Whew...it's been a long weekend (or should I say month). Saturday was our big Dixie Highway Yard sale day!
It rained all day Thursday and sprinkled off and on throughout most of the day Friday. I was getting worried about pulling an all-nighter Friday night to set up our stuff for the big sale Saturday. At about 3pm on Friday I was able to take 2 truckloads over full of my fixtures for the sale. I had 10 5-tier bookshelves, 4 - 6 ft. plastic fold-out tables, 2 clothing racks, and 6 pieces of plywood (that we had split down the middle a couple of years ago for make-shift tables).
I unloaded both trucks and put everything together while the rain sprinkles were finishing up! People were out shopping and kept stopping by asking how much the tables and shelves were! I swear I told about 30 people that they were for the things that I would be selling in the morning!
At about 6:30pm I finally decided to go load up everything I was bringing over. 3 truckloads later I had it all there! I was trying to wait as long as I could before setting up so that I wouldn't be bombarded by shoppers while I was trying to pull things out of the boxes. I know this sounds nuts because I was refusing money by telling people that I wouldn't be ready until the morning but it is really hard to set up everything when people are piling in trying to see what you have. In the past I have even had people break things trying to swiftly pull things from boxes determined to be the first to get to it!
I had most of the boxes open and placed strategically by the shelves that they would be on. Once I started taking things out I had a few friends and family members under the tents helping me pull things out. I always give them first "dibbs" on my stuff because they have been so gracious to allow me to come set up for this sale each year! Of course, once people see other people going through your stuff...they stop to see what you have!
One man that stopped by couldn't believe the massiveness of what I had and was setting things aside left and right to buy them! There was a border line panic coming from him because he was seeing what my friends were pulling out. He started going through the boxes at lightning speed trying to be the first one to get to it! I even had to ask him to be careful because he was being rough with some of the boxes that had glass bottles in them and I thought he had broken something. This was the "nuts" thing that I was trying to explain earlier. I have witnessed people acting like it was the day after Christmas at Walmart...running over others in fear that they may get something first!
Anyways, I finally finished setting up right when it got dark. I didn't keep up with it minute by minute but I honestly think that it took me about 4-5 hours total to set up completely!
The plan was to get up and drive back over at 6:00am but the sand man got the best of me and we didn't get there until a little after 8:00am. Apparently I kept hitting the snooze button without realizing it!
My mom, husband, and daughter all helped through out the day! The weather was wonderful and it was no where near as hot as it was in the past years. By 1:00pm I had gone from 10 shelves, 10 tables, and 3 clothing racks worth of stuff down to about 3 tables and 3 bookshelves worth of stuff! It was awesome! Things were flying off of my shelves left and right! I decided to let things go at half off around 2:00pm and the frenzy started again. People were buying by the boxes. At 3:30pm I dropped everything down to .25 each! Again things were flying off of the tables and shelves.
By 4:00pm I had narrowed roughly a thousand or more items down to 3 tables worth. In the end I only had equivalent to 1 table worth of items. It was time to quit! I boxed up the remaining items and donated them (all 4 boxes...woohoo) to my friends who were selling items for their church to raise money! They were planning to set up today and I knew that they could make some more money with the items that I had left!
I only came home with the initial 2 truckloads of fixtures and I can't tell you how great it felt for this sale to be so successful! Although I won't disclose exactly how much I made it was definitely worth the hours that I put into organizing, setting up, and working the sale!
A percentage of my profit went to tithes and the remaining amount is going to pay for my husband to take the National Certification for a Certified Welding Inspector (CWI). He has to take a 2 week course in Ohio (more than a hop skip and a jump away from Georgia) and in addition to paying the fee for the certification (which includes all 3 meals and housing for the 2 weeks) we also have to buy his airplane tickets!
My goal was to make enough money to allow us to afford him to take the class. He has been working as a Welding Engineer for 10 years and he is an "in-house" certified welding inspector. This national certification means that he can pretty much go anywhere and do what he does...but for more money. This certification will increase his yearly salary tremendously so it is well worth the expense to send him to Ohio. Once we found out that he was being laid off the plan was to raise the money to do so. He hasn't been able to travel while working and with his last day being in the first week of August and the class is at the end of August the timing is perfect!
