It’s A Women’s World

Most of the people I know use garage sales as a way to get rid of extra stuff that they don’t need. Although you can make a little bit of money having a yard sale of this type, it usually doesn’t amount to much. One of my best friends, for example, had a garage sale about a month ago. He sat the whole day outside and, although he must’ve sold dozens of items, he only made about a hundred dollars. For getting rid of what was originally thousands of dollars of stuff, this is not much of a return. Still, it served it’s purpose for him, he got rid of things he didn’t need and made a bit of dough.

Making real money having a garage sale is a little bit more difficult, but it can be done. The key is to treat more as a flea market than a garage sale. Few people really realize what an excellent opportunity garage sales provide. You don’t have to pay for a stall, you can have them in the comfort of your own home and you can sell anything you want without any government oversight. Needless to say, this is quite an opportunity for the resourceful entrepreneur. Taking advantage of it is a little bit more difficult.

The most important thing for the success of your garage sale is exposure. Unfortunately, sometimes there’s just nothing that can be done. Some yard sales are perpetually cursed by poor location. You can do a lot to publicize it, but until the word gets around that you give great sales, few people are going to come. If you live on more of a main thoroughfare, you can get a lot of traffic at your garage sale. You can even arrange to have the sale at a friends house, especially if you have a friend who has a better location.

The best way to make money having a garage sale is to make it a regular event. Once people learn that you have yard sales with interesting crafts and secondhand items, they will come by your house more often. That way, you will be able to get more regular business. You can either have them weekly, biweekly, monthly. Keep an eye out for flea markets with good items that are cheap. Feel free to buy things in other people’s yard sales to sell for a higher price in your own. See what people want and give it to them. It is the secret in this business, just like in any other one.

Jewelry design is vast and you can find just about any combination of stones and precious metals. Many artists work long, tireless hours to produce quality arrangements but I find that a single gemstone can make the difference between an average jewelry design and something extra special.

While I am not an expert on jewelry design myself I do know what I like. I was in a jewelry store one afternoon and became enthralled by a stone called Ametrine centered in an antique ring. The ring was an original jewelry design that was made for a woman over 50 years ago. The piece wound up in the estate section of the store.

The Ametrine stone was amazing. It was purple on one end and yellow on the other end. There was a perfect line where the two colors met. The stone is actually mined that way. I couldn’t believe that this perfect line was found in nature. No jewelry design could either embellish or downplay this stone’s magnificent beauty.  The gemstone was clear and smooth presented in an emerald cut. I bought the ring but found that I wanted to do my own jewelry design instead of wearing someone else’s creation. The gemstone would be the perfect starting place.

I talked to the owner of the store and told her that I wanted to do my own jewelry design. She agreed to make the piece for me. The metal of my ring was 24 carat gold. The gold wrapped around the emerald cut stone and rejoined itself at the loop.  It was sleek and dainty and cost three times as much as the ring I found in the estate jewelry section. The extra investment didn’t matter to me by that point. The very experience of seeing my very own jewelry design come to life was worth the extra money. My first experience in jewelry design was indeed a success.

I was lucky enough to come across a jeweler that also made items on location. The big companies like Kay Jewelers and King’s Jewelers do not usually get involved with original jewelry design. The best thing to do would be to look through your local Yellow Pages or online for someone who can help you with your jewelry design.

A great way to save money would be to use a stone that you have already either in a piece of jewelry or alone. If you don not have any usable stones, you could shop around for the gemstone separately and have the jeweler supply the metal.  The price of the metal for the piece usually depends on the current rate per weight. The jeweler will charge separately for their time. In no time at all you can be on your way to seeing your own jewelry design spring into life.