The other day my wife and I went to Portland’s Biggest Garage Sale. It was in the Portland Expo Center. My wife is a real bargain hunter (I really love that about her) and just can’t resist trying to find clothes for the kids, shoes or anything else we might need.

Unfortunately for us, we didn’t find much there. I got a few tools I needed, but that was about it. What I did notice is that there were more than just your average people there with booths. There were crafters there as well.

I stopped and spoke with a couple of gals to find out how things were going. Neither of them reported anything great. One of them was selling yard decorations and another was selling her paintings.

The question I would ask is, “Was this really the place for them to be”? After all, were people really expecting to come and find items that were a bit higher priced at an event like this?

The yard decoration gal said she thought things would pick up. She thought that all the early people had come through just looking for bargains. My thought was, “Well, this was advertised as a garage sale”. Cheap is exactly what a lot of the people there would be looking for.

The gal with the paintings hadn’t had much interest at all. Her paintings looked really nice. She is obviously very talented. But for all that, no interest.

To me it just underscored once again the need to pick the right event for your products. Go where people are going to expect to be finding your items. Then you will see the kind of interest you are hoping for.

In contrast, a friend of mine was there selling Legos. He buys, sells and trades them. They were well priced along with a bunch of other odds and ends he had. After just a few hours he had sold $500 worth. The booth cost him $40. Needless to say he was already happy. I would expect by days end he did pretty well.

Just make sure that you aren’t out of context. Take the time to find out what the show is really going to be about, what other vendors are going to be there, and how the event will be advertised. It will make all the difference.