Friday, November 16, 2007
How to hold a stress free Garage SaleCategories: I heart Adelaide Home Economics Anthropology Life in general
There is lots of stuff on the web about how to have a garage sale, just google it, but I was interested to see a few gaps in the information, so I thought I would contribute a few tips from my experiences of Adelaide garage sales that I didn’t see on the other pages.
Money/Space: First up,why you are selling your goods - is your priority lightening the load or making money? If you want to make space/get rid of things then you will probably need to consider selling items cheaper than if you are trying to make a bit of extra cash out of your sale. Deceased estate and moving sales tend to be in a bit of a vulnerable position due to the time factor. If this is you, you might want to consider taking your best items to an auction house first.
On the other hand, if you want to make money, then you need to have a pretty good idea of how much your stuff is worth, in which case we are moving a bit out of the amateur zone. You need to have in mind a range from asking price to minimum sales price. Each time someone offers you less you will need to think about the likelihood of getting another offer on that item later in the day, where you are going to store it if it doesn’t sell, and when your next opportunity to sell it will be.
If it happens a few times that people ask how much you want for stuff and then don’t even try to haggle OR if people look at the price and then ask you how much you want, then you are asking way too much for your stuff. Our catchphrase for those places as we walk back down the drive is “Tell ‘em their dreaming!”. If people offer prices consistently below what you are asking, then you might want to reconsider. Ask people what they they would pay and consider if you are willing to let it go that cheap. People expect garage sales to be cheap. Cheaper than secondhand shops. Perhaps eBay or the auctions are better options for you? Meh, you can always give them a go afterwards if it doesn’t sell.
A different aspect of the same topic - your casual garage-sailors will be much more comfortable with advertised prices than with asking you about everything they are interested in. Prices written on masking tape is the best idea. Alternatively, clump items of similar value together and put “All $1” on the box or table. Be prepared to haggle and give discounts for people who pick out a number of items. Dealers will likely ignore your asking prices.
AND while we are still on the topic of money, don’t forget the float. Have some larger change ready too. Believe it or not people sometimes want to break $100s.
Garage-Sailors Spotting Guide: The 3 types.
First up, there are the dealers. Dealers will drive up and down your street at 5am trying to find your garage sale. If they find you, they will knock on your door at 5am and try to get you to let them in despite the fact that your ad says “8am”. DON’T LET THEM IN - it just encourages them to do it again to someone else. They WILL come back. They are frequently rude and incredibly persistent. If you put your address in, they will try everything to get to your goods before all the other dealers, including peeking over the fence from your neighbour’s driveway. Simple solution: don’t put your full address in the paper (more on this below). Anyone who runs up your driveway is a dealer. The first batch of people waiting for you to open the garage doors are mostly dealers. The first 15 mins of your sale will be frantic. Be prepared to deal with it. Make sure you have your morning cuppa BEFORE you open the doors. They know what your stuff is worth and what they can sell it on for. On the whole they arent really trying to rip you off; this is how they make their living. You can make money out of them too - the first 30 mins are probably when you will pick up a good half of the day’s takings. Unfortunately the initial rush is also the time when you are most likely to have stuff stolen, sad but true.
The next bunch are the fanatics (I’m in this group, but I maintain that it’s genetic). They tend to be considerably better behaved on the whole, more in line with the normal distribution of nice:rude people. They will arrive anytime from just before opening time until their give up time (which for us is about 11am), but they will walk, not run, down your driveway to get to the goods. They will still try to haggle a bit, but they will offer more reasonable prices because for them its a bit more of a social thing and they want you to be happy with the deal too. They will hang out and chat. They will pay for sausages.
And finally, we have the drop-ins. Drop-ins are likely to be looking for something specific, or perhaps they just saw your sign out on the street and came for a look. After all, everyone likes a sticky-beak - that’s why you went and checked out your neighbour’s open inspection/garage sale that time, isnt it? They are just as likely to buy stuff as anyone else.
What kinds of stuff sells? Who knows. It just depends on who turns up on the day. Put it all out and see what happens. Cheap stuff sells. Stuff in good condition sells. Rubbish doesn’t sell. Damaged stuff, well, it might sell, or it might just be rubbish. If your clothes have marks or holes then they wont sell. Be honest about how damaged it is too, people often don’t mind (as long as it is priced accordingly). Let people plug stuff in and test it, it’s common courtesy. Presentation counts too: I will look thru ALL your hanging clothes but I will only rummage thru a pile for a short time.
Advertising and location: There are two ways of advertising - newspaper ad and signs - and I recommend you do both. Put an ad in your local paper (the Advertiser) with your address, an opening AND CLOSING time, and a brief description. Here in Adelaide the day for garage sailing is Saturday, and most of the action is in the morning. You wont get half as many people on a Sunday.
If you put your full address in the paper then you will have dealers up and down your street and at your door anytime from 4:30am onwards. Dont put your house number in the paper!!!!!
If you put your street but not your house number in the paper then they are less likely to find you, and you have more control over your opening time. When you are ready to open you put up the signs and then they come. Watch them run!
My recommended option is to put your street and opening time in the paper. Let’s say you put 9am in. At 8:15, one of you can go and put signs up while the other takes care of the relatively few earlybirds, and you will find that instead of a stressful and difficult-to-manage rush you have a steady stream right thru till 9:30. Much more manageable.
Finally, if you live on or very near a main road you may not even need to advertise, you can just put signs up with VERY CLEAR DIRECTIONS and the sailors will come. Balloons help too! Dont attach stuff to council property tho, they will come and take photos of your garage sale and then ask you to take the signs down (yes, that’s experience speaking there).
Have at least two people working your sale. Don’t do it by yourself, and don’t leave your 15yo alone to face the dealers while you go put up signs! Band together with another adult and you can both get rid of your stuff and have a helper! You and this other adult - which of you lives in the nicer suburb? Hold it there. More people will come, trust me. Alternatively, which of you has a lockable garage? This is the less-stress option. Lockable garage in a nice suburb? Perfect! If you are planning to do the drag-it-out-at-opening-time option, then the more hands you have on deck at the start the better. If you are going to have the open house (deceased estate) option, then you probably want at least one person on each room/area, and bags to show that stuff has been paid for.
Done and dusty: At the end of the day when you are tallying up your profits remember to include the amount of empty space you have created. That was part of the goal, wasn’t it? And enjoy the rich parade of humanity that passes (or runs) up and down your driveway. If you think their choices are weird, remember you bought it first!
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