With each Spring comes garage sale season.
This is a long standing tradition for families to gather stuff they no longer need and sell it for extra cash.
There are also those who have a few garage sales a years and approach it as a business.
No matter what type of garage sale you are setting up, it can be fun rewarding and also bit of work.
When you decide you are going to have a garage sale you will need to prepare in advance.
There will be some up front cost if you plan on advertising in the newspaper and buying things like a cash box and price stickers.
When you first start to prepare, it might take a few days to go through what you are going to sell.
In order have a profitable garage sale you are going to have a strong voice.
The people that show up are going to nickel and dime you.
At one garage sale that my family held one lady tried to pay for a $25.
00 with $0.
36 in pennies.
Be strong and hold out for the best price early in the day.
  Then at the end of the day you can set prices lower if an item is not moving and you want to get rid of it.
A few weeks before the garage sale pick your items to sell and separate goods by type.
You want your customers to find things easily clothing one are toys another and so on.
Setting prices is the tough part.
Since most people are looking to get a deal prices have to be in line.
You do not want to price items to high or to low.
The best price tool is eBay for an item you think you want a fair price for, check and see what it sell on eBay and aim for that sale price, if you fail to get that amount you can always bargain with your customer.
Well you got all your item ready and priced, next you need to set a date and time.
Your advertising can be as simple as placing flyers in your area or advertising online or newspaper.
If you have goods that well sell for a good amount and lots of stuff then take a newspaper ad.
This way more people will find your sale.
You can also use sites like Craigslist for free to advertise.
Make sure to be clear of time and location and that there are not mistakes.
Nothing worse then paying for advertising and finding out you made a mistake with dates or location.
Once you figure out what advertising works best make sure your  are fully ready for the big day.
Start the night before with preparing tables and pricing items for sale.
One tip I must pass along is keep valuable items in an area that you can monitor.
We had some one steal a more expensive item when we were most busy.
Protect your property there are people that will steal at garage sales.
With toys pay attention to young children they tend to walk away with items.
The often forgotten is to get lots of small change.
Most people will be paying with bills for items and you will run out of change quickly.
Make sure to also guard the cash box or have the cash in your pockets.
Making extra money at a garage sale can also be fun and easy.
You can set up the barbecue to sell hot dogs and drinks.
Many people are moving from one sale to another and will buy something to eat quickly between sales.
You can also have face painting for kids.
These little extras can add up at the end of the day.
Be creative and have fun you garage sale will be a success.