Garage Sales

Victor Tunggal Irawan asked:


Holding a garage sale simply translates to a series of preparation and planning. And one of the things you have to consider when setting up a garage sale is the things you are going to need for its success. You might need to go to the nearest office supply store and look for these important items:

1. Garage Sale Signs. An all-weather garage sale sign complete with arrows is what you are going to need to post these all over the area. These signs are essential because it is part of your advertising strategy. You need to inform people of the upcoming event. These signs would also help directing customers to your place.

2. Markers. Markers are important because you need to add important details to your signs like the address, the date, and the time with which the garage sale will take place. Get a felt-tip marker which is big enough for fine easy strokes.

3. Price labels and tags. You will be putting prices on your commodities, and you’ve got to place it somewhere. Buying price tags or price stick-on labels should be next on your list of supplies. These tags will facilitate the buying and the selling of your items.

4. Tracking Sheet. If you wanted to make an inventory of whats sold and what didn’t at the end of the day, this sheet is going to be crucial. All items for sale will be listed here. All you have to do is to update each item as you collect payments for each. This is also going to be helpful if you have consigned items coming from other family members and friends.

5. Table Cards. For special items, maybe you’d like to put up a card on the table showing customers of the features of the said item. This could be old camera kits, old baby toys and other electronic products that customers maybe curious of knowing more about.

6. Carrying Bags. You’ll have shoppers that just dropped by to see what you’ve got for sale. These shoppers won’t necessarily have bags to put their purchases in, so be prepared for these instances. Some shoppers would also prefer to their items in a separate carrier.

Here are just some of the things you might need for your garage sale. Shop for these things and you would sure hold a highly successful, a well prepared, and a less tiring garage sale.



HUNG

Leslie Ungar asked:


At the 2008 Oscars, boring as they were, there was one interesting acceptance speech. Brad Bird, winning for Best Animated Film, thanked his middle school guidance counselor.

He then recited what sounded like a frequent dialogue between this 13 year-old and his frustrated counselor:

What do you want to do? Make movies.

What if you can’t do it? I’ll figure out how to make movies.

What if there weren’t movies? I’ll make movies.

What if you couldn’t do it? I’ll figure out how to make movies.

He credited his skeptic advisor with preparing him for cynical Hollywood. What he meant was that his middle school guidance counselor helped “get him ready” through his probing questions.

Who in your life is getting you ready?

The flip side of this question is, whom in your life are you getting ready?

When you were younger, you likely head a parent, aunt, coach, or guidance counselor who asked you questions about your future. It started when you were five: what are you going to do when you grow up?

For Bernett Williams, CEO and Executive Director of the Akron Urban League, it was her Aunt Bobbie who asked the questions to get her ready. Every Saturday Aunt Bobbie drove her young niece to every Goodwill store and every rummage sale every Saturday’s newspaper announced. Bernett figured out at a young age that her aunt was teaching her how to count change.

What she didn’t realize until adulthood, was that her aunt was teaching her how to plan her life. It wasn’t the questions that Aunt Bobbie asked that were so important. It was that the questions forced a young Bernett to start thinking. For with every answer, Bernett found another question lurking in the front seat. Aunt Bobbie was the eternal questioner, coaxing her young protégé to look at issues from every angle and a larger lens.

As you progressed from elementary school to middle school, the questions progressed too: where are you going to college? What’s your major going to be?

As you matured to high school the questions matured also: what grades do you need to get into that college? What schools have that major?

In college the questions often emanated from an advisor: what if you don’t get into that program? What if you have to re-locate? What if you don’t like it?

And then you graduate and morph into the workplace. Now who asks you questions that get you ready?

You are ascending up the corporate ladder. Who is asking you questions that get you ready?

It’s likely that no one is asking you because “they” think you already know. And you think you are supposed to know. You may have even stopped asking yourself questions.

That vacuum of curiosity is a detriment to you and your company, firm, or team. You benefit from an external, objective source to ask you questions from a different perspective. You may be able to be the objective source for others on your team or in your company. That may be enough.