We are still recovering from sore backs and aching feet!
We took time out today to ride up the road and hit some of the remaining yard sale. I never get to shop because I always sell! We were able to pick up a few movies and my daughter loved the yard sale that allowed her to fill a bag with toys for $1. There's not really much left on Sunday's!
We also stopped by an Old Navy Outlet on the way up and scored some great buys! The men items (every single item for a man) were 50% 0ff. A friend of mine had given me a 20% off coupon (that they received on the bottom of their receipt from a previous shopping trip). I was able to buy my husband $192 worth of clothing for $77.60 after the 20% coupon. I also found out that the outlet store will also take any of the $/$$ coupons that you get (the ones that they put up on the website on Sunday Nights). It would have been nice to have one of those $75/$100 coupons today but I am still pleased with the savings that I did get!
Things should get back to normal here on my site within the next few days!
I want to thank many of you who stopped in to visit me during the sale! It was good to see (and meet) all of you! Next time we meet...let's make it a time where we can actually sit down and talk. I had to tend to customers and make a few meetings short. Thanks again for the support!
Here are the links for this weeks sales with coupon matchups to get you started!
CVS
Walgreens
Rite Aid
Food City: New (Tennessee Folks)
Kroger
Ingles
***I'll post pictures of the yard sale tomorrow. My husband placed my camera in one of the bins and I have to go hunt through them to see which one it's in!***
It rained all day Thursday and sprinkled off and on throughout most of the day Friday. I was getting worried about pulling an all-nighter Friday night to set up our stuff for the big sale Saturday. At about 3pm on Friday I was able to take 2 truckloads over full of my fixtures for the sale. I had 10 5-tier bookshelves, 4 - 6 ft. plastic fold-out tables, 2 clothing racks, and 6 pieces of plywood (that we had split down the middle a couple of years ago for make-shift tables).
I unloaded both trucks and put everything together while the rain sprinkles were finishing up! People were out shopping and kept stopping by asking how much the tables and shelves were! I swear I told about 30 people that they were for the things that I would be selling in the morning!
At about 6:30pm I finally decided to go load up everything I was bringing over. 3 truckloads later I had it all there! I was trying to wait as long as I could before setting up so that I wouldn't be bombarded by shoppers while I was trying to pull things out of the boxes. I know this sounds nuts because I was refusing money by telling people that I wouldn't be ready until the morning but it is really hard to set up everything when people are piling in trying to see what you have. In the past I have even had people break things trying to swiftly pull things from boxes determined to be the first to get to it!
I had most of the boxes open and placed strategically by the shelves that they would be on. Once I started taking things out I had a few friends and family members under the tents helping me pull things out. I always give them first "dibbs" on my stuff because they have been so gracious to allow me to come set up for this sale each year! Of course, once people see other people going through your stuff...they stop to see what you have!
One man that stopped by couldn't believe the massiveness of what I had and was setting things aside left and right to buy them! There was a border line panic coming from him because he was seeing what my friends were pulling out. He started going through the boxes at lightning speed trying to be the first one to get to it! I even had to ask him to be careful because he was being rough with some of the boxes that had glass bottles in them and I thought he had broken something. This was the "nuts" thing that I was trying to explain earlier. I have witnessed people acting like it was the day after Christmas at Walmart...running over others in fear that they may get something first!
Anyways, I finally finished setting up right when it got dark. I didn't keep up with it minute by minute but I honestly think that it took me about 4-5 hours total to set up completely!
The plan was to get up and drive back over at 6:00am but the sand man got the best of me and we didn't get there until a little after 8:00am. Apparently I kept hitting the snooze button without realizing it!
My mom, husband, and daughter all helped through out the day! The weather was wonderful and it was no where near as hot as it was in the past years. By 1:00pm I had gone from 10 shelves, 10 tables, and 3 clothing racks worth of stuff down to about 3 tables and 3 bookshelves worth of stuff! It was awesome! Things were flying off of my shelves left and right! I decided to let things go at half off around 2:00pm and the frenzy started again. People were buying by the boxes. At 3:30pm I dropped everything down to .25 each! Again things were flying off of the tables and shelves.
