One Mans Trash: A Guide to Making Money with Yard Sales

A good and effective way to earn money and remove extra trash from your house is a yard sale, and with these simple, straight forward steps, I will show you how to receive traffic to and market your yard sale. Are you aware of the hundreds of dollars worth of potential money you have laying around your house? I’m sure you’ve seen that loose collection of comic books dated 1956 and thought about sweeping them up into a pile of rubbish. Maybe you’ve accumulated a bag or two of used clothing and thought about donating them to the good will? Look at that old Star Wars t-shirt with the faded logo reading: ” arth adar”. By now you are thinking: “Who really wants this junk?” But wait before you throw out those vintage delights, because you could be throwing away money! Each article of clothing is a piece of gold, granted an extremely humble piece, but a piece none-the-less, and each piece is waiting to be cashed in by you.

First, the items you will need are: A spotless front yard, you will have to grab that old rusty thing in the back yard you call a mower and tidy up the lawn, a receipt book, with white and yellow pages for you and your customers records, found at a Staples store or the 99 cent store, price tags, also found at staples or a local 99 cent store, and poster board. Your poster board can be improvised out of cardboard or bought at staples or the 99 cent store.

When you are sure you have all the items needed you can then compile a list of prices for each item. A good reference for this task can be found in the classified section of your local paper or The Green Sheet. There, you will find listings for used and wanted items. Note the difference between a “listed” price and a “target” price. The listed price is what the average cost of any item is worth in reference to the classifieds, Green Sheet, or other yard sales. The target price is the bare minimum you are willing to sell the item for. The prices located on the Classifieds or the Green Sheet should only be used as a loose reference to make the bartering process move smoother.

After you have successfully cataloged all items with a reference price then you can move on to advertising your yard sale. Be careful to advertise your sale a few weeks in advance. Doing this allows for you to receive the largest amount of potential customers and will increase your sales. The San Bernardino Sun services the Inland Empire and they have an on-line classified ads section specifically for yard sales. Go on line at sbsun.kaango.com/feListAds/categoryID/25

or you can call them at: (909) 889-2437 and place a classified ad regarding your yard sale. You typically want to have your yard sale on a Friday or a Saturday at the beginning of the month as these are days of the week when most people receive their pay checks and have free time for shopping. It should take 4-5 business days for the Sun Newspaper to start cycling your ad. A sales representative will help you to setup your ad via phone or there automated website can ease you through the steps.

Once you have placed your ad, then you can put up posters. You do this to alert the neighborhood. Include the date of your yard sale and address on any posters placed around your neighborhood. You should also include any other details that could assist your customers in locating your sale for example… house is green with a white fence, third on left.

And finally, on the day of the sale remember customer satisfaction. Let customers know in advance of a sale of any defects in items and inform them of any items being sold “as is”. Also, a bargain hunter will disagree with whatever you have written on the price tag. He’ll say it is too expensive or that’s its too old. Just Remember to keep your mind on your target price being careful not to let items go for too far below your asking price. You will know you’ve been successful when all your old mess has vanished and your pockets are full of money. So, now you have been equipped with all the tools needed to launch a yard-sale. Have fun and remember: All sales are final!