Holding a garage sale?

[Kinnon Bell]

Hey All,

I'm planning on holding a garage sale next weekend and I have never done one before. Apart from putting up signs on the local roundabout and that kind of thing is there some kind of garage sale directory that all the 'in' people know about or what other ways is there of advertising my garage sale in advance?

And if any SS'ers want to risk life and limb and venture out to the westside of melbourne let me know. I'm selling everything - furniture, whitegoods, appliances and misc crap I've built up over the years.

Mods, if the above is being too cheeky feel free to remove it!

TIA!

 

[geoffw]

There's always gumtree.

There is a garagesales site- egaragesales.com.au

One of our forum members once wrote a garage sales site. I don't know if it's this one or another one.

I've no idea how well they work.

 

[lizzie]

Local paper

 

[Singo]

I always search at gumtree. Make sure you add 5+ photos and give details of the stuff you are selling.

 

[Kinnon Bell]

Thanks Geoff, that's the kind of thing I was looking for.

Thanks Lizzie, not sure there is even a local paper for my area, at least not one that I've seen.

Singo, thanks, will list with gumtree as well.

 

[willair]

Just ring up the local council prior to putting the signs up around your street area,some council will fine you for the signs,imho..

 

[Kinnon Bell]

Thanks for the tip, Willair.

 

[marg4000]

If you do put up signs in the neighbourhood, PLEASE remember where you put them and take them down. Sadly, few bother.
Marg

 

[travelbug]

If you do put up signs in the neighbourhood, PLEASE remember where you put them and take them down. Sadly, few bother.
Marg

Yes that is my pet hate. THOSE people should be fined.

We have had a few garage sales over the years. Put the signs out a few days earlier. Put a sign on your front door saying "DO NOT bother to knock before 7am" You will get the dealers wanting to look. They are time wasters. They want everything for nothing.

TIP-price stuff. Most people won't bother asking unless they REALLY want it.

If you have lots of cheap things colour code. Use stickers Orange =$2 etc. After lunch changeorange to $1.50 etc.

Don't bother with 2 days. Sunday is a wipeout.

Watch for theives. Have a bumbag (daggy but useful) to put your money in (watch for theives- again).

Price stuff cheaply unless you would keep it if you didn't get a certain price. Our last one (before we moved) we decided to give to Vinnies or chuck what was left so a few dollars is more than chucking it away.

I've been to garage sales where people expect ridiculous prices. They are wasting their time. Garage sale frequenters expect bargains.

One thing I sold the lady said "how much". I said $4. She said "are you sure" I said "OK $8". I laughed and sold it for $4 of course.

Have fun. It can be fun but sometimes frustrating. You tell someone a really cheap price for something and they say "will you take $1".

Towards the end of the day I have a free box at the front. Stuff I don't want to bring back inside.

A friend of mine recently had a garage sale and was disapointed. She ended up listing a heap of stuff on Gumtree and got good results.

 

[BayView]

Have fun. It can be fun but sometimes frustrating. You tell someone a really cheap price for something and they say "will you take $1".

We've done three in my life.

The "pathetic steptoe" factor is rampant in this circle.

I just wanted to punch people's heads in after a while.

We had a brand new - still in the packet - queen bed doona cover set....$5.

Yes; $5.

This lame chick asked me if I'd take $4.

I felt like giving her $5 and saying; "Luv; you must really need the $1, so here's $5, and now farck off".

But, I am a total gentleman and said "Sure; $4 will do".

Sad, so sad.

 

[S.T]

get ready for people to knock on your door at 5am!

 

[BayView]

get ready for people to knock on your door at 5am!

Yeah; that too.

Ours were literally in our garage all 3 times, so didn't need to move stuff out.

The scavengers arrived earlier than the advertised start time of 8.00am, so we simply kept the door closed until 8.00am.

If you plan on having your sale outside (most are) this'll mean having to move loads of stuff out onto the lawn etc.

That's hard to do if there are already 10 people trying to look at stuff and ask you "what'll you take for this?".

Move the stuff out at least half an hours before your advertised start time.

Have plenty of small change and coins on hand in a bum-bag or something similar.

I've been to garage sales where people expect ridiculous prices. They are wasting their time. Garage sale frequenters expect bargains.