But it’s challenging for an internal source to provide an objective perspective. Just as it was a challenge for your parents to challenge you as a teen-ager. It’s a challenge for you to provide objectivity within your company.

Those in the middle of a challenge focus on the process. They tend to spin within the world of “how” rather than concentrate on the world of “what”. An external source provides a faster road out of process to the solution. Everyone benefits from the question, what is the result you want to accomplish?

Be or find an objective source to ask you questions that get you ready. Don’t be reluctant to go to an outside source. You may think someone outside of your industry does not understand. GOOD. Select someone who does not drink the same Cool-Aid, someone who will think differently. Remember, your client, customer, patient, guest, or member does not think the way you think. You need to think the way they think.

There will come a time when you not only benefit from someone asking you questions, you can benefit someone else by asking questions.

Silently, you will pass from beneficiary of questions asked to the one who asks questions of others. Who are you helping to get ready?

Your torch of knowledge can be passed to others by the asking of questions. The quality of your work and your life will be improved when you find someone who asks you questions to “get you ready”.

You will be both personally and professionally enriched when you become the objective, external source helping someone else get ready for their challenge, their life . . . and indirectly your satisfaction.

The Oscar belonged to Brad Bird. What about the guidance counselor who asked the questions to help get the once thirteen-year old middle school boy ready? You can bet he shared the glory.



NEIL

Rayven Perkins asked:


Ebay can be a great way to earn supplemental income as a stay at home mom. Nowadays, you can do everything from your home; list items, gather postage materials, have packages picked up by the post office. All that remains is acquiring items to sell!

A very common source of eBay items is local garage sales. Often, sellers simply do not know how much their items are worth. Either that, or they do not want to take the time to set up an eBay account and sell themselves.

The opportunities are there for the taking. But there are some methods of shopping garage sales for eBay finds that will make your profits soar.

Don’t mention eBay

The cardinal rule in garage sale, yard sale, or estate sale eBay hunting is to never mention the word eBay. If you have small children with you, make sure they understand this as well.

If you go into a garage sale and get chatty with the seller, telling him or her what you intend to do with their items, suddenly the items are more valuable to them. If a seller thinks you are going to resell the stuff to someone else, then they figure they are not charging enough!

Buyers who scream eBay are more likely to be given higher prices, with less chance of bartering a better price. Your best option is to remain nonchalant about the entire transaction, and if asked what you are going to do with an item, lie.

Yes, you heard me. Lie. Keep your kids home with daddy if you are concerned that they will witness this, but whatever you do, don’t tell the sellers you’re going to resell it!

The only reason you would ever tell someone that you sell on eBay at a garage sale is if they have some high quality, high priced item that you cannot afford. You may decide to offer them your services as a trading assistant.

Dress casually

When going garage saling, you want to make sure you blend in completely. Leave your designer clothes, purses and shoes at home. Drive the work truck instead of your new hybrid.

Look like you’re poor. Wear exercise outfits, old t-shirts, dirty tennis shoes. Your goal is to psychologically tell the seller that you cannot afford an item.

This may seem silly, but the next time you go to a garage sale, hang out for a few minutes and look at the other customers. You’ll find that prices are higher for well dressed people.

Group your items

If you are at a really good garage sale, and want to buy several items, ask the seller how much each item costs as you become interested in it. Then, if the price is reasonable, put it in a pile and do not say a word to the seller. Simply put the item in a pile and continue to scout the sale.

After you have completed your perusal of the sale, make one offer for all the items you have in your pile. This way, if you are lowballing the seller somewhat, he doesn’t know which item is the one he is offering the biggest discount for.

For example, let’s say that the seller is emotionally attached to a bowling ball. Note: you would never want to sell a bowling ball on eBay; it’s too heavy; this is for example purposes only. So he’s attached to the bowling ball and wants $20.

You want the bowling ball, 10 articles of clothing at $1 each, and a pair of snow skies for $20. You make one offer of $25 for everything. The seller, who was firm at $20 for his emotionally attached bowling ball, can justify to himself that he gave you the remaining items for only $5.

This way, everyone wins! Garage sales can be a fun way to find merchandise to resell on eBay if you know the right tips. Happy shopping!



