At 6:45 this morning, fifteen minutes before the sign said we'd open, a man in a camouflage jacket was already standing at the end of our driveway asking if we had any tools. Greg was still carrying the folding tables out of the garage. I hadn't even put the cash box on the card table yet. That was the start of our first garage sale since 2010, and by 2:00 this afternoon we had $612 in the box.
I'm writing this with my feet up and a glass of iced tea, so forgive me if it rambles.
How we got ready
Most of what we sold came out of the kids' rooms last month. Five bins of toys, games, books and odds and ends, plus a few things from the garage that Greg finally agreed he would never use again. I spent three evenings this week pricing, which was more work than I expected.
My pricing rule was simple: about a quarter of what I'd pay new at a store, rounded to an easy number, and nothing priced in cents. I used masking tape and a black marker. Books were 50 cents each or a bag for $5. Kids' clothes were $1 a piece. Bigger items got their own sign with the price written large so nobody had to ask.
We also did a few things I'd recommend to anybody who hasn't had a sale in a while:
- Got $100 in small bills and quarters from the bank on Thursday. We used almost all of the ones by 9:00.
- Listed the sale on the community page and put up four signs Friday evening at the corners leading to our street.
- Grouped things by type on separate tables: toys, kitchen, books, sports, "guy stuff."
- Kept one table empty in the garage for anything we decided to hold back at the last minute.
The early birds and the big sellers
The man in the camouflage jacket bought a socket set and a shop vac for $35 total and was gone by 7:05. After that we had a steady line until about 10:30. I'd guess we had sixty or seventy people come up the driveway over the day.
Here's what brought in the most money:
The foosball table from Josh's room sold for $75 to a dad with two boys who were already fighting over it in the back of his minivan. Greg's old push mower, which still runs but which he replaced two summers ago, went for $60. A set of patio chairs we don't use anymore was $40. Emily's old desk and chair went for $45. Josh's Lego that he didn't take with him, mostly loose pieces in a bin, sold for $30 in the first twenty minutes to a woman who said she resells it. Good for her.
Everything else was small. Books, puzzles, board games missing at most one piece, a bread maker I used twice, Christmas decorations, baseball cards, a stack of DVDs. The little stuff added up to a bit over half the total. That surprised me.
Haggling, and when to stop caring
About a third of the people asked for a lower price. My rule was that I'd take any reasonable offer after 11:00 and anything at all after noon. Before 11, I held firm on the bigger things. Greg is softer than I am. A teenager talked him down from $20 to $8 on a basketball hoop base, and he came back looking very pleased with himself, as if he'd won something.
At noon I made a sign that said EVERYTHING HALF OFF and the afternoon crowd picked through what was left. At 1:45 we put a FREE sign on one table and it was nearly empty in thirty minutes.
By the numbers
Our total was $612 in cash. We spent $9 on signs and tape and gave away about $15 worth of things to a neighbor's grandkids, so call it $603 net for one long Saturday. Greg and I worked out that it was roughly $40 an hour for the two of us if you count the pricing nights, which is better than I'd have guessed.
What didn't sell went straight into the back of Greg's truck: six boxes and two bags, plus a small bookshelf. He drove it all to the donation center before it closed at 4:00 so we wouldn't be tempted to carry any of it back inside. I asked for a receipt. It's in the green notebook now.
What are we doing with the money? Half is going into savings. The other half is paying for a nice dinner out, which Greg says he earned by lifting the foosball table. He did, to be fair.
The garage has more floor space than it has had since the kids were in grade school. The kids' rooms are clear. And I'm going to sleep very well tonight.
