Sometimes, she just gets these ideas. I am generally a fan of her ideas … but this time I had no choice. Lauren was in. I was, therefore, participating.
Velda loves the things that don’t sell.
We were having a garage sale!
Things to do instead of hosting a garage sale
1. Pile all of your “extra” stuff in the driveway. Put a sign on the mailbox: “Take our stuff. Please.” Then, go to a movie.
2. Take everything to Goodwill. Then, go to a movie.
3. Build an addition onto the house so you have more storage space.
4. Encourage Velda’s hoarding tendencies. Embrace goat paths through the house.
5. Tell Lauren she needs to keep all of her prom dresses, since she no longer has her Beanie Babies.
6. Plan on going to a lot of Hallowe’en parties next year, and wear one of the three colors of graduation gowns in the closet.
7. Go see some AYSO games. It’s soccer Saturday, after all. Then, go to a movie.
8. Mizzou has the early game. Must watch the Tigers! No time to babysit unwanted stuff to make sure we get fifty cents for everything.
9. The forecast is rain. Sorry, dear, we have to stay inside.
10. Continue to frustrate your wife. Move to a motel.
11. Research alternate uses of 20-year old Tupperware. Make your own reusable Christmas tree decorations with the lovely red and green lids. And, uh, figure out something for the orange and the blue ones, too.
12. Hide behind the piles of boxes in the garage. No one will ever find you.
So, like I said, we’re having a garage sale.
The Prep
I do claim to know something about marketing. Here’s what we did:
- Ad to run in the Newhall Signal, the local paper, Friday & Saturday. Unfortunately, due to a clerical error on my part, the ad only ran on Saturday. Good news: you saved $5.50. Cost for a one day ad: $24.50. It was succinct: “Garage Sale- Saturday 11/10, 7am. Clothes, books, kitchen ware. *Address* *City* *Zip Code*”
- Post to Craigslist. Free.
- Signs are needed on the major cross streets; park a car at the main traffic junction with signs front and back. We had to buy signs, packing tape … and masking tape for price tags. Lauren claimed $17 for this; I’m guessing she expensed a Starbuck’s coffee, too.
- We got a bunch of change: quarters, singles, $5 & $10. No sales below 25 cents, we agreed.
We were already on the driveway, setting up tables and moving outside all of the items that we’d preset in the living room the night before. Lauren went to go post the signs (and tear down the 2-weeks out-of-date signs that were taking up the prime spots on the light poles).
The driveway was set up an hour later … and we had our first customer at 6:30 AM for our 7 AM garage sale. We started putting up the shade structure on the grass and Lauren started hanging the soft goods at that point.
The Sale
I’m not a garage sale person, so I don’t know much about this sub-culture. It was a fascinating view of humanity. A few observations:
- Three languages were spoken, not including whining and sarcasm. Welcome to LA.
- Loved the guy that bought the iPod belt case for his Droid.
- Highest priced item: a Nintendo 64 console with bad controllers. $15.
- Lowest priced item: Velda’s Food Digest magazines. She gave them to the first lady that walked near them.
- No one knew what a cot was. Didn’t buy them, either.
- Loved the neighbor that walked over, bought 4 books … and then sent his wife to buy a few for herself, too.
- People buy used shoes. Who knew?
- Coats moved quickly @ $3. They didn’t move at $5.
- No one bought Shakespeare.
- People buy Nintendo 64 games. One guy collects Nintendo instruction manuals from Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64. It’s a big world out there.
- People don’t buy books. Or, actually, they don’t buy enough books. Or I have too many. You decide.
- Top requests: tools (no, I still use them), bikes (no, not for sale) and guitars (huh?).
- Big traffic until 10am, and then it slowed down until 12:30 when we shut it down.
The Bottom Line
Total Sales: $231.75
Expenses: $41.50
Profit: $190.25