My Make Money Guide

Garage sales typically are not associated with making a decent amount of extra cash, but the truth is that they may be a fantastic home money making opportunity.  In order to make this successful, you want to take a few things into consideration.
1.    You must have items that provide some value, even if they are not valuable to you.
2.    Your items must be clean, or able to be cleaned
3.    You need a wide variety of items
4.    You have to advertise your garage sale

First thing to consider is the fact that in order for you to make extra cash with your garage sale, you must have items that provide value to someone.  The old saying that one person’s junk is another person’s treasure can certainly apply here, but not if your are items are junk worthy of the dumpster.  Popular items are movies, video games, toys, books, clothing and furniture.  Antiques, sports equipment and tools can also do fairly well.

Second thing to consider is that your items must be presentable.  If they are very dirty, and incapable of being properly and thoroughly cleaned, then they are not fit to go in your garage sale.  Imagine walking into a store somewhere, and finding all the items filthy and dirty.  That would not entice you to buy anything.  The same goes for your garage sale.  Spend time cleaning items so they look nice, and you increase your odds of selling your items and making some extra cash.

Third thing to consider is that you want to offer up a variety of items for sale.  If you are only selling a table full of toys, the odds of having success are relatively low.  Instead, if you provide a variety of items, appealing to multiple age groups, then you have a better chance to earn extra money.  This might require you to do a little preparation before hand.  Visiting your local thrift shop with a few dollars will allow you to stock up on a few items.  Typically, you can find items there for extremely low price, but that might be dirty.  With a little cleaning, those items could be worth a lot more.  This practice will allow you to provide a nice spread of items for sale.

The last thing to consider is how you advertise your garage sale.  The most common thing people do is post a few handwritten sings up on telephone poles and stop signs a few days before the garage.  If a business were to only have a few handwritten signs to advertise its location, it probably would not get much attention.  You should take that into consideration when advertising your garage sale.  Utilizing Craig’s List will be your first step in advertising your garage sale.  Craig’s List will allow you to post a free listing advertising your garage sale.  Make sure you post it in the proper place so that it gets the most attention.  You should also consider joining online bulletin boards and discussion boards that are based locally, and make posts about your upcoming garage sale.  Lastly, you should take posting signs to the next level.  Take some time to design a nice advertisement that you can print out on paper.  Use colored paper to capture attention.  You can ask to place these items on community bulletin boards.  Good places to look for community bulletin boards are coffee shops, local colleges and universities, libraries, grocery stores, some restaurants, and gas stations.  The more places you have your advertisements, the better chances you have to make money and extra cash from your garage sale.

Make sure that you put important detail in your advertisement.  List the categories of items you will be selling (highlighting any “big ticket” items), location of garage sale, and hours of operation.  These details could entice more people to come to your garage sale, increasing the odds that you will earn money fast.

If you follow these four steps, you might have a great opportunity at home money making.  Garage sales don’t have to be the stereotypical ones full of ratty clothes and dirty dinner glasses.  With some time, preparation, and thought, you could turn the garage sale into a home money making business on the side.