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Your neon signs are eye-catching and amazing; you’ve priced and made an inventory list of your merchandise, and everything is organized for a beautiful presentation. Your garage sale is set to be perfect, but uh-oh those are storm clouds on the horizon. Before panic sets in, turn to our garage sale tips for weather complications. We’ll get you through the bad weather with a smile.

Don't be like this man.

Weather tip 1: Always have your garage sale on a Saturday

If you’re only going to garage sale for one day, make it a Saturday. This way, if bad weather rolls in Saturday, you can just move the garage sale to Sunday. Easy as pie.

Weather tip 2: Check the weather a few days before

If the forecast is calling for hail, tornadoes, and flash floods, there’s no reason to put all the work into setting up your yard sale. Be a smart seller and check the forecast.

Weather tip 3: Have a few pop-up canopies and tarps on hand

If you’re going to become a regular garage seller, it’s a good idea to invest in a couple pop-up canopies and tarps. One, because they provide shade on sunny garage sale days, and two, if it’s just lightly sprinkling, you can use them to protect your merchandise.

Weather tip 4: Wait the weather out

If the skies are looking threatening, but you’ve already put the hard work into setting up, challenge the skies to a staring contest. Show the clouds you can put on a mean mug, too, and give them twenty minutes or so to blow over. But if you see thunder or lightning, pack it up – better safe than sorry.

Weather tip 5: Move it indoors

If the weather won’t budge and you have the space, try moving your garage sale indoors to a garage or carport. Bad weather will decrease your number of shoppers, but as Yardies.com says, shop-aholics “will go anywhere at any time for a good shopping deal.”

Sometimes the weather is just going to be bad, and there’s no way around it. In case this happens we recommend moving your sale to a sunnier weekend and curling up with a bowl of popcorn and some good reads like the garage sale tips blogs from PennySaverUSA.com.

A Great Graduation Party Brought to You by Garage Sales

Garage sales and graduation parties? We bet you’re saying “that sounds like a stretch to me,” but we’re going to show you that the two really can go hand in hand. Keep an open mind, and you’ll see that garage sales are the perfect way to save money on an unforgettable graduation party.

Hold a garage sale to create a graduation party fund

A few weekends before you host your party, go through your house and look for items that you no longer use or want, and toss these into a garage sale box. If you’re struggling to find stuff, look in your closets, kitchen cabinets, and garage, there’s sure to be unwanted items hiding in there. Once you’ve loaded up some boxes with garage sale merchandise, follow our favorite reseller’s advice Thrift Core for setting up a killer yard sale. You should also read our post on organizing your garage sale.

Now that you’ve done all the hard work, sit back and watch the Benjamins roll in. You should end up with plenty to pay for your upcoming party. And the best part? This garage sale helped you clean house in the process.

Shop for party supplies at garage sales

Keep the money saving going, and give back to the garage sale economy when you shop for deeply discounted party supplies at your neighborhood garage sales. Here’s a quick shopping list of what to keep your eyes peeled for.

• Vases and vintage mason jars – these can be turned into beautiful flower vases for your grad or unique beverage glasses
• Unique planters – if you want your décor to be eco-friendly, opt for some cute vintage planter that will be happy to house a living centerpiece (Great tip from Thrift Core)
• Fun wicker baskets – these are perfectly stylish for holding cutlery, party favors, spare diplomas…you name it (Fabulous tip from Emily Clark)
• Decorative boxes and bowls – just like the baskets, these are great for displaying party mementos
• Picture frames – there’s no better way to bring a tear to your guests’ eyes than to adorn your party tables with pictures of your grad growing up. You should be able to score these for pennies on the dollar at any sale
• The grad’s mascot – search through children’s toys to find stuffed animals similar to the grad’s mascot that can be placed around the party
• Gifts – you never know what kind of treasure you’ll uncover at a yard sale. From jewelry, to records, to vintage décor, you may just find a unique gift that will leave your grad jumping for joy

Easy, Peasy. Your perfect graduation party is just a garage sale away. Now all you have to do is tell the graduate congrats from us. For more great garage sale tips, head to our garage sale tips center.

