Community Yard Sale

[hertfordnc]

Last year i was a passive parent in my kids pack until I learned there was no money in the bank and i had to pay all the charter fees for two kids. 

So, i got committee qualified and held a yard sale.  Two weeks from idea to execution- we raised over $1000 . 

Doing it again with a bit  more planning. 

People are happy to donate their unwanted stuff to a good cause.  

You can create work for everyone with sorting, pricing, transporting and storage. 

Has anyone else done this?  I'd love to hear other input. i'm flying without a net (and without adult supervision) 

 

[desertrat77]

@hertfordnc, welcome to scouter.com!

[qwazse]

Welcome, and thanks in advance for all you'll do for the youth!

If even a half-dozen parents buy in and provide muscle, it sounds like you have a plan. Scouts love to sell their old stuff. They also love to buy other scout's old stuff.

There is paperwork. You should contact your district executive about filing a Unit Fundraising Application. It will cover the basic "do" and "do not" items.

Edited September 13, 2019 by qwazse

[The Latin Scot]

I love this idea! I'll be sure to recommend it to the new unit being formed in our community. Thanks for sharing!

[hertfordnc]

We received a few high value items i sold on ebay and we ran ads locally for appliances.

I'm working on the flier for this years. it will be in a few weeks. 

You need a plan for storage and a plan for what to do with unsold stuff. 

This year I'm working a deal with a flea market seller to come pick up my unsold stuff. 

 

 

[eagle90]

We have done a Rummage/Garage Sale for over 20 years.  We fill the school gym with used treasures and normally make between $1,500 and $2,000 for one day's work.  It is also a good fellowship activity because it gets all families involved, even the ones we don't see too often.

[hertfordnc]

Just thought i would report back on this thread, 

Last month the local Ruratans hosted a five mile yard sale down a two lane country road,  I handed out a flier saying  that i would take unsold items at the end of the day to be donated to the Cub Scouts. 

I got several calls and collected three pickup loads of mostly junk but it did give us a lot of stuff to put out. 

The location for the yard sale is near a storage company and I persuaded them to donate a  10X20 unit to the pack for 30 days. 
That really worked out great,  people could just drop off donations there and then we were able to roll everything out quickly on the morning of the sale and then roll the leftovers back in at the end of the day.

We took in $770 so far.  I have a few things to clean out of the storage unit that might bring in a few more dollars. 

We also received a few coolers and tents that we kept for the pack.

Our pack only has about 12 kids so this put us in pretty good shape.

[thrifty]

For your leftovers;

in our area, one of the thrift store chains, Savers, has a fundraiser option.  See link.  The committee talked about doing this but never got it off the ground so I don't have any experience. 

https://fundrive.savers.com/

Easter Seals in our area also has some kind of  'fill a truck' fundraiser where everyone fills a cargo truck with goods and its weighed and they are given funds.  I don't think most groups actually fill the truck full, just with whatever they can.  You could plan and combine what you already have, if it meets their rules, and also put out a social media request for people to drop stuff off at a certain location at a certain day and see how much you can get.

The flea market guy might give you a better deal, I don't know.