Advertising Your Yard Sale

Advertise, advertise, advertise! That's the key to running a retail business. You are about to open a sales business for a Saturday or a weekend. Nobody knows you are selling anything unless you tell them. The serious yard sale shoppers are organized, they look for advertised yard sales in their area and they plan ahead. They organize their shopping trips through the neighborhoods visiting one sale after another. So, try to advertise your garage sale at least one week ahead of the event to give the shoppers a chance to put you at the head of their list.

List a summary of items you are selling. Use specific words like furniture, kitchen utensils, garden tools, hand tools, etc. Don't use "miscellaneous" or "general household", they don't tell the shopper anything about what they might be interested in. They will just skim right over your ad.

If you are moving and must sell a lot of stuff in a relatively short time, offering great prices, mention it in your garage sale ads. Shoppers will be attracted to your sale because they will be looking for some really good deals.

Early Birds

If you don't want "early bird" shoppers to show up at 5 am, before your sale starts at 6, specify "no early birds!" in your ad. Or add a statement like "prices are double before sale opens". If you permit the early shoppers, you are encouraging their before-sale shopping.

If you want the early birds to visit your sale, state "early birds welcome" in your ad. Sometimes yard sales are cleaned out by the early birds, depending on items, prices and quality. Some early birds are actually dealers who are shopping to stock their own large yard sales or swap meets. The main thing is that it is another option you have to get rid of the stuff you want to sell. And does it really matter where it goes, so long as you don't have it anymore?

Online Advertising

Shoppers use home computers to search ads to find good sales. Put your ads online at Yardies.com. It's an excellent place for yard sale advertising. Newspapers, community bulletin boards and newsletters are also great places to advertise. Exposure is the key, you have a sale and you want to get the word out to get as many people as possible to show up and browse. If they're not browsing, they're not buying. The more people you have visiting your yard sale, the more the shoppers cruising by will want to stop and browse.

If you list online, try to include a photo of your home so shoppers will have an easier time of finding your sale. If the online site permits it, highlight featured items of your yard sale individually, include photos if that option is available. Yardies.com allows you to list any big-ticket item you want and include a map to your yard sale. Further you can have a photo gallery for each of your listed items.

Less is more

Make your ad simple for quick reading, listing your address, the time of the sale, and a few featured items that will draw attention. If you live in a location that might be hard to find, you may have to add simple, straightforward directions.