Items that hold significant value to you sentimentally might really only  be worth a few dollars to shoppers at your yard sale. So how do you find the right medium that makes you feel good about the sale and the buyer feel good about the bargain? Follow PennySaverUSA’s tips for pricing items correctly at your yard sale, and you’ll avoid seller’s remorse.

Post and find garage sales on PennySaverUSA.com.

Before you start scratching your head in confusion, use our helpful pricing guide for garage sales here:

1. Clothing – $.50 to $2 for regular shirts, $2-$3 for jeans, $5 and up for name-brand items, $5 and up for winter clothing, purses for $5 and up, and items with tags for $7 and up.
2. Electronics – $5 to $20 depending on the condition of the item. $5 for a home telephone to $20 for a DVD player.
3. DVDs, CDs, and Books – Sell these items in bulk to get them out of the door faster. $.50 to $1 a piece or $3 for 5.
4. Furniture – Pricing depends on the size and condition. Range the pricing $20 to $50 to sell it faster. If your item is in excellent condition like a bed frame, you can price it higher like $75 to $100.
5. Toys – $1 for similar items like Barbies and stuffed animals to $25 for roller skates and bikes.
6. Household goods and tools – The smaller in size, the lower the price. $2/a piece to $20, if you offer a set.

When it comes to garage sales, you have to remember to price it accordingly. People don’t go to garage sales with hundreds of dollars in their pocket, so they won’t pay outrageous prices.

If these prices seem too low for your favorite vintage leather jacket, that’s a huge sign to sell it somewhere else, like through a classified ad on PennySaverUSA or by trading it at a Consignment shop.

And before you start pricing your items, learn more about deciding what’s junk or a family heirloom by reading here.

PennySaverUSA.com is all about helping you find the used merchandise you are seeking through online classifieds. Our site is a great place to start, but we’ve come across another site that is also worth a look.

Have you heard of Yardsellr yet? It’s a new social commerce site where you can buy, sell and talk about anything you love with real people who love that stuff too.

Yardsellr is having a special promo right now. If you sign-up through this blog (at the below link) you can get $5 in PHOTON$ (Yardsellr virtual cash).  All you have to do is click this link to claim your FREE $5:  http://yardsellr.com/ALXB1g

Yardsellr allows you to Buy & Sell directly from your Facebook profile, and it’s completely FREE to list and sell on Yardsellr. No joke!

They have categories or “Blocks” for everything!  From Jewelry to Computers; Disney to Mens & Womens Clothing; Star Wars  to Sports cards and lots more. You’ll definitely find a Block you’ll love too.

To get started, you should “Like” a few blocks that have your favorite stuff. For example, I “liked” the Michael Jackson  Block: http://yardsellr.com/block/michael-jackson and now I see new items posted in that block in my Facebook feed and get to talk about these items with other Michael Jackson fans. It’s pretty cool!

The last thing to mention, is Yardsellr is putting the “Fun” back into shopping. They’re always running contests and promos to give away PHOTON$ and Yardsellr SWAG. Yardsellr is not just building a buying and selling site, but its also building an awesome community. Check it out (http://yardsellr.com) and let us know what you think.

Earlier, we highlighted a couple of free comedy shows that you could check out this weekend.

Here are some ideas for the day-time. Sure, you could use that time to take care of errands or do chores, but shopping just seems like so much more fun.

For those of us that are so inclined, Nordstrom is the place to be this Saturday. Nobody wants wrinkly eyes, but thanks to the department store chain, that’s one concern we can drop to the bottom of the list. Nordstrom is handing out a free sample of Lancôme US Génifique Eye Youth Activating Concentrate. No purchase is necessary.

If beauty products aren’t your thing, there are plenty of other great places to shop this weekend, and it’s free to look.

