A couple of weeks ago my mom and I held a moving sale at her house. She and my dad are downsizing to a maintenance-provided villa and I had some things I needed to unload as well.
I am happy to report that all of hard work resulted in over $1500 earned. We did have a ton of stuff but we also priced it very reasonably because we wanted to be rid of it!
Here are some tips that helped us make the most of our efforts:
- We invested a lot of time advertising online, in the paper, and with signs. There is nothing worse than throwing a garage sale and having no one come!
- We priced things fairly and stayed firm with our prices. We had very few hagglers and the ones who did try usually ended up paying our price anyway because it was fair.
- We pulled as much stuff out onto the driveway as possible to catch the attention of passersby.
All in all, it was fun as well as profitable. My kids were able to help and share in the profits as well.
I’ve written an eHow article on How to Make Money with a Garge Sale that includes a step-by-step of what we did. Check it out if you’re interested and let me know your best tips as well.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, $1500 is a lot from a garage sale. My wife and I did an estate sale for her parents and we only made about $900. I was able to sell some items on ebay, but we still only made $900. It was very disappointing, as we spent days getting ready for the sale. We probably would have been better off to just donate it all.
Yes, we were very happy with the results.
I’m a big fan of donating too though. Especially clothes. We didn’t sell any clothes at the sale…we just donated those. And if you value things well, the tax deduction can be significant.