Tips for Planning a Sucessful Yard Sale

My friend Kim and I are having a yard sale the first weekend in June. Since I've never held one myself or grew up having them, I queried the message boards at work and got this treasure trove of advice.

• Prices should be set at around 5-10% of the original purchase price. 5% if you really want to sell it. 10% if you’re ok donating it.
• Individual pricing stickers or labels work better than broad signs.
• Hanging clothes, especially kids’ clothes, sell almost twice as fast as the same clothes laying on a table.
• Sizing clothes and separating boys and girls clothes makes them easier for people to shop, which also increases your sales.
• Have a decent amount of cash handy in small bills and all coins (except pennies) to make change.
• If you have more than one person selling, make labels of different colors to make it easy to track. Keep each person’s sales separate by writing them down on their own page in a notebook.
• Spread the stuff out as much as you can. Two reasons, more tables looks like more stuff and you’ll get less drive by’s and more shoppers. Also, it’s easier for them to see things and that makes them more likely to find the treasure they want.
• Organize the stuff into categories: Adult clothing, kids’ clothing, toys, books, bedding or linens, furniture, decorating items and separate them physically.
• If you have furniture, exercise equipment or kids’ items, display those prominently. They are big draws.
• Depending on the length of your sale, schedule a planned “1/2 price period” for the last few hours and let shoppers know in advance.
• Signs, signs and more signs. Put them on busy streets, but make sure to have enough directional ones to get them to your house.
• If you can, convince some neighbors to hold them the same day. More than 3 or 4 sales in a block can be advertised as a neighborhood sale and hugely increases shoppers.
• Advertise, but only if you have enough stuff to make that worthwhile.

I'm thinking about posting a web gallery of some of the better things people may want to buy. Des Moines peeps, when the time comes, will you help me spread the word? Photo from Yard Sale Bloodbath, which features some truly unique finds.