Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Hot Tips for a Successful - Garage Sale For Gaza -

The point of having a - Garage Sale For Gaza- is to makes lots of money so the impact of our collective donations to worthy organizations are truly felt.

With this guiding principle in mind, I have listed how I was able to have a great Garage Sale For Obama, raising over $300.00 when I thought I had donated as much as I could. So think again, folks. We can do more than we think!

Supplies you must have:
1. Big, wide, black magic marker. People are going to be driving by the signs you post advertising your sale, so the letters and numbers must be large and wide.
2. Between 4 – 8 large, thick, PINK, poster boards. I’m talking 2 feet square or more. You are competing with a lot of other sellers and you want buyers to see and remember your sale. Absolutely DO NOT use white poster boards.
3. A hammer, some nails to pound into telephone poles, a roll of duct tape, some balloons and a couple rolls of left-over, curly, colorful Christmas ribbon.
4. A big plastic tarp or two to throw over your stuff in case of a shower.
5. About $50.00 in small currency and about $3.00 in change (in this example; U.S. currency).
6. A lawn chair, some cold drinks, snacks, sun block, umbrella…and a friend.

Organize your stuff:
1. I always organize my stuff by type. Kitchen stuff together, sports stuff, tools, and I even sort my books by category; cookbooks, sports books, novels, etc. People like to find not just a treasure, but a whole trove of treasures in one place. I am always personally attached to my books and work hard to sell a $20 - $30 book for $3 - $5 and people hate paying that much. They want to spend 25 cents. For an old paperback book expect that, but go for 50 cents. I’ve done my personal market research and there is a reason stores stock by category, so I do too. You will be glad you did. Aimless shoppers are not happy shoppers. Again, stand out from the crowd and people will notice and expect to pay more…plus they will tell their friends.
2. Talk to your kids, parents, neighbors, etc. and have them bring their stuff over. The more the better. Feeding frenzies are a good thing!

Select the best day to have the sale:
1. I live in Utah which is a very religious area so I have my sales on Saturday’s only. In California, I would have them on both days.
2. Check the weather forecast. Most sites like www.weatherchannel.com forecast out 10 days in advance.

Make your signs:
1. With a pencil, lightly sketch in the words to go on your signs. The fewer the words the better. I suggest: “Garage Sale”, “Saturday”, “the address” and a “directional arrow, if needed”. That’s it!
2. Make sure your sign is 7 words or less. No phone number, no details. Remember, cars driving by can only get so much as they drive by.
3. Using the big, wide, black marker, carefully trace over the pencil pattern. Good penmanship attracts shoppers.

Advertise:
1. In my area, the community newspapers let you post a free ad. Also, www.ksl.com is a website in our area that lets us place free ads online. A lot of people go to garage sales as a hobby, so a lot of people read these ads.
2. Two evenings before the sale, go out and nail or tape up your signs. You want to place signs at main crossroads near your sale location. Intersections are best as people are stopped or going slowly. Near shopping centers in another great place since they are heavy traffic areas and you want to attract as many “eyes” as you can.

Sale Day:
1. ½ hour before your sale is scheduled to start, jump in your car with your balloons (blown up ahead of time), ribbons, tape and scissors and run around and decorate all your signs. You need these attention getting devices. They look like fun and will encourage people to stop. People notice when you stand out from the crowd.
2. Serious garage sale people will be knocking at your door at 7: am. These early birds are also the most wise, so you may not get the best prices. The late risers are the best buyers.
3. Park one of your cars out front in the street. Festoon both front and back with signs, ribbons and balloons.
4. Clutter your yard and driveway with as much stuff as you can. Don’t leave anymore in your garage than you have too. This is like spraying a pheromone all over your garage sale. People will be attracted to you like flies. There is no way they can see it all in a glance as they drive by and so they have to stop. Put your stuff right up to the sidewalk!
5. Traffic dwindles to almost nothing by 5: pm and you will be dead tired, so start wrapping it up and taking it inside by 4:45pm.
6. You are not done yet….hop in the car and go take down all your signs. You want to be a good neighbor, but you also want to keep your signs for next time.

Super Duper Garage Sale Tip:
1. Engage your kids, neighbor kids or church kids to set up a lemonade stand. Sell cookies or brownies too. This is a HUGE attractant. Kids beg their parents to stop. Dad doesn’t need much encouragement when he see’s cookies. Additionally, this is a real opportunity to show your children how to become politically involved in a fun way. Plus, let your kids do a little selling. They have unwanted stuff too and this is a great way to introduce them to the art of selling.

