Tag Sale

[Fern]

I'm planning to sell my house either this fall or next spring. I've started collecting things i want to sell in a tag sale this spring, to:

1. decrease amount of stuff i have to move
2. help 'declutter' the house when buyers look at it

Now that i'm in the mindset of moving, i find things tucked away in closets and drawers that i never use and that has just sat there for years. I think it's really true that when you have a bigger house, you tend to collect more 'stuff.'

Just going through this exercise of 'editing' my life's clutter is a very liberating, refreshing exercise.

I'm not very good at pricing things, though. It seemed like i have an awful lot of stuff for the ".50 table" and the "$1 table." It's hard to decide if things will have more value for others, though they don't for me cus i've had them for years. One thing i did to help me price some things was to go online to check prices. For instance, i happen to have a Craftsman circular saw, never used. I went the the Sears site and saw that they sell them new for about $50, so i priced mine at $25, PLUS, i printed out the web page with the saw on it and the price highlighted, which i'll put next to the saw on the table when i sell it, to show buyers they're getting a good value. I'm doing the same thing for some old Fireking Kadeit dishware i have from the 40s. I saw someone on Ebay was selling dinner plates for $25 each, so i printed out that page and am selling mine for $10 each.

What do you think of this idea? Any other tips?

One concern i have is that my driveway is up a short hill with not a whole lot of parking at the top; and you won't really be able to see the yard sale itself when you're down on the road. I hope the lack of parking and the uphill walk won't discourage tag salers from checking things out.

[Ima saver]

I have only had one tag sale and I didn't make much money, but like you, I wanted to declutter the house. I am planning on having another one this spring. One thing I plan to do is have a "free table" You will be surprised at the junk people will take if it is free. We had a whole trailer full of junk a few years ago. One guy came and took the whole lot. My husband is a builder and he has a garage full of stuff. Lots of that is going on the FREE trailer and table.

[mstrohm]

There are two types of tag sales.

1. By those looking to make money (often to support their tag sale habit)
2. By those looking to declutter their house

If you want your house cleaned out - don't worry about pricing. Just get rid of the junk! If you suspect something may be worth money, then do your homework on that item and don't include it in the tag sale.

Mark

[contrary1]

Good signs and great advertising will make the sale. Signs don't need much around our area, just make them all the same. The word SALE on them with an arrow. When people are driving, they don't read anymore than that anyway.

Are you in an area with an active Craigs List? That is a great source of free advertising. We had many people from our free ads there.
I placed an ad daily the week before the sale, then additional ones each of the 3 days it was open. Each morning, I put on a "special" and we got some great results from that.

Best of luck on your sale as well as the sale of your home. Moving is the best way to clean house & de-clutter!

[mbhunter]

I'll second the advertising suggestion.
Since this is a moving sale, advertise it as such. You'll get a lot more traffic.
A friend of mine spent over $50 on newspaper ads for her moving sale, but it paid off: she made upwards of $500 on the sale.
People are a lot more likely to come to a moving sale because the stuff is generally better than at a run-of-the-mill garage sale.

[Fern]

Good points... i was just planning on advertising on Thurs/Fri/Sat for my sat/sun sale. So you think this is not enough?

Interestingly, a friend of mine said why bother with all the trouble of having a tag sale, that i should just donate all to good will and get a receipt with inflated estimate of value so it would be comparable to what i'd earn in a tag sale, or so he says.

As for saying it's a moving sale, hmm, will have to think about that. When i am ready to list the house, i wasn't planning on having them put the For Sale sign out front; i don't know why, i'm just a pretty private person and i didn't want to advertise i was moving to the world at large, just serious buyers who'd be looking at MLS listings.

[cercis]

You have jadeite? What pattern? I covet jadeit. Covet it. My mother has a set of the Alice pattern and it absolutely is coming to me if I have to kill my brother for it. She has a set of Jane Ray in blue, I like it too, but if it comes down to it, he can have it.

