Save Time With a Garage Sale Knowing What Is Selling and What Is Not
A garage sale is hard work, but also potentially lucrative. If you want to save time and stress throughout the entire process, only rate and post what is most likely to sell.
For my first garage sale last summer, I carefully sorted out baby clothes that are 8 years old; cleared and researched the current prices for antique, collectible plates; and pulled out boxes of books. What a huge waste of time and effort.
If I did it again, I would instead donate books and put plates and all of my clothes on eBay or Craigslist. This would make it much easier to prepare for the sale, and I would probably make more money on these items compared to the $ 1 I got from selling two books and $ 4 from one person who bought three baby dresses. I was sure that all the bags I laid out (for theft) would be collected, but no, no cubes. I couldn’t even give away some things, like stuffed animals, for free!
What sold quickly: household items (like a Dutch stove, a set of lamps and even a whole dining set, which surprised me), baby products (strollers, inflatable chairs and tricycles, but again, not clothes) and new ones – electronics in the box …
Of course, your mileage may be different – I live in an area where there are many young parents – but in general, things that are easy to resell to other people with a good profit are likely to be purchased faster (one professional buyer came to a yard sale. And took almost all the dishes to resell at the flea market).
The Fun Times Guide has some tips on the most popular yard sale items for future reference.