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A couple of Saturdays ago, John and I packed up about 1/12 of our home and set out to make some money at a neighborhood yard sale. Since our townhouse has about 4 square feet of yard total, we had to rely on the generosity of a friend to allow us a lawn to sell our wares from, but in end we left $150 richer with a few freshly emptied corners in the house. Although I certainly wouldn’t consider myself an expert on the subject of actually hosting yard sales (I’m more of a yard sale goer), I thought I’d pass along just a couple of tid bits I learned that day…
Price to sell
When it came to marking our goods, I devised a system of colors. I bought a big poster board and marked out in Sharpie that green equalled 50 cents, yellow equalled $2 and purple, $5. It helped streamline things and I didn’t have to worry about writing prices on every single object – I just slapped a corresponding colored dot on instead!
Let someone unbiased handle transactions
I made the most rookie of mistakes at our yard sale – I was too much of a softie. I just couldn’t charge the 5-year-old boy who fell in love with my porcelain cat statue – I just couldn’t!! I joke now, but I’m $2 poorer because I got too invested in my buyers’ feelings. Suffice it to say, I should have let John’s no-muss-no-fuss business attitude take over more often.
Let someone well versed in math handle transactions
I almost charged one poor woman three times the debt associated with her pile. Thank goodness John was there to swoop in and take over, because this right brained creative had trouble with the simple act of adding up quarters.
Have inspiration images handy
With so much of my paper pinwheel collection already up on the wall in my studio, I decided to sell off what I had left. The only problem was that people had no idea what they were looking at! So I pulled up an iPhone screenshot from this post and quickly got a buyer who could visualize the deal she was getting.
Be friendly, but not a push over
At one point, I remember responding to one woman’s question about price with a peppy “It’s up to you!” Yeah, that got a funny look in response. This is not the time to be Mr. Nice Guy. Let ’em haggle!! They are getting unreal deals anyway, so whose rightfully going to complain? (I say that, but…)
Do you have any tried and true yard sale tips? Spout off in the comments!
