03/10/2017
In the most recent issue of Go Tri magazine, we printed one story twice. We apologize for this. Here's the story that should have ran.
Tips for a successful yard sale
By David Floyd
It’s that time of year. Space is running out. Your closets are obscured by heaps of clothes. You’re starting to feel suffocated by all the junk.
You want to just throw everything in the trash, but then you think, why not make a little money out of this old stuff?
Spring is quickly approaching and a good old fashioned yard sale could be an effective way to make some profit off your unwanted items.
Doug Buda, committee chair for the annual Tree Streets Yard Sale event, has some tips for you small-scale entrepreneurs out there:
• Remember to advertise your yard sale about one to two weeks in advance. This can be as simple as taking out an ad in the local paper.
• Price your items with the knowledge that visitors will try to haggle down. You don’t have to make the price astronomically higher than your desired price, but put it within striking distance.
• Organize your things and put price stickers on items before people show up. That way visitors won’t have to trudge through unorganized mountains of trinkets and keep asking you about specific items. It’s also a good idea to never underestimate the importance of positioning. People will be more apt to buy something if they can pluck it off a clothes line rather than bend down to grab it from the ground.
• Keep spare change and cash on hand just in case someone wants to purchase a cheap item with a $20 bill. Buda recommends having a collection of $5 and $1 bills on hand for this very reason. Some loose change would also be helpful.
• Save some plastic grocery bags from the supermarket. If your customers purchase multiple items from your yard sale, nothing makes them happier than knowing that they can easily carry them back to their car.
• Remember that people are more likely to visit a yard sale in the spring or summer than the fall or winter. Typically, yard sales act as an effective way to facilitate your spring cleaning.
• If you can, organize your yard sale with several other families. The Tree Streets Yard Sale has oscillated at times between 120 and 180 families participating each year, but obviously, you don’t need to organize something that large to be successful. Even if you can get just one of your friends to participate, having a more diverse selection of items on sale increases your chances for success.
• Contact a local charity in the morning and see if they’d be interested in bringing a truck by at the end of the day to pick up any of the leftovers. Anything that’s not purchased could end up being helpful to someone in need.
• Lastly, and this is probably the most important thing to remember, yard sale junkies are notoriously early risers. Even if you’re ready to go at around 9 a.m., you might miss most of your potential customers. Being prepared at around 7 a.m. is probably a more productive plan.
