Welcome to the second installment of our yard sale series. I’ve learned through experience that having a successful yard sale is all about marketing and product placement.
As I shared last week, I put an ad in a newspaper or two. I also create an event on my facebook page (my niece Caitlin helps me with that) and ask my friends to share. I don’t do 
twitter ‘cause, honey, the only one I want twittering me is Charlie.
To refresh your memory, here’s my ad: If you saw something you liked on the Homeshopping Network that you wished you’d bought but didn’t, most likely I did, and I’ll be selling it on Saturday. Yard Sale 8:00-3:00. Collectables, furniture, tools, all sorts of bargains. Early birds welcome.
Furniture is important. You need a few big pieces to draw people in, make them stop and get out of their car. It’s not worth your time to have a jelly jar yard sale. That’s when there’s a couple tables with lots of little trinkets on them. You’ll just get drive-bys with those. A car will slow down, checking out your stuff and then drive on to the next yard sale on their list.
Now, if you don’t have any furniture that you’re ready to part with, just have your husband bring out a chest of drawers, a desk, a trunk: anything big. Then, put a few things on them that are for sale. People will stop to look at the furniture, and when they ask what the price is, you say, “Oh, I’m sorry. That’s not for sale. I’m just using that to display those collectables.”
Now, tools. I’m not big on them myself, but you need to put them in your ad for three reasons. Number one: it might get your husband to tidy up the shed. Number two: it keeps him occupied, so he’s there when you need him to carry heavy things out to a car or truck. Number three: it’s a code. It lets you women know that there’s going to be something at the yard sale to occupy your husband so you can really look around, and then he’s there when you need him to lug stuff.
You have to make sure your yard sale signs are fresh and new. You can make them by hand if you want, or use the ones that the newspaper gives you for taking out the ad. Just don’t put up old ones. Then it looks like you’re one of those places that’s having a permanent yard sale. You’ve seen them: a house with lots of junk piled up in the yard all summer long, yard sale signs all weather beaten because they’ve been out for years, blue tarps everywhere. I stopped at one once where they were trying to sell little packets of mustard and catsup like you get at McDonalds. I mean, come on! Half used boxes of laundry detergent, an old bed pan. Swear to God, an old bed pan!
You need to set yourself apart from that nonsense, so make sure your yard sale signs are spiffy. You might even want to rope in some of your neighbors to have a yard sale on the same day. Sure, it’s more competition, but it catches people’s eye if you can say “Neighborhood Yard Sale.” You move from a lonely yard sale to a destination.
Check back next week for part three of our series where I’ll reveal the number one yard sale rule and the golden rule of yard sales.
That’s it for now. Catch you on the flip side!
Hear Ida Tell It: Yard Sale Pointers: Product Placement
Tonight
June 17: The Moose in Me, the Moose in You!, Sable Lodge Retirement Community, 7:00pm, South Portland, ME
Coming Up This Summer
July 12: Makin’ Whoopie, Deertrees Theatre, 7:30pm, Harrison, ME
July 18: Sip, Soak, Laugh, The SoakingPot, 5:00 & 7:00pm, North Conway, NH
July 25: Book Reading, North Gorham Library, 7:00pm, Gorham, ME
August 22: The Best of Ida, ACT ONE Summer Festival, 2:00 & 7:30pm, Portsmouth, NH
August 24: The Best of Ida, Celebration Barn Theatre, 7:30pm, South Paris, ME
August 29: The Best of Ida, ACT ONE Summer Festival, 2:00 & 7:30pm, Portsmouth, NH
Check out my full schedule here.
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