Some areas make you get a permit but they don't all enforce it.

Think about having a neighborhood sale then splitting the cost of advertising in the paper.

Signs Signs Signs. Big ones.

Think about buying some canned cokes, sprite, water, diet cokes etc and selling them in an ice chest. I have made a lot of money doing this, especially if you find them on sale.

Those are great ideas. I never thought of selling drinks. And I forgot to ask about selling plants - how to price if I do etc (mostly perennials in my case).

thanks

Some things I've learned about having yard sales. Price things low if you really want them to go. Price them high if you want to make a little money. Be ready to bargain no matter how low the price is, because people like to feel like they got a good deal.

Put prices on everything.

If you have a friend who is bilingual (Spanish/English) ask him or her to help out at your sale in case you get non-English speaking customers.

Your gallon jugs are worth about $5 each, but you will probably get only $1 or $2 for each of them. Put a high price on them and then be willing to haggle.

Be prepared for surges of customers and have someone else there to help you, besides it's more fun to have a couple people to talk to during the long, hot day.

Plants will sell as long as they are priced very reasonable, in other words, less than what someone can buy them for at the Wal-Mart, and only if they look green and healthy.

Tools sell better than almost anything else, yard tools, car tools, machine tools, electric tools, hand tools, doesn't matter, people love tools. I love tools, sometimes if I see a nice one at a reasonable price, I'll buy it as a backup for the other 2-3 that I already have in case they all break.

Appliances sell well, but only if they are in good working order. And you will probably have to prove they work. If they don't work, you should say so.

Clothing sells well if it's clean, pressed, hanging up and looks fairly good. I even spend some time pressing t-shirts to make them look nicer. Denim jeans always sell well, and kid and baby clothes will go like hotcakes if they are clean. If you have mostly clothing and just pile a bunch of wrinkled stuff on a table, you'll see most cars slow down, look, and then take off.

Linens sell very well if sheet sets are size marked and tied with string or twine so someone can open them up, check for stains or holes and then tie them up again for neatness. If sheets or pillowcases get separated from the set, then it's harder to sell them.

What to watch out for:

1.Vans with three or four adults and three or four children. When they get out, they fan out around your sale tables, kids make a lot of noise and distract you for a couple minutes, then one or two of the adults start asking questions and direct your attention and block your view away from the kids. I turned my head just in time to see two 8 year olds loading my $400 mountain bikes into the back of the van, as the driver was getting in, starting the engine and calling to the others to hurry up.

2. Shoppers with large purses, bags or very large coats. I bumped into one of those purses and found that my silver-plated bowl had "fallen" into it by accident.

3. If someone wants you to let them have something for less than you are willing to sell it for and then they get beligerent or abusive, don't be too shy or embarrassed to order them off your property. Keep your cell phone with you on a belt clip in case you need to call for help. This usually won't happen if there is a man with you, but a guy will sometimes do it if it's just you and another woman, or you by yourself.

My favorite way to get rid of my extra stuff is make a detailed inventory, including actual value of the item and donate it to Salvation Army and take the tax deduction. No cleaning, ironing, price marking, haggling or cleanup required.

If you sell $1500 worth of houshold goods at a yard sale, it's a lot of work and a lot of fun too, and you might get $250 from your sale. If you give the same stuff to Salvation Army placing a value on it of about 50% of what you originally paid for it, or $750 and get a receipt for your donation to use for your taxes, you may get less back on your taxes than $250, but that will depend on your own tax bracket. Cheryl

Thank you for your great ideas. I guess itemizing and claiming on taxes makes sense. I haven't been organized enough to do that (make lists of donated items with value) but its less effort than a yard sale.
Also am joining freecycle which may work out especially for the good stuff that the local thrift store doesn't want and there is potential for me to get something in return.
As for the plants, I could give them away to new garden club members, or put them on freecycle too I suppose.

freecycle is the best thing if found since this site.

Make sure things are clean and organized, not just piled on. Have plenty of bags handy.
Your plants could be sold for $1.00-$3.00, I guess it depends on what you have.
Make sure someone else is there with you to watch others like the other person stated, people are NOT afraid to just help themselves.
Keep things priced fair, especially if you want to get rid of it.
Try making a few displays so people can see what can be done with an item.
Have plenty of change and ones handy.
Pop is a good idea, and have some music piping in, keep your sanity.