DANTE

Robert Benson asked:


The demise of the vinyl record has become a statement all to common in the music industry. Vinyl records were supposed to be a dead music format a long time ago, but have persevered through many technological changes in the music industry.

In this day and age of ipods and digital downloads, where people can fit thousands of songs in such a neat little package, how has the vinyl record managed to compete; what is the allure?

Recent research reveals that teens enjoy the physical experience they get with a vinyl record and the interaction between themselves and the record. There is a certain ritual one must rely on to play a vinyl record, and much to the dismay of the digital world, the youth of the world is receptive to this type of interaction.

For some, collecting vinyl records is an obsession, a life long journey to obtain hidden masterpieces locked away in the attics and basements around the globe. For others, just owning a few selected gems from their favorite band or recording artist is enough to satisfy their collecting palate.

Then there is the thrill of the hunt, scouring the online web sites and auctions looking for a rare or collectible record for their collection. For the adventurous, there are the numerous garage sales, rummage sales, flea markets and the like, that dot the countryside in every town in America. There, they can search through the dusty boxes and bins for their the next special addition to their already growing vinyl record collection. There is almost a sense of pride, self-worth, if you will, in finding what you are looking for, if only to be satisfied for a moment, until you realize you must find another rare treasure to add to your collection.

Ever since Alex Steinweiss designed the first album cover for Columbia Records in 1939, album cover art has been highly collectible and is a part of music history. Classic album covers like the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band, Janis Joplin’s Cheap Thrills (designed by Robert Crumb), Led Zeppelins’ Physical Graffiti are iconic. Some bands enlisted the aid of world renowned artists to design the album covers and concepts for their latest releases, including the Rolling Stones, who used Andy Warhol’s idea for their album Sticky Fingers.

For some, collecting vinyl is an investment. Not only a monetary investment but a cultural one as well. Vinyl records are part of pop culture as we know it and certainly part of the rock and roll era. Preserving vinyl records, the art, the music, is a very important part of this phenomenon.

But the one thing that sets vinyl apart from all other musical formats is that vinyl records just sound the best. There is no substitute for the sound reproduction that vinyl brings to music, no digital counterpart. And for that, the vinyl record will continue to survive, if not thrive.



MAJOR

Joann Cheong asked:


Before you start thinking of ideas to raise money for charity, there are some factors that needed to be considered first. The most essential factor is that you should ask yourself why should this charitable fund raising events exist or who would volunteer or help you run the fund raising session. Your ideas to raise money for charity must have a clear concept of what the fund raising will be utilized for and where the fund raising program will occur. Once you have considered these factors, your ideas to come up money for charity will surely succeed.

You can come up with lots of ideas to gather funds for charity, but before you start commencing your fund raising ideas, there are also some aspects that also are needed to be considered, aspects such as who would lead and guide your fund raising day.

If you are not confident on your leadership skills, you and the people that will help you in the cash raising event must select the person that you and your group think will lead and guide the fund gathering event. This person that you will choose must be someone who is used to coordinating and is not hesitant in telling people their respective responsibilities in the fund gathering place. Also band together individuals who have experiences in the certain aspects of a fund raising event (such as money handling, promoting goods, clean up, etc.) to volunteer. Remember, make them volunteer for the fund raising event, and not force them to volunteer.

If you open your thoughts you can surely come up with lots of ideas to raise money for charity. There are lots of simple ideas to raise money for charity, the easiest to put into action is as simple as selling candies or coordinate a car wash. Or if you want to have an more extensive fund raising event that requires more involvement (such as coordinating a trade fair or a fun night on the community. Make sure that your ideas to raise money for charity must be interesting enough for the people in your community to be interested. And also, do not be hesitant to let children become involved in the fund raising event. Most people are more charitable once they have observed that children are involved on the fund raising event.

A good idea on how to raise money for charity is to sell goods by having a garage sale or rummage sale. Ask your local community (or the people that the volunteers of the fundraising event are acquainted with) to donate things and stuff that they no longer use. It will make the donor have a warm feeling because they are aware that the revenue of the fund raising event will be used for a good cause.



BENITO