Successful garage sale!!
We had a great garage sale this past weekend! I was completely shocked with everything we sold! I only have 3 small boxes of stuff to take to Goodwill, and I only kept a few things that didn't sell. Our neighborhood will have sales in June, so I figured I would clean the basement some more and see what else we can get rid of then.
What kind of luck do you have when having a garage sale? Some people say it's not worth the time, but we made so much money, it was worth every minute!
I do have a funny story though - my grandma put a couple of matching antique chairs out, and this woman loved them and wanted to buy them. She waffled back and forth on whether she had room for them, where she would put them, did she really need them, blah blah. This woman stood in my garage for well over an HOUR trying to decide on them! Within this hour, she paid for both chairs once, then changed her mind and asked for her money back. She sat in them probably 15 times, she looked over every stitch of thread and material, she moved them around, pulled them outside to get a better view in the sunlight, asked what color of walls would look good with them (they were beige chairs), asked what color my grandma used with the chairs. She then changed her mind completely, said she didn't want them, then left. 20 minutes later, I noticed she was sitting in her car in front of my house. A few minutes later, she left. I watched her circle the block 3 times before she finally stopped, and came back for the chairs. She asked if my grandpa would help her load them in her car. She decided to only take one chair, and it was another 10 minutes before she decided on which one she wanted. My grandpa was half way down the sidewalk when she started to rethink her decision yet again, and wondered if she should take the other chair. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! I was seriously waiting on the cameras to come out as one of those practical joke shows you see on tv! It was unreal.
Another guy practically yelled at me because I wouldn't come down in price on something (he was asking me to take half off something within the first hour of the sale...something I knew would sell at the price I had marked). He told me that when he had his garage sale, he gave stuff away all day long...just gave it all away! I told him if I would have just saved myself some time and hassle and hauled everything to Goodwill if I wanted to just give it all away! Seriously, what would the point be of a garage sale? It was a garage sale, not a giveaway! Needless to say, he left without buying anything he originally wanted because he was so irritated with me. And everything he wanted sold for the prices I had marked :)
Any funny customer stories from your garage sale?
just once
What a funny story with the chair lady!
I only did 1 garage sale and it was in Mexico before we left... a little different then here lets say!! Over there the people buy garage sell items and resale it in little towns.
My friend purchased a lots of baby clothing in the USA and thought she would sell it at the garage sell...I thought it would be a good idea also because they don't have a lot of choices and good prices. My other friend gave me 8 bags of old clothes that she had not use for so long. The funny thing is everything was going very well except for selling baby clothes. Couple hours later I had a table free to put all the very old clothes of my friend but when I put it on the table the people start to argue on some pieces and we had to separate 4 people fighting for that…. All the cloths were gone in less then 5minutes!!! The people came back every 3 hours to ask if we had more things out! Some people even gave me their number and I call them the next day and he purchased all the rest of my stuff and at a really good price! It was so funny at the moment and never expect some fight for old and ugly clothes!!!
How much did you advertise?
Jessica,
How did you advertise your garage sale? Just signs? Do you live on a road with a lot of traffic? What kinds of things did you sell? I'm really wanting to clean house and have a garage sale, but I'm just not sure if it will be worth it. I think it's worth it if you have a lot of big, more expensive things, but what if you just have little stuff???? Any suggestions?
Monica
Mom to Brian, Wesley, and Curtis
Wife to Lavon
www.MonicasBooks.com
well
My neighbor and I advertised on wndu, craigslist, and here on michianamoms.com. We missed the deadline for the paper, but my neighbor did put out about 7 signs on our side of town. The weather was crappy the first day, rained on and off. The second day was so windy and got really cold, but we still did really well! Also, our subdivision isn't that high traffic at all. We live just outside of town, but the cross roads outside of our subdivision I suppose you could say is higher traffic.
I priced stuff to sell! Most of it was going to Goodwill anyway, so I was happy to get 25 cents for stuff, rather than overprice it and be stuck with it all. My grandma helped me price stuff, and she was about to have a heart attack with the prices I was putting on stuff. She kept saying, "well, I think you could get more for that!" :) My thought was if everything seemed overpriced, people wouldn't buy anything, but if I priced it to sell, they would buy alot...and they did!! The funny thing was most of the bigger items didn't even sell! I had a coffee table and matching end table that didn't sell, a nightstand, 2 side chairs....most of what sold was the little stuff.
We sold baby clothes, half-used candles, clothes out of my closet, old carseat and stroller, bouncy seat, coffee maker, books, dvd's, bedding, scrapbook supplies, framed pictures, dishes, shoes, roller blades, a rug, a really old tv, my old prom dresses, and my CVS surplus :) We just had so much STUFF! About the time we got married, my parents moved to FL, so they gave us a ton of household stuff they didn't want, my grandparents had a bunch of decorative stuff they gave us when we bought this house, we still had hand-me-downs that my husband's parents gave him when he bought his first house, plus we have accumulated our own stuff since we've been married.
We made almost $500 (not including what Luke sold and what my grandma had in the sale...she made almost $100 too), and I'm not even done cleaning out our basement! Although, I am pretty sure we already got rid of most of the good stuff, but if I finish the basement and have another sale, I really think I could probably do another $150 - $200. Plus by then, we will be done with all of Shawns winter clothes, so there is more baby clothes I could sell. Oh, and I never even got around to cleaning out our office or my husband's closet!
I say if you have a little extra time and could use the money, go for it! Maybe get a few neighbors together so you can advertise it as multi-family sales. And if it's stuff you would likely haul to Goodwill at the end of the sale anyway, price it low and at least get a little something for it!
Jessica
~ Mommy to Luke and Shawn
Love them
I've had two garage sales. The first one I made almost $900. The second one was the following summer so I didn't have as much to get rid of. I still made a little over $200. I'm not a pack rat either. This is just stuff we'd out grown, didn't use anymore or didn't like anymore. It was great.
Sarah