5 Secrets for a Successful Yard Sale

If you want to have a successful yard sale (sell your stuff quickly and make top dollar) use the same secret strategies that retail stores use. After all, stores are the experts when it comes to separating you from your money. So why not utilize some of their secrets and make your yard sale a success?

Think Showroom

Ever notice how stores create room scenes to showcase their wares? That’s a secret strategy called merchandizing which allows customers to see how items can be used together and to help sell people merchandize they didn’t even know they needed.

Create mini showrooms across your yard or on tables and group room items together. Group clothes together by size and set up a full length mirror (place a Not For Sale sign on items brought out for staging purposes only), set up tableware on a table and group chairs, occasional tables and the like around the TV. Set the scene and sell the room.

Bundle

One of the new phone service commercials declares that ‘we all bundle’, and the bundling rage stems from the fact that we all like to get a bundle of something for a perceived cheap price. Makes us feel better about our purchases and buy more, a secret which companies know well. Use the bundle secret at your yard sale and move the less desirable items. Select popular items and pair them with like items that are not so popular (like unopened makeup with slightly used makeup in a pretty basket). Tie the bundle together with a ribbon or lace in a basket or bag. One low price buys the whole bundle.

Clearance Sale

Have you ever passed up a clearance sale? Neither will your yard sale customers. Select a few items and mark a price on the items, put a slash through the original price and mark it at half price. Place all clearance sale items on a table with a large yellow sign that reads ‘CLEARANCE’ just like the stores do it.

BOGO

Buy One Get One free, so common is this secret the five words have just been shortened to BOGO. The out loud secret works, so if you have yard sale items that are not selling, combine them with items which are selling to move all the items fasters by offering a BOGO deal.

Food and Drinks

There’s a reason most retail stores offer some type of food and drink to their customers (for a profit of course) food and drink is an incentive and draws customers. A small investment for some popcorn and water or lemonade will yield big benefits in increased yard sale profits. Set up a table and let your kids work the food and drink table so they can earn some money too.