This is the second part of the yard saling post I started last week! Enjoy!
11. Everyone who comes into your yard is your customer.
Customer
service is one of those areas where many yard sales fail. Sometimes
this is due to poor planning. It's hard for one person to manage a yard
full of stuff and people alone. I saw a seller at an estate sale
fussing at a buyer to "make up her mind" because she "was taking too
much time" once. That's a dealer whose sales I avoid now.
Say
"Hi!" Acknowledge their presence. Offer help if needed, including
helping to carry stuff to the car. Stay friendly. Have bags and paper
to wrap ready. Have change ready. Treat folks the way you would want
to be treated at a yard sale. Answer questions. Offer to hold stuff or
make piles. It's really pretty simple.
If your plan is
to stay seated in the shade, talking to your friends, and only look at
the customers when they come to pay, then you don't get it. You'll have
some sales that way, but not as many as if you'd actually gotten
involved in the selling.
One of the sales we pulled
into just last weekend was being held by three guys who were more
interested in swapping ghost stories than selling their (unpriced)
stuff. I left without buying anything. Don't make the customer work to
give you money.
12. Have a sense of humor about things.
It's
going to be a long, hot day. The more you laugh, the better you'll
feel. Mistakes are going to happen. You may have periods of an hour or
more where no one comes. Play music to keep yourself entertained. Make
sure you have people to talk to. Don't sweat the small stuff. You'll
be doing enough sweating as it is.
13. Plan to eat, drink and use the potty.
Arrange
with someone to bring breakfast and coffee at the beginning and lunch
around midday. Keep a supply of drinks on hand. Spell each other for
shade and bathroom breaks. Plan to take care of yourself and you'll
have a lot more staying power.
14. Have clearly identified people to take money.
Having
lots of workers is a good thing, but it can create confusion when it
comes to the money. It's better to have only two or three people taking
care of that. Get some cheap carpenter's aprons from the hardware
store and give the money handlers each one. This will make them easier
to identify. They can also circulate and take money on the spot,
decreasing waits and lines. Make sure they do cash drops to a secure
location in the house from time to time as well.
15. Take care setting up.
Organization
is the key to a good sale. Grouping like items makes things easier to
find. Keep the valuables together and near someone who will be
responsible for watching them. Spread out, so that it looks like you
have more stuff and it looks less cluttered. Use as much of the
yard/driveway as you can.
Your goal should be to get as
much of your stuff spread out as possible. Items left in boxes or
piles may be missed by buyers. Not everyone likes to dig.
16. Set up doesn’t stop. It goes on all day long.
When
something sells, put something else in its spot. Keep rearranging your
tables throughout the day so that they look full and fresh. Condense
as the day goes on. A sale that looks like it's still overflowing with
goodies attracts more shoppers than one that looks picked over.
If
you didn't have room for everything in the morning, then put the extra
stuff out as space opens up. Condensing and tidying is also a great way
to show yourself how much you are selling. Every little bit of
self-encouragement helps on a long, hot day.
If you
keep working it, you can have sales and shoppers late into the day. I
love pulling up to sales at 3 or 4 in the afternoon!
17. If it didn’t sell in your antique booth at that price, it’s not going to sell in your front yard for that price.
Do
I really need to say any more? With the rise in popularity of vendor
malls, it's becoming more and more common to see failed vendors
unloading their stuff at yard sales. This may be you. That's okay. If
you've closed the business down, there's no need to keep looking at all
the leftover stuff. Just remember one simple rule:
Your yard sale is not the place to recoup your losses. Seriously. It's not.
18. After you’ve assembled your stuff, but before you have your sale, take a good look at everything.
If
all you can see after you’ve put everything together is baby/kids
stuff, holiday decorations, craft and scrapbooking stuff or clothes.
Take a step back and rethink. You might be better off waiting a while or
trying some other route to get rid of your stuff.
Everybody sells these items. I mean everybody.
