Bargain Quest

Subtitle: A real-life lesson in how not to advertise your yard sale.

Our yard sale on Saturday was part of a neighborhood yard sale, being organized by someone else. When I called the organizer to sign up, I asked what was planned for publicity and offered to help, because I know how fundamentally important it is. She told me everything was under control - She was placing an ad in the newspaper yard sale section and her teenage daughter was making the signs for community service credit.

It was basically a disaster.

1. The newspaper ad billed it as a “multi-family” sale instead of “neighborhood.” Any yard saler worth his salt will always gravitate towards community/neighborhood sales because there are often lots and lots of sales in close proximity. “Multi-family” is a sketchy term that could mean anything from 2 families participating. (Technically, my yard sale was multi-family because my mom contributed some items.) Why not use the infinitely better term when it applies?

2. The ad also gave very vague location information. All that was listed was the name of our subdivision, and not even “xyz subdivision”, just “xyz.” No info about where we’re located or how to get here.

3. A high school girl making the signs? Unfortunately, the result was exactly what you would expect from someone that age: A floppy, flowery sign on ground level at the entrance to our subdivision. It was pretty and she had obviously worked hard on it, but it was packed with words and colors that rendered it hard to read. (I remember the description “upscale resale” being on there somewhere.) It also didn’t specify the fact that this was a neighborhood sale. I realize I’m stereotyping an age group of which I was once a member (maybe I’m bitter I never mastered the frilly writing technique), but in general, I think teenage girls have sign-making skills that are better put to use for purposes other than yard sale ads that ought to be clear, simple, and bold.

4. And yes I said “sign,” singular. No directional signs at any of the intersections nearby. This was the most disappointing aspect to me.

I appreciate the effort that the family made for our neighborhood. I was just very frustrated that the organizer, who billed herself as fairly yard sale-knowledgeable, would make so many rookie mistakes.

I did take matters into my own hands after finding out about the problems. It was important to me that more people knew I was having a sale! After checking the ad on Friday, I added our subdivision sale to Craigslist. It’s not the first place folks look for yard sales, but it’s free and can’t hurt.

Then I found out from my mom about the lack of signs early Saturday morning as I was trying to set up everything for the sale. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time or supplies to do a proper job of supplementary signage, but I dashed off some signs saying “Neighborhood Yard Sale” and an arrow, on yellow cardstock. While my mom held down the sale fort, my helpful husband drove me around to several intersections to put them up, as well as one on each side of the road just before our subdivision entrance.

There’s no way of knowing how much traffic would have increased had the advertising been more effective, but in the end we received a reasonable amount and managed to sell a lot, for which I’m thankful.

And I suppose after being so freely critical and posing as a yard sale expert, I ought to step up and volunteer myself as next year’s organizer.

For more yard sale tips, check out Crystal’s Frugal Friday post at Biblical Womanhood.