Selling Tips:
1. Be busy and sociable. Don’t sit in your chair like an unsmiling potato.
2. Tell buyers the history of the item they are interested in.
3. Take deposits while they run home or to the bank.
4. Have a power cord plugged in, so people can make sure a toaster or drill works.

Finally, if they stop, they want to spend, so be prepared to deal. Remember, get the best deal you can, but don’t lose the sale.
After all, this is not for your bank account, it is for Gaza and the future of our world.

Good luck to you all and please share your stories, tips and mis-steps. You will have a lot of fun, learn some good things and….I made over $300 in my last sale.
Sincerely,
Terry Allen

15 comments:

  1. One thing I've noticed in our area is that there are always a few guys that come around really early and buy up anything electronic...old electric shavers, busted lamps, boom boxes that no longer work -- stuff I would probably throw in the garbage. But these guys will take the "junk" for spare parts...the electric plugs, cords, switches, nuts and bolts and battery housings, which they can use in their own shops/craft work. That stuff is gone quick!

    ReplyDelete
  2. How can you guarantee that innocent will get the donation and that Hamas will not rob it, as reported that Hamas, today and last week, raided some 100 aid trucks that Israel had allowed into Gaza, stole their contents and sold them to the highest bidders.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You can't.
    But fearing that things won't go 100% as planned is a poor excuse for not taking action to help ease the suffering of innocent people.

    Regarding the reports of theft you mention.
    If you have been following both the pro-Israeli and the Pro-Palestine press, you should know not to believe everything you hear.
    At least until the dust settles and responsible parties complete their investigations.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Not all palestinians are innocent. Let's not forget that Hamas as a terror organization was elected by the people of Gaza, Thus the majority of Gazans are terrorists supporters. People of Gaza could live in peace now if they would not put Hamas in power.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dan, I'm afraid things are not as simple as would like.

    Do you forget that the state of Israel was created by terrorism and many of it's leaders in the past and today were labelled terrorists by the governments seeking to govern Israel?

    Perhaps you forgot that in the USA's revolutionary war, the colonists were labelled terrorist?
    One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. And each side probably has a good case to make for their actions.
    Unfortunately, due to main stream media control, the other side has a hard time getting their message out. We are told what their message is...by Israel and the USA. Hmmmmmm.

    Hamas was a democratically elected government. Because the USA, Israel and others got egg on their face doesn't change that.

    If you voted for the Republicans and then George Bush and crew started wiretapping, torturing, ignoring law, etc. would you hold yourself as a simple citizen to be as responsible? Would you feel it was okay for Democrats (or Canadians) to bomb your schools, churches, hospitals, you and kill your children for the acts of your government?

    Bottom line: I'm sure you would appreciate some one sending a bit of food to you and your family.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Anonymous

    You ask Dan "Would you feel it was okay for Democrats (or Canadians) to bomb your schools, churches, hospitals, you and kill your children"
    That's exactly what Hamas did to Israel for 8 years... Can you imagine any state waiting 8 years?
    BTW Yesterday was a market day in Gaza, You could see full counters and I wonder where did they hide this food? Is there really a need for food?

    You also say "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter", insinuating that Israel won its freedom by terror. The terror "leaders" you refer to belonged to a marginal group. They were leader of their minor group, not Israeli leaders. Certainly not the Leaders such as Ben Gurion, Rabin, Golda Meier etc.
    Jews did not get a state as a result of terror fighting… check any history books. After World War 1, the League of Nations approved the British Mandate of Palestine with the intent of creating a "national home for the Jewish people." In 1947, the United Nations approved the partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. On May 14, 1948 the state of Israel declared independence and this was followed by a war with the surrounding Arab states, which refused to accept the plan. While many moderate Arabs states recognize the right of Israel to exist. Hamas denies it.
    Hamas not only denies Israel’s right to exist. It also condemns Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as a stooge for conducting peace talks over the past year.
    Do you know that these days Hamas is executing tens of Fattah supporters as they did when they took over Gaza?
    http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-06-14-gaza_N.htm
    Do you also support this?

    ReplyDelete
  7. To all the good people of America!

    Before you engage in saving the so called "palestinians" I urge you to check some facts.
    Did you know that there was never any country called Palestine? Did you know that there is no such thing as a Palestinian people?

    The ideas that the West Bank and Gaza are occupied Palestinian land, and that the Palestinian people are fighting for their land, have been accepted by most of the governments of the world and by most of the media in the world. But if you read on, you will see that these two claims are the biggest lies ever deliberately perpetrated on humanity.

