Garage Sales
Things You'll Need:
- - New, jumbo ½" wide black permanent marker
- - neon-colored posterboard
- - staple gun
- - balloons
-
Instructions:
1.) Compose your yard sale media ad which you'll place in
local newspapers and web sites. Include the name of your town, the
date and hours of your yard sale and a brief description of your
inventory. Be sure to include the words "multi-family," "community,"
or "neighborhood" if it any apply to your yard sale. If you have any
high demand or higher priced items such as lawn tractor in good
working condition or lawn furniture, mention them in your ad. If you
are moving then by all means call it a moving sale. These words are
a great draw! Including a rain date is always a good idea. For
safety, give only the closest major intersection and say follow
signs. And, do NOT put your telephone number in the ad. Consider
stating whether you accept early birds or not. If you say "no early
birds" then you will only get a few. If you don't mention anything
regarding early birds you will get a lot of them! Here's an example
of a good yard sale ad:
TORONTO COMMUNITY YARD SALE! 3/21 8am-5pm, antiques, furniture,
sports cards, tools, lawn tractor, household, kids' stuff, women's
plus size clothes, LOTS more! Something for everyone!
2.) Place your ads in available media.
Use as many different avenues as you can for advertising your yard
sale. You want everybody to know about it! You can place ads for
your sale in community newspapers. Check to see if any of your local
newspapers or thrifty papers have free garage sale ads. Place ads on
garage sale web sites and Craigslist. Do you belong to any
yahoogroups or other loops that are local? If you have a box labeled
"free stuff", you can advertise on freecycle. Laundromats, grocery
stores, post offices, public bulletin boards, etc. are good for
placing flyers.
Thursday is the best day to post your ad for a Friday, Saturday or
Sunday garage sale or the previous weekend for upcoming weekend
sale.
3.) Make eye-catching signs.
Your signs are one of the most important tools for drawing customers
to your sale. About half of all of our customers come to our yard
sales because of our signs. Make as many signs as possible. And
design them carefully. They should be sturdy so they can hold up
even in windy conditions. Yellow poster board of at least 18" X 24"
is proven to be the most effective color for signs - eye-catching,
cheery, unusual. Make them all identical except for the arrows. That
way people will know it's your garage sale and know which signs to
follow. Use a new, jumbo, black marker. Black on yellow is what
advertising experts recommend for signs. Plan what you will write
and how much space each word will take before you begin writing.
Write with neat, bold, block letters. Don't just scrawl it. Your
words should be at least 3" high and ½" thick. It is much harder to
read print from a moving car than you might think. Always make it
easy for your buyer! Also, never assume that your customer knows
where your street is. Include the words "yard sale", the date and
time of your sale, and an arrow so that customers know which way to
turn.
4.) Placing your signs
About four days before your sale place waterproof versions made by
covering with overlapping lengths of packing tape at major
intersections.
Attach your signs to short stakes or to telephone poles (if
allowed). A staple gun works well. Place the signs so that they are
perpendicular to the road. This placement will make it easiest for
your buyers to read it. Attach a balloon to each sign and post them
at every significant intersection from the main drag to your place.
If your customers will be driving on a high-speed road, place a sign
a half-mile or so *before* the turn-off indicating the turn is
coming up. If you live on a side street, put up signs leading your
customers to your sale. Place every half mile or less. Place a
bigger sign at your house, same color and same balloons. You really
can't put up too many signs.
Keep track of where you've put them so that it's easy to go back and
pick them up after your sale is over.
Places to post your garage sale or
find garage sales in Toronto
Red Flag Deals
Craigslist
Kijiji
Now Toronto
Buy/Sell |
