Ah, the garage sale! That little slice of suburbia that ties communities together, brings friends and neighbours to your doorstep and helps your turn the cast off flotsam of bygone years into money in your pocket. These familiar scenes of summertime are a great way for people to buy the stuff they need at a fraction of the retail cost and for you to raise start-up funds for your new business.
Similarly, garage sales are a great way to get rid of stuff that you no longer use or need. A garage sale is a favourite of collectors, bargain hunters, and the random passer-by with an idea of seeing what there is to buy at low, low prices. Having a garage sale can be fun or stressful, useful or counter-productive, profitable or costly.
There are many reasons for having a garage sale. Perhaps you want to sell all those unused “treasures” taking up space in your house. Perhaps it is to clean out the house prior to an imminent move. Perhaps you simply want to make a few extra dollars. Some people simply do it for an opportunity to meet the neighbours and do a little haggling. A garage sale is very useful at all these times and for all these reasons.
With a garage sale, you need to give the people what they want (reasonably decent stuff at cheap prices) to get what you want (floor space in your house). While the phrase “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure” is true, there is another fact that is equally true, and even more important.
Junk is Junk … and nobody will buy it…. usually.
You can always try to sell broken or non-working so they can be used as parts for repairing other things people may have at home. Just be honest about it and price it as a broken item. You’ll be surprised just what kinds of things people will buy.
People who go to a garage sale have many things they may be looking for. Some are just on the lookout for good stuff at great prices. A few will just be passing by and spot something they have always wanted but could not afford until they saw it at your sale. Some are dedicated garage-sellers armed with maps of advertised garage sales, hunting for specific items or items they never knew they needed. Some will attend simply to meet the folks from down the block. Some will even attend your garage sale just to have items for their own garage sales. Whatever their reasons, you need to attract buyers who will see your items, like your prices, and walk away with the things they do actually want and need.
But setting up a garage sale properly and pricing your goods so that they sell fast and furious at a price you like…well those are topics for other articles.
