Is having a yard sale really worth it?

[FLA]

they were worth it when I was couponing HBA items from drugstores, I made $1400 with 2 sales and only had to stay open 2 hrs before I was wiped clean. Barely anything household related sold. Therefore, I donate to Goodwill and get a receipt and write it off.

Except now I do the short form so I'm not sure. If we ever got all of my parents' decent stuff out of the basement, we could probably have a worthwhile sale. Worth the effort? Probably once

[dawnwes]

I'll never understand this. What's the point of giving people vacation time and then essentially telling them they can't actually use it? This is a huge problem in the US. It affects worker morale. It affects productivity. It affects stress level and ultimately health of the workforce.

I also have many patients who simply get zero paid time off. If they need to come to the doctor, they have to skip work without pay and risk losing their job in the process. The employers don't care because as soon as one person leaves, there are a dozen people waiting to fill their position. It has a huge negative impact on their health. They go months and even years without getting treatment for serious illnesses like hypertension and diabetes because they're afraid to lose their job if they take off to come see me.

He does take some of them. When he can't take a full week off at a time, he takes a lot of 3 day weekends. So he gets in about 18-20.

This wasn't as large of an issue before he moved up the ladder. He has more responsibility now and can't take off for too long at a time.

[moneybags]

I think it is more profitable for me to donate the items and take a tax deduction. That said, I do enjoy having a garage sale. Something about people giving me cash for old random items makes me happy.

[disneysteve]

I think it is more profitable for me to donate the items and take a tax deduction. That said, I do enjoy having a garage sale. Something about people giving me cash for old random items makes me happy.

Sometimes the deduction is more valuable if Goodwill charges more for things than we're selling them for, but since the deduction is only 25% of the sale price, it only works if they're charging more than 4 times what we're charging.

I'm like you, though. I enjoy the process. I do it as much for that reason as for the money. There's just a certain satisfaction from selling the stuff myself.

[Jluke]

"Our crap could be your crap"

The silver lining is that you are directly selling an item to someone who wants it (for whatever reason) and they pay you cash. Other alternatives are: donate it, trash it, or put it out front in your yard for someone to take for free.

Yes, you spend a few hrs before, after and during for the yard sale to be successful and at most people's pay grade it isn't favorable if you crunch the numbers.

But it can be fun and it's a few hours where you are not spending your own money (savings) for entertainment, etc.

My neighborhood is probably pushing 30 years now with the annual yard sale.

[phantom]

I don't think I'd mind most of the work that goes into a yard sale and I'm sure I'd even enjoy some of it. If it was just a matter of sorting through stuff, advertising, and hanging around waiting for people to drop by, I'd do it for $2/hour.

But, the cost I just can't bring myself to pay is storing up sorted items until I have enough to justify a sale. When I sort through my old stuff, I usually don't spend enough time on it at once to end up with more than a box or two of things that people might buy. It's much easier to take the boxes to Goodwill right away than it is to keep them around until I have enough boxes to make it worth anyone's while to come look.

I guess I could participate in a multi-person sale so I wouldn't have to store as much stuff. But, then I'd be storing it according to someone else's schedule, which would still suck.

[bjl584]

I think it's worth it if you happen to have lots of "stuff" that is of value and you are looking to de-clutter.

Just having more space and having things more organized would make it worth-while to me. If I can make a few bucks doing it, then that's just a bonus.

You sound like the type that doesn't allow things to accumulate in the first place, so maybe Goodwill would work better for you, as you stated.

[disneysteve]

the cost I just can't bring myself to pay is storing up sorted items until I have enough to justify a sale.

If you need to pay to store the stuff, that would certainly negate any benefit to having a yard sale. Giving it straight to charity makes a lot more sense in that situation.

[phantom]

If you need to pay to store the stuff, that would certainly negate any benefit to having a yard sale. Giving it straight to charity makes a lot more sense in that situation.

It's not that I couldn't make space to store the stuff. It's more about knowing what motivates me to get rid of stuff. Let's say that in one afternoon, I can sort random stuff into three boxes of "keepable," "garbage," and "potentially of value to someone who isn't me." I'd feel better if two out of three boxes would be leaving my house within a week, than I would if only one of three would be. Feeling better makes it more likely that I'll spend my next free afternoon sorting through more stuff.

Of course, it could be that planning a garage sale would give me a deadline forcing me to spend more time getting through stuff.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I find that yard sales make me no money for the amount of work. However I do sell certain items on craigslist and I've been consigning a lot of stuff and donating the rest. It goes much faster than a yard sale. About to sell a carseat

[Thrif-t]

I've only had 2 yard sales but I got a high getting money for my junk! I think we made a couple hundred dollars and it was our fun money on vacation. Our problem is we really don't have too much junk to sell. I can't stand clutter so I donate a lot just to get it out of my house.

I wish my street had a yearly street sale as I think you do better with those and it brings more of a crowd. On my own, I don't have coveted items that would bring people in. I tried saving the stuff after our last sale, but after a while I got rid of it. Couldn't stand seeing it in the basement.

But i think it's fun to get that extra money as neither my dh or I have jobs that we could pick up more hours for extra income.

[disneysteve]

I've only had 2 yard sales but I got a high getting money for my junk!

This thread is a few months old but I wanted to revive it. I was about to start a new thread asking if me selling on ebay is worth it but then I remembered this thread.

In the past few weeks, I've started actively selling on ebay again. I've listed about 3 dozen items which is the most I've done on there in a long time. So far, I've sold 12 and made over $120. But is it worth it considering how much time went into gathering the items, photographing them, editing the photos, placing the listings, and packing and shipping the items after they sold?

The financial answer is no. I make as much per hour at my one job as I made doing all of these sales. But Thrift-t described my motivation. I get a thrill out of selling stuff. That's especially true when I sell stuff that I got for free somehow. Just this week, I made $44 selling giveaway items I got at work years ago. Most people don't give those items a 2nd thought. Either they use them for themselves or they trash them because they don't want them. I know better and recognize that there are people out there who collect this stuff. I've probably made at least a couple thousand dollars over the years selling these items.

So even though I could just toss stuff in the trash or drop it off at Goodwill, I'm sure I'll keep on selling not so much for the money, though that's a nice little perk, but for the sense of satisfaction I get from doing it.

[DaveInPgh]

In response to the original post, yard sales are worth it if the main objective is decluttering. Rarely are they worth it when time is factored into the equation.

As for eBay, the high of making the sale no longer is great enough for the work involved and the absurd fees.

[GoodSteward]

In response to the original post, yard sales are worth it if the main objective is decluttering. Rarely are they worth it when time is factored into the equation.

As for eBay, the high of making the sale no longer is great enough for the work involved and the absurd fees.

especially if UPS breaks it.....

[disneysteve]

especially if UPS breaks it.....

I learned long ago to never ship with UPS after they broke a couple of items. I will only use USPS.