Well, Hubs put out the signs(one at the main road and one at the end of our street)and I opened the garage door, just a tad before 8 am.
And there were 4 people waiting outside in their cars. Local dealers is my guess since they walked up the driveway and scanned my 'spread' and walked back to their cars.
I guess they had no clue what a "Stockpile Sale" was(that's what my signs said)and it certainly wasn't old used stuff they could buy for a quarter and sell for much much more to someone else in their store or at the flea market or online.lol
We did a slow steady business until about 11 am, so 3 solid hours of buyers. I made a point of asking how they found us since I had put 2 online ads up as well as the big signs on the road. It seems most found us from the signs as a lot of the garage salers around here just drive around on Saturday morning looking for signs. Luckily we are fairly close to the middle of town and on a main road. If we were located farther out of town, the signs would have been less help getting us customers.
I am sure the horrible high temps also cut down on the garage sale shoppers last weekend. Nicer weather would have helped the bottom line a bit more.
Only 1 of the folks I asked also checked the newspaper classifieds for sales so I am glad I didn't spent the $25 per day, per ad, they charge here for garage sale advertising.
I had a couple of stragglers between 11 and 11:55 when I closed the door for the day. That seems to be the pattern around here, be it yard saling or flea marketing.....come early and finish early and get on about your other business for the rest of the day.
So with all the angst I had over this endeavor and the stops and starts, we came out with a $347 profit for the day. Not great but worth sitting in my garage for a few hours.
I like this plan--sit in the garage and have people come give me money! Nice work if you can get it.lol
The flea market is much more profitable as there are more potential buyers but it's also getting up before dawn(a BIG drawback for me!lol), lugging tables/shelves/products and waiting in line for hours just to get in. I'm good with opening the garage door and closing it when done and being finished and home already. 8-)
Here are the After Photos....
Still looks like a TON of stuff, doesn't it?lol
Well it is! But we did make a perceivable dent in the volume. Maybe 2 whole Rubbermaid tubs worth of stuff.
I sold most of the few food items I had(those were some of the first things to sell!)from .50¢ to $2. Also big sellers were toothbrushes($1), cosmetics($1 to $4), Olay items($8 for eye rollers, $3 for body wash), shaving cream($1) and batteries(came out to .25¢ per battery-assorted sized packages)
.
Good sellers were toothpaste($1Colgate to $2 Pronamel), dental floss($1), higher end shampoos(Nexxus $4, Tresemme $3, etc.), soap($1.50-$3), dishwashing soap(.75¢ to $1), feminine pads($1) and Viactiv calcium chews($2).
Less good sellers were deodorant($1 to $1.50), body wash($1 to $3) and lotions($1 to $3)
.
What I couldn't give away......mid priced shampoos(Garnier and Herbal Essences($1.50), even Pantene($2), which usually sells out!), Gillette Razors($3), Airwick Spray kits($2 small/$4 large), Hair coloring($2) and Listerine mouthwash($2), Contact Solution($1) and Diapers($4).
$11 Gilette Razors for $3, Hair Color for $2.....C'mon!lolol
The funniest thing were the Duracell batteries. Long dated packs of 4 AA batteries for $1 and 20 AA packs for $5. Both deals come out to .25¢ per battery. People would buy 5 packs of the 4 batteries instead of 1 pack of the 20 batteries. Why buy 5 packs of one rather than 1 pack of the other if it's the same price in the end?lol
All-in-all it was worth doing. But I still have a LOT of stuff left! Daughter said she'd help me do another garage sale when she gets home from her camp job. I am thinking instead that I'll pack it all up into the Rubbermaid tubs by price and let her and her boyfriend do the flea market next month for me.
I'll make a deal with her that I'll use the profit from what they sell to put toward buying her some clothes and supplies for college. A couple of hours selling toiletries with her BF in exchange for some paid for shopping will get her interest. ;-)
Next stop is to let BIL go shopping in the garage today, then pulling out a load to take to the Food Bank on Friday. After that, everything gets packed up for the Flea Market and stacked in the corner so I can use the garage for a staging area to go through my storage unit boxes and begin the Great Decluttering of '11 again!
