May 24 2008
In Which I Solicit Your Opinion
I’ll be here today. All.day.long.
I have a couple of things for y’all though.
- Y’know those “who’s stalking me” plugins? Is it backwards stalking? Because even if the reader doesn’t comment, it still shows that they’ve been there? If you don’t comment here, would you want your identity showing up there? (No, that’s not entrapment - ha!)
- Don’t forget - if you have a favorite gardening website, leave me a comment here or send me an email at ‘reereep[at]gmail[dot]com’.
- Garage Sale hints. Mr. Hot and I are embarking on our very first garage sale ever. Leave me your best hints and warnings! Because, y’know, oh mah holy hell. We’ve got lots of
junkcrappepriceless extras that we need to get rid of.
—- And now I must go break up the argument that is happening - over someone’s inability to put a sandwich into a baggie…. Sigh —-
HOT LOVE
I have had quite a few garage sales, and two things come to mind - -
1) Have a couple of people helping you, so that if you need to leave briefly to go into the house (hey, I can’t hold it ALL DAY!!), there will be someone there to watch over things. They can also wander around the sale when there is a crowd there to watch for idiots with “light fingers” . . .
2) Have LOTS and LOTS of change and bills, not just $1 bills, but even a few $5’s and $10’s. It never fails at my sales - - the first one or two people who show up to the sale will buy one or two small items, and present a $20 bill, so there goes all your change!
Good luck with the “treasures” sale!
Liz J in Central Illinois’s last blog post..Busy, BUSY Day . . .
I would add to those great suggestions by hoping you keep everything actually IN the garage. Less work if it rains, etc.
Don’t let any customers use your bathroom. Cause you can’t watch them in the bathroom.
witchypoo’s last blog post..The Little Professor
The only other thing I can think of, is to have some of those plastic bags, or paper grocery store bags on-hand, to put small stuff in when the customers ‘check out.’ That, and keep the more valuable stuff positioned near to you “watchers/sellers.”
coastrat’s last blog post..WEEK #12 - MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST BLUE BIRD UPDATE
Try to have everything pre priced. You don’t really need to buy tags, you can use masking tape and a sharpie. Don’t base your prices on what you actually paid for the items. People want cheap cheap cheap. But be prepared, no matter what your prices, you’re going to get people who will complain rather rudely that your prices are too high (don’t take it personal, it comes with the territory). Make sure you have some wiggle room in your prices. People love to negotiate and think they’re getting a deal.
Start super early. Put the big items along with all the cheap/free junk out in front. That will draw people in. Keep the nicer stuff where you can monitor it.
Have plenty of the libation of your choice on hand. You’re going to need it! Good luck!!
OMGoodness! A Hotfessional Yard Sale…I wonder if there will be any Hot Shoes for sale? Probably not! LOL
Ummmm….let’s see….
1. Be fully prepared for people to show up E~A~R~L~Y (like, several hours early ~ even the night before sometimes ~ UGH! That would SUCK!)
2. I would def have LOTS of change on hand.
3. I wouldn’t have anything “inside”. I went to a yrd sale once where they were selling furniture, and it was still set up inside the house. Like, it still had all their crap in it. (I just thought to myself, “Man, they REALLY want to sell this stuff, don’t they?” LOL) If you had furniture to sell, I would clean it out, clean it off (nothing like a thick layer of dust to let the whole of the free world know how *LITTLE* you actually did use whatever you were selling), and then stick it inside the garage or somewhere like that.
I am sure that I have more, but that is all that I can think of right now. LOL Have a great Yard Sale!!!
Do I have time to ship you all of the crap in my garage?
Shania’s last blog post..What’s in your wallet?
Shania, that is what I wanted to ask!! :)…except my crap is in my attic and I sleep in my garage.
The dragway looks fun! My son wants to come live with YOU!!
Goddess in the Groove’s last blog post..Is Blogging like High School?
Well everyone beat me to all my warnings.
Price a bit higher ‘cuz they are going to want to negotiate ( even on something that is 15 cents, seriously they will want it for a nickel )
Put up a NO EARLY BIRDS sign, it will not keep everyone out but it may keep a few out.
Make sure you keep an eye on EVERYTHING. We had a guy want to pay a nickel for that 15 cent deck of cards, when we wouldn’t budge on the price, we found he took 5 of the cards.
Here is one last one nobody mentioned. If you have large ticket items, bring out your laptop and let them pay via PayPal.
Have a good sale hope it works out better for you than ours usually do.
Michael’s last blog post..Crop Dusting
I only worry once in a while about blog lurkers, otherwise I figure they should be allowed to just pass through.
I was a virgin until this year, too! (I’m talking about in the world of rummage sales here… Where was your mind?)
They are way more work than anyone can prepare you for, so just give yourself a lot of time to collect, price & set-up your sale in the days prior. Have lots of change, too.
I’m sad now. My last comment came through funny, like it wasn’t from me.
Maybe I don’t really exist.
RC’s last blog post..Big plans?