    Check out any map of the Middle East and see for yourself. You will find Palestine listed as a region as it always has been, but definitely not a country. We can locate the Mojave Desert on the map, but we still do not recognize it as our 51st state, let alone a country. Similarly, the region of Siberia is a region not a state. Or the Sahara is a region not a state, etc. Neither is Palestine a state. It never was a country, just a region.
    The fact simply is that there are no Palestinians. These people are Arabs like all other Arabs, and they happen to live in a region called Palestine. They are not a separate people.
    What makes a separate people? Religion, language, culture, garb, cuisine, etc. The Arabs in Palestine speak the same language, practice the same religion, have the same culture, etc., as all the other Arabs. The few minor differences that exist between them are like the minor differences that exist between the American Northerners and Southerners, Easterners and Westerners... but they are still all Americans. People in the south of France are quite different from the people in the north, but they are still all French. These inconsequential differences do not make a people.

    The Arabs living in Syria or Jordan, etc., are also the same Arabs, but they are each a separate nation because they each have a separate country. The so-called Palestinians want a separate country because they claim to be a separate nation. They are not. They were never a separate people before the new state of Israel. How did they become one now?

    Because of these lies, the so-called "Palestinians" feel justified in sending suicide bombers to kill women, children, babies, old men, old women and noncombatant citizens. Because of these lies, the United Nations and the media of the world are condemning Israel who is acting less harshly than any other country would act in retaliation for such heinous attacks. What is the United States doing in Afghanistan, a totally foreign country? Killing Afghanis. Why? Because they attacked us on Sept. 11. I understand this. But why do they not understand that that is exactly what Israel is doing, only on a much smaller scale?
    Let us examine the truths here:

    1) There never was a Palestinian state or a Palestinian nation. There are no Palestinian people, per se. Rather, these are Arabs living in a region that historically has been called many things, including "Palestine."

    2) Israel did not go to war against a Palestinian state and occupy its land. Rather, Israel was attacked by six Arab countries at once. She defended herself, defeated her attackers, and won the so-called territories, not from the Palestinians, but from Jordan and Egypt.

    3) Jerusalem was never the capital of any state but Israel. It was certainly never the capital of a country that never existed. Why should the Palestinians get any part of it? Because they want it? Because they have terrorists?

    4) Jerusalem, under the current Israeli control, is a free and open city. Israel, as a democracy, guarantees freedom of religion within its borders. Contrast this fact with areas that have come under Palestinian occupation. What percentage of Christians have left in recent years because they cannot stand the harassment and persecution?

    5) Most Arabs living in Palestine today are not indigenous to the region. It was not until after the Jews had changed deserts and swamps into a productive and thriving land that the Arabs started migrating there. Arafat himself was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt. Did you know that?

    The belief that giving the Palestinians a state will bring peace is a delusion. The truth is that they want it all. The short-term goal is a state consisting of the West Bank and Gaza. The long-term goal is a state which includes all of "historical Palestine," including Jordan.

    What does this say to you?

    Unless the Arabs recognize and accept these truths, even if they are given a state of their own, and no matter how many agreements and treaties they sign, they will always feel wronged, cheated, and forced into giving up what they now claim is theirs. They will continue to plot and look for an opportunity to destroy Israel in order to take back what they claim is theirs, especially the younger generation that has been brainwashed to hate the occupying enemy. Whether there is a Palestinian state or not, there will be no peace.

    Only a massive and ongoing re-education of the Arab people to these truths will enable meaningful negotiations to begin, followed by a lasting peace between Arabs and Jews. It is therefore critical that everyone who has an audience, whether in print or other media, use the forum they have available to repeat these truths again and again until they reach the consciousness of those waging war in the Middle East.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dear friends,

    I prefer to donate my money to the real innocent kids of Tibet http://www.tibetaid.org/
    and not to a palestinaian kid = future Hamas's terrorist.

    Have a nice day,
    Rita

    ReplyDelete
  9. Get some real facts
    A correspondent for Italy's Corriere della sera Lorenzo Cremonesi SAY : "Maximum 600 Palestinians died in Gaza "

    http://www.corriere.it/esteri/09_gennaio_21/denuncia_hamas_cremonesi_ac41c6f4-e802-11dd-833f-00144f02aabc.shtml

    ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
    The number of Palestinians killed in Operation Cast Lead did not exceed five or six hundred, Lorenzo Cremonesi, a correspondent for Italy's Corriere della sera reported on Thursday.

    Cremonesi based his report on tours of hospitals in the Gaza Strip and on interviews with families of ca More..sualties. He also assessed the number of wounded to be far lower than 5,000, the number quoted by Hamas and repeated by the UN and the Red Cross in Gaza.

    "It is sufficient to visit several hospitals [in the Gaza Strip] to understand that the numbers don't add up," he wrote.

