Garage Sale Mobile Tips

Garage sales are a brilliant place to pick up cheap items – you know that. What one person thinks is junk, you think is excellent. However, if you’re not careful you can end up with junk that really is junk. These tips should help you not get caught out:

• Check each item you’re buying very thoroughly. If it’s electrical, ask to see it working before you hand over your money. 
• Beware of the practice by some unscrupulous sellers of putting the price tag over the top of some flaw. And make sure that if you buy, say, a saucepan with a lid that the lid actually fits.
• Don’t just look at the box that an item comes in. Open up the box and have a look at what you’re actually getting – you can find old items in new packaging sometimes.
• If you buy a CD, check that a CD is inside the case – and that it is the right CD for the case. Also take the CD out and have a good look at the back to make sure that it isn’t scratched and covered with thumbprints, making it unplayable.
• Be suspicious about lotions, potions and pills. Often, these are past their use-by date and can be something of a health hazard (or ineffective). Perfumes are OK. But avoid pills like the plague. If you really must buy that half-used tub of moisturizer, open it up and have a look inside to make sure that the mixture hasn’t separated.
• Be careful with edible items. You should be safe enough with what’s sold at a lemonade stand (or similar) but take care with baked goods. They’re probably OK, but ask questions regarding peanuts, etc. You can usually tell by the look of them if baking is fresh. But avoid anything with mayonnaise or meat in it that’s been sitting in the sun.
• For edible items in packets, check the use-by date and have a glance inside the packet to see if whatever-it-is looks OK.
• When buying clothing, check that all seams are intact and that the zips and buttons do up. If an item has some minor repair needed (a fallen down hem, a missing button), it should be OK to buy if you are handy with a needle. Otherwise, don’t bother, unless you plan on using the item for something else (e.g. picking it to pieces to use the material for making something else, or cutting it up for use as an appliqué).
• In a similar vein, unfold all sheets and towels to make sure they haven’t got holes, and to make sure of the size. And it’s only polite to fold them back up again if you’ve unfolded a single sheet when you’re after a double.
• Be very careful with baby items. Many things are OK, such as potties, clothing, high chairs and soft toys. But take care with cribs – have they got big high posts on the sides or bars too far apart   These can be a safety hazard – clothing can get caught on the high posts and strangle a child, while slats and bars should be no more than 2 3/8 inches apart. However, if the crib is wooden and has the high posts sticking up at the sides, this can be easily fixed with a saw.

Signs are all-important for any garage sale. Apart from classified ads in newspapers and online noticeboards, signs are the main way that people get the news out about their garage sale.

• Make plenty of signs. You will need one to put outside your front gate, but you should also make one or two to place further down the road. This will catch the eyes of motorists, who will get enough time to stop. If you live on a quiet street, make some signs to go on lamp-posts in a main street nearby so you expose your publicity to a higher-traffic area.
• Your sign should be of reasonable quality. A scribble on a torn-off bit of brown corrugated cardboard isn’t quite enough. If you have to make your own signs, use a decent piece of cardboard – they’re not that expensive – and take some care with the lettering. You can get signs printed. Occasionally, you can find deals where if you list your garage sale via a certain channel, you’ll get a sign (usually just saying “garage sale” as part of the deal. White, pastel coloured or fluorescent cardboard makes a tidy, eyecatching look.
• Make sure that your sign is readable from a distance! 
• Your sign should list the date, time and address of the sale. Signs can also include a brief description (in a few bullet points) of items that will be sold (e.g. clothing, furniture, sports gear).
• Have some signs for your actual sale, e.g “Clothing $2 a bag” “All pot plants $4 each” “Blue sticker items $1”. 
• If your garage sale is in aid of a charity, include the name of the charity on the sale. This can induce more philanthropic people to come to the sale.

Many people are holding garage sales – yard sales, boot sales, whatever you want to call them – as a way of making a bit of extra cash during these harder economic times. You may be thinking that it isn’t for you because you have hardly any stuff to sell – or that’s worth selling. It’s barely going to cover a table – not really worth all the effort of writing signs, etc.

You are probably not holding a garage sale just for the fun of it. Yes, garage sales have their fun sides, but you are probably having one to get rid of clutter and make a bit of cash at the same time. So you need to protect your cash.

• Don’t have a cash box that can be reached easily by your customers. Sneaky people will help themselves while you’re looking elsewhere. Keep your money in a carpenter’s apron or a fanny pack – or even cargo pants, if you’re desperate.
• Some buyers will wait until you’re distracted to switch price tags. The best way to avoid this is to make sure that you have plenty of helpers – and prime them up that con artists are about.
• Some con artists will fluster you by asking for change for a $100 note. Be prepared for this and you won’t be flustered. The more “sorted” your cash float is (this is why a carpenter’s apron with lots of pockets is ideal), the less flustered you are likely to get, and you have less chance of making a mistake.
• Don’t drop the price just because you think someone is hard up and you only think this because of their appearance or means of transport. They could be putting on an act to play on your sympathy and score a massive discount. It happens. Haggle, yes, but don’t be foolishly kind.

While most household items will sell at a garage sale, as long as you don’t price them ridiculously, some items just won’t sell – you might not even be able to give them away. The best destination for these things is not the table at your garage sale but the nearest recycling centre or rubbish tip.