Also keep the better, more expensive stuff closer to you. That way it is less likely to "fall into" a purse. If you price things too high, people won't even ask, but make sure you leave yourself "wiggle room" so you can deal. I like to sort clothes into the $0.25, $0.50 and the $1.00 piles, ususally by some type of catagory: t-shirts 0.25, dress shirts 0.50 and nice jeans/dresses 1.00. You would be surprised at how much it adds up to in a short period of time. Also, make a list of frequently asked questions so you can put up signs for next time. Invite some friends to birng their stuff over too, so there is more there and if someone needs a bathroom break, its NBD.

BUT most important, make sure you have an inviting garage sale. Don't just put out three items and get upset when people don't stop. Or have everything hidden in your garage. I feel like I am invading a persons home in the garage, very uncomfortable. I don't think I have ever bought anything from inside a garage. Carport yes, garage no. If you can get several neighbors to do one at the same time, it encourages people to get out and walk the block. If you live out a ways, keep putting signs up every 1/2 mile or so to let people know they did not miss it. We once had a lady drive five miles out of her way with ice cream melting to go to OUR yard sale cuz she kept seeing the signs. She was glad to report that she did not regret it.

Billie

And make the lettering on signs LARGE- too many times directions simply can't be read from a vehicle. Not worth the trouble to circle around & try to get a closer look.
Suzi

Watch the rules in your city for signs. Signs around here on a pole or even staked in the ground will get you a $25 ticket if a bored cop happens along. We advertise our sale on Craig's List (free) and we do put signs out with no street address, just arrows. There are lots of sales here when the weather warms up, so as long as there's a sign pointing into the neighborhood, everyone is checking all of the streets and the police don't know which house to ticket for the sign.

For clothes, I don't wash, iron, hang them up. I don't mean I'm putting dirty clothes out, but as things get worn out or outgrown, I pile them in a box in the garage and then lay them out neatly on a blanket on the ground when it's time to have the sale. We definitely want those clothes gone, so our deal is that all clothes, no matter how nice, are $.25. In Spanish, that's "La ropa es veinte y cinco cada una" - You will have more business than you can handle once word gets out about that lol.

Something I forgot now that we are talking about signs. PLEASE do not use staples, tacks or nails to put your signs on telephone poles. These cause the Linemen (that is the name for power pole electricians) a lot of problems and injuries. You may not think about it, but it is very true. If attaching to a power pole, use a few runs of duct tape. It will hold your sign all day. Think of how you would feel if your husband, brother, or other was injured due to a "Yard Sale" sign. Pleas no nails.

Billie

Wow what a lot of great ideas.
Maybe I'll canvas the neighbors to see if anyone else is interested. kp

One thing about claiming a deduction on your taxes: You have to have enough total deductions to itemize in order to claim that deduction. So if you rent, or if your home is paid for, you may not have enough to make itemizing a better deal than taking the standard deduction.

Watch people that swap out price stickers, too. Having things priced too high is a turn-off and many people won't even try to haggle. I went to a garage sale yesterday and I'm used to getting books for fifty cents to a dollar. I didn't see prices marked on the books and the lady told me they were marked on the inside of the cover. Golly! $6 for a small cookbook; $15 was the highest price I saw on the books. I just walked out of there, figuring nothing would be priced reasonably. I had other sales to hit, why waste my time?

On the other hand, don't price your lowest price, either, because even if you've got a quarter on something, some people will try to haggle. They'll also try to make you feel sorry for them sometimes. I had a lady come in a van with a bunch of kids. She made them stay in the van while she shopped and she was obviously getting a little something for each kid. I had a pair of brand-new, never worn black leather boy's Nikes marked at $5. She tried to deal me down to $1 saying that well, she had five kids and it was hard to make ends meet. I'm sure it is hard, but I've been there, done that and now I'm retired and on a fixed income. It made me a little mad at first, but I looked at the van full of kids and my better side won over so I told her I would not sell them to her but I would give them to her. Did she play me? Maybe. But I watched her get in her van and hand things out and heard the whoop of excitement when she gave one of the boys the shoes.

If you have a neighborhood sale, don't try to make a party out of it. The first one we planned, we scheduled a barbeque afterwards in our back yard and asked everyone to bring something. One of our neighbors actually ate four hamburgers! Another neighbor brought cold, left-over spaghetti as her contribution to the meal. Of course no one ate any of it and she took it back home with her after having herself, her husband and three children fed. And we were all exhausted from running our sales so even if some of our neighbors hadn't been rude, it wasn't fun.