Yes, more Decluttering P*rn to follow sometime next week....WooHooo! 8-)
And I also need to get the glassware and furniture items up on Craigslist to sell.
We also need to sell the dog run/kennel out back since our beagle girl doesn't like being out there anymore. I think it's a combination of our boy beagle being gone now who always kept her company in there and her just aging and not liking being out in the heat as much. Use to, she would spent the whole day out in the run, sitting on the doghouse like Snoopy from the comic strips(yes, beagles actually do doghouse sit!)
Sluggy
And there were 4 people waiting outside in their cars. Local dealers is my guess since they walked up the driveway and scanned my 'spread' and walked back to their cars.
I guess they had no clue what a "Stockpile Sale" was(that's what my signs said)and it certainly wasn't old used stuff they could buy for a quarter and sell for much much more to someone else in their store or at the flea market or online.lol
We did a slow steady business until about 11 am, so 3 solid hours of buyers. I made a point of asking how they found us since I had put 2 online ads up as well as the big signs on the road. It seems most found us from the signs as a lot of the garage salers around here just drive around on Saturday morning looking for signs. Luckily we are fairly close to the middle of town and on a main road. If we were located farther out of town, the signs would have been less help getting us customers.
I am sure the horrible high temps also cut down on the garage sale shoppers last weekend. Nicer weather would have helped the bottom line a bit more.
Only 1 of the folks I asked also checked the newspaper classifieds for sales so I am glad I didn't spent the $25 per day, per ad, they charge here for garage sale advertising.
I had a couple of stragglers between 11 and 11:55 when I closed the door for the day. That seems to be the pattern around here, be it yard saling or flea marketing.....come early and finish early and get on about your other business for the rest of the day.
So with all the angst I had over this endeavor and the stops and starts, we came out with a $347 profit for the day. Not great but worth sitting in my garage for a few hours.
I like this plan--sit in the garage and have people come give me money! Nice work if you can get it.lol
The flea market is much more profitable as there are more potential buyers but it's also getting up before dawn(a BIG drawback for me!lol), lugging tables/shelves/products and waiting in line for hours just to get in. I'm good with opening the garage door and closing it when done and being finished and home already. 8-)
Here are the After Photos....
Well it is! But we did make a perceivable dent in the volume. Maybe 2 whole Rubbermaid tubs worth of stuff.
I sold most of the few food items I had(those were some of the first things to sell!)from .50¢ to $2. Also big sellers were toothbrushes($1), cosmetics($1 to $4), Olay items($8 for eye rollers, $3 for body wash), shaving cream($1) and batteries(came out to .25¢ per battery-assorted sized packages)
.
Good sellers were toothpaste($1Colgate to $2 Pronamel), dental floss($1), higher end shampoos(Nexxus $4, Tresemme $3, etc.), soap($1.50-$3), dishwashing soap(.75¢ to $1), feminine pads($1) and Viactiv calcium chews($2).
Less good sellers were deodorant($1 to $1.50), body wash($1 to $3) and lotions($1 to $3)
.
What I couldn't give away......mid priced shampoos(Garnier and Herbal Essences($1.50), even Pantene($2), which usually sells out!), Gillette Razors($3), Airwick Spray kits($2 small/$4 large), Hair coloring($2) and Listerine mouthwash($2), Contact Solution($1) and Diapers($4).
$11 Gilette Razors for $3, Hair Color for $2.....C'mon!lolol
The funniest thing were the Duracell batteries. Long dated packs of 4 AA batteries for $1 and 20 AA packs for $5. Both deals come out to .25¢ per battery. People would buy 5 packs of the 4 batteries instead of 1 pack of the 20 batteries. Why buy 5 packs of one rather than 1 pack of the other if it's the same price in the end?lol
All-in-all it was worth doing. But I still have a LOT of stuff left! Daughter said she'd help me do another garage sale when she gets home from her camp job. I am thinking instead that I'll pack it all up into the Rubbermaid tubs by price and let her and her boyfriend do the flea market next month for me.
