Yard Sale Saturday: Dodged the Rainy Day Bullet

When the weather forecast called for showers on Saturday, I thought another week sans any decent yard sales might be upon us.

Fortunately, despite a chill in the air and some gusty winds, Saturday remained dry, allowing for yard sales to get into swing. Sure, it being early in the season and Easter weekend, sales were bound to be a little sparse, but still worth the trip out for the truly dedicated yard salers out there.

What was my haul? Just books this week, though some esoteric stuff that I hope will sell well online. At one sale, I asked casually how much the books sold for while the guy was showing another customer that a reciprocating saw indeed worked.

"Uhhh, three for a dollar," he said. "Or a quarter apiece."

I certainly didn't correct his math, since it played in my favor, but then wouldn't you know I found only three worth buying, so I just gave him a dollar and enjoyed the irony with my wife while driving to the next sale.

I'll hit on one tip for all of you sellers out there that remains an important staple to any successful yard sale. Making sure that you have adequate signs posted should be a given: a subject I could write volumes about, but I'll focus on the one facet of signs that I noticed missing this week: the encouragement sign.

That means that having one sign at the end of the road and then no other signs at each intersection isn't good enough - even if it's a straight shot and you put the address (which was likely written quite small) on the sign. An encouragement sign can be another sign reading "yard sale" or "garage sale" with an arrow confirming the way at all major intersections, or even a stand-alone arrow, though I would insist that all encouragement sings be the same color as the other signs to avoid confusion.

Also, try listing your sale on a site specific to advertising and announcing garage sales. Garage Sales Tracker is a new site that allows users to list their yard sales while saving both buyers and sellers time and money. Here are some of the benefits and features the site offers.

* Cheaper than the newspaper classifieds

* Rain out guarantee.

* Driving directions ready to be printed

So check it out and see if Garage Sales Tracker is right for you. 'Til next week, be sure to make your sale signs readable and your pockets full of change!