4 Tips to Make the Most from Garage Sale Day

The Garage Sale Day of the year is getting closer and sellers are busy preparing for the event of the year. Advertisements and messages are all around about the sale once you turn on the TV or open Instagram.

People usually sell used items they no longer need or want at their garages to earn extra money, hence the name “garage sale”. People say things sold at garage sales are misplaced treasures, thus the event becomes a national heated topic in August. However, things are a bit different this year with Covid-19. Buyers are more cautious with their spending and sellers should pay extra attention to create a safer environment for the sale.

There is only a short time until the Garage Sale Day of 2022 and the most urgent question for sellers is how to make the most from the sale.  Here are 4 useful tips for a super-successful garage sale.

1. Sell the right items

Holding a sale effectively helps you get rid of used items or brand new things hidden at the corner of your house that you thought will come in handy “one day”. Wake up and welcome to the real world. You do not use them now, you will never use them. So stop being nostalgic and be realistic then you still have a chance to earn extra money in a garage sale. Chances are you could make some decent pocket money, what you do not need or want are sometimes exactly treasures to those who need them, an old chair, a photo frame, a basketball… According to experienced garage sellers, here are 6 perennially popular items that always sell fast at garage sales.

Clothing

Second-hand clothes in good condition are hot. Smart shoppers always know how to look good with the minimum expenditure. To find out the clothes hidden at the bottom of your closet and put them on a rack for sale.

Books & Magazines

No matter how common ebooks are in the 21st century, readers always fancy a paper vibe and look for some second-hand books or magazines for reading or simply for collection. So pack your old books and magazines and make them rather cheap at, say, $1 each or 10 for $5. Your customers will not let you down.

Appliances

Have you ever bought a bread-maker, used it once, put it away and let it collect dust? You probably do not have the time and patience to make bread at home. Someone does. And they will be surprised by your home appliances that are still working. Do not forget to offer a power supply for a test if you want to sell appliances.

Dishes

Make sure you state clearly the brand name of your dishes, such as Pyrex, W&P, and Corelle, since the dishware of these brands sells well. If your dishes do not come from popular brands, you could try the bundle strategy below.

2. Only price part of your items

It is for sure that clear price boards will attract more customers to your sale, but it is suggested that you price only part of your items for higher income. For small and quite cheap items you could put up clear price boards beside them to attract more customers’ attention. But there are always some items you do not have clear prices for. Do you ever feel they are worthless enough to be sold for free but worthy enough to hold the center position at your sale?

Remember that your customers are much, much interested in your goods, even if such things are just second-hands to you. That is to say, potential buyers lingering around your stack are very likely to offer higher prices than you expected. So take another look at your second hands, a vintage chair no longer fitting your new apartment, a brand new dress you bought and never wore even once, and more. They might be valuable treasures to your customers. The trick is: customers say the price. All you need to do is wait for your customers to surprise you. They might offer $50 for an old table that you were to sell for only $15, just because they think it is worth the money. So be hopeful about your items and leave some of them “priceless” to earn more money at your garage sale.

3. Sell items in bundles

Even though your customers will find your items appealing most of the time, some items are hard to sell even at a lower price. Handled improperly, these unfavored items may have to end up in the donation center next to your house after the sale. Strangely, you never know what types of goods the unlucky ones are because your customers may value different things. To sell most of your items, you should try to sell your items in a bundle. This works especially well for small items like dishes, magazines, CDs, etc. $5 for 10 dishes is way more appealing than $1 for a dish and attracts more customers since they could have more items in their shopping bags at once.

Another wholesale trick comes into use when a customer tries to haggle. A typical response is “How about the same price with two more dishes?” The truth is, the two dishes you give away to the customer might otherwise lie lonely on the stack until the end of the sale. So why not sell them in packs when you have a chance to?

4. Advertise your garage sale on social media

When it comes to advertisements for garage sales, most people would think about putting up posters in the neighborhood. However, there is a smarter and better way to promote your sale. All you need to do is to sign up with a social media account, like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Research from CouponBirds, a coupon website, shows that Instagram and TikTok are two top choices for product promotion and marketing. TikTok alone has 78.7 million users in the United States. If a poster makes your sale visible to 20 people near your house, a thread on social media certainly exposes your sale to more than 20 people around you. The more people know about your sale, the more likely they are to stop by your stack and buy something they need. You could join Facebook groups for your community and post about your sale. Customers interested in your item will come by and have a look.

This year’s Garage Sale Day is on 8 13th, pretty close. So start sorting out your second-hands and prepare for the big sale. Make sure you select the items on the top of the selling list, get your strategies and tricks right, and spread the news around your neighborhood and on the internet. One more thing is to be ready for some new friends and juicy stories that will rock your life. The sale is like a home party and your guests will always bring on their own life stories.