I'll make a deal with her that I'll use the profit from what they sell to put toward buying her some clothes and supplies for college. A couple of hours selling toiletries with her BF in exchange for some paid for shopping will get her interest. ;-)
Next stop is to let BIL go shopping in the garage today, then pulling out a load to take to the Food Bank on Friday. After that, everything gets packed up for the Flea Market and stacked in the corner so I can use the garage for a staging area to go through my storage unit boxes and begin the Great Decluttering of '11 again!
Yes, more Decluttering P*rn to follow sometime next week....WooHooo! 8-)
And I also need to get the glassware and furniture items up on Craigslist to sell.
We also need to sell the dog run/kennel out back since our beagle girl doesn't like being out there anymore. I think it's a combination of our boy beagle being gone now who always kept her company in there and her just aging and not liking being out in the heat as much. Use to, she would spent the whole day out in the run, sitting on the doghouse like Snoopy from the comic strips(yes, beagles actually do doghouse sit!)
Sluggy
Thank you for posting the pics. I loved it! And that is a pretty good job to have, open the garage door and make money. Hmmm, kinda like a red light district.
ReplyDeleteYah, just call me the neighborhood toiletries madame....or would that be pimp?lol
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you did so well in such a short amount of time and with just the two signs. I think $347 is great for a half-day sale!
ReplyDeleteI've seen a few "stockpile sales" around here, but they don't advertise them that way. Instead they just call them garage sales and I get so frustrated when I get there and it's all just new drugstore merchandise. I *am* one of those folks looking for old used stuff for a quarter...whether it's for my own use or something I want to resell.
I wonder why it is that folks close up sales so early these days. They have taken to doing that around here, too...closing up around 1:00 or so. When we have our sales, we stay open until 4:00 or 5:00 and we get a lot of our sales in those last few hours. Also, we go overboard on signs. We put up about 20, but we always get positive comments about how easy we were to find.
I would buy the smaller packs as opposed to the packs of 20. Have you ever opened a pack of 20? They get loose in the drawer, making merry, fraternizing, clacking their ends together, possibly ruining the batteries. Ask me how I know.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the buyers were going to give a pack to each of several people.
If you can ask the dealers who buy from you at the flea market for their number, they would probably be amenable to coming to your home when you have a sale.
You are a hussy with all that Garnier that I would buy if I were to come to your sale.
Hey, I'd be happy w/$300+ for a couple hours LOL
ReplyDeleteDo you have any auctions where you live? I don't have anywhere near the amount of good stuff like you but I sold mine at a auction and made $350 in 30mins! First time I ever sold there too.
ReplyDeleteTry www.auctionzip.com to locate auctions near you!
Wow! You did great. I have never made that much money on a garage sale. Hence we pretty much have given up on them. I may rethink that now. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteAnnieJ--I went out of my way to advertise as a Stockpile, not a Garage Sale. Even so, I had a couple of people show up from the signage and say they had NO clue what a stockpile sale was?lol
ReplyDeleteA few others asked me if I was one of those extreme coupon people they saw on tv.lol
PracticalP--Hmmm, you do have a point about the large battery packs.
Just call me the Garnier Hussy!lolol
Sheila--Right!lol
AllthatGlitters--Thanks for the idea. $350 in 30 mins is awesome! Beats sitting on my ass for 4 hours, right?lol
Precious--I was surprise we made this much actually. Last time we did this 2 yrs. ago in a garage sale format, we were one of a whole development wide sale. I made double and I didn't have to advertise(someone else did that).
I've been waiting for a neighborhood sale to get organized but no luck this summer.
I don't care for doing garage sales as they are alot of work beforehand. I don't blame you for not doing them anymore.
I love the idea of sitting in your garage for a few hours while people arrive and give you money. I could do that! LOL! In fact, now that I actually have a cleaned-out garage that I could use, I might even try it. Maybe next summer when the neighborhood does its annual group sale, I can get in on it for the $1 advertising, open up my garage for a few hours, make some money and whittle my stockpile down. Thanks for the post - great idea!!
ReplyDelete