Get your money up front

Garage sales

This past weekend we had another garage sale. Yes it was very profitable. But I also learned some lessons that I feel I need to pass on to other Dreamers like myself. First of all get plenty of rest the night before. I don't mean stay up till midnight the night before because you think I'm off tomorrow I'll just be sitting in a lawn chair collecting money. No it does NOT work that way.

First off you have to get your signs out. I don't recommend putting them out the night before because you won't know if some mean person comes along and takes them down. (FYI) two weeks ago after sitting for what seemed like a couple of hours, a lady stopped and said I didn’t know you were having a sale today. I looked at Barb and said I think I'll go check our signs. Sure enough, our sign at the end of the street was on the ground. I put it back up and we were in business again.

So yes you need to get up early in the morning. I'm saying no later than 6am if your sale is going to start at 8am. You need time to put your treasures out so people can rummage through them and say that's it. No really you do need set up time and remember just because you advertise a 8am start time the hard core yard saler's(is that a word) will be there early. Please tell me you already have everything priced, if not then you better set that alarm for 5am. Buy plenty of little stickers you can price things with or a better plan is to group things together that you are willing to sell all at the same price. I have boxes that I write on saying everything in this box 25 cents or all DVD's $1.00. Big items all get a price sign so there is no mistake what the price is.

Its a good idea to talk to your better half before hand on any item that you are not willing to negotiate on, that way both of you can show a united front and people can't play the mom against dad game. Well they will try but they soon learn the two of you communicate and back down or pay the price you want. On most other things it's not a bad idea to negotiate, I mean the plan is to get rid of all your stuff. Of course you want to make as much money as possible.

The last thing I want to pass on to you is this. GET YOUR MONEY UP FRONT. I sold a couch and love seat, or I should say I agreed to sell a couch and love seat. They needed to go to the bank and get some cash but first wanted to move the couch out of the house. PROBLEM, the man damaged the side of the couch getting it out the door so now he didn't want it, the wife felt bad but the husband said it wasn't his fault. She ended up giving us $60.00 for the damage and they drove off. Lesson Learned.

So if you are interested I have a $450.00 leather couch and love seat for sale. Only $350.00. Slightly damaged...