<p>Adding to all these good tips:</p>
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<li>Don’t let people inside your house! Do you have an attached garage? If so, keep folks out of your house entirely. Clear all out of the garage and park on-street as needed while you prepare intensively. Rent lightweight long party tables (party supply store) if you can do so economically. Set those out in garage, prepare the sale. If weather is fine, at the opening time of your sale, fling open the garage doors, carry the tables out quickly onto driveway. If weather’s terrible, hold the sale inside the garage.</li>
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<p>I imagine there are modifications for having sales on front porches/front lawns if you don’t have the garage.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The opening hours will be busiest. Have everyone who works wear a carpenter’s apron with pockets to collect and make change quickly. They go back to someone seated at a table, with a metal lock-box she never leaves. Whenever she feels the lock-box has too much cash in it, s/he goes into the house to dump it into some very safe other place, the return with nearly-empty box.</p></li>
<li><p>Can you start on a Friday morning? Around here, that’s standard. If not, then Saturday morning. </p></li>
<li><p>If you set the opening hour at 8 a.m., some will come to yours before the sales that begin in 9 a.m.!</p></li>
<li><p>We always have tons of small items, and not enough time to tag each. We create tables marked $1, $3, $5, $10 and just toss items onto a table, never price-tagging them. People like to quick-scan the sale for prices. If someone approaches you with an item from the $10 table and says they found it on the $5 table, you’ll likely remember and tell them politely/firmly otherwise. And if someone runs up with something from $3 table and claims it was for $1, and you forgot…you’re not losing much. </p></li>
<li><p>Hold close to your price on the first day of the sale, but please come down l0 percent or so just so people have the fun of bargaining a bit. Who expects full-marked-price at a yard sale? I don’t; it’s not Sears. Anyone who wants deep discounts on major items should be told “not on the first day.” If they return second day to find the item unsold, then you can negotiate more seriously. Even then, have a bottom line in your mind below which you wouldn’t be happy to see it go and might prefer to donate it. Either way, never take things back into the house (except as described above for Ebay sale attempts). If it’s still standing at the end of sale, you did your best; now donate. We always planned a friend’s truck to come by and take all the rest to Goodwill, where donations can be made at any hour. You may have other charities your prefer.</p></li>
<li><p>Keep it fun, don’t take it too seriously. You’re only in business for one day. We had a yard sale before moving where my then 14-y.o.-D baked bread and served slices with butter. What goodwill! Or let a neighborhood kid set up a lemonade stand by your curb, too. </p></li>
<li><p>I can’t stand stopping at sales where the homeowner looks at me sour over prices I propose. Reject the proposal, not the proposer. If the proposal’s so low it’s insulting, just joke back and treat it as a joke. Keep smiling. Maybe they’ll leave, or they’ll stay and take your sale more seriously. </p></li>
<li><p>People will assemble things and come at you asking for one discounted price for all. Hopefully you’ll remember which table they came from, but do reward people for buying multiple items at your sale with a group-discounted price for all. You are trying to rid yourselves of things, not hold onto them.</p></li>
<li><p>If you can pile up empty cardboard cartons and many plastic bags, it’s a courtesy to offer those after someone’s paid up.</p></li>
<li><p>Go to the bank a day or so before the sale to get single dollar bills (x30) and rolls of quarters (3x), dimes (1x), and nickles (3x). You need lots of quick small change in the first hour of the sale. Get empty wrappers for coins to deal with all the change you might assemble by end-of-sale. We gave our kids some change in their aprons, too, so they could do quick-change for small items without having to run back to the cashbox for each and every item bought. </p></li>
<li><p>For the priciest small or thin items, such as a silver tray and all jewelry, locate them on a table right in front of the seated person at the cashbox. She needs to watch vigilantly for folks who slip things under clothing. They are less likely to if she’s nearby. Especially in first hours, use body language to make it obvious a serious adult (at cashbox) is watching the pricey tables like a hawk, by eye-scanning/panning. Try not to attend to friends who stop by to chat in early hours of the sale; ask them to return in the afternoon to visit as you’re “watching the sale right now.” </p></li>
<li><p>I found adult clothing a complete waste of my time. Hard to hang, and few are your size and taste. Children’s clothes move quickly when boxed by size. People will paw through those when put into boxes at floor level, below the tables. </p></li>
<li><p>Put some huge plastic kids’ items at curbside, a few tools if you are selling those from your garage, etc. Establish the theme, as people cruise by in cars without getting out to scan the sale and decide if they’ll park. </p></li>
<li><p>Really think about furniture. Anything lightweight (end tables, etc.) can be quickly walked onto your lawn at opening hour. Big items are a different story. You might take photos of big furniture objects (buffets, heavy desks, dressers) inside the house to display on board with an opening price. IF anyone wants to look at those seriously, make a separate appointment for viewing. Dining or kitchen sets of table/chairs are easier to move onto a lawn, as each object is lightweight.</p></li>
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<p>Or, if you have good instinct about the person after conversing awhile (they were sent over by a friend who works where yo work, etc.), you might send someone in with them to head directly over to that piece of furniture; look quickly and then outside to discuss so they don’t case your house. Watch where they eyes go. These “estate sales” where people look at furniture in wide-open houses are quite different than yardsales! Estate sales are empty of residents with professionals stationed throughout.</p>
<ol>
<li>If you’re selling anything electronic, from a pencil sharpener to a TV, have an outdoor extension power cord ready. People ask to test it, and they have a right to know that items work. If you sell anything mechanical that’s now broken, put it on the $3 table and mark it: “Broken, As Is :(” People buy them to take apart for fun, for nostalgia or stage props, etc. Some folks put nothing out that’s broken, even when marked “broken.” That;s another good choice to keep the sale looking upbeat.</li>
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