Yard Sale Tactics

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Good Ol' Boy

Good Ol' Boy

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So my wife and I are planning our first yard sale at our first house in a few weeks. We've hosted yard sales before just not at our own personal house. I'm a bit skeptical myself.

The point of this thread are things one can do to minimize folks "casing" your place.

We do live fairly rural so I dont know how much traffic we'll even get, and those that do stop by will likely be distant neighbors, still I'm being overprotective I guess.

The only area that would be open for viewing would be my beloved 25x40 garage with many thousands of dollars worth of things in it.

So for folks that have gone through this I'd appreciate advice.

If this doesn't meet the criteria for this forum then by all means close it. I figured it kind of dealt with home security type issues.
 
Most people's garages are full of stuff and many "Garage Sales" I have gone to were actually held in the driveway on tables or 4'x8' sheets of plywood/OSB on saw horses. If they have concrete driveway, items were simply put on concrete driveway. (To me, good deal is good deal whether it is on table or on concrete ;))

Some admit honesty and call their garage sales, "Yard Sales". :D

If I had valuables in the garage and didn't want neighborhood thieves doing inventory, I would simply close the garage door and call it "Yard Sale" and put the sales items on the driveway.

Simple.

As you expressed, not exposing your valuables in the garage may possibly prevent potential future encounters in the middle of the night. And I hate things that go bump in the night.
 
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call it a yard/lawn sale. or barrow a few big dog and say they stay in the garage and house, get them signs about what happens to thieves. you could sit there cleaning some old guns,
 
armedwalleye said:
Hang large tarps from the trusses to hang down in front of things you don’t want seen. Two overlapping tarps make for an opening to allow you access to the house
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No, I don't like this idea. Lots of effort and expense to let people know theres stuff worth the trouble behind the curtains. Barring rain all day (believe in Murphy's Law?) You're better to load up the driveway in the morning and move it all back inside at closing time.
 
I've always done my sales in the driveway, the way my garage is set up, none of the interesting things are visible from the yard. There's a shelving unit blocking the view, most of the tools and my workbench are behind it, so having the garage door open is not that big of a deal, but having it closed would not be a problem. Never had a problem doing it that way.
 
The problem with putting everything out in the yard is I have a few things in the garage which I'm not willing or too lazy to put outside and then put back if it doesn't sell. For example, 30 sheets of OSB.

It would be a lot simpler to let folks into the garage to look at the few things that would be a pain to set out in the yard. Like I said I'm probably being overprotective being that we're rural but still.

This is one of those times where I wish I had motion machine guns on both front corners on the garage for after the fact. That's a joke for any liberals that read this post in the future.
 
Good Ol' Boy said:
The problem with putting everything out in the yard is I have a few things in the garage which I'm not willing or too lazy to put outside and then put back if it doesn't sell. For example, 30 sheets of OSB.
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That would probably sell for more, and easier, on Craigslist. Yard Sales rarely attract contractors. They do check Craigslist.
 
+1 on the Craigslist for the OSB, or any individual items that can bring a decent amount of money. Offerup and Letgo are even better in our area. Most folks dropping by a garage sale are not going to be prepared to haul off 30 sheets
 
You could put a sign up upside for the OSB or take out 1 sheet and let anyone who is interested know you have more. No need to put all 30 sheets out. Same goes for other large heavy items. Also a few alarm company and beware of dog signs might be good idea.
Maybe open carry your biggest revolver so people know your house will not be an easy target.
Just a few ideas off the top of my head.
 
So for folks that have gone through this I'd appreciate advice.

I'm pretty firm on this... I don't open my house to strangers, and yard sales invite trouble. I don't useCraigslist for the same reason. Better you bring a few things to a friend's yard sale, and see if they will sell there.
 
I appreciate all the responses folks.

I will take them into consideration. Just be aware that our closest neighbors are 1/8 to 1/4 mile down the road. There's not exactly community yard sales or flea markets anywhere nearby.

We are RURAL, not suburban.
 
I can't give you any yard sale advise. The last one we had was 13 years ago. Our house went on the market 2 days prior. A guy came to the sale to buy old records and he made a cash offer (it was actually our asking price) and we sold the house just like that. Gone.
 
I have always had stuff mostly placed outside of the garage; however I also leave the door up so I can sit in the shade (it's hot here in Florida). When I had my safe in the garage or anything else gun-related, I just covered it with a blanket so it was not visible.
 
Good Ol' Boy - if you can, try putting up some "fake" security cameras. The buyers don't have to know they are fake. OR, if you have some friends that have "wi-fi" type cameras that you could borrow, they would look even more real with those little antennas and no wires.
 
JTHunter said:
Good Ol' Boy - if you can, try putting up some "fake" security cameras. The buyers don't have to know they are fake. OR, if you have some friends that have "wi-fi" type cameras that you could borrow, they would look even more real with those little antennas and no wires.
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This is getting into the realm of the absurd - this is a freaking garage sale where items cost >25 to a buck for most. WAY too much paranoia. I have held over 30 garage sales in 7 different neighborhoods, and except for the last time where my safe was actually IN the house, the safe was in the garage, I placed a blanket over it and the HUGE Steelcase ten drawer chest with 65 gun stickers on it and no one was the wiser. Folks hitting garage sales fall into two main categories - those with flea market stalls looking to buy stuff for resale like tools, fishing gear and similar, and the second group looking to give you $1.00 for 50 hard back books or buying a used lawnmower.

Anyone who is that paranoid should just donate the stuff to Goodwill and be done with it.
 
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