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My Junk, Your Treasureby Gary Foreman Yard sales, or in some parts of the country 'tag' or'garage' sales, can be a lot of fun whether you're the buyer or the seller.But, a successful sale is more than taking stuff out of your garage and puttingup a few signs. There's been a lot written about yard sales. But in all the articlesI've seen, none have tried to apply techniques that are used by retailers tomake the most of every sales opportunity. Let's see if we can't take some ideasfrom the big stores and use them in our simple yard sale. The first thing that any serious retailer does is to try to understandtheir customer. They'll do focus groups and surveys to find out what thecustomer wants. For you it's much easier. Just think like a yard sale shopper! Start by remembering the signs that you've seen when you've been yardsaling. Ever stop for the ones that were written in crayon and couldn't beread? Me either. And there's no excuse for a bad sign. All it really needs tosay is "Yard Sale" and your address in big block letters. You can use acomputer or draw the letters free hand. Just make sure they can be easily read. Make the sign overly large. Get something that's 18" x 24" orlarger. Ifyou can't find cardboard, go to a home center and buy a 4' x 8' sheet ofdrywall. You can cut it with a razor knife into whatever size and shape youwant. For less than $5 you can have a whole bunch of big signs. And drawattention to the sign. Helium filled balloons or bright colors on the sign willattract drivers' eyes. Next you'll want to consider the different types of shoppers. They havedifferent styles. Take the young mother shopping for children's clothes. Shemight have her children with her. That can be a distraction. But if you putkids' toys next to kids' clothes, the little ones will play while mom shops.And it's likely that the kids will ask mom to buy a toy, too! Just like your grocery store puts the milk in the farthest corner, youcan take things like children's clothes and put them in the back. That'sbecause your most likely buyer is determined to find bargains. Another type of shopper is looking for collectibles and antiques. Notserious Louis XIV antiques, but rather the kind of thing that hasn't fit inyour decor for 15 years but is becoming trendy again. These are people who 'seethe possibilities' when looking at an item. They tend to be creative and you'lldo better if you can help them trigger their imagination. Sometimes justmentioning that an item reminds you of your grandmother's house during the 60'swill be enough to get them going. And remember that you won't get antiqueprices here. People are looking for bargains, not museum pieces. You can placecollectibles towards the back of your 'store'. For collectors half the fun isin the search. Men are a totally different type of yard sale shopper. Even whenthey'rejust browsing, they'll shop with a goal in mind. And they want to shopquickly. If you'll be offering tools or building supplies put them up frontwhere they'll be easily seen. And have an extension cord available if anythingis electric powered. Items must be marked. Many guys won't even take the timeto ask a price. How you display items can also work to your advantage. Try to put themost valuable items on tables so that they can be more easily seen. Toys, onthe other hand, should be on the ground where kids can pick them up and getattached to them. Use removable stickers to clearly mark prices. We can also learn some pricing tips from the big retailers. Be creativewith pricing. Things like "buy one, get one free" can work for you, too. Don'tbe afraid to mark things down as the sale progresses. Or announce a 'blue lightspecial' to the next person who buys a particular type of item. Don't hesitateto do something unusual. Informing your next customer that they're the 25thshopper and entitled to a 25% discount will get a conversation started andcould lead to a sale. If nothing else, you'll have more fun. Pricing items for a garage sale is almost an artform. It's hard to saywhat an item is really worth. Leave room so that you can come down 25% to 50%and still make what you want from an item. Try to think what type of buyerwould be interested and how much they'd be willing to pay. Having a successful yard sale is no accident. It does take somework. Infact, unless you have enough items so that you can reasonably expect to make acouple of hundred dollars, it might be wise to take the better items to aconsignment shop and give the rest to charity for the tax deduction. But if you don't mind a little effort, a yard sale can make you a fewbucks and provide some fun at the same time. I've read that many big retailersstarted with just a few items. Who knows, you might be the next J.C. Penney!Gary Foreman is a former Purchasing Manager and Certified Financial Planner. Hecurrently edits The Dollar Stretcher website. Itcontains the web's largest collect of free articles to save you time and money.There's even a free weekly email newsletter. Visit and save some money today!
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