How to Plan a Profitable Yard Sale

Plan your yard sale one month in advance.  Yard sales are not easy as there are many steps that must be completed before the sale day.  Use a plan to help you to organize the event and to stay focused.  Follow these steps and you will be profitable by selling all of your products at your yard sale.

1.       Collect your merchandise for the yard sale by going into each room of your home and searching through draws, cabinets and closets for clothing and items that you do not use.  If you have not used it in a year, then place it in a yard sale.

2.       Set all of your yard sale items in a room, organize the items by category: kitchen, bath, clothing, tools, decorations, furniture, electronics, toys and books.

3.       Determine if you have enough items to have a yard sale.  If need be you may ask a neighbor to participate and thus you will have more items and a better presentation for your yard sale.

4.       Decide on the date and time for your yard sale.  Make up your mind about the time frame of the yard sale, will it be one day or will it be the entire weekend?

5.       Recruit helpers for your yard sale, helpers are necessary especially if there are many items.  The helper needs a good personality and selling skills.  The duties of the helper are assisting you with pricing, set-up, customer service and sales.

6.       Network your community by making yard sale flyers.  Hand out the flyers to local business and fold and place in mailboxes in your neighborhood. Place an advertisement for yard sale in local newspaper and Craigslist.

7.       Price your merchandise and group into categories so the products are easy find and buy.

8.       Get a bank to make change at the yard sale: 25-ones, 4-fives, 2-tens, 1-quarter, 1-dime, and 1-nickle. This is a basic bank you may need more funds if your yard sale is a large event.

9.       Set up yard sale the night before event.  Cover merchandise with tarps, blankets to protect from the morning dew.

10.   Set up the yard sale signs the morning of the event.  Choose good locations; crossroads in your area and a large sign with balloons in front of your yard.

11.   Greet all clients with a smile.  Chat about the merchandise that you offer at your yard sale.  Ask open ended question to determine if they are looking for anything special.  Help clients to find what they are looking for.

Tips:

Copy this yard sale  list and use it for your next event.  Check off when the step is completed.

Price merchandise at a bellow market value, merchandise that is marked at a $1.00 sells quickly.  For higher priced merchandise, be prepared to discount the price by negotiating the price that is offered.

When my husband hurt his back and lost his job I was desperate for an income. We followed this yard sale plan and earned $1,387.00.  This plan was tested and it works.

Warnings:

If you reside in a high theft area assign people to sit out overnight to watch merchandise or set up the sale two to three hours before the yard sale begins

Watch for theft

Image Credits:

Yard sale sign and merchandise categories

Yard Sale Flyer

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