One of our customers at the workshop runs a shop here in town, and this is what most of her stock comes from - scouring the Sunday markets, garage sales and deceased estates for things she knows are worth more and are being sold cheap.

 

[schweedy]

If your a facebook person, I see a lot of garage sales advertised on your areas Buy, Swao & Sell sites. A bit more free advertising can't hurt.

 

[Kinnon Bell]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I kinda don't want to hold a garage sale now....

I'll try selling on gumtree over the next week and there's a tender centre in geelong but their commissions is around 20% so not sure about that one.

I think I'd rather donate my stuff to charity than haggle with people over the sake of a $1.

Hmmm, good food for thought.

 

[kathryn d]

The last yardsale we had, we didn't price anything.
We had a sign and said no offer would be refused.
One guy said, what if I offered a penny (we had them still)..I said great.

Most people paid more than I would have asked.

Plan on another one when we return..to get rid of the tenant crap.

 

[Kinnon Bell]

Well, as it turns out we wont need to hold a garage sale. One of my husband's mate and his mate bought all of our furniture and a few little bits and pieces. So now what's left we'll just give to charity.

Got pretty good prices for it too. Even made a profit on a couple of items because I bought them so cheaply to begin with!

 

[Jacque]

We've done three in my life.

The "pathetic steptoe" factor is rampant in this circle.

I just wanted to punch people's heads in after a while.

We had a brand new - still in the packet - queen bed doona cover set....$5.

Yes; $5.

This lame chick asked me if I'd take $4.

I felt like giving her $5 and saying; "Luv; you must really need the $1, so here's $5, and now farck off".

But, I am a total gentleman and said "Sure; $4 will do".

Sad, so sad.

Haha I can relate! We are garage sale fans and have held about 6-8 now in every house we've had the pleasure of living in. I had one lady at about my 3rd one try to talk me down on a $4 pair of brand new (never taken out of their box) leather boots... I told her she could happily have them for $2 (her offered price) at 4pm when the sale was closing and if they were still available. Needless to say, she paid the full asking price

Things I have learnt and would put into practice for the next sale:

Get your offspring to make cupcakes/brekky muffins and sell for $2 each. No-one haggles on these as the kids are too cute to negotiate with

Over-price not under... but also add ONO to your signage. Even if peeps get $2 off they feel better about successful negotiating

Be wary of the seasoned hunters- they look down and out but run highly successful antique/retro/groovy vintage stores and are MASTER NEGOTIATORS. The more shabby the clothing and demeanour usually the more savvy they are

Some people will not negotiate (too embarrassed/awkward/polite whatever) so consider offering a freebie for those who spend more than a certain amount (trio of cupcakes, lucky dip etc) - it leaves them feeling good and they may sped more....

Consider combining with your neighbours or street for a bigger crowd. Yes, I know, a bit of a PITA but it actually works...

Happy planning!

 

[BayView]

Or, save some time-wasting of your valuable weekend and having to deal with a-soles, and just give it away to the local tip...

Unless you like to do that garage sale stuff.

Me; I'd rather chuck it all out on the nature strip with a sign saying TAKE ME, go and play golf for the morning, come back after that, and whatever was left - do a tip run.

 

[ok180]

Im with Bayview on this, I couldn't be bothered to flog stuff for $2 and $3 dollars at a time in the hope of making a few hundred and having to deal with idiots on a weekend. My parents did one once when they moved house and collected about $150 dollars and still had to chuck a lot of stuff out that people were not interested in.

 

[beachgurl]

I was going to do a garage sale when we moved recently but decided to put things on Gumtree. next time if I can be bothered I'd rather do a garage sale. Having to wait at home for someone to pay $10 for a high chair who doesn't turn up after an hour of waiting is such a waste of time. I ended up putting a heap of baby stuff for free on Gumtree and gave it to the first person who turned up. I'm sure that person is one who resells stuff but I was just glad to get rid of it.

I did a garage sale a few years back and made about $500. Took days to organise and price and was a bugger packing up everything that didn't sell.

Do you have a local bogan markets? There's one near here at Blacktown Drive-in. Costs a few dollars for a patch of road to set up your stuff to sell. People don't know where you live and people will buy the crappiest stuff there, in comparison to what they'd buy at a local sale. Kids items tend to sell better there than at home too. If I liked to smoke and have a beer at 8am on a sunday it would be a great regular hangout.