How to Make More Money at Your Yard Sale

A vivid childhood memory for me is the annual family yard sale held at my grandmother's house. I don't remember a summer when we missed the opportunity to sell some of our clutter, outgrown clothes and old toys. It was almost a family tradition.

Over the years I've learned some valuable lessons about how to make the most profit from a yard sale. I'd like to share them here with you.

Make it Big

The more people you have involved in the yard sale, the more merchandise you'll have to offer to your customers. Invited friends and family members to bring along their stuff too. Drive-by shoppers are more attracted to huge yard sales than small ones and will be more likely to stop. Set your sale date early and be sure to let everyone know which weekend to bring their merchandise to your house.

Pick a Good Date

If your town has a citywide yard sale weekend, be sure to schedule your yard sale for that date. Or maybe your neighborhood has an annual yard sale day that you'll want to participant in. If neither of these are available, be sure to choose a date when you aren't competing with other events where many people leave town (like holidays). However, if you live in a tourist town and get lots of visitors for special events, this might be the date you'll want to choose. Once you have your date chosen, be sure to let your neighbors know your plans. They might want to have a yard sale on the same day and you can help each other attract more traffic.

Hours of Operation

I'm always shocked to see yard sale signs that dictate a specific opening and closing time. 9:00 a.m to 4:00 p.m. is a very strict operating time for a yard sale. Maybe this is standard in different parts of the country, but where I come from that is unheard of. Our sale might "officially" open at 8:00 a.m., but if there are early birds who stop by, we welcome them. These are usually the diehard shoppers who want to get the best merchandise first and are ready to buy.

I also advocate keeping your sale open for as long as you can in the evening. Many times you'll get drive-by browsers who want to shop after they get out of work in the afternoon. During our yard sales, we always stay open until dinnertime or whenever people stop coming around. If you calculate the amount of money being made during those extra hours of operation, it's well worth the extra time. Staying open for longer is where the benefit of having multiple people comes in handy. Everyone who puts merchandise in your yard sale should have to take a shift as salesman throughout the day.

Advertising, Signs and Flyers

Place an ad in your local newspaper. Many people skip this step because they think it's just a frivolous expense. However, in my experience advertising your yard sale is very important and will bring in additional traffic. Also create homemade signs that can be posted around town directing customers to your house. The key is to make sure the signs match - same color poster board and same handwriting/lettering. This will help customers easily identify your signs around town and follow the arrows to your yard sale. Also create small flyers advertising your sale and make lots of copies. Post them on bulletin boards and in stores around town. You can also increase traffic by visiting other yard sales in town and ask if they will hang a flyer at their sale in exchange for you hanging a flyer at your yard sale directing customers to their house. The more customers you can attract to your yard sale, the more money you'll make.

Split the Expenses

Because you have invited several other people to participate in your yard sale, you can split the expense of advertising and signs between all those people. If you have 10 people contributing merchandise to the sale and your advertising costs come out to $30, that's a mere $3 per person to help generate additional traffic to your yard sale.

Gather your Merchandise

This is an obvious step - go through your house and gather everything you want to sell. But there are some guidelines to follow. If the item is broken, stained or unusable don't include it in your sale. If the item is trash, throw it in the trash - don't try to get a nickel out of it at your sale. Broken toys and electronics or stained clothing will only serve as a red flag to your customers as a sign that your merchandise is junk. This could decrease your potential sales overall. If something is dirty, clean it. If something is broken, fix it. If something is torn, sew it. Take pride in the merchandise you want to sell because what you are selling becomes a reflection on you.

Get the Kids Involved

As a child my mother would always encourage my siblings and me to sort through our toys and sell what we no longer played with. Whatever money we made during the sale we could keep and spend on whatever we wanted. Normally vacation time came right after yard sale time so we would save our money for vacation. By involving your children in gathering items for the yard sale you are teaching them to clear out clutter and learn to stay organized. And it doesn't hurt to teach them a little bit about the economy system of sales and making money.

Price it Right

The best way to set a price is to think of the item being destined for charity. It will not be going back into your house and when the yard sale is over, you'll be sending all the leftover merchandise off to the local charity. So make it your goal to get as much money out of the sale items as possible without giving them away. In other word ... price 'em cheap! The lower your prices, the more items your customers will buy. The more items your customers buy, the more money you are making overall.

Placement is Important

Be sure to group like items together. If you have a lot of clothing, consider creating signs to hang on the fronts of tables to easily distinguish different sizes. Keep houseware items all together and group them in an attractive arrangement. Electronic items should have an electrical outlet nearby so customers can test merchandise before they buy. Large groups of items - like books, CDs or movies - can be placed in a box with a single price sign on it. Be sure to place highly attractive and large items near the road so customers will be enticed to stop and look. Hot sellers include baby equipment, large children's toys, antique furniture, exercise equipment and tools.

Let's Talk Deals

Negotiation is part of the yard sale game. Shoppers love to feel like they are getting a good deal so will ask for a discount. Whether you are firm on your prices or are willing to negotiate is purely a personal decision. Early morning shoppers might not get a reduced price on items. But the afternoon shoppers on the second day of the sale might walk away is a steal. The other part of this point is "talking." Get up out of your lawn chair behind the cashbox and talk to people. Be friendly and engaging. Ask if they're looking for anything in particular and point them to what might fit their needs. Be a salesman, but not one of those pushy ones - try for friendly and fun. People are more apt to buy from people they like and trust.

When it's all Done

When the sale is over take a final walk through the sale to see what's left. Are there items that could make some money on ebay or another auction site online? Are there items that you could donate to a needy family you know? Are there toys or books that your local daycare, school classroom or church could benefit from? Are there large items that could be donated to specialty charity organizations like Habitat for Humanity? Your original goal with having a yard sale was not only to make money, but also to clear your house of clutter. Do not bring those leftovers back into the house. Pack them up and ship them off to charity and claim the tax write off instead. But if you can figure out some specific items that your favorite organizations could benefit from, by all means do it.

I hope these tips will come in handy during your next yard sale. By putting yourself into the right frame of mind to make money, you'll find that you will be more profitable than ever before.

Do you have additional tips you'd like to share? Leave a comment and tell others what you've done to make more money at your yard sale.