We sell kindly used uniform clothing and did well. I too woud love to do the community garage sale as we have a huge parking lot and our school is really one huge trailer park! NOT JOKING!! Could be interestin gbut agree bookoo work.
Those giant garage sales are a HUGE amount of work. I used to belong to the Junior League who put on a mega-rummage sale every two years and they spent all year long getting ready for it. Each "department" had a chairman who worked on this project all year. Sure, they made $100,000 but it took hundreds of hours of work. I always dreaded them....
We did one and that was enough. Many items that were donated were dirty or should have been thrown away. All donations were stored in the school office, due to lack of space and the office was full of roaches afterward. Will not do again!!
We run a garage sale similar to Oakland Park Mom's. We rent space in front of the school for $15 and let folks bring anything they want to sell. Our chairperson put up signs advertising the sale all over town and we had a great response and many happy vendors. The local Boy Scout troop sells food as a fundraiser. Our student council runs a car wash to raise money for school activities that they sponsor.
We also don't make much money but everyone has a good time and the vendors always want to make sure that we're running the garage sale again the next year.
My girlfriend ran a rummage sale for her kids school in Houston. They raised $86,000!
They used an empty warehouse to store the items, sectioned off different areas and priced accordingly.
It became a full time job for her but the rewards were outstanding.
I have always loved the idea of doing a township rummage sale, where all the elementary schools participate (we have 6 in our township). Instead of each school fundraising independently, all come together, do one function and split the proceeds accordingly. I have floated this idea around many times but found no takers. So it will remain an idea only.
We tried doing a consignment sale but it was a huge flop due to lack of advertising and poor planning by the chairperson. She took all the leftovers and put them in donation bins. Many parents were p---ed off because they weren't told that would happen. The chairperson bailed and no one has stepped up to try it again.
A boot sale (we like to call it junk in the trunk) is when everyone puts their stuff in the trunk of the car, drives to the (school) parking lot, and opens the trunk, thats your showrooms. (or take whatever else you have stashed in the car, put it on pavement).
You rent a parking space to each participant, for fundraising purposes, and let them keep the proceeds for their own sales, and THEY drive away with their left over 'junk' in the trunk!
