How To Advertise a Tag Sale, Moving Sale, Garage Sale, Yard Sale or Estate Sale Free

Is it spring cleaning time ? Are you moving? Do you need to liquidate an estate? Whatever the reasons for holding a sale you need to advertise it properly to have more buyers visit.

How to Advertise a tag sale for Free!

If you are a tag sale hunter you see it all the time in tag sale advertisements: “Something for Everyone”, “Too much to list” . To me you are just wasting words, just put your address and the times down and forget about it. Maybe someone will come maybe they won’t. Don’t waste a day or two setting up a sale and then advertise poorly. The only way I will stop at one of those sales is if it’s on a direct route to the next quality advertised sale or there are no other sales that day.

I understand that you might want to save money on a paid classified ad and there are so many free sites to post your ad on that you should be able to draw a better crowd just by advertising on the free sites. If you have many things or valuable items, laying out $15 to $50 for an ad is probably worth it. Don’t forget about putting up signs in your neighborhood if not prohibited by law.

A free ad should consist of the type of sale (optional, but helpful), address ( street number is optional if you will have good signage on street and in front of the house), the dates and times of the sale (start time and and time), if the sale is conditional upon good weather or not (rain or shine) , the items up for sale and directions. If you have some things that you are giving away ,mention that in the ad. Who doesn’t want to come by for some free stuff? If you don’t mind if people come a little early you can add that or if you don’t want people to come to earlier than the sale is advertised note that as well, sadly some people don’t pay attention anyway (that is one reason not to include the number of your home when placing an ad). This is a free ad , take advantage of it and add photos as well.

Here is an example of a free ad for a small garage sale:

Garage Sale! @ 123 Main St Fri/Sat-7/17 & 7/18- 9:30 to 4:00 both days. Rain or Shine
Furniture incl. two mahogany bookcases, Tools incl. this tool and that tool, Housewares including this great object, Paperback and Hardcover books – mainly fiction, Costume Jewelry- vintage and newer, Antique Limoges China, knick knacks, Kids toys incl. this unusual or special toy, Kids clothes – boys sizes 4 – 8 – girls sizes 5-9, boys bike and alot more… NO early birds….Directions: Exit 5 off I-95 , right at bottom of ramp on to Route 1 (Main St), 1/2 mile down on left. Large Green sign posted outside.

The thing is to draw people with an honest accounting of items for sale; so include your interesting and valuable items in the ad. Be sure to name drop and list all the recognizable brand names of your items. If you are posting a paid ad and each character counts then you can start abbreviating and using symbols and cutting out non essential words. Read your ad over once more before submitting.

If your items are antique , vintage or retro you should note that for the collectors, but be truthful. Antique is generally at least 100 yrs old , Vintage should be at least 20 yrs old preferably 25 to 30 yrs old and retro, to me, would be bit later like 10 to 15 yrs. People and authorities have different opinions and regulations. I don’t generally use retro.

Here are some free sites to advertise with:

Craigslist, NYSales.net (NY, NJ, CT ads – this is my site), AOL Patch (Patch has changed it’s format, you have to signup, free, and then post a classified ad) and many more.

What type of sale am I holding? Tag sale type definitions, click this link.

Don’t forget the signs! Make them as large and as eye catching as possible and post them where it is lawful to do so.. Complete the sign with address, date/time and directional arrow. I’ll post an article on tag sale sign making later on.