Garage Sale Magic!: How to Turn Your 'Trash' into Cash [Paperback]

Pam Williams (Author), Michael Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1994

Over 60,000,000 people conduct their own, or go to garage sales every year. Garage Sale Magic! is the #1 book on garage sales, written by America's garage sale experts. Now you can get the easy step-by-step approach that Michael and Pam Williams have used scores of times over the past 20 years. Their sales take in over $2,500 every time, over a three day period. See how Michael and Pam Williams do it, enjoy their light humor and illustrations, and above all, have fun! The authors also created the Garage Sale Magic! video, which follows the Williams at three separate garage sales, and shows you how they handle each of the step-by-step lessons from their book. The video is narrated by TV star David Leisure.

Reviews and acclaim too numerous to mention, including Mademoiselle Magazine, Johnson City Press, The Book Corner, Chicago Books In Review, Book Beat, Living Cheaply News, The Evening Leader, New Choices' Money's Worth, Bottom Line Tomorrow, American Library Association, and dozens of newspapers across the country.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Garage Sale Magic is an easy-to-read book that deals with all the most important elements of garage sales. Garage Sale Magic includes such information as where to find things to sell, how to get free advertising, and what to do with leftovers after the sale. Michael and Pam (veteran garage sale entrepreneurs) cover every "tip, trick & technique" in the business of conducting a successful garage sale enterprise. Garage Sale Magic is filled with valuable, useful, and practical information. Garage Sale Magic is highly recommended for personal and community library acquisition. -- Midwest Book Review

Garage Sale Magic! is an easy-to-read book that deals with all the most important elements of garage sales. Garage Sale Magic! includes such information as where to find things to sell, how to get free advertising, and what to do with leftovers after the sale. Michael and Pam (veteran garage sale entrepreneurs) cover every "tip, trick & technique" in the business of conducting a successful garage sale enterprise. Garage Sale Magic! is filled with valuable, useful, and practical information. Garage Sale Magic! is highly recommended for personal and community library acquisition. -- Midwest Book Review, 5/96

How To Hold A Successful Garage Sale: Whether we're cleaning old furniture and tools out of the garage to make room for the car or liquidiating a relative's estate, a yard sale can make the job relatively easy and very profitable - if it's done right. Garage Sale Magic! by Michael and Pam Williams (Freedom Publishing Co) suggests many ways to "move the merchandise." Here are a few:

*The most successful garage sales run three days, beginning on Friday and running through Sunday.

*Don't rely on posted notices exclusively; place ads in local newspapers.

*Try to get free publicity through a press release. It's more likely to be used if you provide a news angle. For example, you could announce you will be donating a percentage of the receipts to cancer research.

*Whenever it's legitimate, use the term "estate sale." It attracts more buyers than "yard sale."

*Price most items at 25 percent of retail; outdated electronic goods and clothes are usually discounted much more. If you price one item too high and buyers know it, they'll think everything is priced too high. -- New Choices, 1995 "Money's Worth" column

The Williamses, husband and wife, examine the zany world of garage sales and their subculture in an enthusiastic, peppy little book. Peppy may be an understatement: the Williamses average well over one exclamation point per paragraph, a rate previously reached only in comic books! Their advice ranges far and wide. They handle the obvious stuff --pricing, advertising, setup-- matter-of-factly, then plunge into the very depth of the garage sale ethos with counsel on, among other tricks of the trade, going to other garage sales and flea markets to accumulate merchandise for your own garage sale! This becomes a step-by-step plan for completely surrendering your life to the search for that perfect $5 lamp, not to use, but to buy low and sell high! Like many another introduction to an alternative lifestyle, this one may benefit two kinds of readers; those simply interested in chucking a truckload of junk without paying landfill charges, and the more serious types who want entree into the full-blown World of Rummage. Live long and prosper, entrepreneurs of excess stuff! -- Booklist, 10/96

From the Publisher

I've watched the Williams conduct numerous garage sales, and their results are truly amazing. They reveal that they make at least $2,500 at each sale, and I have no reason to doubt them, now that I've seen them in action.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 94 pages
• Publisher: Freedom Pub Co (November 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963815202
• ISBN-13: 978-0963815200
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #968,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Home & Garden > How-to & Home Improvements > Do-It-Yourself
  • #92 in Books > Business & Investing > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Retail Businesses

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not enough information - too general, March 15, 2000

By 

A Reader (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Garage Sale Magic!: How to Turn Your 'Trash' into Cash (Paperback)

I was terribly disappointed in this book. It covers 17 chapters in 94 pages, including 5 pages for the title, copyright, table of contents, and introduction. There are 17 pages of cartoon-like pictures and 10 quotations from famous people that take up a page apiece. That leaves 62 pages of content. The chapter for How to Prepare Your Items for Sale is one-page long, and boils down to "dust and clean it." A huge rip-off. I'm returning the book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Poorly Written - Shallow Book, January 29, 2002

By 

Nancy (Central North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Garage Sale Magic!: How to Turn Your 'Trash' into Cash (Paperback)

Although I've had many yard sales myself, I felt I could always use more tips and ideas. This book had received several good reviews; therefore, I felt I could learn from Pam and Michael Williams and their supposed years of experience. Boy, was I wrong. To begin with, they need a new proofreader. I've never seen so many typographical and grammatical errors in such a small book. Secondly, the content was so shallow, my 10 year old could have contributed as much information as they did. Lastly, it was loaded with quotes, cartoons, and enough "white space" to fill another small book. It definitely was not worth the money. I'll put it in the .25 paperback book bin at my next yard sale.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars worth it's weight in $20 bills, July 31, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Garage Sale Magic!: How to Turn Your 'Trash' into Cash (Paperback)

Garage Sale Magic was an easy to read book which gave me all the basics,along with some creative ideas for bringing more people to my sale and increasing my sales. I only wish I knew about this book years ago when I did my first sale. Buy it!