First, you have to determine your marketing strategy. Is it a Yard Sale, Garage Sale, Moving Sale or an Estate Sale? Each has different connotations and attracts different types of buyers. Yard equals stuff you are tired of and are willing to spend hours cleaning out drawers, cabinets, closets and pricing stuff for 25 cents. You make $32.15 for 2 weeks of work and a 10-hour day that starts with folks arriving before dawn to haggle you down to 10 cents. Then you load up all the stuff left, which is the majority and haul it to Goodwill.
A Garage sale is the next step up. You actually have some things that others may want such as tools and garden items. Maybe some Holiday items and bric bracs like geese wearing bonnets and roosters plates that have lost their appeal to you. Still hours of work, a10-hour day, and you haul stuff that didn’t sell to Goodwill. But you make $121.50.
Next is the Moving Sale. You have good stuff but maybe you are combining households or it just is too much trouble to move. If you find a good one of these you’ve stuck gold!!
Finally, the Estate Sale also known as Great Aunt Ethel passed on but left behind old musty, dusty “antiques” that no one wants. This is where some snooty estate appraiser is going to take a percentage of the sale so the prices are ridiculous and the stuff just gives you the creeps.
Well, we decided that our sale was in the Moving Sale category but couldn’t find preprinted signs so we called it a Garage Estate Sale. Logic being we’d just attract anyone we could. And we did!!
We had some of the nicest people you could meet come to the Sale. During the Sale, we told the story of LAFF and were amazed at people’s reactions and the support. It started with Mark who just happened to be passing time while waiting to pick up a friend from Shepard Spinal Center. Before he left, we both got a little teary eyed about losing someone you love. Then came Renee, Rob, Carol, Laura, Gladys, Max, Heather, Sheri and the list goes on. We had Vietnam Vets, Antique Dealers, Country Music Fans, Single Moms, Newly Weds, Retirees, and just lots of folks who work hard and are trying to stretch their dollars. Many are now our friends on facebook! We gave away lots of LAFF magnets and LAFF huggers and can’t wait until the first time we spot someone driving around Atlanta with a LAFF magnet on their car.
So to all who were a part of our Garage Estate Sale, thank you for stopping by, sharing a story and a LAFF, and for your heartfelt support for Life’s a Flip Flop. We’ve never LAFFed so much at a Yard/Garage/Moving/Estate Sale!
Karen and Debra
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