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Put your sale on the map by advertising it
with Peachtree City Web.
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Start early between 8~9:30 am.
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Make sure your house and yard look neat. Your house
should have nice curb appeal.
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Be courteous and inform neighbors ahead of time and work with them
to maximize parking.
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Make sure signs are easily visible and lead traffic
from main streets to your street. Have one sign for each turn. Write your
street address in large block lettering on the signs
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Put price labels on all items or put up a general
pricing list on a piece of poster board.
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Make sure items are clean and presentable. A
cardboard box full of dirty used toys will not sell nearly as well as the same
toys cleaned up, packaged in zip lock bags with the price clearly marked, and
neatly displayed on a table.
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Have all items completely set up at least 30 minutes
to one hour before the sale. People WILL show up early and there will be no
time to finish setting up.
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Think traffic flow. Your sale should flow like a
buffet line. Display items in rows or in a U-shape pattern.
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Try not to have items visible that are not for sale. Remove them
or cover them so there is no confusion.
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Try to keep clothes and small items well organized on table and
racks. Items that are laid on the ground and scattered throughout the driveway
and garage make the sale look cluttered and unorganized. Many people will
probably just drive by and move on to the next sale.
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Make sure you have adequate help. It is easy to get
overwhelmed at a sale. Traffic tends to come in waves.
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Make sure people know who to pay. It is best to have
one person handling the money and sit at a table with a money bag or cash box.
The ideal setting is to have a table set up at the front of the yard sale that
has a sign that says "Pay Here". It should be set up like any store. Cash
registers are always at the front of any store to allow people to check out as
they leave. Another benefit of this set up is that someone is there to greet
people and answer questions as they arrive and it makes people go through the
whole sale before they pay.
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Have all people working the sale wear name
tags.
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Some items sell better if more information is
provided. Consider taping note cards to certain items. For example a note card
on a television might read "RCA 13" Color Television in Perfect working order.
Comes with remote and is cable ready. Only 4 years old."
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Have shopping bags available as well as newspapers to
package items.
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Avoid money mistakes. Have
a calculator handy or adding machine with a tape.. Paper clip or spring clip
like bills together. Handling a large roll of money can be cumbersome and often
leads to costly mistakes. When making change for bills, never mix your money
with the buyer's until the transaction is complete. Set their bill on the table
and put a paper weight on it while you are making change. This way no one can
say they gave you a twenty dollar bill when they only gave you a ten.
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Keep track of items when they are sold by writing
down the item and price sold or have a check list with all the items.
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Watch out for professional buyer. They are the
people that show up early and try to bargain down all of the higher value items
or want to make mass purchases of items. Their goal is to resale your items and
make the profit you didn't. If you are confident that you can get a better
price, be patient and stay firm on the price.
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Put a sign in your yard or hang balloons on the
mailbox to let people know you are the one with the yard sale and not your
neighbors who are just cleaning out their garage.
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Place large items and the most desirable items in the
most visible location from the street.
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If someone is coming back for an item, make sure to
mark it so it as sold so it is not sold a second time.
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Men and women look for different things at yard
sales. Display items that interest men in one area and items that interest
women in another.
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Team up with neighbors and have a multi-family yard
sales or neighborhood sales. Naming the sale makes it even more appealing. A
name like "The Hill Creek Annual Neighborhood Yard Sale" sounds very well
organized and more interesting. It seems like a big event not just a
multi-family yard sale.
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Have some light music playing in the background.
Silence makes people uncomfortable. Playing music gives them more privacy while
looking through and discussing items.
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Bundle items together in bags or group together in
sets. This works well for clothes, books, toys, and nick-knacks. Many people
would not buy toys individually, but the same person would not pass up a bargain
to get a bag full of toys or clothes for a dollar or two. This helps
dramatically reduce leftovers.
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Have plenty of change on hand. A good rule of thumb
is to have at least $50 in change consisting of:
