a run through the washing machine for all washable clothing.
It is advisable to determine a price for each item before you set it out for display.
Mark that price on a price tag and attach the price tag to the item. Your prices should
also always be rounded off to more or less even numbers such as: 25 cents, 50 cents, $1,
$1.50, $2 and so on. In other words, don't ask for 35 cents, 95 cents, or $1.98, or any of
that sort of pricing. Needless to say, you should always mark everything up by 100% or
more. In other words, if you have acquired a particular item for $1, set a price of $2 or
more on it. It is also a good idea to mark up your asking price from the bottomline
price you+re willing to accept. Basically, the price marked on the price tag at most
garage sales is taken as the starting price from which the buyer and seller negotiate.
Most garage sale promoters price their cheaper items at the bottom line price they will
accept, and don't deviate from those prices as shown on the price tag. Then on the more
expensive items $2 and over they mark up their asking prices by 20 to 40
percent and use that margin for negotiating with the customer.
If you're a little bit shy relative to personal selling, here are a few
"inside" secrets that will give you an edge. Always radiate an attitude of
friendliness, regardless of the circumstances or your first impression of the potential
buyer. Always smile and say "Hello" in a voice loud enough to be heard. Speak to
everyone stopping or dropping by your sale location. Be helpful, but allow the people to
browse on their own until they specifically ask you for help. When you're "keeping an
eye on your merchandise" be as unobtrusive as possible. No one likes to feel he is
being watched too closely. Whenever a customer appears to have made a selection and asks
you what you'll take for it or what kind of a deal you'll make for it, be ready to enter
into "friendly negotiations."
Before you open, of course, you will have done your homework and know the value of each
item of merchandise you have for sale. Don't ever take a customer's "claimed"
value of an item. By the same token, don't listen to a seller (when you're buying items
for your sale) when he claims that he's offering you an antique or priceless treasure.
Sometimes, however, you'll be able to pick up fantastic treasures for virtually nothing.
By knowing your merchandise you'll not let "the flag that Betsy Ross made" slip
through your fingers for a song. Be sure to have all possibly valuable items appraised by
authentic dealers listed in the yellow pages of your telephone directory.
Some of the "extras" that contribute to the success of a garage sale include:
Plenty of change, without which you'll lose a great many sales. A tape measure for people
who want to know the exact dimensions of something (especially furniture) in order to fit
it into a certain space they have in mind. Long extension cord and electrical outlets are
necessary for your customers to "plug in" and try out the mixers, vacuum
cleaners, hand tools, or other electrical appliances.
Back for a moment to drawing in those "cruisers" who aren't quite sure they
want to park their cars and come browse. Look for some kind of interesting or unusual item
to call attention to your sale something you can set up or park in front of your
home during your sale. Some of the displays we've seen along these lines include a
horsedrawn surrey, a restored Model T, and an old farm plow. Anything of an unusual
or interesting nature will do the trick for you. One couple we know put up a display using
a manikin dressed in an oldtime farm bonnet, long dress, and apron. This display
depicted a farm woman washing clothes with a scrub board and two steel wash tubs. It's not
hard to believe that this display really drew the crowds, and crowds always mean sales!
Go wherever your imagination takes you. You have to be different and distinctive.
You'll get lost in the hundreds of garage sales going on all around you if your sales look
like the next half dozen. If you'll take the time to employ a bit of imagination, and set
your sales up with the kind of flair we've been talking about, you will not only draw the
crowds; you'll be the one reaping the most profits.
As you think of beginning this garage sale business, remember this: It's almost a
compulsion with some folks to go shopping; to search for interesting, and sometimes rare
and valuable items. This fact alone will keep you as busy as you ever want to be, staging
and promoting garage sales. The market is so vast, and the appetite so varied, that
anything from a brass bedstead to a used diary of someone's longforgotten grandmother
will sell (and sell fast) at garage sales. Put it all together, use a little imagination,
and you'll succeed in a very interesting and challenging endeavor!
