Never under estimate the power of garage sales
 

So I did something this weekend I have never done before.

I carted my old junk (CD's DVD's Electronics. CRT screens, Furniture, ETC.) out to the front of the property and had a big yard sale. 5 hours and $1500 cash later we were done. It's amazing how quickly you can liquidate all your crap to others and make cash in the process. I used to give it all togoodwill or put it in the trash.

All the garage sale veterans told us our stuff was much nicer than they were used to seeing and they were even calling each other about our sale. One lady was telling people at other garage sales to come to ours.

It's amazing the crap you wanted to throw out that others will pay for.

yeah, if you have a lot of money you can afford to get rid of better stuff. most of the yard/garage sales i see are pure shit. old clothes and beta tapes. mostly poor people do the yard sale thing and might make 50-200 bucks on a saturday or sunday.

so true

I put up stuff on ebay alike sites too, crap Id throw away sometimes takes a week or two but theres always someone who wants it

what the hell did you dump in your garage sale to get $1500 ? Plasma screens ?

Nope, just a bunch of old stuff. I made a good chunk on some bedroom furniture and a few old Movado watches.

So who bought your old blow up dolls?

DH

Your dad

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

I just hate dealing with people haggling over shit...so I avoid doing the garage sale thing and usually throw it away

I rather throw shit away than to haggle over the price of items and still
realise that I'd sell it for way less than it's actual worth......fuck that I rather
throw it away than to give some cheap cunt fucker a great deal :1orglaugh

That was easier than expected. I thought that way too but I just put all my prices high enough to discount when someone asked. It's amazing how many people just pay the price you list.

The fact that I'm in Holland makes it even worse......there is a saying that goes like this....If you want to make money of a jew.......bring a Dutch guy :winkwink:

I'd be arrested for brutal abuse and violence in less than 5 minutes after I'd open my sale

You mean you had blowup dolls and didn't share?

I've had garage sales. Last one was about 10 years ago. Never again. I load it all up, call the charities, whomever picks it up gets it, and I write it off my taxes. :)

Considering where you live, I'm surprised anyone would make it! That place is like a jungle to get to!
WG

It all comes down to marketing and traffic management ;) Two things I know very well.

Garage sales in our area are crazy. There is a cult of people who every weekend show up ready to buy.

I live in a little bit of a "old school" town. There is one guy who every single weekend has a "garage sale". I don't know where he gets his stock from, but almost every weekend, there are cars lined up for at least a few hours.

Can't say I haven't thought about it.

Glad to hear that you made out well Brad!

It's why eBay is so successful.

One man's junk is another man's treasure.

Some people suggested I sell my stuff on ebay but it seems like so much more work.

Taking pictures of everything
Managing the auctions
Shipping the goods
customer service

This was a one morning blowout of everything. No hassles :)

:( damn, wish I was there and wish you put them on ebay... I love to collect older Movados. damn you all to hell. don't you know that's what ebay is for? :1orglaugh seriously, this thread makes me want to have a garage sale this weekend, but in my community we have to wait for the home owners association to approve it and then they set a date, a month or two later, so all the neighbors can set up too. sometimes everyone tries to sell something & the neighborhood looks like a giant flea market... but there's less money to go around. :disgust

My last sale netted almost $12k

That's so true.... I love my yearly garage sale. I find shit in my house I haven't used for years and unload it.

When we moved last March, we had a garage sale and made about $600. Not a lot but, enough to pay the carpet cleaner and some of the moving expenses. For the stuff that didn't sell, we put big signs up saying FREE. That crap was all gone within an hour and we didn't have to make any trips to Goodwill.

Did one saturday ... Have eplaced all my TV's by flat screens, had tons of VHS players ( used for duplication ), shelves and so on ...

Cleared up the basement and got about 1200.00 ....

http://www.pdghosting.com/gfy/DCP_3398.jpg
http://www.pdghosting.com/gfy/DCP_3399.jpg

I see my sig in that picture..... Nice cash grab!

Hmmmm...I've been just boxing stuff up to dump at Goodwill. Maybe I should do a sale first & donate what's left.

We used to donate stuff to the local redcross, and they in turn sell it to fund the local hospital. Then one day there was a 4 wheller crash on the beach. So someone from our community called the redcross, and aske them to send an ambulance. The first thing the call taker asked, was if they could pay cash for the ambulance.

This redcross survives off the donations of the americans in the area, and then they charge us for the use of an ambulance. We found out that they DO NOT charge the locals.

So we stopped donating to them.

i always manage to sell everything at yard sales, people love crap.

I love garage sales. The area I live in is pretty nice so all the garage sales around here are really cool. I love them. I use to hate them when I was a kid. But now they are fun, you never know what you will find. I always think of the show where people bring in old items and find out they are worth thousands of dollars so every time I go to a garage sale I always look at the pictures. haha

I think I should have a garage sale. I have a bunch of stuff in my garage that I know I will never use but just can't throw away.

Congrats on the cash I hope I am as lucky as you! :winkwink:

were they mechanical Movados ?

People will go to garage sales towards the end (some even at the beginning) and offer to buy everything for a set fee. Then they resell it at garage sales, flea markets or Ebay. Sounds like what your guy is doing :)

haha OWN3D

Dont worry DH , he's saving it for your birthday:1orglaugh

Do you think anyone would want used sex toys?

:1orglaugh

$1500 for your trash is not bad at all. :thumbsup

Lol, nice catch!

:thumbsup

That's why I love ebay ;)

I did one last year mid July. It was a four family sale. We had it at the house of my car parts dealer, he has a big front yard and is located off a four lane. We ran ads in the local paper, and told people to call a voicemail we setup on a prepaid cell (that we just turned off, so it would go right to VM) and it told them how to get there and also alot about the stuff we had (nice end run around the newspaper's per-line fees, hehe).

The sale took in more than $20K, of which my cut was nearly $6K. We sold two riding lawn mowers, a car, two pickups, a camper trailer and a shitload of crap. It was a helluva zoo. Through the car parts business, we were able to take credit cards and verify checks, so that helped out alot I think.

We knew it was gonna be hot, so we borrowed one of those huge ass tubs that you use to water horses from a neighbor, cleaned it out, filled it with ice and sold soda and gatorade out of it. It was damn near 100 out and we made almost $200 off the soda sales alone. We decided we would split the soda money seven ways, as there were seven people who helped set up and tear the circus down.

Garage sales are a great way to get rid of shit. Its amazing how fast nickles, dimes and quaters add up.

Fuck eBay. Garage sales are much better. Get paid instantly, no shipping, no bitching, no returns. Oh yeah, and no listing fees.

lol:upsidedow

You'd probably get more on ebay but stuff you can't get ride of garage sales work