By 4:00pm I had narrowed roughly a thousand or more items down to 3 tables worth. In the end I only had equivalent to 1 table worth of items. It was time to quit! I boxed up the remaining items and donated them (all 4 boxes...woohoo) to my friends who were selling items for their church to raise money! They were planning to set up today and I knew that they could make some more money with the items that I had left!
I only came home with the initial 2 truckloads of fixtures and I can't tell you how great it felt for this sale to be so successful! Although I won't disclose exactly how much I made it was definitely worth the hours that I put into organizing, setting up, and working the sale!
A percentage of my profit went to tithes and the remaining amount is going to pay for my husband to take the National Certification for a Certified Welding Inspector (CWI). He has to take a 2 week course in Ohio (more than a hop skip and a jump away from Georgia) and in addition to paying the fee for the certification (which includes all 3 meals and housing for the 2 weeks) we also have to buy his airplane tickets!
My goal was to make enough money to allow us to afford him to take the class. He has been working as a Welding Engineer for 10 years and he is an "in-house" certified welding inspector. This national certification means that he can pretty much go anywhere and do what he does...but for more money. This certification will increase his yearly salary tremendously so it is well worth the expense to send him to Ohio. Once we found out that he was being laid off the plan was to raise the money to do so. He hasn't been able to travel while working and with his last day being in the first week of August and the class is at the end of August the timing is perfect!
We are still recovering from sore backs and aching feet!
We took time out today to ride up the road and hit some of the remaining yard sale. I never get to shop because I always sell! We were able to pick up a few movies and my daughter loved the yard sale that allowed her to fill a bag with toys for $1. There's not really much left on Sunday's!
We also stopped by an Old Navy Outlet on the way up and scored some great buys! The men items (every single item for a man) were 50% 0ff. A friend of mine had given me a 20% off coupon (that they received on the bottom of their receipt from a previous shopping trip). I was able to buy my husband $192 worth of clothing for $77.60 after the 20% coupon. I also found out that the outlet store will also take any of the $/$$ coupons that you get (the ones that they put up on the website on Sunday Nights). It would have been nice to have one of those $75/$100 coupons today but I am still pleased with the savings that I did get!
Things should get back to normal here on my site within the next few days!
I want to thank many of you who stopped in to visit me during the sale! It was good to see (and meet) all of you! Next time we meet...let's make it a time where we can actually sit down and talk. I had to tend to customers and make a few meetings short. Thanks again for the support!
Here are the links for this weeks sales with coupon matchups to get you started!
CVS
Walgreens
Rite Aid
Food City: New (Tennessee Folks)
Kroger
Ingles
***I'll post pictures of the yard sale tomorrow. My husband placed my camera in one of the bins and I have to go hunt through them to see which one it's in!***
3 comments:
Sounds like you had LOTS of fun! Glad it was a success!
Thanks for the linky love too.
I agree it seems it was a success. I was wondering how you get that much to sell?
Jennifer, You're welcome! You save me tons of time when I'm tied up!
Liliana,
Wasn't sure if you were asking how I accumulated so many items or if you were asking about how I was able to sell it all...so I will share both!
The items I sold were mostly accumulated over the last 3 months or so. You can see the items that I buy in my shopping trips!
The reason that I sold out of almost everything had multiple answers...
This Dixie Highway yard sale brough at least 300 or more people through my sale (way more than having one at any other time). I sold my items for at least half of what you would pay in Walmart for them. Once I hit the later afternoon hours I dropped my prices to half off, then everything was .25, then everything was .10 each. By 2:30 I had sold most at my asking price. Between 2:30 and 4:00 I was able to get rid of the rest for .25 and .10 each!
You make more money this way! I always do my yard sales like this. I would much rather get $1 for something that try to keep to a price of $3 and still have the item!
Thanks for writing!
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