Holding a good garage sale: part deux

Thinking about having a garage sale? I'm sorry. No, really, they can be fun, and you might even bring in some serious cash. And even though you might only realize pennies on the dollar for what you spent originally, getting rid of stuff feels so good. So here's part two of my own tips and tricks for successful garage sales (see posting last week for part one).

What day(s) will you have your sale, and when should it start? It depends on what works for your schedule, of course, but a lot of sales (especially estate sales) start on Friday. That's the day you'll get the dealers and serious garage sale fanatics, but not those who have to jet off to work. Saturday works for most everybody, but you'll be competing for buyers with lots of other folks. If you start early, you better be ready early! If you start a bit later, that gives people time to fly around to the first sales, then get to yours at the opening.

You have to advertise your sale, unless you enjoy just sitting around for a day with only the neighbors to smile at. Start with the "garage sale" section on craigslist; it's free and easy to use (you don't even have to have an account with them to post). And there's space for four photos with your listing. Pick your top four hot items and take good digital pictures against a neutral background if possible. Reduce the size of the photos on your computer before listing (a large photo file might take forever to download). Write up the text for your ad in a word processing program. Two reasons: you'll have spell check (which craigslist does not); and you can save your text for multiple postings. Just a matter of copying and pasting.

Be as specific as you can about your items, or groups of items (e.g., a closetful of quality girls' clothes, from sizes 2-6). Those ads that just say "too much to list"? Not interesting! For me, that's code for "we just have a bunch of crap and I'm too lazy to make a list." Make it sound good and highlight the best aspects of your sale, whether it's because you have lots of easy parking, or 3 families getting together (and therefore, lots to choose from), or are finally selling off your antique collections (in which case, please call us first!). There's lots of competition out there (especially in summer months), and your job is to attract buyers.

Don't write your ad in all caps. Nobody can read that.

You can start posting your ad early on craigslist, especially if you've given your sale a name or some sort of identity (a good ad in the paper this morning was called "Grandpa Moved Sale"). The week before, you could post something like: Get ready for the 3-Family, Gargantuan Garage Sale, NEXT Saturday (date), in Bend. You could even start listing some of your offerings, and post photos, but don't put your address on it yet. You know those dreaded early birds? Yeah, they'll come a week early, if you let them. Keep your email anonymous, unless you want people pestering you or sending spam (that will happen anyway, but at least you can control it a bit).

You can post every day if you wish. Just pick up your Word document, paste it into your new post, and adapt as needed (as in, "Only X more days until the 3-family..." etc.). Only on the day of your sale should you post your address, and then be sure to give people your cross streets or detailed directions (even adding something like "look for the green signs"). You can also add a Google map link.

I also recommend running a classified ad in the paper, either the day before, or morning of your sale. Lots of people rely on the classified section for garage sale info, and after all this work, you want to get as many shoppers in as you can. A classified ad doesn't need to be as long as your craigslist posting, but you could refer readers to your posting for more details.

The day of your sale: be ready. Give yourself (or an appointed helper) time to post signs, attach balloons, whatever you need to do to dress it up and get people to your door. Have everything priced or you'll be immediately put on the spot, hemming and hawing while you try to decide what you want for something. Better to price it all early in the week, and consult each other about it. Believe me: give away your spouse's favorite possession and you might end up needing that dog house you were going to sell. If you have things staged on tables already, you can just lift them up and out of the garage. Move everything out as fast as possible, and try to find a home for things up off the ground. Put your best items front and center on the driveway or lawn. This gives people driving by a chance to see the types of things you have, and keeps shoppers milling around outside, which attracts even more people (just like a restaurant filled with diners at the front windows).

The early birds will show up if you've done a good job promoting your sale. Some of them will have great excuses and puppy dog eyes ("well, my daughter is getting married out of town today, and I won't be able to come back here, and was just hoping to take a quick peek..."). Yep. You let that one in and you open up the floodgates. Oh, by the way, she doesn't even have a daughter! Unless you don't care about finishing your breakfast, don't open the doors until you're ready.

As things sell down during the day, keep moving things around. Pull things to the front, bring them up to the tables, fill holes. If something is not selling, it may just be because people couldn't really see it.

Should you bargain? Probably. If you've really priced your things to sell, sell, sell, you shouldn't have to offer much of a discount -- if any -- in the first hour or so of your sale. After that, you might accept offers if you're serious about getting rid of stuff. Because really, you do not want to be moving it all back into the house that evening.