When I first saw this question I really didn’t think there would be a way to answer this. But, after I thought about it, I realized that, since I am an avid “yard-saler” (someone who spends the weekend driving from yard sale to garage sale to estate sale in the endless pursuit of a really good bargain!) that my own experiences can and do help me with selling things online.
In fact, this is a really good question that I haven’t seen before – thank you for this!
There is actually so much energy that you have to put into having your own garage sale at your home that doing the same thing online is relatively easy!
Of course, you have to think about what you are selling, what condition it is in, what price you will put on it, how to set it up to get people to look at it and if you need to clean or repair it, or sell it ‘as is’.
You also need to consider how you will let people know you are having a sale – will you advertise in the newspaper or just hang signs from light poles?
Selling items online isn’t really much different except you don’t need to mow your lawn, hang signs all around the neighborhood and fight off the early-birds that show up at 5 am when your signs clearly say you don’t open until 8 am!
Any and all of these experiences (having and attending garage sales) can be immensely helpful when it comes to selling the same items online that you would in a garage sale. You can do this by:
1. By remembering yard sales you've attended in the past you can be sure to price properly. You will know that folks won’t pay $100 for a used pair of jeans unless they are some special brand or your potential customer lives in a different geographical location which commonly does pay $100 for used jeans. Look at your items objectively – then put a fair price on them. Be careful not to over-price something because your great aunt Helen gave it to your mom on her wedding day - if it is special to you, don’t sell it! Also, remember that the buyer may also need to pay shipping which can affect a buyers decisions.
2. When you advertise your garage sale at your home, you usually place signs all around the neighborhood – on busy roads especially. You also might have to arrange the signs so that people can follow them or find your place easily. Luckily, you don’t have to do that for your online garage sale, people can easily find your website or TripleClicks page But you do need to advertise by either paying for it or using free services.
You will want to use the same type of verbiage if you are truly selling things online that you would sell at your garage sale. The signs that always seem to work the best are ones that say “Estate Sale!” or “7-family Garage Sale!”
You can use this same psychology as well in your advertisements by making statements like “3 Generations of Styles!” if you are selling your husband, son’s and grandson’s old clothes. Or, something like “Don’t Miss the World’s Largest Online Garage Sale!” which is similar to some banners that TripleClicks already has available. This type of wording is sure to get folks who love garage sales all excited!
3. Just as if you were having a garage sale at home, you will want to be sure each item is clean and functional. You may need to clean or fix something but it is better than getting a reputation for selling junk.
You will also want to try and place alike things together – shoes all at the bottom of the page, sporting equipment all at the top or whatever configuration would make anyone eager to look for more.
If an item is stained, broken, or has some other issue, you might consider offering it as a free item with each sale. Or, have a section of “Freebies” that you will give away if the buyer will pay for shipping.
These are the common ways that I can see previous experiences with garage sales would be helpful online. It would make this an article if I went further, so I hope this little bit is helpful to you!
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