Yard Sale Suggestions from a Buyer's Viewpoint
 

I am a follow the arrow/sign person when I go to Yard Sales.

1) For signs:

Make "YARD SALE" in huge letters, then an arrow with the point also huge - so it can be seen from across at least four lanes of traffic. Then if you want to add an address or more info in smaller letters that can be read from at least 20 feet away -

Hours open are also helpful.

2) Addresses are meaningless to me when I am "just out and about."

I passed several (I think) signs on the way home because I could not figure out which way to go in a timely fashion.

A line that is maybe 1/8 inch wide with the arrow point maybe 1/4 inch in total width - I can not see/read it in time.

Also - if you have several signs leading to your sale - keep them consistent - have something identifying about them so I know I have not lost the trail.

Also - please please please take your signs down when your sale is over.

If you have advertised your sale as being open from 9 to 5 - please still be open until 5. (Unless it is raining buckets or sleeting or some emergency has come up.)

2) I appreciate a sign that says "Most prices are negotiable" if the seller is willing to bargain. A "firm" on the price tag will indicate to me that "firm" it is.

3) Neatness and cleanliness do count. I did buy a grungy aluminum tea kettle because I liked the look of it - but I know that I am going to have to scrub grunge and old cooking grease for it. I will pay more for already cleaned up.

4) Free box is good - I've found some useful items in them.

Any additional suggestions from other "hunters of bargains"?

Mark prices on the items. If there are 10 people shopping and one running the sale, I'm not gonna stand around to ask the price of every measuring cup and notebook that I "might" want. I know people say not to mark things, but I walk away if I have to ask about every little thing I want to buy. Its just too much trouble. I'm a blitz shopper and I want to walk around and see if there's anything I'm interested in and then move on. I won't spend a lot of time trying to get someone to give me a price.

If you say the sale starts at 9:00A please don't start until then. My experience is people are banging on the door at 6:00A!! If I honor the time you set it's not fair that I miss out on something because you allowed someone else in early who bought up all the things I may have wanted a chance at especially when I may need them and they may be just going to resale them at their own garage sale.

these are all great tips. I agree about the starting time

I had a garage sale and told early buys it would be 15% more or they could wait till I opened some waited it others chose to pay more.

Try to have several friends help out. I've seen/heard of shoppers coming in at busy times and one person will distract the seller by asking questions and their friend walks off with your stuff while you aren't looking. It's a shame but it happens.

I agree with having everything priced. If I have to keep asking I lose interest and leave pretty quickly.

All excellent tips.

ditto Wonnie...............................

I actually kinda like garage sales where nothing is marked. I gather up everything I want and give an offer for the whole pile. "Will you take $10 for everything?" I've found that often gets me some great deals because they see how much "stuff" will leave their home if they accept it, and "$10 for everything" sounds like more money and is a lot less hassle than if they do the "$1 for that, $2 each for those...50 cents per book times six books..."

Books, in particular...I can walk off with a whole BOX full of books for about $5, if I go late in the day and offer to take the whole thing. People really hate hauling boxes of books back into the garage. I've made offers like that that were rejected on Saturday, but the same offer is happily accepted on Sunday afternoon. LOL

Free stuff - my parents used to have garage sales often, and we'd put out a "free" box but people rarely dug through it. So we changed it to a "Nickle" box and that made people a LOT more interested. I think people assume it's junk if it's free, but if we're charging even a nickle for it, it must be somewhat valuable. And then we could walk up to people and say things like, "If you spend 25 cents on nickle items, I'll let you have another 25 cents worth of nickle items for free!" and people would be ALL OVER that. Perceived value is a very strange phenomenon!