Pick
almost any city or town in the country, drive through any
middle
class neighourhood, or residential area on the weekend, and
you're
sure to spot at least half a dozen garage sales.
What's
being sold at these garage sales?
The
accumulated "junk" people no longer use or want taking up
space
in or around their homes.
Are
they making any money with these garage sales?
You'd better
believe
they're making money!
It's
not at all uncommon to make œ600 with a weekend garage sale.
Is
it hard to put on a profitable garage sale?
Well, yes and no.
It
really does take some of your time, and also requires an
awareness
of a few merchandising tactics.
But
the problems in running a successful garage sale are small in
comparison
to the profits.
Who
are the buyers, and how do you get them to come to your garage
sale?
Your
customers are going to be "everybody", and you get them over
to
your garage sale with a little bit of advertising and
promotion.
Let's
look at the background: everybody accumulates the kind of
garage
sale items that other people are searching for, and are
willing
to buy.
These
items range from no longer wanted or outgrown items of
clothing
to furniture, tools, knick-knacks, books, pictures, and
toys.
Many
garage sale items are objects of merchandise purchased on
impulse,
and later found to be not what the buyer wanted.
He
discovered too late that he really didn't really have a use for
it,
or he no longer has a need for it. Many
items found at garage
sales
are gifts that have been given to the seller, but are the
wrong
size or incorrect choice for the recipient.
The
problem with most people is that they haven't the time to
gather
up all the items "just taking up space" in and around their
homes
and staging a garage sale to get rid of them.
Many
people don't know how to stage a garage sale, and many other
people
feel that putting on a garage sale is just too much bother
and
work. This is where you enter the
picture.
Your
enterprise will be an ongoing garage sale of items donated
and
collected from these people who lack the inclination to put on
garage
sales of their own.
Step
one is education: Spend a few weeks
visiting all the garage
sales,
swap meets and flea markets in your area.
Find
out what's being offered for sale, what people are buying,
and
how the merchandise is being sold.
Generally
an item is tagged with a price, but the seller is open
to
almost any reasonable offer from the customer.
Another
thing you want to do is make mental notes of the way the
merchandise
is displayed, and how the customers are allowed to
browse.
If
you start your own garage sale by clearing out your own
basement,
attic, closets and garage. Talk to your
relatives and
friends,
tell them what you're going to do and ask them for
donations
of no longer used or wanted items.
It's
here that you'll get your first experience in negotiating,
and
finally an agreement for you to display and sell other
people's
merchandise for a percentage of the price.
You'll
find people explaining that they really don't have a use
for
a specific item or they really don't want to keep storing it,
but
because of sentimental reasons, "just hate to give it away".
Once
you've had a little experience with this type of seller, you
will
be able to advertise in the newspaper that you buy garage
sale
items, or take them on consignment for a percentage of the
final
sales price.
The
advertising angle is really quite simple, and shouldn't cost
very
much either.
You
should run an ad in your local free paper, for about three
weks
in advance of, and up to the day of your sale.
Once
you're operating on a full time, every day of the week scale,
you'll
want to change your ad schedule and the style of the
advertising.
But
in getting started, go with small classified ads simply
announcing
your garage sale, emphasising that you've got something
of
interest to everyone - everything from A to Z.
To
get ideas on how to write your ad, check your newspaper for a
week
or so; cut out all the garage sale ads you can find; paste
them
up on a piece of paper.
Then,
with a bit of critical analysis, you'll be able to determine
how
to write a good ad of your own by determining the good and the
bad
in the ads you've collected.
Something
to remember: The bigger and better your sale, the bigger
and
better your "getting started" ads should be.
And
the secret to outstanding garage sale profits is in having the
widest
or largest selection of merchandise.
You
should have an old-fashioned 'sandwich board' to display in
front
of your house when your garage sale is open for business.
This
will pull in your neighbours, if you haven't already informed
them,
and attract the people driving by.
Sandwich
boards are sometimes set out at key traffic intersections
not
far from the site of the garage sale, to attract attention and
point
the way (but do check with your local authorities that this
is
permitted in your area).
Another
"sign idea" practice by a few really sharp operators is
the
old "Burma Shave" roadsite pointers.
Here,
you simply take a few cute sayings in verse (or one-liners),
write
on pieces of board, and tack onto the telephone poles at
about
200 yard intervals on a thoroughfare leading to your garage
sale.
