Garage sales 101
Saving Pennies or Dollars is a new semi-regular series on The Simple Dollar, inspired by a concerning frugal tactics that might not really save that much money. I鈥檓 going to take some of the scenarios described by the readers there and try to break down the numbers to see if the savings is really worth the time invested.
Naomi said, Garage Sales 鈥� it takes a day to set up; we usually purchase lunch that day because we鈥檙e busy (day before and day of) and can鈥檛 make lunch鈥nd usually gross about $150 鈥� 200.
I鈥檝e found that garage and yard sales can vary greatly in their success level depending on a wide variety of factors.
The amount of promotion If you promote your yard sale with signs and flyers, you鈥檙e going to get a lot more traffic. The more you promote it, the more traffic you鈥檒l get. Savings tip: I tend to try to schedule yard sales in conjunction with my neighbors so that we can promote our yard sales together. Our town has a regular 鈥渃ity wide yard sale,鈥� so we鈥檒l schedule things in conjunction with that.
The weather on the day of the event If the weather is beautiful, you鈥檒l see more traffic. I鈥檝e actually postponed yard sales because of forecasted bad weather (since I do much of my promotion during the week before the yard sale).
Meal preparation What I often do is prep all of our meals two days in advance of the yard sale. I鈥檒l make food so that it鈥檚 easy to pull out of the fridge and eat at the table. Often, we鈥檒l just have sandwiches for lunch the day of the sale, eating while the sale is going on. If you find yourself ordering food, you鈥檙e going to reduce the profits from the sale.
Quality of items If you have good stuff to sell, you鈥檙e going to make more money than if you鈥檙e selling retreads from previous sales. People go to yard sales to find bargains on stuff they actually want. If all you鈥檙e offering is well-picked-over stuff, you鈥檙e not going to make a lot of money.
What I usually do is give away what鈥檚 left at the end of a yard or garage sale. I鈥檒l take the remnants to Goodwill and other stores and give them whatever they鈥檒l take. If there are still items left, I鈥檒l often trash them, as they have little value (I didn鈥檛 want them, my customers didn鈥檛 want them, and Goodwill didn鈥檛 want them). This ensures that the next yard sale I have will be all new items, not retreads that didn鈥檛 sell before. This drastically increases the percentage of sales I鈥檒l make.
I also make sure the items are as clean and presentable as possible.
Quantity of items The more you have, the more you鈥檒l sell. Of course, there鈥檚 a caveat along with that鈥�
Organization of items If you throw everything out there in a mish-mash and it鈥檚 hard to find all of the items or find similar items, you鈥檙e going to have a hard time making the sale. This means using your space effectively so similar items are near each other and as many items as possible are easily accessible.
All of these factors play a role in garage/yard sale success. The fewer of these things that you successfully pull off, the less you鈥檒l sell at your yard sale and the less you鈥檒l earn per hour of time invested.
The last yard sale I ran, I netted about $600 after expenses. I estimate that 30 hours of work went into the yard sale, giving me a return of about $20 per hour. (Of course, I was selling off items that I already owned.)
A poorly managed garage or yard sale earns pennies for the hours you invest. A well managed garage or yard sale earns dollars.