Peruse our garage and yard sale ads and you are bound to find one near you. Few things in life are better than going to a garage sale and discovering that one … or two … or 20 … magical items.

As all of our PennySavers out there know, stopping by a yard or garage sale can yield some very cool and unique finds, and it is usually worth a few minutes of your time. But, every now and again, you might come across an item that could be worth more than anything that your imagination could conjure up.

In the Spring of 2000, in Fresno, CA, Rick Norsigian, a Fresno School District painter, came across a box of antique glass photo negatives and purchased them for $45. He soon began to suspect that these negatives were the work of legendary and renowned photographer Ansel Adams, and this moved him to begin authenticating the find. The negatives were run through a barrage of tests by a barrage of experts, and all the evidence was reviewed by a former FBI Agent and former Assistant United States Attorney to determine the validity of the work. All findings pointed to authenticity of the negatives, and there has been talk of the find being worth over $200 Million. There is an ongoing fight between the estate of Adams and Norsigian over the validity of the negatives, but the magnitude of this find will never be undone.

If there is any lesson to be taken from this, it might be that you should consider stopping by a local yard or garage sale and taking a good look at the items that someone else no longer needs. They might be sitting on a jackpot and not know it. Or, at the least, you might just find something for yourself that might not be worth millions in dollars, but can become priceless to you.

Come to PennySaverUSA.com to check for all of the yard/garage sales in your area!

A great by-product of spring cleaning every year in many households is the annual garage sale/yard sale.  Many of us experienced this trademark of domestic enterprise that would rid closets of grown-out-of-clothes and toys, old electronics; anything that you can put a price on and a neighbor or passer-by can purchase and enjoy for themselves!  PennySaver would love to supply you with a few tips before your garage or yard sale to help to maximize your effort.

1. Location, Location, Location: When I was a child, we lived in a rather remote area, miles off of the highway, in a low traffic area. A yard sale at our house was sure to yield almost no profit, because, on a given summer day, literally 5-6 cars would pass per hour, and that doesn’t make for the ideal condition to encourage shoppers. If you live in an area without a lot of foot or car traffic, maybe ask a relative or friend if they would want to participate in a joint venture, or if you could just use their prime real-estate for your sale.

2. Pricing: We know that it’s hard to part with certain items that are taking up room, but pricing too high because of your affection for the item doesn’t help anyone. Price things reasonable, and that will encourage people to buy a larger quantity, which serves the exact reasoning for the yard sale in the first place: To Clear Things Out!

3. Bundle Items: Create bundles of similar items to sell in larger quantities. It might encourage people to buy, as it encourages their chance of satisfaction in a single purchase.  If you’re selling books or dvds, group them together in fives; even if the customer doesn’t end up enjoying the first book, they have four other chances and a new book to add to their bookshelf.

4 . Create Bargain Bins: Everyone loves  a good bargain bin! It’s great to sort through merchandise and know it’s all the same price and easy to add up what you’re spending, and the person selling doesn’t have to label every item. Save time and money!

5. Advertise: It is vital to advertise your sale with flyers and ads on…um….PennySaver!  Some people live and die for yard sales and garage sales and are looking for sales in their neighborhoods on a daily basis . It will be worth it when you turn a big profit from a very little investment!

6. Fun Stuff: Why not have some refreshments for your customers? Bring out some lemonade, have some bottled water on hand; on a hot summer day, it will help to create a better shopping experience. Have some music playing, and greet everyone just like you’re running your own little store for the day. A happy customer is the best kind of customer!

7. Raffle: If you have a large item that you need to get rid of that might be a bit much to sell at a yard sale price, but you really need it to go, do a raffle! People will flock to a sale if they think they might win a lawnmower, a TV, a bedroom set, etc.  People might show up just for this and end up buying something else!

We even provide you a little assistance for signage for your sale, Click Here! If you’re a seller or a buyer, it truly is a great place to find a great deal and a great place to make a little extra cash. And these days, that’s a great scenario either way, right?