You'll
create a lot of traffic for yourself!
By
all means, search out and use all the free bulletin boards in
the
area.
It's
better, and usually much more profitable, to take the time to
make
up an attention grabbing circular you can post on these with
a
postcard announcement.
To
do this, pick up some 'transfer lettering', go through your
newspapers
and old magazines for interesting illustrations,
graphics
and pictures, then with a little bit of imagination, make
up
an A4 poster-type announcement of your sale.
When
you've got it pasted up, take it to any quick print shop, and
have
them print up 50 to 100 copies for you.
The
cost should not come to more than œ5 - œ8.
If
you make this "circular poster" up with versatility and long
time
useage in mind, you can use it over and over again, simply by
pasting
on a new date.
In
case you were puzzled when we talked about "pasting", this is
simply
pasting another piece of paper onto the overall page.
Say
you have a circular with a date of Wednesday March 1st, and
want
to change it to read Thursday July 16th.
Rather
than do the whole thing again, simply write out the new
date
with your transfer letters on a separate sheet of paper, cut
out
to fit in the space occupied by the old date, and paste the
new
date over the old date.
A
good paste to use for this purpose is rubber cement.
That's
all there is to it; the printer does the rest.
Now
let's talk about the 'inside secrets' of drawing people into
your
sale, and the merchandising 'gimmicks' that will result in
the
maximum sales and profits for you.
First,
call attention to your sale. Don't be
shy, bashful or self
conscious
about letting everybody for miles know that you're
having
a garage sale.
You
have to give your sale some flair. Put
some posts up across
the
front of your property, and run some twisted crepe paper
between
them.
Even
better than crepe paper, run brightly coloured ribbons.
Invest
in some colourful penants and fly them from temporary flag
poles.
And
don't forget the balloons!
Make
your garage sale a fun kind of event with clusters of
balloons
anchored to your display tables and racks.
Be
sure to "float" them above the heads of your customers as they
are
browsing through your merchandise displays.
Cover
your display tables with colourful cloths.
Don't hesitate
to
use bright colours with busy patterns.
Regardless of what you
sell,
effective display is still predominately essential!
You
cannot "dump" items haphazardly on a table, sit down, and
expect
to realise great profits.
The
people doing the most business - making the most sales - are
the
ones with interesting displays, action and colour.
Try
to have as wide a selection of colours as possible in your
clothing
racks, and mix them for a rainbow effect.
Make
sure that your jewellery items shine and sparkle.
Arrange
them in and with jewellery boxes, jewellery ladders and
other
items sold for the purpose of showing off jewellery while
keeping
it neatly arranged.
Think
about it, and then study the methods of display used by
'rack
jobbers' in the stores in your area.
These
are the wire racks that usually hold card packaged items.
This
kind of display rack would lend itself beautifully for
anchoring
a cluster of balloons.
Keep
these things in mind, and build your individual displays as
part
of the whole; make it pleasing to the eye as well as
convenient
for your customers to browse through and select the
items
that appeal to them.
Look
for some kind of intereting and unusual items to call
attention
to your sale - something you can set up or part in front
of
your home during your sale.
Some
of the displays we've seen along these lines include a horse
drawn
cart, a restored Mk 1 Cortina, an old farm plough - anything
of
an unusual and interesting nature will do the trick for you.
One
couple we know put up a display using a mannequin dressed on
an
old time farm bonnet, long dress and apron.
The
display depicted a farm woman of old, washing clothes with a
scrub
board, and two steel wash tubs.
You
have to believe this drew crowds and make people talk!
Wherever
your imagination takes you, you have to be different and
distinctive,
or you'll get lost all all around you.
In
the hundreds of garage sales going on, if you take the time to
employ
a bit of imagination, you'll end up being the one with the
biggest
profits.
It's
almost a compulsion of many people to go shopping, to search
for
interesting and sometimes rare and valuable items.
This
fact alone will keep you as busy as you'll ever want to be,
staging
and holding garage sales.
The
market is so vast, and the appetite so varied, that anything
from
a brass bed stead to a used diary of somebody's long
forgotten
grandmother will sell, and sell fast at a garage sale.
Put
it all together, use a little imagination, and you'll easily
make
all the money you want!
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