    In the European hospital in Rafah, one of the facilities which would presumably be filled with wounded from the "war of the tunnels," many beds were empty, according to Cremonesi. A similar situation was noted in the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, and in the privately-run Amal Hospital Cremonesi reported that only five out 150 beds were occupied.

    Cremonesi interviewed Gazans who echoed Israel's insistence of how Hamas gunmen used civilians as human shields. One Gazan recalled civilians in Gaza shouting at Hamas and Islamic Jihad men, "Go away, go away from here! Do you want the Israelis to kill us all? Do you want our children to die under their bombs? Take your guns and missiles with you."

    "Traitors, collaborators with Israel, spies of Fatah, cowards! The soldiers of the holy war will punish you. And in any case you will all die, like us. Fighting the Zionist Jews we are all destined for paradise. Do you not wish to die with us?" the religious fanatics of Hamas reportedly responded.

    Other Palestinians told Cremonesi of Hamas operatives donning paramedic uniforms and commandeering ambulances. A woman identified as Um Abdullah, 48, spoke of Hamas using UN buildings as launch pads for rockets.

    Cremonesi reported that he had difficultly gathering evidence as the local population was terrified of Hamas.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dear Concerned Friends,
    I have been reading your excellent posts with great interest. Unfortunately, I notice partisanship is the common thread, no matter which side is argued for.
    This is understandable. Both personal experience and conditioning by parents, church or political party have a hand in polarizing us. But does not move us forward in a constructive manner.
    To state that Palestinian's or Israeli's must accept one version of history and reality before there can be no progress is not realistic. It also does not move us toward the peace we all seek. In fact, our habits, our polarization only furthers the chances for more conflict.

    For this reason, I have chosen to try to help ease innocent suffering.
    Surely, no one can look at the faces of bloodied, hungry children and feel they deserve to suffer and die. To blame one side or the other for their plight does not ease their suffering.

    I don't want Palestinian or Israeli children to grow up to fight each other.

    I want them to have a chance at being different. Perhaps they will see the hand that offers them food and comfort in love and peace, will be the hand to follow - the way to follow -as they grow up.
    Perhaps they will recognize an alternative to the polarization that rules current generations.

    I ask you all to think about habits and reactions and see if they are productive in your lives. I ask you to think about breaking the habits that don't directly contribute to peace.

    I think if we all act respectfully and peacefully, it will encourage the same in others...the same as antagonism and war encourages the same in others.

    It is a choice we all can make. But it takes practice to get good at something new. It takes courage to stand alone and blaze a new trail.

    I can't say some funds you donate might get not diverted against our wishes, but I can say, the "act" of doing something to help with a pure intent, will create a change in each one who desires a new way.

    A wise man once said:
    We are the change that we seek.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Dear Paris&Pitbulls,

    You are a good person and I'm sure you believe in Barak Obama's slogan "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek"

    I don't think that money or any material aid will make this change... It will make you a better person, but not those kids.

    In the last 40 years those kids are getting so much aid (materialistic and humanitarian)from UN, European countries and also from Israel… It did not create any change.

    As you know, Children learn behaviors and values from their environment, mainly from their parents, other relatives, peers, teachers, and increasingly, the media.

    Take a brief look at http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/017401.php
    or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hBuiSP8X6E
    or http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/017260.php
    even here in USA http://www.usvetdsp.com/dec06/jihad_kids.htm

    Do you still believe that your donation will make the change that we seek?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous,
    I certainly understand your point of view and certainly am aware of human nature. Those are also very persuasive links on the issue. They appear to be very good reasons not to help, very good reasons why it is hopeless.

    I prefer to keep looking for a way that DOES work. I know there is a way if people of good intentions put their minds and their will together to find that way.

    I refuse to give up. The history of our species shows that if we keep trying, we will find a way.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wow, I'm sorry to see that people would rather argue their points of view than have Garage Sales for the innocents-the children.

    Only the World together can change the way things are. We must not be partisans, but compassionists.

    People do not deserve to die or starve or be afraid for their lives. Period.

    Only a World Community can make peace happen. Only recognition that Everyone deserves to have a voice in their destiny will bring those who seek to destroy Humanity to an impasse.

    Please consider that it does not matter who is right-it only matters that Peace and Humanity is our True Nature.

    BTW, Terry, did you see video posted today on "Moments of Gaza" of farmers? Scared the complacency out of me again...
    -Anjanette "The Dork"

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anjanette,
    Yes, I did see that amazing video.
    What I found amazing was the courage of the ISM workers.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Simply inviting. I expect some good finds.

    ReplyDelete