So, why in the world would you want to have a garage sale? Well, there could be several reasons:

• De-clutter your house
• Add money to a vacation fund
• Get ready to move
• Raise money for a group or charity
• Or, just pad the family bank account with a few extra bucks!

The answer is easy! Almost every garage sale is run by people who believe that there is nothing to the feat – that they'll just learn as they go and deal with any problems as they occur. These folks, no matter how good-natured or well-intending they are, will end up with a minuscule total at the end of the day compared to what they could have reaped with a little bit of planning and organization.

You are proceeding correctly, however - you're seeking information before you get started. Well, hang on and get ready for the ride – I'm going to give you a lot of real-life information, tried time and time again, and you're going to make SOME SERIOUS CASH!

How much? Well, that's up to you, what you have to sell, and how you handle your garage sale. Our goal is to maximize your grand total, though.

Preparation is the key. Imagine the D-Day invasion without a coordinated plan, a presidential campaign without a strategy, a national consumer product without promotion. All would fail miserably! Believe me, even though your garage sale doesn't seem to be on the same scale as any of those, you still have to invest your time and energy to plan the event. Your reward, though, will be a more lucrative total at the end of the day!

I remember my very first garage sale over thirty years ago. You see, I trained at the foot of the master – my mother! Not only did she spend countless weekends combing garage sales throughout the countryside, but her own garage sale was a yearly event. I learned pricing, promotion, and execution from her, and I'm here to tell you, preparation pays off!!!

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ MONEY TIP #1: Prepare, prepare, prepare! A small amount of preparation can make the difference of several hundred dollars in your final total! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I have to credit a neighbor with really turning my garage sale expertise around, though. While I'd always pull in around a hundred bucks, I happened to be outside working in the garden one day when she was having her own garage sale next door. People were flocking to it, and it seemed more like a party than a simple garage sale!

A few days later, I invited her over to my house for some coffee and apple pie, and got her to share her secrets. She'd been running her church's annual rummage sale for a long time, and had developed a set of tricks and tips to increase the profits. She was very happy to share them with me, and I've to tell you – they made a difference! In this book, I'll share with you knowledge that my mother passed on to me, the methods taught to me by my neighbor the garage sale queen, and many of my own refinements of the process.

I've had countless garage sales in my life, for all of the reasons that were listed at the start of this chapter. At one of them, a patron actually told me about the origin of the term "garage sale". It seems that the term "tag sale" was used back in the 1950's, which was coined from the fact that each item had a price tag hanging from it. Families tended to hold these "tag sales" in their garage, a convenient place for them, and so the name "garage sale" had become popular by the 1960's. That gave way to "yard sales" and many other names, but call it what you will, I prefer the simple term "garage sale", which is what my mother called them. I'll keep using that term throughout this ebook, but all these plans, ideas, and suggestions apply to whatever you want to want to call your particular event.

I heard a figure on television estimating that over 60 Million people go to garage sales each and every year. That's a lot of folks, and they certainly aren't all showing up at the sales that I hold! Mine are crowded, though, and I never fail to out-do the financial bottom-line that I have in my mind at the start. I want to teach you the techniques that I've used for years: the tricks that my mother taught me, the secrets that my neighbor shared, the things that I've learned through trial-and-error, and the mistakes that my friends and myself have made over the years. I want you to set a new personal record from your garage sale!