Like to exchange that gold mine of junk in your basement for a fistful of dollars? You can, by holding a garage sale.

You don't necessarily need a garage to hold a garage sale, but you do need to know the secrets of success. Some careful planning will assure you of a successful sale.

First, consider your location. If you're too far off the beaten track, you might like to ask a friend if you can hold the sale in their yard.

Next, check the bylaws in your area to find out if you might need a permit to hold a garage sale. You may be required to pay a fee, or to collect sales tax. Also, find out if you can put up signs in the neighborhood to advertise your sale.

Choosing the date and hours for your sale should be easy. Naturally, a weekend day would be the best and the morning (not too early, though) and afternoon the best hours.

Make use of free advertising bulletin boards in your community to publicize your sale. You can also advertise in your local newspaper.

Now, what to sell. You may be surprised that what you have no use for and in fact think is junk, someone else is thrilled with. The following list will give you some ideas of what you can sell:

appliances - large and small
books - paperback and hard cover
costume jewelery
sports equipment
plants
linens / bedding
children's toys
flatware - silver and stainless steel
baby equipment
phonograph records / tapes
shoes / boots
patio equipment
garden tools
kitchen utensils / gadgets
china / bric-a-brac
clothing, especially children's
pictures / frames

Now that you've decided when your sale will be held and just what you're going to sell, the following tips will help make your day a success:

Put a price tag on every item. Mark your prices clearly. This makes it easier for a customer to browse. Masking tape is excellent for price tags.

Make sure your merchandise is very clean. Goods that are polished and in good condition will sell faster than old dusty items.

Be ready to deal with customers promptly at opening time. Have everything ready and be wearing a smile.

Be prepared to give your customers change by having coins and small bills on hand.

Save your bags for a few weeks before your sale, so you can offer your customers some wrapping for their purchases.

Be prepared to haggle with customers.

After your sale, if you should have any leftovers, perhaps you would like to donate them to a local charity. Or you can always save the leftovers for your next sale.

Garage sales are a lot of fun. Plan yours properly and you'll be assured of a good time and a successful sale.

First, set a date and time when you can devote your full time to this sale, for gathering up various articles as well as being able to attend the sale full time.

Second, plan just what you're going to put in this sale, if you are going to have the sale alone, or with two to five more families.

Third, have plenty of change on hand - both silver and paper money.

Now, get down to business. A sale is work - a lot of hard work, but the returns more than justify the effort. Whether it's advertised as Patio, Carport, Yard, Porch, or Garage-a-Rama, people will come and buy. Clean out your closets and ANYTHING that is useless to you or you don't want - put it in the sale. Don't throw anything away. People will buy just about anything. You'd be surprised. What is one person's trash is another's GOLDMINE!

Of course you need to advertise. Be specific, concise and honest. State place, date, hours. If you have large amount of clothing, specify some of the sizes, particularly if you have quite a few in a few sizes. Antiques. They go over big regardless of state of repair or condition. Give good descriptive details to save disappointments.

Capitalize on the season. Feature luggage at going-away to school or vacation time. Toys near Christmas. Include fads. Today, bottles of all kinds are in demand. Big bottles, little bottles, Jim Beam, Avon, Kara Brooks, Wheaton/Nuline, old medicine, Mrs. Butterworth, miniature - all kinds, old fruit jars, and insulators.

Here are some additional items that we find to be in big demand: baseball cards, lawnmowers, camping articles, guns, tools, coins, old books. Children like comic books, old and new. Women like aprons, old-fashioned bonnets, clothing for themselves as well as their children, salt and pepper shakers, needlework, jewelry and dishes.

Doll clothing and accessories are always in demand and especially for Barbie and Ken or teen dolls. Toys go over big at any time. Dolls and stuffed toys. Make a hit with the kiddies and they, in turn, will finally persuade their mothers to buy something. Children are very persuasive!

Have a large quantity of items to sell, a big variety. And don't be afraid to drag out those outgrown items, old dishes, two-of-a-kind items you don't really need and generally "clean house". You'll find the money in your pocket is better than all the clutter in the house.

Homemade items are very popular. If someone in your household sews, then sew up aprons, doll clothes, dolls, stuffed toys from scraps of material lying around. You'll make use of those scraps taking up space and make money too! Fresh produce such as tomatoes, green beans, corn, fruits, etc. will also sell, if you should have a garden overflowing.

String up a clothesline to display any clothing you may have. Remember, clothing for all ages, men or women, is always in great demand. Children's clothing goes over best and especially about the time for school to start in the fall.

Set up card tables or ping-pong tables to display small merchandise. Place tables in a manner that will leave room for shoppers to browse without feeling crowded. Display your wares attractively. Be sure they are clean, usable, and priced temptingly.

People are looking for bargains. Don't disappoint them. Remember that what you sell is something you don't want anyway, so whatever you get is gravy.

Take advantage of the space under the tables, if you need more display room. You will be amazed how buyers spot the smallest item under the table. Colorful table covers draw a lot of attention to your items.

You will save yourself a lot of time answering questions if you show a price on all merchandise. Use a heavy black felt marking pen for lettering. If more families go in with you, identify your price tags with a code such as G 75 cents or M 25 cents. The letters designate, perhaps, the first letter of the last name of the family who contributed items to sell. Keep all the tags and at the end of the sale, divide the tags according to code and total the sales. You may not come out right to the penny on sales and change you had on hand as anyone can make errors in making change for a customer.

Be sure you have electrical outlets nearby to plug in toasters, blenders, electric skillets, irons, hair dryers, electric razors, etc., to show people that your articles do work. If you have to use an extension cord, make sure it is in excellent condition and preferably a heavy duty one.

