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Garage Sale Advertising: Best Cheap and Free Methods
By Matt Hayden
Garage sales are an effective and enjoyable way to offload stuff you no longer need. If you have a lot to get rid of, then obviously you'll want many people coming along. To achieve this outcome you will have to advertise, and quite widely. But you should do this as cheaply as possible, since if you end up spending too much you'll be negating the whole point of the sale. If the exercise ends up costing you money then just dumping your stuff at the tip would be a more sensible option! That said, to reach large numbers of people you'll have to pay at some point down the line. And you should put the bulk of your advertising budget into newspaper advertising. The weekend classifieds still get many people scouring the ads, and they often have dedicated sections just for garage sales. In Perth, where I live, the Sunday Times often has scores of garage sale ads listed. It's a known magnet for those on the lookout for a bargain. It's also a good idea to check local newspapers to see if they regularly run ads like this. If they do, you should consider posting ads in them as well. I've checked the Perth local newspapers, and you can usually place a brief ad including all relevant details for around twenty dollars. That's pretty cheap considering they often have many thousands of readers and are highly geo-targeted. Then there are the free online classifieds. Some of these sites get absolutely massive traffic that is very locally targeted. The best of these in Australia would be Gumtree. Other good ones include the Exchange network, Cracker, OLX and even Craigslist (this is best known in the USA, but is growing in popularity Down Under). A garage sale is the definitive local event. That's why a local flyer run is a very good idea. You can create flyers very cheaply. I've photocopied fairly sizable flyers (one third the size of an A4 sheet) at a cost of only two cents each. (While including relevant clip art isn't absolutely crucial, it does help in making them a bit more eye-catching.) At this rate ten dollars will get you five hundred flyers. If you are in a reasonably built up area, then you could probably distribute all of these within a few hours. It's a good idea to do this at least a week in advance. This is because it usually takes several days for all the flyers to be seen. Also, doing the run well in advance gives people time to tell friends and relatives who might be interested in attending. Success rates vary. But if you get even one person per hundred flyers actually showing up to the garage sale, you'd have at least five visitors from the run. That said, the hyper-local nature of such a campaign would almost guarantee a better result than this. People are more likely to go to things that are just nearby, after all. You should also place a few signs around the sale location on the days leading up to it. But you shouldn't put them up too many days in advance. They'll just start to become part of the scenery then. And you should be careful when doing this. Sometimes local laws forbid the placement of signs in various areas such as on footpaths and telegraph poles. It's important to contact your local council to find out what the laws regarding this advertising method actually are. The last thing you'd want is to incur a fine for doing so, after all. Perhaps the best way to make up these signs is to print the sale date, time and address on large sheets, then tape them to cardboard boxes. These can be stabilized by placing bricks inside them. You should place a couple of these on the corners of the nearest busy streets, with arrows pointing in the direction of your sale. That way many locals will see them, and perhaps even thousands of others driving past as well. Needless to say you should always remove these signs immediately after the sale has finished. Community noticeboards are also great places to put your ads up. Many local shopping centers have these. If they're not in the main malls, then they tend to be in the supermarkets. Laundromats are likely to have them as well. Cafes also tend to have sections where you can place flyers. Finally, tell your friends and extended family. If you get in early and make sure they know that there are plenty of good bargain items on offer they can get the message out to those close to them as well. Even if they don't buy anything, just showing up can help. If there are a couple of extra cars parked out the front and some people milling about, this will be noticeable to those driving or walking past on the day. Attracted by the activity, these people are more likely to stop and investigate what's on offer. Of course it would be hard to utilize all these tactics, particularly if you are time poor. But if you started advertising well in advance then you could certainly implement several of them. And diversity is the key. By using a range of methods one or more of them is sure to bear fruit. They can also complement each other. Those who see your ads repeatedly in different media are more likely to attend your garage sale, after all. |
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