Experience With a 1st Time Yard Sale

This past Saturday we had our first family yard sale. Even growing up, my parents never did a yard sale. As well, I don't recall even ever going a yard sale as a consumer. We were truly yard sale virgins. However, we have been convicted of hording stuff that we might use but frankly either never will or won't in the near future. With another child on the way, we thought it was time to clear out stuff and make some room. If we could make a little money off our stuff, better for us.

Our yard sale consisted of old stuff of Jacobs, both toys and clothes, various kitchen related items we got as wedding gifts (almost 6 years ago) but never used, several pairs of Shannon's shoes, a 19" TV, some old VHS tapes, a couple of coffee tables, my sister's wicker patio furniture, some of Shannon's Southern Living stuff and various other items. We totaled $235 in a 4 hour sale (8:00-12:00) and sold most of our stuff. We considered it a huge success.

For any other yard sale virgins, here are the lessons we learned.

Breakdown of Sales

We totaled 38 sales with half coming in the first hour. Shortly after we put of the signs for the sale, people were coming. Even after the first hour, we never had more than 5 minutes go by without someone coming by. Our largest sale was $39 to a lady who bought several of the Southern Living items. The smallest was a toy for $0.25. The average sale was $6.18. 6 sales were more than a $10, and 6 sales less than $1. The most common sale was $5 and $2 (5 times each). Prior to the yard sale, we got $160 dollars from the bank in 10s, 5s, 4s and quarters to make change. In hindsight, we would have been fine with $80. You might be able to do with less, but the problem would be the first few customers making small sales but paying in $20s which was common.

What Worked

My wife spent $20 dollars on signs and mylar balloons. She even cut out the letters to spell "Yard Sale" and taped them on several balloons. I thought it was overkill, but I really think it helped get attention to our sale. The direction signs she made were well done. Our traffic was really good. The beautiful weather helped, but the advertising was key. Also, we did not advertised in classifieds (print or online) and I don't think it hurt us at all. Just put your signs in good locations.

Shannon spent time on Friday getting the items on tables we borrowed from our church and portable shelfs we had. She bought lots of stickers that had prices on them (e.g. $5, $1, $.25, etc.) and put them on everything. With everything neatly arranged and clearly labeled, it reduced the time we had to exert in explaining items to customers and made their experience better. It was definitely worth the time and small cost. We expected a great deal more haggling to lower prices, but only a couple of people even asked for a lower price, and they were the ones making the biggest sales. I believe having everything well labeled and well organized gave it a more professional look, if that is possible in a yard sale, and made the sale more like a trip to a store, where you would not consider asking to lower a price. Since we are not comfortable in price negotiations, this was a big help to us.

We had a mixture of nicer stuff and more basic staples. We found the overwhelming majority are looking basic items like kitchen wear, clothes and children's toys. However, we had 3 people who came who were looking for nicer items, they all bought the nicer items (Southern Living and furniture) and were are biggest sales. I would not hesitate to put out items selling for $10-$50 dollars.

What Didn't Work

Not much. The only thing that we tried which was not a positive was selling drinks. We had read was that if you offer Cokes or bottled water on sale day you can get several sales. We got 1 at $.50. It was not a hot day, but it was in the 80s. People were there to get their bargains and get out.

What We Would Do Differently

Again, the sale went very well. Our goal was removing clutter from our 3rd bedroom which will be the baby's room and getting a little money from it. Mission accomplished. But we could have sold more things. Some people asked about CDs which I have many and I would not mind getting rid of. Also, you can rip your CD, keep the music on your computer and sell the CDs. This might be a violation of RIAA copyright rules, but I am not losing sleep over it. Like VHS tapes, you can sell older technology because for all the early adopters, you have at least 5 times as many late adopters who are still sticking to the older technology.

Also, a lady asked about old jewelry. We did not think about that. You have a few people who come looking for very specific things. You of course don't know what they are prior to the sale, but if you want to maximize sales and don't mind bringing stuff back in that doesn't sell, empty all of your drawers and look for what you would consider junk and try to sell it. You would be surprised.

My Life as a Play: Word play

Setting: Mommy, Daddy and Jacob are leaving Burger King. Dad remembers his teen years listening to rap music and speaks to Jacob...

Daddy: Come on homeboy.
Jacob [without missing a beat]: OK, homedad.