Hey, I think my friend races at Milan sometimes. Bastard still hasn’t called to tell me when he’s racing at the 131 dragway. Have fun at the races, I’m jealous.
I wish I had the patience and organizational skills to have a garage sale. I have A LOT of crap I don’t need.
AmyM’s last blog post..Photobloggin? it
I have had plenty and been to plenty. All I can say for sure is if you really, really want to get rid of stuff, price it that way. Don’t know if you make a habit of going to garage sales or not, but think about what a turn off it is to walk into one that everything is super expensive. Even if they are willing to negotiate, it’s a big no-no.
The other thing that the customer is going to be looking for is price tags! Like, DogsDon’tPurr said, a sharpie and masking tape work great.
Take an ice chest filled with your favorite libation outside with you and sit in the shade and watch aaaaall that shit leave your place! Halleluiah!
Krissa’s last blog post..Long legs, perky boobs??nuff said.
i have heard the drag way is fun. i hope it stays dry for you! sorry i don’t garden…ever.
zoe’s last blog post..Put a leash on that thing
Oh, boy a garage sale? I am going to have dirty inspectors and bug killers wandering through my house today, the landlord is forcing us- on memorial day…
Good luck with the garage sale!
Dirty Laundry Diva’s last blog post..A night of hospitality hell?
Caffeine. You’ll need lots of caffeine in the morning and lots of liquor in the afternoon.
GOOD LUCK!
My favorite part is counting the money, while I’m getting all drinky.
Hyphen Mama’s last blog post..My Kind of Camping!!
Yeah, pre-price the items, present them nicely. Maybe make a box of all $1 items, all $5 items etc.
I love garage sales. I can’t believe this is your first, oh my goodness.
That is interesting about the Who has been here plugins, how in the world does that work, bc what if you go to someone’s website for the first time and just read, does your information show, i wanna know.
a lot of times i write a comment but my stupid computer takes forever to post it so i end up refreshing or leaving the page. i hate that. i’ll type out something big only for it to take minutes.
like i’ve been reading your story. read all of it but didn’t want to comment. all i can say is i hope the kids made it ok and all parties are happy and have moved on.
Something that we did after our yard sale was over was take everything that was left to Salvation Army or Goodwill. If you really want the room, and want to get rid of stuff, make the money that you can (don’t expect to get what you want for everything), then get rid of it. Don’t bring it back in the house. Pack it up in plastic bins, or trash bags for that matter and put it in the car - you will make to SA or some charity soon b/c you will be sick of having all that crap in your car! Oh, something else we did (I had all of my daughter’s 12mth and less clothing to get rid of), the baby socks, put a bunch of those in a baggie and put a tag of $.50 on it. Things that people can get more than one of (plus you get rid of that stuff easier too). Anything that is a set - put it together. Don’t try and sell of individually. I think I also looked up yard sale etiquette online - just an idea for you. (google it or something).
Wbppsh7’s last blog post..Happy Memorial Day
Hey HOT, I thought I’d better stick my head over the fence and say hi in case you think I’ve expired somewhere…..
Well my best suggestions have already been mentioned but I can’t express strongly enough to be prepared for those who totally ignore the start time. These are the serious bargain hunters and the rules don’t apply to them. My advice….BIG sign that says DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT KNOCKING until 5 minutes before start time. It might work…if you’re lucky.
Gypsy’s last blog post..Here we go again…..
I only had a semi garage sale once. My roomie in CA was moving to Thailand and selling everything. So I threw a few things in there. People will buy all sorts of junk and pay more than you would think.
Kristabella’s last blog post..All Weekends Should Be 3-Day Weekends
I always like to see if I have any lurkers…I have had visitors from the blogs I’ve stalked..sometimes I just don’t have anything to say.
I had a yard sale.
Make sure that you don’t over price anything. If you want to get rid of it make it cheap. I got rid of tons of books at for $25 each, 5 for $1.
If you want to keep something don’t have it in the yard/garage. Not a grill or anything. In the moment you will be willing to sell..that is how we sold our Weber…and didn’t want to.
mp’s last blog post..Memorial Day Group Photo - St Louis Zoo
On the garage sale stuff… I’ve never had one but my MIL has two big ones a year. She actually is “famous” in her small town — apparently her garage sales are known for having alot of good stuff. She can make more than $1,000 at times.
From what I’ve learned from her… People will buy ANYTHING. If you’ve got faded underwear your oldest used to wear when he was 5 (and they’re 15 years old), you will probably find someone to buy it. (My MIL buys crap like that all of the time. Guess WHO she gives it to? heehee.) And apparently alot of people look for furniture. So if you have used furniture there odds are you’ll be able to sell it.
Also yes, you do have to worry about sticky fingers. And advertise the heck out of the sale. And be prepared for people to show up at your door at 7 a.m. if you advertise that it starts at 8 a.m. Apparently, people like to get there early to scope things out…
Like I said, have no garage sale experience but this is from the mil who’s a PRO.
motherofbun’s last blog post..How to make me pee in mah pants