July 21, 2013

We held our own Yard Sale

In anticipation of our upcoming move in two weeks, we held a yard sale on Friday to get rid of some of our things.  You are probably thinking: why Friday?  That is one of the most popular days to garage sale in our town.  And luckily, we held the sale on a Friday that happened to have tons of garage sales that translated into many, many shoppers.  

First, I have to show you what I rescued from my own yard sale:


 I bought the '70s lamp and vase at garage sales a couple of years ago, then put them in the "to sell" box several months ago.  But our new house has a '70s rumpus room and bar, so they will be great decorations there!  I've had this rabbit watercolour print since I was a teenager, so it has some sentimental value, but it will also look nice in the bathroom in our new house.

Our sale was set to start at 1:00 pm; predictably, people started to drive by at 11:00 and started to get out of their cars at noon.  A friend brought her stuff, so we had a lot to set out and the sale looked really large from the street.  I would say that we did most of our business in the hour before the sale actually officially started!  People came through there like locusts, so I was really glad that I had taken the time to pre-price all of our goods.  Amazingly, no one really haggled.  For the most part they just paid the prices I had set, and we didn't have any customers from hell.  We even had two ladies that spent over an hour looking though everything!  Here are some pictures that I snapped about two hours into the sale, so it had already been picked over.




We had a few big ticket items to sell such as our dog kennel (goodbye redneck clothesline!), a wheelbarrow, a dresser etc. And they all sold, except for my kitchen dining set.  The last customers were there just after closing at 7:00 pm.    We then consolidated everything into the carport, parked one of the vehicles in front, and went for dinner, deciding to deal with the rest of it in the morning.  

At 9:00 on Saturday morning, even though we had not advertised being open on Saturday, there was already a couple in the carport!  Then our friends came by, we had coffee on the kitchen table in the carport, and started packing everything up for various charities.  A few other people stopped by.  Just as we were about to move the table back inside, a family came by and bought it!  What luck!  So with that purchase, our grand total in profits came to $439.00!  A success!  

Even though it took a lot of time and effort, I think pre-pricing everything paid off so that I didn't have to answer a billion questions during the sale.  It also allowed me to evaluate the worth of everything beforehand.  Our prices were obviously fair, since there was no haggling.  I am also glad I dragged out a bookcase to display our books.  It was easier for people to look at them, and we probably got rid of half the books we had at the sale.

What are we going to do with our $439.00?  Probably put it towards a dining set for our new house!



6 comments:

Cheapchick said...

Well done! That is what we did at our last garage sale, rolled the proceeds into something we really wanted for our new home. Cheers!

Dana@Mid2Mod said...

Glad the sale was a success! Be sure to show us the dining set when you buy it.

Mick said...

What a success! I was just noting yesterday that we need to have a yard sale too...

Rob and Monica said...

Looks like you had a very successful day! We can relate. We had a yard sale a few weeks ago and rescued a few items as well. Ours started at 10am but people started pulling up at 9am and, while tempted to ask them to kindly wait, we allowed it which turned out to be a good decision because one of the early birds spent over $80! (Rob)

Reduce, Reuse and Rummage said...

It was a successful yardsale! And letting people in was a good idea, the first customers bought at least &30 worth of goods.

Witchcrafted Life said...

Wonderful yard sale profit! I love holding yard sales just about as much as I adore shopping at other peoples', but haven't amassed enough stuff that we need/want to part with in recent years to have one (the last one I had was shortly before I got married, as I was moving to Europe and was only bringing three pieces of luggage with me, so I needed to get rid of most things as quickly as I could).

Thank you very much for your wonderfully nice comment on my cute cherry sweater post today, dear lady, I really appreciate it.

Big hugs & cheerful Tuesday wishes,
♥ Jessica