Hello Reader,

It’s Garage Sale Weekend here.

If any of you have ever held a garage sale, you know this is a time of madness. If you haven’t, I would love to talk to you about your life and strategies about the collecting and dispersing of stuff. I have much to learn.

This is not only a Garage Sale, it is a Moving Sale.

As long-time readers may remember, we relocated several months ago from our family-sized home in a city to a very small house in a very small town about 80 minutes away. Due to the mind-boggling machinations of the housing market, it took roughly 40 years for our house to sell. Now that it’s sold (Hallelujah!), we have stuff in the old house, in the new house, and in storage near the old house that we need to unload quickly.

And so we find ourselves in mid-October, the very not-peak of garage sale season. Temps for our three city-permitted sale days are chilly, windy, and on the first day, wet. Just what you want when luring spontaneous shoppers to your sale!

I’m taking a few moments from the madness to share with you my tried-and-true, counterintuitive, no-fail open secret method for a successful garage sale.

Only price things that are high value (I’m talking about fewer than 5% of the items you put out for sale). My fancy method involves masking tape and a Sharpie. Anything not high value does not get a price put on it. It’s worth a quarter. When people come up to the sale, I greet them and tell them, “Anything not marked is worth a quarter.”

Why would I do something like this?

First, it saves so much time by not pricing everything. I know some folks like a sticker method (green stickers are $1, red are $2), but you still have to price every item. Some people like tables (this table all items are $1, that table all are $5) but who can remember by the time people are ready to pay? This method lets me mostly count and divide by four. Then I add on anything that has a price on it.

Second, I cannot tell you how many times I have heard some variation of “Well, I don’t know if I need this, but for a quarter, I’ll try it.” My favorite was when I was helping with a garage sale that had a lot of old electronics in it. We had no idea if they worked, and no opportunity to test them. Several tinkerers picked up armfuls of items saying, “Well, I may be able to make it work, and if not, it’s just a quarter.”

I love that they may have found some entertainment, but honestly, one way to look at it is that they just paid me to take away my trash. Is this not a brilliant plan?

Third, I have felt the benefit of a really good deal more than once. Garage sales helped clothe me as a kid and helped clothe my kids when they were young. It feels really good to see things go where they will be useful and helpful and know someone is excited about not having to pay much for them.

Fourth, it is worth the entertainment factor to see folks’ surprise when you greet them and tell them anything not marked is a quarter. Trust me on this one.

Finally, I can’t prove this definitively, because there’s no way to do a perfect comparative test, but I think I make significantly more money on these than I did when I tried to price more items. I know I get rid of a ton of stuff.

The biggest objection I have heard is something like, “But I paid $15 for that! Are you telling me to sell it for a quarter?!”

Yes. Yes, I am. It’s in the sale because you’re not using it, and if it doesn’t sell, you’re likely going to donate it or throw it away, and then you’ll get nothing for it. This way, you get a quarter and you don’t have to deal with it anymore. Furthermore, your buyer is happy, and what if they found three more things to take off your hands to fill out that dollar?

This is my strategy.

Let’s hope it works.

Greg’s questions from last week will be tackled next week. I need to practice dividing by four.

Greg Sneaks in Questions

(One of which will also be answered next week.)

Question 1: But what about sharing the incredibly impressive and equally mysterious magic of your “Bermuda Triangle” technique?

Question 2: Have you ever had someone pay you more than a quarter for things using this technique? (He asks her knowingly...)

Question 3: Can we please, for the love of all things priced at a quarter, never ever have another garage sale so long as we both shall live?

Happy knitting!

Kiersten J

P.S. Pemberley Correspondence is beginning its first season this fall. Each month I’ll tuck a letter and a few small pieces of Pemberley into an envelope and send them your way.

If that sounds lovely, I’d love to have you join us.

P.P.S. You can find this and more of my knitting journal entries at KierstenJ.com.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reply to this email! I read every one!