By Renee Martinez
It’s spring and garage sales liter the community I live in from now until fall. It’s like garage sale mania. You know the old adage, what’s one person’s junk is another person’s treasure. I agree with this. and my kids do too. If you’re looking for something to do, check out your local newspaper to see if they have garage sale listings.
What I’ve done with my boys is taken them to a neighborhood sale where we can go for a walk so we only need to get in and out of the car once. This makes it much easier. Then I give each boy some money. $3 is huge to them. We walk around and check everything out. They like to search for all sorts of things. Toys for the yard, videos, books, whatever strikes their fancy at the time. They learn about money, making change, managing wants and living within their means. When the items they want is more than they have, they can learn negotiation skills, price shopping, how to save and patience. We have stumbled upon some INCREDIBLE finds. A few that come to mind:
- One time we found a boy who had outgrown his Fisher Price Rescue Heroes. When I tell you that he must have owned every single Rescue Heroes item every made, I am not exaggerating. Well, one look at the collection and I practically had to pull their jaws up from the ground. They were mesmerized. I took every last item…for $50. It’s real value, gosh more than $1000.
- Books. We’ve found some great new and gently used books, for as low as a quarter per book.
- A bicycle that was a higher-end (maybe worth $250) for a child, we bought it for $5.
- A Peg Perego stroller for $10 in great condition.
- Brand new ski helmets $2 each. I bought 3 of them.
Tomorrow my friend is having a garage sale and I am looking forward to selling my wares. I don’t expect to make much money. People who go to these sales are always looking for a deal, or else why would they bother? It’s funny and annoying when I’ve priced a $40 item perfect and with the tags on it for $3 and the buyer wants to offer me $1. But hey, when I go to a garage sale, I do the same thing. Getting a bargain is fun.
About the Author: Renee Martinez consults and speaks professionally on social media marketing, integrated marketing communications, public relations and branding. She is the president of Ruby Marketing Communications (www.rubymarcom.com), a boutique marketing communications company that specializes in providing branding, social media strategy and integration, and creative services. Her blog (www.lisac95.sg-host.com), provides resources on everything marketing and social media for her active audience.
Renee has contributed as a featured monthly columnist in the monthly jewelry industry publication, JCK on matters related to internet marketing as well as in InStore Magazine as a featured blogger where she writes about developing effective marketing strategies for the jewelry industry using social media. She is the founder of: Social Media Biz Summit (www.socialmediabizsummit.com), the first large-scale SM conference to come to Buffalo, NY; #jewelrychat, a weekly twitter chat for the jewelry industry and www.RaisingBoysWorld.com. Renee teaches social marketing courses at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY for the business school as well as offers small group social media marketing training and educational seminars for businesses in Western New York and beyond.
Renee has dabbled in internet marketing arena since the early 90′s and is not ashamed to call herself a “marketing geek”. From chatting in AOL, “sharing” music on Napster, and teaching HTML classes before it was considered “cool” to developing comprehensive social media strategies, effective public relations campaigns and managing online communities (most recently Chevy Girls Buffalo).
She enjoys being able to help people find their voice online and to create buzz about their product or service that will give them the results they desire.
Renee can be found on Twitter (@reneemmartinez) and Facebook (http:/www.facebook.com/RubyMarCom).
