Garage Sales
Most Saturday mornings, as the sun is rising, I set out into my territory, (an area about five kilometres radius from my home), with the pocket full of coins left over from the week and a few notes in my wallet, to attend about a dozen garage sales. The next two hours will bring quite a few surprises. A garage sale is an informal, irregular, advertised event for the sale of used goods by private individuals. It is not a regular sale of goods as in a shop, but a sale of goods being cleared by the home maker. No GST is paid and those conducting it are not paid.
Typically the goods in a garage sale are unwanted items from the household with the home owners conducting the sale. The goods are sometimes new, like-new, or just usable, offered for sale because the owner does not want or need the item, to minimize their possessions, or to raise funds. Popular motivations for a garage sale are “Spring cleaning” or the owner’s move to a new residence. The seller displays their wares to the passers-by or those responding to signs, flyers, or newspaper ads. The sales venue is typically a garage, driveway, carport, front yard, porch, or occasionally, the interior of a house. Sometimes a vacant lot or business car park becomes the site of a car boot sale when many households bring their goods to one location.
Staples of garage sales include old clothing, books, toys, videos, old knickknacks, and board games. Larger items like furniture and occasionally appliances are also sold. Garage sales occur most frequently in suburban areas on good-weather weekends, and usually have designated hours for the sale. Buyers who arrive before the hours of the sale to review the items are known as “Early Birds”; they often are professional restorers or resellers.
Such sales also attract people who are searching for bargains, or rare and unusual items. Bargaining or haggling on prices is routine, and items may or may not have price labels affixed. Some people buy goods from these sales to restore them for resale. “How To Operate A Successful Garage Sale” is the handbook for a successful garage sale. It suggests some rules for conducting a garage sale.
First, set a date and time when you can devote your full time to this sale, for gathering up various articles as well as being able to attend the sale full time. You will also need a few friends to help you sell, answer questions about price, and perhaps help shift out furniture. Second, plan just what you’re going to put in this sale, if you are going to have the sale alone, or with two to five more families. Third, have plenty of change on hand – both coins and paper money.
Now, get down to business. Garage sales are work – a lot of hard work, but the returns more than justify the effort. People will come and buy. Clean out your closets of anything that is useless to you or you don’t want to keep and put it in the sale. Don’t throw anything away. People will buy just about anything. You’d be surprised. What is one person’s trash is another’s goldmine!
You need to advertise. Be specific, concise and honest. State the place, date, and hours of opening. If you have a large amount of clothing, specify some of the sizes, particularly if you have quite a few in different sizes. Also popular items like tools, books, plants, furniture, whitewoods should be mentioned. Collectables like teddy bears, stamps, coins, model trains, plates and china will bring people from miles around.
Antiques go over big regardless of state of repair or condition. Give good descriptive details to save disappointments and do not start restoring them yourself. The purchaser will want to do that. Capitalize on the season. Feature luggage at holidays or vacation time and toys near Christmas. Include any old wares such as old bottles, old fruit jars, old kitchen goods, post cards, sporting cards, lawn mowers, camping articles, tools, coins, old books, comic books, aprons, old-fashioned hats, salt and pepper shakers, needlework, jewelry and dishes.
Dolls’ clothing and accessories are always in demand and especially for Barbie and Ken or teen dolls. Toys go over big at any time. Dolls and stuffed toys make a hit with the kids and they, in turn, will finally persuade their mothers to buy something. Children are very persuasive! Don’t be afraid to drag out those outgrown items, old dishes, two-of-a-kind items you don’t really need and generally just clutter your home. You’ll find the money in your pocket is better than the clutter in the house. Fresh produce such as tomatoes, green beans, fruits, etc. will also sell, if you should have a garden overflowing.
String up a clothesline to display any clothing you may have. Remember, clothing for all ages, men or women, is always in great demand. Children’s clothing goes over best. Set up card tables or ping-pong tables to display small merchandise. Place tables in a manner that will leave room for shoppers to browse without feeling crowded. Display your wares attractively. Be sure they are clean, usable, and priced temptingly. Hang good clothing on wire hangers.
People want bargains. People are looking for bargains. Don’t disappoint them. Remember that what you sell is something you don’t want anyway, so whatever you get is gravy. Take advantage of the space under the tables if you need more display room. You will be amazed how buyers spot the smallest item under the table. Colorful table covers draw a lot of attention to your items. You will save yourself a lot of time answering questions if you show a price on all merchandise. Use a black felt marking pen for pricing, or coloured stickers.
Have electrical outlets nearby to plug in toasters, blenders, electric skillets, irons, hair dryers, electric razors, etc., to show people that your sale articles do work. If you have to use an extension cord, make sure it is in excellent condition and preferably a heavy duty one. If you have any fragile, rare or expensive items such as crystal, jewelry, leather bound books, etc, be sure they are displayed on a sturdy table and up high, out of reach of kids. They are curious and you might be too busy to watch them.
Drinking glasses, dishes, and cups will sell faster if you price them in sets of 6 for $1.00 instead of 15 cents each. Paperback books, magazines, records and items that have titles will sell more readily if they are marked separately. If they want them collectively, they’ll ask you. Then bundle them all up and sell them. Sell everything!
Run an ad in your local newspaper. If you run your ad one day only, have it in the Wednesday or Thursday paper. If your sale runs on Saturday, your sale is about over before the paper hits the street on Saturday. Put signs up on public posts and trees indicating address and times. Give by arrows, directions to your street.