1. Junky plastic toys from McDonalds Happy Meals and the like. Does any child really play with these after the first two days? Even if they still have the original wrappers on, they don’t sell well. They’re not as collectible as the manufacturers would have you think.
2. Old newspapers. Take them down to the nearest paper recycling centre. However, you may like to have a few on hand while your yard sale is going on so people can wrap breakables.
3. Old glossy magazines. If you’re lucky, you might be able to sell these at a rate of 10 for 10c. Special interest magazines may be able to do better if the interest is a popular one – a fishing, hunting or DIY magazine will do better than Trainspotters’ Weekly. 
4. Anything broken. If you wouldn’t buy it, nor will anyone else. Chipped chinaware, ornaments or mirrors you may be able to get away with, as the items are still useable.
5. Family photos with no frames. Why would anyone else want to buy pictures of your relatives? If they are in frames, remove the photos and sell the frames.

 These are the people you don’t want to come to your garage sale, as they are con artists.

• Helpful Harry/Harriet. Helpful Harry buys several items and tries to save you the bother of tallying it all up by giving a total – which is wrong. Check everything – get out the calculator do double check if needed.
• Lobelia Sackville-Baggins. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo discovers this character attempting to walk out with several small but valuable items that “just happen” to have fallen into her umbrella. Real-life versions of this character have things “accidentally” slip into bags, pockets, drawers or boxes they are buying. Just check inside to be on the safe side.
• Pat the Parasite. Pat the Parasite asks for help carrying things to his/her car. Pat will return later in the day claiming that you didn’t bring everything that he/she paid for and will you hand it over now, please. Of course, this is a lie and if Pat gets away with it, they will then help themselves to something else for free.
• Ma Baker. This one doesn’t teach her four sons to handle their guns, but brings children to garage sales. She waits until you nervously distract Little Darling away from the glass figurines to make her move: switching price tags.
• Marvie the Magician. Marvie the Magician gets out a $100 bill and waves it in front of you, asking for change. He then tucks it away while you get out the change. You hand the change over, in a fluster, he hopes. He also hopes you will forget that he hasn’t actually handed the money over. Always take the money before you give the change – and have enough of a cash float to change $100 so you don’t get flustered.

Yes, we’ve all heard the politicians and gurus banging on about how times are tough and we all have to tighten our belts, etc. etc. But when it comes to actual practical ways to trim down and make the money go a bit further, the politicians, etc. seem silent, while the economic experts talk about wise investing. Which isn’t much help for the average family that doesn’t have anything handy to invest. 

• They’re a win-win situation. The buyer gets a bargain while the seller gets cash in hand.
• They help people interact with their local communities, which is a vital part of networking.
• Sellers can make the first steps in setting up a cottage industry by selling some of their products at a garage sale.
• If you are a garage sale habitué and see the same items being snapped up again and again, this may give you an idea for a niche market gap that needs filling.
• Buyers really can pick what they need and want up for cheaper than they can elsewhere. 
• Even if you aren’t hit too hard, going garage sale hunting for fun can help other people get by. You get your retail therapy fix and they get grocery money. You can consider it a form of charity – maybe?
• If you’re a seller, the desire for a bit of extra cash can make you get on with that decluttering job you should have done ages ago.

Most, if not all, good garage sales usually have books for sale, often at absolute rock-bottom prices. If you like a good read, going around the garage sales in your area can often be more rewarding than going around the bookshops – it’s certainly cheaper!

Most garage sales are more technically yard sales – held out of doors in your front yard so people can walk in off the street. This requires decent weather, as many items will be ruined if they get rained on. 

• Have a “rain date” as an alternative and list this on your garage sale advertisement – “If wet, on June 24^th” kind of thing. This is the best option, as many buyers are put off by the rain unless they’re really keen.
• Hold the garage sale in the garage. Make sure that the items that live in the garage are well out of the way so you don’t get somebody trying to buy your best saw. A carport is even better for this purpose.
• Can you rig up an awning over the top of the sales tables? Even a tarpaulin from a trailer can do at a pinch.
• If you have a covered veranda or porch , hold the sale up there. It may be a bit cramped, but you’ll be dry.
• Larger tag sales run by schools and the like should have an indoor venue as an alternative – school halls, clubrooms, gymnasiums and church halls are all possibilities.

A garage sale usually is held to sell off unwanted items. However, you don’t just have to sell second-hand bric-a-brac and clothing at a garage sale. With a bit of planning ahead and some know-how, you can sell a few other things and get some extra cash. A few ideas just to get you started:

• Do you have a fruit tree producing surplus fruit? Then sell the fruit – or get really organised and make jam for sale. Homegrown fruit usually tastes better than supermarket fruit, so this usually sells well.
• The same applies to homegrown vegetables. Now you know what to do with that zucchini surplus. 
• If you don’t grow vegetables or fruit, how about bunches of fresh flowers? 
• Plants themselves can sell. Raising houseplants in pots is simple, and they often sell well at garage sales. In early spring, you can target home gardeners by raising vegetable plants from seed and selling off the seedlings ready to plant – lettuces, cabbages, pumpkins, tomatoes and zucchini work brilliantly – owners of conservatories and glasshouses, take note!
• Home baking also sells well at garage sales. Make sure the table displaying these is not in full sunlight for food safety reasons, and make sure you cover each cake or tray of muffins with cling-film.
• If you paint, take photos or do cross-stitch, you can put some nice framed examples up for sale.
• Home-made clothing (which can include screen-printed T-shirts, knitted sweaters, beads, you name it) can also go on sale at garage sales. This can be a good way of testing the water for a hobby you want to turn into a cottage industry.