Empty your closets, fill your pockets

By Marilyn Lewis

It's five days until payday, and you're rifling through jacket pockets and old purses, scrounging for change. But did you remember to look in the basement? Or the attic, the back of the closets, the garage and the kids' rooms?

Selling your old stuff can be easy and cheap, whether it's through garage sales, online auctions, classified ads or consignment stores.

The key, regardless of where and how you decide to sell, is smart marketing, says Bruce Littlefield, the author of "Garage Sale America," a book exploring garage-sale culture.

"If you say something is junk, it's junk," Littlefield says. But tell the story of this thing for sale -- it was Aunt Ida's before she passed away, it was a wedding gift to your parents, it was a treasure from your childhood -- and, "suddenly, it's worth more," says Littlefield, who's often featured on the "Quick Fixes" segment of NBC's "Today" show.

Garage sales

An old-fashioned garage or yard sale nets the most cash for the least effort, especially if you've got lots of stuff. You can't charge much, but there's no shipping, packing, listing or sharing the proceeds, as with online sales. Just haul your loot to the yard.

• Talk back: What was your best find at a garage sale?

"You literally just drag it outside, and people pay you for the privilege of carting it off," says Littlefield. When it's over, call a charity to remove what's left.

The upside: The characters who appear at your sale's appointed time -- and often before -- cannot be found in movies. They'll tell stories. Some will want to hear your stories. The entertainment is priceless.

"You are able to see the person who is going to walk away with your grandmother's good china," says Littlefield. "Or your ex-husband's golf clubs."

Garage sales are the venue for TVs, stereos, handheld games and MP3 players, record albums and music, clothes, kitchenware, tools and decorative items -- but not computer equipment or books.

The downside: Sales require work -- hauling, preparation, selling and cleanup. You might let a real heirloom go for $2. Worst of all, it's bound to rain the day of your sale and ruin everything.

Buyers occasionally include creeps, says Lynda Hammond, a former TV anchor and the owner of a Web site called The Garage Sale Gal. She writes on the topic for The Arizona Republic. Enlist friends' help, she says, to talk with buyers, make change and keep an eye on merchandise. Keep money in a fanny pack and a cell phone in your pocket. Lock your home and don't let strangers follow you inside, even to use the phone or the bathroom.

The bottom line: Don't spend a dime. Make signs from old cardboard. Or download free printable templates for yard-sale signs at Yard Sale Portal. If you must, buy custom labels for as little as $1 (for 360) and yard-sale signs for as much as $14 at discount stores, mail stops and sites like YardSaleSupplies.com. For wider exposure, buy a classified ad -- for about $30 -- in a local newspaper, listing as many items as possible. Post a free notice at Craigslist. Or list at an online listing sites like The Garage Sale Gal, which charges $4.99 for an endlessly renewable ad.

Tips:

• Open early. The best business is between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. "For one day of the year, get your butt out of bed, get those signs posted and start dealing," Hammond says. Encourage early birds. They're serious buyers.

• Let it go. Price it to move. Let people bargain you down.

• Don't post prices. Open pricing saves work and encourages banter and friendly haggling -- half the fun, says Hammond, who holds three or four sales annually and visits some 75 a week. Another twist: Littlefield likes setting up tables or bins of identically valued things -- a 25-cent table, a 50-cent table, a dollar table. Hammond finds she earns more by letting people make offers. For example, once when a buyer arrived at the end of a sale and became smitten with an old, unlabeled blanket.

"Name your price," Hammond urged her. "I wouldn't want to offend you," the woman insisted. "Oh, please. I'm tired," Hammond said. "Would you take $20 for it?" the woman asked, tentatively. Would she? It was the best sale of the day.

• Price the big stuff correctly. Decide if you'll take it to the dump if it doesn't sell. That'll help you know your bottom-line price. If you must earn, say, $100 on a TV, write $150 on the label, cross it out and mark it down to $115 or $110. You're more likely to get $100.

• Hold sales on Fridays to sell twice as much, says Hammond. On Saturdays the competition drives down prices, and buyers become overwhelmed.

• Be a pro. Organize your little store around your buyers' needs. Group like items. Fold clothes neatly on a table or string them on a line between a couple trees. Use colorful signs and banners to direct buyers here and there. Encourage people to handle things. Be ready with a laugh and a friendly answer to questions.

• Get help with estate sales. If you've lost a loved one and must sell an entire home full of stuff, find estate-sale professionals who run the sale for a slice of the proceeds. It's a huge amount of work, and estate sales attract thieves, Hammond warns. "You can do an estate sale on your own, but, man, I would be careful. At least hire an off-duty security cop."

• Find more ideas here at Hammond's site and under "Sale Tips" at the far-left side of the YardSaleSupplies.com site.

Continued: Online auctions

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