How you advertise two-day garage sales could mean the difference between a slow second day or back-to-back sell-out crowds.
(OKC CRAIGSLIST GARAGE SALES) - Hosting two-day garage sales is a good way to maximize profits—unless you're sitting in your garage twiddling your thumbs on the second day. (The horror!) Whether you're hosting a Fri-Sat or Sat-Sun event, to draw the most customers possible on both days of a two-day sale it pays to...
advertise each day separately. If not, a lot of potential customers will skip the second day of your sale assuming you sold anything worth buying the day before.
How to Tweak Your Garage Sale Ads to Attract a Throng of Shoppers Two Days in a Row
The idea is to promote each day of your sale as a separate event (which technically they are.) Instead of advertising that lumps both days together in one ad, place two different garage sale ads, one for Friday and another one advertising Saturday.
That way, someone who doesn't make it to your sale on Friday won't automatically cross you off their list when they see your garage sale ads on Saturday because your ads won't mention anything about a sale the day before.
Just be sure to change the wording of your second ad so it's not obvious.
Here are two examples of good garage sale ads to illustrate:
EXAMPLES OF GOOD GARAGE SALE ADS
Example Ad A: "Bargain Hunters"
Bargain Hunter's Garage Sale — Starts 8AM Fri June 14 — Come fill your trunk with nice junk for pennies on the dollar! Cheap prices on good tools, toys, furniture, gently used clothing, shoes, costume jewelry, vintage dishes, small appliances, books, board games, frames, large oil paintings, fishing rods, camping gear and more. We're easy to find... just look for the balloons at 125th and JFK Blvd.
Example Ad B: "Cleaned Out"
We cleaned out every room in the house, the basement, even the backyard tool shed — and it all has to go this weekend at our Garage Sale! From furniture, frames & fishing gear to tools, toys & toasters — everything is priced to sell. We have loads of XL men & women's clothing, shoes, Kendra Scott jewelry, artwork, Ironstone, paperbacks, sleeping bags, tents and more. Don't miss these steals and deals! Come see us Sat June 15th at 12599 Meadowood Ln. in Briar Creek.
TIP: Schedule your sale for the first weekend after payday. You'll have a better turnout because people will have more money to shop.
See what I did?
Your Garage Sale ads don't have to be so salesy or list as many items, but at the very least you'll want to apply these three tweaks if you take the two-ad approach:
1. Write a different headline/opening sentence for each ad.
2. Leave your street address out of the first ad and describe your location, instead.
3. Shuffle the order of the items you list for sale in your second ad.
OPTIONAL TWEAKING
I have better luck when I use different terms for my sale items in the second ad, as well. So if you have time, I recommend that you also:
4. Replace the names of one or two items with synonyms.
5. Substitute a couple of generic terms with brand names or replace a broad category with specific items.
For example, I changed: gently used clothing to XL men & women's clothing, costume jewelry to Kendra Scott jewelry and vintage dishes to Ironstone.
Do that and your garage sale ads will not only be seen by more people, they'll also appeal to more shoppers who see them.
WHAT ABOUT SELL-OUT CROWDS?
To attract a throng of shoppers your garage sale ads have to tell garage salers that you have what they want.
It's not enough to say. "something for everyone" or "too much to mention." Effective garage sale ads— the kind that attract sell-out crowds—have attention-grabbing graphics, catchy headlines, good photos and a list of specific items that people go to yard sales hoping to find.
Of course what people want varies, but generally, if you have items to sell that fall into any of the following categories, list the best ones in your ads.
SHUT-UP-AND-TAKE-MY-MONEY ITEMS TO MENTION IN YOUR GARAGE SALE ADS
Popular items... such as tools, toys, books, shoes, costume jewelry, baby clothes, kitchenware, etc....
Designer Label... clothing, bags and accessories such as Louis Vuitton and Prada...
Top Name Brands... like Ashley furniture, Stanley tools, Disney, Fisher Price, Nike, H&M etc...
Large items... including furniture, appliances and exercise machines...
Collectibles and antiques... such as vinyl records, vintage signs, antique typewriters...
Seasonal items... such as Christmas decorations and patio furniture...
Uncommon or hard-to-find items... such as XL or XXL clothing and school uniforms.,,
Cheaply priced items and special deals... Anything you're selling well below used market value or sales promotions like Fill-a-Bag for $5 Bucks and BOGO.
Brand new/unused items
Items you have in large quantities
Items popular with resellers... such as video games, cd's, trading cards and textbooks, as well as items sought-after by Etsy sellers, such as frames, fabric, craft supplies and small furniture pieces that can be painted...
Of course, you don't want to list everything you're selling. It only takes a few good items to be effective and no one will read your ads if they're too long. Not only that, but classified ads can get real expensive, real fast.
GARAGE SALE ADVERTISING COSTS
I'm not going to sugar-coat it.
It would cost around $70 to run just one of the above example garage sale ads in my local newspaper. Classified ads in your hometown paper may be less expensive, but frankly? Unless you're selling high ticket items, or splitting garage sale advertising costs with a group, running two ads in your local newspaper probably isn't the most cost-effective way for you to get the word out.
WHERE TO PLACE YOUR GARAGE SALE ADS
Instead, I recommend keeping the number of words in your newspaper ads to the bare minimum and supplementing them with more detailed and enticing garage sale ads in free online classifieds like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, local Facebook buy-sell groups and numerous yard sale websites that offer free garage sale ads.
TIP: Post your ads on Craigslist first since a lot of sites pull their information from Craigslist Garage Sales.
I also recommend garagesalefinder.com and yardsalesearch.com, as well as quite a few other websites that offer free garage sale ads along with paid upgrades. I put a comprehensive list together to make it easy for you to find them. Check out:
Note: If you're in Oklahoma, be sure to submit your community-wide event to our City-Wide and Neighborhood Garage Sale Calendar.
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