If you have done a yard/garage/moving sale, how did you go about organizing it? I am planning a joint sale with a friend (to be held at our place) and I've started to make a list of items I want to sell. I can't really group items together until the weekend of the sale since we don't have extra space to start piling things up. Also, since we live in an apartment, people will have to know about it and come into our home since it won't be directly outside (I plan on advertising on the local buy/sell FB page and some parenting networks). What kind of pricing strategy do you use? Also, as a buyer, what kinds of prices are you looking for? Give me your tips!
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@lamariniere: I truly have no great tips, but put clothes, tools, appliances , furniture up front and around the perimeter so people see those hot ticket items
Be prepared for people to offer you low low prices
We had one a month ago and things were $5.00 and I was offered $0.50 Or $20 and offered $5 -
Ok take this with a grain of salt since I've never done a garage sale/moving sale. But reading your description, since you don't have a yard or garage to put things and they have to come in - I think you should empty/clean whatever you are selling in terms of furniture and bigger items and just use post it's. Get green ones and put the price on them and stick them on each item. (And I'd photograph as you do it just to document what you had and the price you put on it, just in case someone gets creative and tries to move stuff around). So like a dresser or nightstand I'd use a post it. Or even a TV or kitchen appliance like a coffee maker that's always out.
I'd explain "as you walk through, items with green postits are for sale. Anything without is not".
And then I'd choose one room (maybe the biggest like living room) and have all of the smaller items in there grouped around the room, just like if you would have packed for moving. So kitchen, bathroom, dining, living room, etc. so like silverware, for example. You can't just postit it and let people decide because it's in a drawer. So I'd take it all out and put it in a container and put it in that one room with a price tag.Am I making sense? Again, no experience, but I also live in an apartment and that's what I immediately envisioned.
As for pricing strategy, I would choose a price to put on it but have an idea for every item (recorded or not) of how low you're willing to go. You'll def get negotiators.
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Oh, just remembered that when we moved out of our shore house last summer we sold some of the items to the new owners. Most of it was only a year old with minimal use (we were only there on weekends for about a year) and they paid 50% of what we paid for each item (grill, full master bedroom suite, patio furniture, etc).
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@FaithFertility: good point about prominently displaying hot-ticket items.
@SweetiePie: I was thinking most of the selling will take place in the living room/kitchen and we can close doors to keep people from going into the rest of the apartment. For the bigger ticket items like baby gear and furniture and some of the appliances, I'll definitely note how much I want for them or minimum prices. I'm thinking I will use an "everything must go" pricing strategy for the small stuff.
Oh, about how much change/small bills do you prepare in advance?
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Have you thought about using a local version of craig's list? It's how we unloaded a bunch of baby gear when we didn't need it any longer.
As for an actual sale, do you have any flea markets or second hand shops you can visit and get a sense for how things are priced?
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@looch: I may still do that for some of the bigger items. I regularly list things on a local website, but I'm never in a hurry to sell! The thought with the garage sale format is that I can hopefully sell a bunch of things at once, without having to take pics and list each individual item, which would be really time consuming for the volume of stuff I'd like to sell. There are second hand shops, but most of them have weird hours and I'm never able to make it. But I think I'm going to keep a closer watch on the FB buy/sell group to see what kinds of prices people are going with.
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@lamariniere: Good luck!
When we moved, we sold what we could and then we found a second hand shop to take the rest (free for us, based on the stuff we had and what they thought they could sell).
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@looch: thanks!
I know of at least two charity organizations that I can donate to for whatever is leftover, and I think they even pick up, which would be great since we are car-less.
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Could you do a stoop sale? So people don't have to come in? I just worry about there being people going into rooms they shouldn't/trying to buy things that aren't for sale.
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If you're selling larger items, it can be helpful to still take photos to put in a craigslist ad about the yard sale. Sometimes the nicer things will draw people in.
The last few times we've done it, we haven't priced anything. I think it was a lot easier that way (and less time consuming). We had prices in mind for some things, but in the end, if you just want to get rid of stuff, it can be helpful to not be too attached to any particular price.
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@lioneyes: That would be a great solution, but we don't have that kind of building. I'm not even sure private individuals are allowed to sell things outside like that; I've never seen anyone in our neighborhood or any of the surrounding ones doing that kind of outdoor sale.
@MaryM: I'm thinking I will do that, maybe even a week or two before the sale in case some of the larger items don't move quickly.
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@lamariniere: @MaryM: Agree. I would go ahead and photograph the bigger items and list even just a week ahead. In your post listing just say, "Item will be available First Come First Serve Garage Sale Style on the morning of XX/XX".
Other garage sales for small things have like a $1 bin which is nice so you dont have to price out a bunch of small things. Or do $2 each or 3 for $5.
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@T.H.O.U.: that's a great idea to have bins for specific prices!
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