T-Minus 336 Days: Is a Yard Sale Worth It?

We survived the 3 day yard sale. Our immediate goal was to make more than the 2013 Yard a sale ($63). Our real small goal was $500, and our big goal was $1000. How did we do? Total was  $835. My mother's antiques sold $219, my sons sold $25, $90 was Market Place sales during the yard sale, and the rest was our sales. Bottom line? We inched across our small goal. But that is $500 that gets added to our move budget!

 A yard sale is an enormous amount of work. We spent weeks getting ready for the sale: purging and cleaning and organizing. In the days leading up we cleaned out the garage, sorted, and priced everything. Then, every day of the sale we got up at 6am to set up the yard sale. Every evening by 6pm we boxed everything back up and put it in the garage. Was it worth it?

We spend our lives collecting crap that we think has value but it really doesn’t. It is just crap. While my neighbors were in the pool, going on walks, and headed to the lake - we were shoveling shit for quarters. We were converting quarters into nickels as new and nearly new things were practically (and often actually) given away.

We read a smart magazine that told us to price hard cover books for $1, soft cover for $.50, and magazines for $.25. We had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of children’s books from every school book fair and book store and Christmas and everywhere imaginable. We priced them as per the recommendation but kept lowering the price during the sale until we were giving away books with every purchase. “Your purchase qualifies you to pick any five books for free!” We just wanted to get rid of them!

We had a large area for “free stuff” and we kept adding to the pile as the stark reality hit us: no one wants our shit. We couldn’t even give away most of the free stuff!

By the end, our prized and cherished baby clothes that were priced at $1 were selling for 2/$.25, then take 50% off.  Sometime we just rounded off the prices resulting in the clothes being free.

Bottom line: Nobody wants your shit! It isn’t worth the time and effort to get the stuff to those that might. It might be easier to just get a dumpster and throw it all away!

Once upon a time in New York State we could donate stuff for a tax write-off. That changed a few years ago and because NY is so highly taxed, you can’t get the write-off anymore - it is better to take the standard deduction. We used to donate things by the van load and it worked out great for everyone. Not anymore!

Online activity made the largest positive impact. I advertised on Craig’s list and Marketplace. People were continually sending me questions and asking if I would set aside items for them. Next, I took some of the items we were selling and I advertised them in market place to help with the sales. It made everything very busy: there was a constant flow of customers online and in the yard.

Sunday night came and we were done. We put many of our treasures out by the road for the garbage collectors. The remaining 30 totes were dragged into the garage and left for another day to sort and pack. 

Would I do a yard sale again? I am making more money on Market Place, but I am selling fewer things. The yard sale was good at getting rid of stuff, but it wasn't a very good money maker - not for all the effort that went into it. 

We are thinking about another yard sale, perhaps in August. We need to keep going through the house and purging and getting rid of things. I don't think the August sale will be as large, but it will help us to empty out many of the things we want to get rid of. And it will help us to inch closer to building our Florida move budget.