Planning, setting up, and running a successful Tag Sale

How to Set-up a Tag-Sale
Without Losing Your Cool!

It happens to all of us—the accumulation of household items, memorabilia from Great-Aunt Lou, Gramma’s box of vintage what-not’s, and a conglomeration of the outgrown or weary-worn. They congregate in our basements or garages until we can no longer walk thru them! What to do? Have a tag-sale! I heard that groan. Now really, it doesn’t have to be difficult. Just follow these simple steps.

1) Go through your stuff. Begin separating what you wish to sell and place in boxes marked Tag-Sale .

2) Set aside a date.

3) One to two weeks before the designated date, submit an ad either to be published in your local paper, or if the publication posts on-line, or even both. Describe your tag-sale with a where—the address where you will hold the sale, a when—the date and time it will start and end, and finally a what—tell briefly what you have to sell. (i.e. children’s clothing, toys, household items & books)

4) Arrange to borrow tables from friends if you don’t have enough of your own. You can rig up tables too with saw horses and boards, or upside-down boxes or bins with a piece of wood across them.

5) You can use store-bought labels if you wish, but I found a few sheets of self-adhesive printer labels very economical and convenient. I simply made columns of numbers so that there are two prices listed on each label (i.e. 25 cents, 50 cents, $1.00, $2.00, as well as a row of blanks to fill in later for higher priced items. Then I printed them. By cutting each label in half vertically you have two price markers for each label. Believe me, it’s much easier to peel and stick than to hand write every little price sticker!

6) You will need labels, markers, scissors, and some tape for putting up larger signs. These larger signs are for boxes of books or other grouped items. Simply print off a sheet in bold, black large type—for example: BOOKS - $1.00 each. PAPERBACKS .50 each. It saves having to mark a zillion small items.

7) While you are making these labels, it’s a good time to also make tag-sale signs. Type in very large font (Arial 72 bold is good) TAG SALE (top line) DATE & TIME (next line) ADDRESS where it’s held (last line). That should nearly fill an 8x11 sheet of paper. Print them off—as many as you need to direct folks to your tag-sale. Staple these sheets to pieces of old cardboard (to stiffen them so they won’t fold over in the breeze and become unreadable. If it’s going to rain, slip your sign inside a large freezer zip-lock bag. It’ll keep your sign clean and dry.

8) Now set up a couple of tables in a cleared area in your garage or basement where you can work pricing your treasures. Categorize items first by taking things out of the tag-sale boxes and putting dishes/kitchen items together, books or office material, clothing, toys, workshop items etc.

9) How badly do you want to get rid of these things? If you truly don’t want to pack them all up in boxes again and add to your basement clutter, price LOW. It truly doesn’t matter to your customer where you got that beautiful red bowl, or how much Aunt Lou paid for that tablecloth ten years ago. You don’t want it. Your customer might want it—if the price is right.

10) Put little price stickers on your items, and depending on how much stuff you have to sell, you might need to repack priced items back in bins and boxes to make room on the table for the next box that needs to be priced.

11) The day before your sale, go to the bank and get change. Typically $30 in singles and fives is a good start, and a few dollars in quarters, dimes and nickels. On the way home, put up your signs!! Don’t forget to put up those signs! No one will come to your sale if they don’t know it’s there. Put signs starting at the largest main road near your address, and another at each intersection where people could take a wrong turn. At the end of your driveway, put a really large sign—Tag Sale HERE so they’ll know they’ve arrived at the location advertised.

12) Always have a FREEBIE box up near the road where people can see it as they start to drive by. Believe me! It will stop them! Everyone loves a FREEBIE! In this box go things that your conscience just won’t let you charge for… a picture frame that needs repair and minus its glass, odd pieces of dinnerware or tableware, the church-bazaar cookbook you never liked anyway, and well—you get the idea.

13) The day of the sale: get up early . They’ll be at your door at least an hour before you are ready! Drag the tables outside. Begin unloading your boxes of goodies, again putting like items together. Assign designated cashiers (it’s great to have help on this!). Typically two people are enough.

14) Watch your money box carefully. Sadly there are unscrupulous folks at tag-sales sometimes too. Don’t lose your meager earnings by leaving your cash box for easy taking. We usually wear fanny-packs around our waists, and bring larger bills into the house whenever there is a lull in sales.

15) As the sale progresses there will be fewer customers. That’s the time to slash prices or even put a HALF OFF sign up on your TAG SALE HERE sign by the road. It draws would-be passersby! Hey! Who can pass up a bargain, right?

Good luck at your tag-sale! Another idea? Serve coffee and donuts. It’ll make you happy and your customers too!