Garage Sale Marketing

Fighting the average day with a stapler gun

Today, I took a break from applications and dedicated time to selling unwanted items from my house. I'm going to see if I can apply things I've learned to help give this sale the best opportunity this weekend.

First, there are a few things that will make it difficult:
- Dates and Time set up spontaneously with only a 24 hour turn around
- Rainy weather
- Limited workers

Late night sign posts...

Of course, five years ago, this task may have been delayed until next weekend, but with technology I am able to expedite an awareness campaign and even have time to blog about it ;)

Building Awareness
First, I spent $10 on signs to help direct people to our garage sale. Our address is actually really long to spell out, so I just put the street name and an arrow pointing where it is. What helped the most is having a "garage sale" sign in front of the neighborhood, followed by a large sign on our yard.

Of course, the more effective advertisement for specific items was posting on Craigslist and utilizing Twitter & Facebook. There I can provide information to others and have it available for them. As opposed to direct advertising, this becomes more of an opt-in system.

Finally, to help generate local hype, I informed family members and friends to spread the news by word-of-mouth.

The turnaround being so tight, technology has really helped expedite much of the process. But it's still good to know that old conventional methods still work.

Setting the Price
Before setting the price, I reminded myself of my objectives: clear out inventory and gain money. Ultimately, I also have to understand that I'll be in a buyers market, which means my business thrives on their demand and there are many substitutes/competitors in the market.

First, I researched prices from retailers on similar items. Many of these prices can be found on Craigslist, Amazon, eBay, Google, and other online retailers. Setting a benchmark, I can give my products similar or lesser value to be competitive.

Cash is king. Because we don't work on a credit system, we have to understand cash and who holds it. Making sure the prices can be broken into denominations of whole cash to avoid change. This also provides them a psychological impulse to buy because the items are affordable with the cash they have on hand.

Operations
Having a garage sale, we have to understand the customers and when they will be coming. There will be the early-bird opportunists, customers of convenience, and coming back from work. Our hours peaked in the morning starting at 8am, slowed at 11am to 4pm, and picked up back again afterwards.

We had an initial layout along with easy to find pricing on the product itself (using masking tape). We made sure all products be seen, but the ones we want to push out faster will be on display in front. Of course, when we had breaks in traffic, we would rearrange and tidy up for the next wave of customers.

Organized Chaos is what a garage sale is 

Books are not exactly on everyone's list...

Sales
Honestly, though I have never done retail, I know I could be a floor salesman.

Being warm and friendly is key to having customers open up about what they want. Being personable helps continue the conversation and engage them through their experience. Then while all that is going on, you have to be attentive to what they may possibly be interested in.

Once they express interest in an item, I usually bring up past experiences with it and say how good it still is. Then I ask why they might be wanting that particular item. Understanding that information helps me give reason to their "want" and offer the item to them.

Now, some people haggle, some plead, and others just buy upfront. Case-by-case, I want to make sure they "feel what they got was worth what they paid". Again, it's a buyer's market and my main objective is clearing out inventory while making a decent return. If I lower the price a little, I will be providing value to something that is of no worth being stored in my house.

Salesman of the year

Results
So far, I have earned $325 off of sales in items ranging from $0.10 to $250 (no I haven't sold that item yet.)

Breaking down the numbers:
I had about 50 customers in 7 hours of operation
- Each transaction was about $6.50
- My hourly earnings were approximately $46.50
- The largest transaction was $75
- In the 48 hour turnaround and about 14 hours in actual work time, my adjusted hourly earnings are $23

Insights of the Day:
- Books are the slowest to turnaround and incite interest from
- Bundled up pencils were one of the best ideas, very fast turnaround
- Children are the best impulse buyers
- I have to learn Spanish
- Anything will sell... like wires

Who knew you guys would be so popular...

Next Day Expectations
Being a Friday, I expected it to be slow and it was pleasantly busy even with impending rain in the skies. Saturdays are great days because everyone's schedules free up, which should increase traffic.

So hopefully we can match or outperform Friday's results and push some of my higher priced items.

-Mark