And while some folks do go out to sales looking for these things, there
are a lot more that don’t. My time and money are limited, even on
weekends. Why would I want to stop at your sale if it looks like
everyone else’s or seems like it doesn’t have anything I want/need?
For
a lot of buyers (me included), these are the items that over power
everything else and make it look like there’s nothing of interest at a
sale. You want to avoid this at all costs. I don’t have kids or babies,
so why am I going to stop at the yard that seems like it’s overflowing
with baby stuff? Your goal is to attract as many people as possible into
your sale.
If you can see that you have a
ton of the above items, plus a lot of other, more interesting stuff, you
need to plan. You don’t want the rest of your stuff to be overshadowed
and miss sales. Go through the piles of kids stuff, clothes, etc and
edit. Pull out only the very best items for your sale. Donate the rest
somewhere. You should reduce your mound by at least a third, if not by
half.
When you set up, take care that the
baby stuff, holiday decorations, etc aren’t spread all over the yard and
aren’t front and center dominating everything else. Put them in the
back or off to the side. Folks who want them will look for them. Those
of us who roll our eyes at them and pass by will be more likely to
notice the other stuff.
Consider not putting
all of your craft stuff, etc. out at once. Put out some of it and
replenish it as it sells. This reduces the impact on the rest of your
sale. And many times, people who are interested in this kind of stuff
will ask if you have more, at which point you can bring more out.
Also, consider pricing in bulk, which will clear items out more quickly.
19. At the end of the day, if you’ve not sold much or anything, the primary person responsible is you.
I've
heard sellers bitching about buyers not buying lots of times.
Usually, it's the sellers who are disorganized, unpriced, with very
little to sell. And whose fault is it that people aren't buying things
again?
Seriously, I cannot repeat this enough. This is
a lot of work. All day long. If all you want to do it sit in the
shade and drink beer, go fishing. You get out of your sale what you
put into it.
20. I don’t care what your little book, or anyone else says, your item is “worth” what I’m willing to pay for it.
If
you really, really want book value for your little dimmy-doodle, put it
in an auction and pray. Your front yard is not the place to try and
get it. Seriously.
21. Stick it out!
Too
many sales these days only go for two or three hours. Most only
advertise until noon or so. To me, that's hardly worth the effort of
hauling out of bed at the butt-crack of dawn and hauling all that stuff
outside. You've put a lot of work into this thing. Don't give up until
you've wrung every last drop out of it. The longer you stay open, the
more you can sell, especially if you keep cleaning up as the day goes
on.
We've never ended a sale before 4:00 pm. There
are always at least two good waves of customers in the afternoon. At
least, that's what we've found. Start having your half-price between
2:30 and 3:00. Make outrageous bulk deals at 3:30. You'll get your
stuff gone. And have fun.
22. BE CAREFUL!!!
Sadly,
you can find thieves, grifters, and con artists everywhere these days,
including yard sales. Be careful and keep your guard up. This is one
reason why having help is so vital. One person simply cannot keep watch
on everything.
Don't let people in your house. Keep
the front door shut so they can't see in. Cover items in the garage
that are not for sale. Better yet, close off the garage entirely.
Don't
keep all the money on you or outside. Do a large bill drop to a safe
spot in the house every so often. Don't give out a lot of personal info
to buyers. Check through clothes and books for cash and receipts
before putting them out for sale.
Every so often, you
read about someone that got ripped off during a sale or shortly after by
one of the "shoppers." Use your common sense and keep your guard up.
Don't let the assholes out there spoil a good day.
That's
it for my words of wisdom, folks! I make no guarantees about success,
of course. But, I do think that putting some thought and planning into
what you are doing will make you a lot more likely to succeed than just
throwing some crap out in your yard and calling it a sale. Give it a
try and see what you think. Maybe I'll meet you on your lawn some
Saturday morning!
2 comments:
You should publish all this great advice. Seriously. :)
Thanks! I appreciate the compliment.
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