So you may be wondering if I have any tips from what helped, what didn’t and what worked and what didn’t.
What worked well:
-Advertising in the paper
-Advertising with signage
-Advertising on the radio classifieds
-Writing prices clearly on posterboards for clothes and other misc items
-Product placement and organization (face the products on the tables like a store, keep it organized)
-Pricing stickers (these little pre-printed stickers were like a dollar and saved so much time)
-Having two of us out there all the time to answer questions and take money
-Starting early on saturday. We put stuff out there at 6.30 am and people were chomping at the bit.
-Rearranging the tables when things sold. Having empty spots on the tables make it look like you are running out of things to sell, by replacing the items to fill the holes it keeps your garage sale looking full.
What didn’t work:
-Advertising at work (only one person came from work)
-Clothes… UGH… it took us 3 hours to place the clothes and we only sold 10 dollars worth.
-Holding a garage sale rain or shine. As big of a PITA as it would have been, we would have been better off to wait a week and do it in better weather.
-Skipping Friday afternoon pre-sale and sticking with satuday only. We had a ton of cars driving by friday afternoon checking things out. We probably could have presold a bunch of stuff.