Yard Sales in Davis

[eclecticavatar.livejournal.com]

What's the best way to advertise yard sales in the Davis area? Do people find that little to no advertising is necessary because of the amount of foot traffic that will inevitably walk by, anyway? I want to have one, soon, but I'm about a mile up Highland Avenue and I'm afraid that no one would find me if they were just out for a casual stroll.

Thanks!

Comments

[tisana.livejournal.com]

Craigslist (http://boston.craigslist.org/) and Boston.com, for one, as well as in here (presumably behind a cut). Definitely advertise. I'm a big fan of yard sales, and while I'm tempted by them if I'm driving by, it's better to get some warning and plan for it, since I'm more likely to get there.

So even a few bright and clearly lettered signs in 8.5x11 paper is better than nothing. Davis sq has a lot of foot traffic, and I think some businesses will allow you to post things like that as well.

[opn.livejournal.com]

When we had our tag sale, we printed up flyers and walked along the main thoroughfares, posting them at corners (going both ways) *especially* at stop-signed corners, at Shaw's and in Tags, and at Diesel.

Helpful Hints:

-- Make your flyers *very* readable by drivers whizzing by. Ours had large-print, bold, easy-to-read font saying "TAG SALE" with the address and date/hours also in easy-to-read, bold, almost as large font. We also used a bright paper stock to catch attention.

-- Add a simple, helpful small map at the bottom to show people what main cross streets are nearby.

-- Include a brief list of your big ticket items (bookcase, tv, bicycle, air conditioner, rug, etc.) and any "collections" (size 8 women's shoes, VHS tapes, sci-fi books, etc.).

(Also, you may want to decide now if you care about earlybirds or if you'll sell something before the actual date if someone (from Craigslist, for example) contacts you in advance. )

I know that our tag sale signs prompted several other tag sales within our neighborhood. I know this because I heard about other nearby sales from customers, so I took a break (leaving my stuff in the capable hands of my landlady who I was co-saling with) and walked around to visit some of the other sales. I hadn't seen any signs beside ours. I was told by each neighbor whose sale I visited: "Once we saw your signs go up, we knew there'd be a lot of traffic, so we decided to have our own sale!" Our signs really, really pulled in a ton of people even though we were off Mass. Ave. by five blocks and lived down a tiny one-way street.

Good luck!