10 Tips That Will Make Your Pre-Move Sale A Success
Published by Chris Townsend
You are planning your move and following your checklist. You take inventory and notice that you have spent many hours writing down what you own.
You might be shocked by how much stuff you own but now it is clear that some things need to go. You cannot give it all away.
The average American owns over a quarter of a million different items. Unless you are a minimalist, you will be close to that number.
This is where yard sales or garage sales come in. You can sell a lot of your stuff. This will raise valuable cash for you as well as reduce the load you will be moving to your new home.
The problem is, how do you organize something you have never done before? Well, you search for valuable tips.
In the United States, there are roughly between 6.5 and 9million yard sales every year. That is a lot of people gaining experience every year. If the organizers of these yard sales can get it right, then you can too.
All you need is a helpful pointer in the right direction and Three Movers is here to give you just that.
10 Tips for your Pre-Move Sale
Tip 1 – Gather Relevant Information
A lot of yard sales occur each year in the United States so, chances are that there is a yard sale not far from where you live. Head there with a little money and attend it with a notepad.
Gather information on how to organize the yard sale. Interact with the customers that come to it and see what their complaints and impressions are. You will get tips on what to do and not do.
Also, interact with the organizers of the yard sale and see if they needed a permit to operate. States go about permitting yard sales in different ways so, find out what the law is concerning yard sales.
Tip 2 – You Are Selling Items, Organize Them
Think of the people coming to your yard sale as customers. They will be willing to make more purchases if the items being sold are properly organized. Your garage or front yard can be viewed as a large store.
Get the catchy and important things to the front where they will be visible. Group items that are related together. For example, you can place a microwave on a fridge and arrange utensils on the microwave. This will tell potential customers that kitchen items can be found here.
You can even have large cardboard signs that indicate sections the way large stores have sections.
Organizing will help your customers find what they are looking for and that will increase your sales.
Tip 3 – Get Help Where You Can Find it
Getting help can seem easy for some and difficult for others. Whatever the case, you will need help because garage sales are hard to pull off successfully.
If you have kids, employ them. Get them involved. The easiest way to get great help is to offer something in return to the person you are engaging. Depending on the age of the kids you can make offers. Promise to give them something if they help you and if they deliver, keep your end of the bargain.
Get friends to help as well. You can get them on board by simply giving them first dibs on items you will be donating. Most friends won’t pass up such an opportunity. You can get snacks for your help as well.
As you ask people to help you, don’t employ the services of a lot of people. It will be difficult to compensate them for their time and organizing them into tasks might become a task in itself. Remember, it is a garage sale and there isn’t a lot of space.
Tip 4 – Change Will Be Vital
The need for change during transactions is unavoidable. This means that you will need to have small denominations of money for that day.
A pro tip is to head to the bank a day before and make change in small bills and coins. You can head to stores and buy changemakers or aprons for yourself and those who will assist you in selling.
Change a round figure of money into change and keep a proper account of how much you will give each assistant.
The absence of change can alter the direction of a sale and make you lose a valuable customer, so get take making change seriously.
Tip 5 – Pick the Right Date
The date you choose for your sale will largely influence the success of your garage sale. If you pick the wrong day for your sale, you might be left with almost everything you had in the first place.
A good date for a garage sale is usually one that is on a weekend. Saturdays and Sundays have become, by default, garage sales days. This is because these days are the days most people are free.
Some people visit garage sales as part of their weekend outing. If you pick a warm day with pleasant weather, you might even get people who bring their dates to the sale.
Another tip is to pick a date that is at the beginning of the month. This is the time people who earn monthly income have the most amount of money. They will be more willing to pay at the beginning of the month than at any other time of the month.
Tip 6 – Advertisement Isn’t an Option
A garage sale is a sale that is happening in a garage. It is still a sale and sales need adverts to attract a lot of people.
You will need to make an ad. It doesn’t need to be an ad that will eat into your savings. It can be simple and basic. Ads aren’t always about beauty and catchy graphics.
In the case of a yard sale, good ads will be all about placement and location. Get printed ads that aren’t in color and place them at places with traffic. Start with the bus stop closest to your home, a tree at the end of the street, and your house.
Go online and place free ads on your Facebook page, Yellow Pages, and YardSales.Net.
Tip 7 – You Will Need a Sales Kit
Don’t wait till you need a pair of scissors to get them. A couple of days before the chosen yard-sales date, think of all the items you will need to have a smooth selling experience.
You will need things like:
- Scissors
- Labels
- Tables
- Stools
- Nails
- A hammer
- A calculator
- Lots of paper bags, boxes, and other containers
- Among other things.
Try to borrow as many of these things as possible. You don’t need to buy everything but you will need to contact your family and friends on time.
Tip 8 – You Will Need Customer Service Skills
You might’ve never been in the customer service industry before and that is okay. As far as your potential yard sale is concerned, you are the merchant and the people who come to your location are the customers so, there are a few things you will need to know.
First, always approach a customer with a positive attitude. Smile, use positive language, acknowledge their concerns, and be helpful.
You will bargain a lot, so prepare for it. Be as flexible with your prices as you can be without devaluing what you are selling.
You can also get a friend to interact with customers if you aren’t comfortable doing it yourself.
Tip 9 – Include Drinks and Snacks at the Checkout
Yes, the primary aim of the yard sale is to sell items you won’t be needing anymore but there is room in it to give a lasting impression.
You can place a price ceiling on the amount of money someone has to spend to get a complimentary drink or snack. This will resonate in your customers’ minds and you never know if you will have another yard sale in the same location or one that is close by.
Tip 10 – Make it Fun for Yourself
Organizing anything can be stressful in the blink of an eye and that includes organizing a yard sale. There are so many moving parts and because you will, most likely, have limited hands, you might be stressed out.
With all this in mind, make a conscious effort to reduce stress. Make it fun for yourself. Reward yourself with snacks and rest when you complete a task.
Use the whole process as a time to interact with your friends and family. It is a yard sale but there is no rule that it can’t be fun.
Now That You Have Sold Your Stuff
The whole aim of having a yard sale is to reduce what you have to move with. After selling your stuff you will have to move on with the process which is to contact a moving company.
Three Movers is the right company to hire for the moving of household goods. We will give you high-quality services at a shipping rate that can’t be beaten.
So, now that you have sold your stuff, call us on (888) 202-0036.
