Trash or Cash – Knowing What to Put in Your Garage Sale

As you’re going through your items to sell at your garage sale, how do you know what to include? What items sell well and what ones don’t? Here are some tips for knowing whether to sell something for cash or trash it, and suggestions on what to put in your garage sale.

Clothing

Garage sales often have an abundance of clothing, and children’s clothing is often in great demand. Many people go to garage sales with clothing purchases in mind, and as body shapes and tastes change, one person’s trash can become another’s treasure. Here are some guidelines for selling clothing at your garage sale.

• Don’t price things too high. People are looking for bargains, and when they are in garage sale mode, they are not going to want to pay $30 for a blazer, even if it did cost you $250 when you bought it new. Clothing should be $2 an item at the maximum, and even $0.25 and $0.50 apiece is not out of the question.
• T-shirts with themes and pictures are not likely to sell. Tourist shirts and shirts that commemorate an event are the same way. The exception is shirts with cartoon characters – many people really like these.
• If you’re going to sell stained or damaged clothes, put them in a special pile. Call it “play clothes” or “painting clothes” or something like that, and offer the whole lot for a couple of dollars. Otherwise, it’s not a good idea to try to sell damaged or stained clothes.
• Fashions do change; a polyester leisure suit is probably not going to sell unless it’s around Halloween! Items that are really dated, like pegged jeans or the aforesaid leisure suit, are best trashed.

Toys

Toys are nearly always a hit. Make sure they are in good condition, and that they work with all the parts present. Toys that are mere bits (like tiny Legos) or that are missing things (like dolls with no clothes) should probably be trashed.

Kitchen Items

People love to pick up kitchen items at garage sales – dishes, appliances, and so forth. If you have owner’s manuals, include those. Dishes that are chipped or cracked probably aren’t going to sell; stick with pieces in good condition. Sell things in sets where it’s cheaper to buy the set – each glass could be $0.50, but the set of six could be $2.

Books

Books often sell pretty well at garage sales. In fact, some people make a bit of side income buying up books at garage sales and selling them on major buying and selling websites. These folks will be looking for books that are somewhat in demand, like cookbooks on healthy cooking and popular novels. Other books that sell well are kids’ books, as long as they are not torn or scribbled in. Then they’ll need to be trashed.

Tagged garage sale