emptying house WHATS HOT FOR GARAGE SALE? (heat, stove, appliance)

[tillthen]

for those of you that are in tune with garage / yard sale can you tell

what is popular at the sales. i am emptying my home of 45 years of stuff. it seems to me that there is way toooo much for one garage sale. i must sort out the trash from the hot items. i am over whelmed and with this heat i spent the day in the basement making a mess. i found:

cigar afficiato mags (lots)
baseball year books
45's from the 50's
ny papers w headline hi-lites like
famous people that died including pres. and sport people
bar ware
booze
books
clothes
linen table cloths /placemats

and lots more from video tapes to cd's to stero player
even found a walk man from the 80's
printers suitcase etc

PLEASE offer some advise --- i find a i need very little to live today.
kitchen ware and china pots every thing should go some where.
i am tied of being the keeper of the gate. i want to recaim my space and at the same time clean out my head. HELP NEVER HAD A GARAGE AND I NEED DIRECTION before my life goes by the curb.

[azoria]

Some of those things could be considered collectors items in which case you might want to target market them elsewhere. Ebay, craigslist, record stores. At a garage sale you'd probably be lucky just to get rid of them.

Old magazines generally have zero resale value. Clothes out of style will not move. Used books often won't bring better than $1 apiece. Old technical devices--your stereo, walkman, printer worth little to nothing.

Good useable household items will sell. Furniture does really well. Kitchen stuff you can get rid of.

Anything you put out for sale should be clean, in good usable condition, organized, and priced. By 3 PM on the afternoon of the sale, take any offer you get not matter what your price tag.

A lot of those things you've been saving....will either go to charity donations (if they'll even take them) or to the refuse.

Sorry not to be more optimistic.

[Lindsey_Mcfarren]

In my area, the best thing to do is to advertise and open it up 7am on Friday. Thats when the chronic garage sale people come out of the woodwork. They swarmed me and bought almost everything they could lay their hands on.

I think you should do some research on Ebay to see if your selling things that you might get more money for on Ebay.

[hypocore]

It also depends on what area you are in. Being in Texas, I can sell kids clothes/shoes in mass quantities no matter how old they are because there is always at least one hispanic family who will come buy it all and send it back to families in Mexico.

I take my books to Half Price Books and get a better deal than at a yard sale.

Other things completely depend on who hits your sale. I've sold tons of coffee mugs, with none being anything special, yet I've had people tell me that they can't sell them for anything.

At my last one I had men looking for tools of any sort, fishing gear and weapons. I had none of that type thing. haha

Typically I can sell all baby items and most toys easily enough, even the old fast food toys. Stuffed animals don't sell for me, though.

I've sold lots of linens of all sorts, kitchen ware and even appliances.
I sold an old nonworking freezer for $5 just to get rid of it to someone who would probably be able to repair it. I also sold a very old stove that still worked for $25 to a gal whose daughter didn't have a working one and simply couldn't afford to replace it.

Small electronics usually sold too.

Things that never sold for me....old records, typewriter and sewing machine. Never found a person who wanted to collect any of those.

Knick knacks....you just never could tell what might sell there and what might not, at least for me.

Hints to make it successful: Spend the time to organize and price everything, then display it nicely. Most people really won't take the time to dig through piles or boxes. Make sure you have batteries and electricity available so people can check to make sure things work before they buy them. Have bags they can put their purchases in. Have plenty of change.

Also, if it's hot where you are you might make a little extra selling cold bottled water too, but check your area for restrictions on that before doing it.

[crazyma]

Let me tell you someting we do...
you know how you have all this stuff you hate to throw out, or even put a price on?

Well have you a big ole box of assorted odds and ends, and a sign saying free item with purchase.

You would be surprised at how many people will buy something just to get a free item!! Our favorite was the lady who wound up spending about $7 just to get an odd tupperware lid for free!! (that I would have given her...if asked) TOO funny.

Remember at yard sales anything goes. We have had 'junk' fly out the door while nice reasonable pirce stuff sat there. Go figure! We have sold disclosed as non working items.
Sold plastic bags full of assorted small 'junk' for a quarter, kind of a grab bag.....hey it gets it outta there!

Don't get all sentimental and over price stuff. Ask yourself, what would I pay for this at a sale like this? either you goal is to get rid of stuff, or fund your retirement

have fun with it! Call it a nostalgia sale....