Garage Sale Went Fairly Well - Overall Not Worth The Time

Okay I had my garage sale this past Friday and Saturday. I decided not to spring for teh $35 ad in the paper. Advertised on a lot of online garage sale sites, some free local classifieds sites, and put some signs all over the place.

I said no early birds in all my ads but as expected had people showing up at a quarter after 7 for a garage sale that started at 9. I actually had a pretty good crowd probably over 30 people the first day another 20 the second, actually did better on Friday a weekday than I did on Saturday.

Man are people at garage sales cheap. There were certain items still brand new in packaging that at a flea market might get you $20 or more I'd tell people something like $2 and they would still try to haggle me down. I had lots of non english speaking mexicans at my garage sale whichw as good as they bought a lot but I had people literally buying 0.50 cent items and paying me with pennies.

I cleared out a lot of stuff and made a little money off stuff that otherwise would have just gone to goodwill so that was good but all the effort of sitting outside all day, getting organized and setting stuff out to make a relatively small amount of money wasn't really worth it I think I'll stick to flea markets.

You figure at 0.50 cent per clothing item you'd have to sell 100 items just to make $50 bucks. I basically woudl give people a garbabe bag and tell them to fill it up and give me like $5 or $10.

I pretty much got my good money off white soccer mom types and just let stuff go for pennies to everyone else as that's all I coudl get.

Overall not terrible probably made about $150 but that was also putting some ads on craigslist for a bathroom vanity, pot rack, etc so a lot of it was craigslist pickups during my garage sale as opposed to strictly garage sale profits.

I wound up not labeling things. I had planned on making a everything on this table $1 everything onthis table $2, etc but people showed up early I didn't have time to get organied and just started throwing stuff out on the driveway so didn't really have any labels. Not sure if that worked out better or worse. Had I had labels saying a buck maybe people wouldn't have bought it or woudln't even have tried to haggle however at the same time not having prices maybe people felt they could get me down to nothing.

Overall though happy with the turnout. My gf's friend had a garage sale last week and had one person show up so I was kind of worried I'd go to allthe effort for nothing so at least I had a decent crowd made a buck and cleared otu my garage.

Lol, did better than me. A partner of mine and myself set up shop at a parking lot. He made $40 selling bikes, and I made $12 selling other stuff. We were there from 9am - 5pm. Was planning on having a yard sale today at my house just to clear out my inventory, but had some stuff come up. So next weekend I am going to set up at my house instead.

i was surprised by alot of the stuff i sold alot of the name brand clothing and nicer items didn't sell but i was selling old worn pairs of cotton gym shorts for a quarter, really wierd the stuff people buy.

i did have some opportunity for future business though, lots of people left me phone numbers and said if i find records or cd's to contact tehm, one guy wanted old building materials mantels, bricks, subway tiles, old fauceuts, etc, so in addition to the little bit of money i made got some future contacts.

i was surprised by alot of the stuff i sold alot of the name brand clothing and nicer items didn't sell but i was selling old worn pairs of cotton gym shorts for a quarter, really wierd the stuff people buy.

i did have some opportunity for future business though, lots of people left me phone numbers and said if i find records or cd's to contact tehm, one guy wanted old building materials mantels, bricks, subway tiles, old fauceuts, etc, so in addition to the little bit of money i made got some future contacts.

Well I didnt get any future customers out of the ordeal. But I did manage to meet someone who will be giving alot of stuff away. Hope he calls soon.

Congrats Rules.Its amazing how much work garage sales can be.Glad you survived.

You need to determine whether or not the effort and work of putting together a well-run sale is worth the money you'll make.

If it's a thrown-together sale with no pricing on anything, a lot of people will make a quick circuit and vacate the premises.  If things are neatly put out and priced, they'll take their time to make sure they don't miss anything.  Also, don't put crap in your sale or put out a "Free Box" in which to put your crap.

I had a sale last month in which I sold all my auction and estate sale purchases.  I made about $500 in three days.  On the less valuable items, I put a price sticker.  On the more valuable items, I put a tag with a description of the item, with the price.  I allowed some folks to haggle a bit but never took less than I valued the item.

I put an ad on craigslist and a ton of signs.  People appreciate a lot of signs to guide them to your sale.

I typically have one sale per year, depending on inventory.

Rog, congrats on the sale, thats fantastic earning on a garage sale.

In my experience and in my area I personally don't think taking the time to have a proper organized sale is going to be worth the return on investnment in terms of your time. Even if you have things priced people expect "garage sale prices". I tried sticking to prices and gave up with that quickly as people didn't bite and I wanted things gone.

Just curious when you talk about craigslist ads are you talking about just ads for a garage sale or actual item listings? The reason I ask is b/c larger ticket items I put on craigslist under say electronics or furniture but  mentioned I'm havnig a garage sale on such and such a day so that would be a good time to come pick up or take a look or whatever. In my mind that's not a garage sale purchase. They came to my garage sale but not exactly a garage sale customer. In that case I could easily seeing making $500 but that would never happen in my area wth strictly a garage sale. That said I do live in a crappy neighborhood with lots of illegals nad stuff.

If I'm going to spend the time tagging things, having tables set up and doing things properly I'll go to the flea market instead of garage sale as I'll get better prices. For garage sale I'll just throw out bins full of stuff and put as much on talbes as I can and make a few makeshift clothes racks to hold the designer an name brand stuff. In my area tagging may get you a little more money but not enough to make it worth the hours if not days it would take to tag all my stuff.

rules, you make good points.  Pricing each item is a time-consuming proposition.  As far as the craigslist comment, I meant that I put an ad for my sale on craigslist, including very detailed directions to my sale.  I include some of the larger and more valuable items to try to attract more buyers.
I've never done the flea market thing and it's something I should probably look into.  Especially if I start winning some lockers.  Up until now, I've been buying and selling from online auctions and estate sales.

I'm sitting on an old dollhouse with a ton of vintage furniture that I bought at an online auction.  I need to do some repairs to the house in order to get it ready to sell.  Once I get it fixed up, I'm looking to double my investment.  If I piece-parted it out, the furniture alone could potentially double my investment but I want to sell it as a package.

Rog, what part of Minnesota you in? Some years back I lived in Apple Valley for about 8 years, that was back when we still had the Star up there though lol so a while back. Havn't been back in years. Always think I'd like to go back and then decide to head somewhere with warmer weather instead. Still a big vikings fan though.

I also stayed out in MN for about a year. Most of it being in Sartell. And a few months in Elk River. Damn there was this Wings Sports Bar there in Elk River. I miss that food, damn whole wall was full of different sauces for buffalo wings.

Rog, what part of Minnesota you in? Some years back I lived in Apple Valley for about 8 years, that was back when we still had the Star up there though lol so a while back. Havn't been back in years. Always think I'd like to go back and then decide to head somewhere with warmer weather instead. Still a big vikings fan though.

I'm in Coon Rapids in the northern suburbs.  Not far from Elk River where jross spent a few months.  I'm not familiar with the wing joint he's talking about because I don't spend a bunch of time north of Coon Rapids.