Jadeite is EXTREMELY popular right now. Martha Stewart collects it.

[Snoopy2645]

have you considered ebaying what is worth more money cause at a garage sale or moving sale people dont like to pay much for stuff I have really found that out the last few years I will have something priced 1.50 & they want to offer half seems what ever I have it priced for they want to offer half for it I finally started saying NO WAY & sometimes they will come back & sometimes they wont

[lrjohnson]

I'd suggest trying to go to a couple of other Yard sales, to see what prices are and what people are buying. Also, run through a Thrift Store. You may decide NOT to price something at $10 if you saw a bunch on sale for $3. I think it's fair to try to get some money for the trouble of having a sale, so you don't want to price the family silver at $1 a piece, but on the other hand you actual want things to sell.

I was at a sale the other day, absolutely great stuff, great shape, but very overpriced. The thing is, these folks might think the items were not wanted-the items were great-but they didn't realize people saw the prices and ran.

Another way to think of it is, if you had just movced and had a barren apartment and a medium bit of money, what would you pay for the items you are selling?

Last time I had a Yard sale, everything that didn't sell, was donated that day to a thirft store. I made some money and totally decluttered.

I think you'll do great. Good luck!

[Fern]

Originally Posted by cercis

You have jadeite? What pattern? I covet jadeit. Covet it. My mother has a set of the Alice pattern and it absolutely is coming to me if I have to kill my brother for it. She has a set of Jane Ray in blue, I like it too, but if it comes down to it, he can have it.

Jadeite is EXTREMELY popular right now. Martha Stewart collects it.

hmm, maybe we're talking about 2 different things? as far as i knew, there is only one 'jaedite.' It's a kind of milky green color, solid color, no design, with a ribbed design on the outer 1 inch of the plates. the plates are more like glass than ceramic. is this different from what you're talking about?

[cercis]

That's "Jane Ray" pattern. Anchor Hocking made 4 designs. Jane Ray, Alice (which is a combo of ribs and flowers) Restaurant ware (plain) and Charm (plain but square).

My mom has collected depression glass since I was a kid, and I used to study her books, so I probably have more than a normal amount of familiarity with patterns.

Alice:


(http://1800replace.com/webquote/AHCALI.htm)

Jane Ray:


"Restaurant ware"


(http://www.replacements.com/webquote/AHCCHAJ.htm)

And one I didn't know about but should have since my mom has this in blue
"Charm"


(http://www.replacements.com/webquote/AHCCHAJ.htm)

All that searching makes me realize we gave my MIL a $100 towel bar (or dh did, I really wanted to keep it). It's jadeite. I need to tell her if she ever wants to get rid of it, I'd like it back. It'll match my bathtub:



(it's less olive than this pic)

[Fern]

Oh, you're right, i've got the jane ray. My grandparents had a full set, part of which i've end up with. Some i sold to an antique dealer, some i still have. It says Fire King on the bottom. I think blue must be very unusual, i've never seen it before, tho i do see the stuff i've got from time to time at flea markets and so on. Thank you for the pix!

[cercis]

I love all things green, so jadeite thrills me. I just emailed my mom reminding her to leave her jadeite to me in her will. I like the blue, but I like the green better. So, she's probably leaving the blue to my niece. I think the blue is a little more rare but it isn't as in demand (that darn Martha Stewart). She got a huge set of blue charm for not too much money several years ago.

For years my mom called her dishes "Mother Oats dishes". Apparently these dishes used to actually come in boxes of Mother's Oats (at least that's what I think she told me, I guess it's possible they were a mail order thing). They were her uncle's dishes.

[Fern]

I have a penchant for green dishware too, and green stuff in general.

Funny, your story, cercis about the mother oats dishes reminded me of those days, i guess it was int he 70s, when gas stations used to give you free dishes with a fill-up? Remember that? I think the glasses had polka dots on them?