Be ready to meet any customer as soon as the paper hits the street, because some will come before the sale and before you even get ready to start the day! The best days for your Garage Sale are Friday, and Saturday. Sundays are usually a waste of time. Be ready to start at 7am, and if you advertise an 8 or 9am start you will have people entering your property and disturbing your privacy.
At the end of your sale you will have met a lot of nice, friendly people. If you want to continue selling items you might have left over, don’t. Take the rest to your nearest charity thrift shop and give it to them. At day’s end, you should have made money, some new acquaintances, have cleared the house of clutter and have a weary but happy body!
How not to do it.
Last Saturday I went to the worst garage sale I have ever seen. It was advertised as “Deceased Estate. All to be sold.” That is the greatest kind of come on. It was due to open at 8am. I arrived at 7:40am having been to several already. About one hundred people were already in the front garden, drive way and the garage. They reminded me of vultures. I did not know it then, but there were also about fifty people in the house. One lady stood at the front gate, giving prices and taking money, and making sure goods were not taken without payment, an event that happens regularly. She was flustered and angry, saying to me, “Where’s my husband? I’ll kill him when he gets here.”
They had not done their preparation. The house and contents probably belonged to her father who had died. At least thirty people were in the garage. It was packed with chests of drawers containing tools. People were pulling open the drawers and grabbing handfuls of tools. Boxes of goods fell to the floor. People could not pick up anything. Suddenly a large mirror fell, smashing to pieces. As people pushed back, the electronic garage door activated and went down. Some one started shouting, “I want to get out. Let me out”. Someone else tried to forced the door up. The woman at the front gate gasped, “They are not supposed to be in the garage yet” It was too late, the horse had bolted in before the door was shut!
But inside the house it was worse. There were people taking down pictures from the walls, trying to carry out a lounge from the sitting room, pulling blankets from the beds, unplugging the TV, gathering up utensils from the kitchen, goods from the laundry, towels from the hall cupboards, and with no plastic bags or boxes provided, stacking crockery up into quivering piles while someone else stepped over them with an armful of DVD’s and CD’s. It was bedlam. One man was carrying in his arms a cuckoo clock that was striking, while two men were pushing their way out carrying a chest of drawers. It was the stuff of a comical film. That is not the way to do it!
I think every minister of religion should spend Saturday mornings attending the local garage sales, in order to see the needy face of the parish. The people the minister would meet would indicate new areas of required pastoral care. I can always identify single parents who are often selling children’s’ clothes and toys, especially in the month or so before Christmas. There is obviously a shortage of money. I often speak to them about their child, noting the change table, baby bath, pram and high chair for sale. I always say a kindly or encouraging word. Selling those baby’s goods may be selling the cherished hopes of that mother.
It is the same for aged single people, who are usually selling the deceased spouse’s effects, or an aged couple clearing their possessions gathered over a lifetime in order to shift into a retirement village. These are good garage sales because they are selling tools, pot plants, gardening equipment, furniture, bedding, clothes, kitchen and dining room goods. They are usually in good order and condition. A kind word to the couple and you will get a free outline of their future plans. When they are having their morning tea during a lull in sales I have often joked, “Yes, thanks, I will have milk but no sugar”, only to be invited to join in. Some laughter always follows, then a telling of what has transpired since early morning.
The saddest ones are the very poor families who are shifting interstate in the hope of getting a job and do not want the expense of shifting the goods. They are desperate to get the best price possible for everything, including the backyard pool, the old wheels and tires from the family car, the brand new protective clothing and shoes from his former job, the garden hose and old lawnmower. The children’s toys will be sold along with their pet rabbit. Everything must be sold today, regardless of the offer.
Likewise the deserted wife who is selling up the possessions of the man who has left her. There are his tools, his electric drill, his porno videos, his clothes and footwear. She needs the money and not the memories. I picked up a pair of R.M.Williams boots still in their box, with no signs of wear. They were my size, as was a good Akubra hat. I asked the price. “I don’t care. Do you want them? Take them. You can have them.” I checked my wallet and my loose coins. I told her they were worth much more but would she take $51? “Just get them out of my sight.” I gave her the $51. I got a bargain and she got them out of her sight.
All of these people needed a kindly word, and when I gave them one, I felt I left those people in a better frame of mind than when I came. If I was the local clergyman, I could have also followed it up with an invitation to join in some of church’s activities, or else asked if some of our members could assist them in their grief or relocation or whatever. My wife greets me at our garage when I return. I lift out the plants and new pots, some piece of fine bone china, boxes of assorted nails, screws and hand tools. She tells me I already have a pair of R.M.Williams boots and an Akubra.
Does our house get cluttered up with stuff? No, because every week we put things out into some boxes and I take two or three up to the Salvo’s Family Store where they are always so appreciative of getting some more stock which will help their clients who want some bargains and will bring them in some income to support local families in need. In the garage are also some large plastic bags of clothes to go to our minister’s wife who distributes them. All the baby clothes are freshly washed and pressed. That is part of the gift to some young mother. We never conduct our own garage sale. We give everything away.
Garage sales make up a totally different line of activities from the usual Parliamentary grind. They keep you in contact with the people of your area and let you see where the real needs are.
Rev The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes, A.C., M.L.C.