If you have any fragile, rare or expensive items such as crystal, cut glass or jewelry, be sure it is displayed on a sturdy table and up high out of reach of kiddies. They are curious and you might be too busy to watch them.

Drinking glasses, dishes, cups will sell faster if you price them in sets of 6 for $1.00 instead of 15 cents each. Paperback books, magazines, records and items that have titles will sell more readily if they are marked separately. If they want them collectively, they'll ask you. Then bundle them all up and sell them. Sell everything!

Advertising. Run an ad in your daily newspaper. If you run your ad one day only, have it in the Thurday paper. You might like to run the ad two days to appear in both the Thursday and Friday editions. If your sale runs through Saturday, your sale is about over before the paper hits the street on Saturday. Therefore, 2-day advertising is usually adequate unless your sale is continued late Saturday night and through Sunday.

However, whatever you decide to advertise - BE READY! Be ready to meet any customer as soon as the paper hits the street, because some will come before the sale and before you even get ready to start the next day! In addition to placing an ad in the paper, place signs at points where people will see them. Some laundromats have bulletin boards on which you can place notices. Advertise all you can. Work word-of-mouth all you can. If employed, place signs on your company's bulletin boards.

Best days for your Garage Sale are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Sundays are usually a waste of time unless you're staying at home all day doing nothing anyway.

At the end of your sale you will have met a lot of nice, friendly people. If you want to continue your selling of any items you might have made, you can let people know then and have future sales all lined up. A circular made up and passed out to each customer would help to obtain any future sales also. You will profit both from the present sale and any future sales also. In short, you should have received much money, future profits, some new acquaintances and a weary but happy body!

Garage sales are like any other form of business. To get the most money out of your garage sale, you have to know what you are doing. You have to be acquainted with the market, advertise for business, offer competitive prices and quality merchandise.

The first thing to do in most cases, is visit or check with your local municipal government about the laws surrounding garage sales. You may be required to purchase a license to legally hold your sale. You may have to hold your sale on certain days, or on a certain part of your property, perhaps the backyard instead of the front yard or driveway where safety problems and other nuisances to your neighbors can occur. You may have to follow certain advertising guidelines. In any case, it's better to know beforehand than have an inspector slap you with a $500 fine for some innocent-looking infraction of local bylaws.

With legalities out of the way, take the previous Saturday and attend some garage sales in your neighborhood if you haven't already, to see what sort of prices are asked for which items. Try to go to there early in the morning and also later in the day to find out what's gone and what's not selling. What went first was probably underpriced and what's left is either overpriced or not worth anything to most people.

Once you have a general idea of what kinds of prices you can charge, figure out what you want to sell. Remember that if you have any doubts about whether or not you'll want to keep the item, don't sell it. You'll regret it later more often than not. If you really need the money, keep the price reasonable. Don't make people pay extra for the emotional loss you'll be suffering or you just won't sell it.

The Sunday before the sale is the best time to get most of your garage sale items in order. Pack them in boxes or keep them in a special corner. If you start on Sunday, you'll have six days to stumble upon items you'll want to sell that you hadn't thought of and wouldn't have thought of if you had waited until the last minute. It shouldn't take more than half an hour to get everything that comes quickly in mind in place for your sale, and it wouldn't seem like any time at all to get the items you find during the week since you'll put them away as a matter of course during the week.

Advertise on a Friday and Saturday only. You won't get more customers by advertising through the week, and you'll probably be urged to spend that extra money. Don't. You're in this to make money, not spend it.

On Friday, your heavy work begins. The first thing to do is make up signs. Write them like your newspaper ad, including date, starting and finishing time, whether you'll be holding it on Sunday too, a few of the more interesting items, and your address. With your ad, never start the ad with "Garage Sale." If it's going to be under the Garage Sale heading, people know it's already a garage sale.

When you make your signs, you should put GARAGE SALE on it in big letters, at least three inches high and in the heaviest felt pen you can find. Write them on white paper or cardboard, preferably 8-1/2"x14" and leave a couple of inches blank at the bottom. Have the address in letters thick enough to be easily read by a passing car.

Place these signs on lampposts on nearby corners, at laundromat bulletin boards, and at every corner where someone might turn to get to your home. When you put the sign up, use the felt marker to mark a huge arrow indicating the direction of your home. Many garage sale enthusiasts will give up if they can't find your home on the first try. Be sure to take the signs down as soon as the sale is over, as police have discovered they make interesting suggestions for burglars.

Once the signs are out, set to pricing all your goods. It will be a lot easier to do half or more for your pricing on Friday night. Masking tape is about the best for this since it sticks to anything and comes off easily and takes felt pen ink quite well. Round off your prices to 5 cent intervals up to a quarter, to 25 up to $2 and 50 up to five dollars. Don't use prices like $3.95. They are effective strategies for retailers, but they'll make you look like too much of a pro and make people think you don't have any real bargains. When in doubt, set the price low. Remember: YOUR GOAL IS TO GET RID OF THE UNWANTED, not to make a profit! The better your prices, the more you'll sell.

One quick note: In most cases, it is illegal to resell underwear or bathing suits or any clothing worn directly against the skin on the lower body. It is not wise to sell any baked goods, sandwiches or even coffee and soft drinks unless they come sealed. You will leave yourself wide open for a lawsuit if someone gets sick even if it's not your fault, and in many cases it's usually against health codes to do anything but give refreshments away on your property.

Finally, make one big sign, at least an hour and a half before the scheduled start of the sale. If you don't, you'll leave yourself little time to wake up and set your merchandise before customers arrive, and expect a steady flow starting half an hour or so before the scheduled start.

Don't worry if you're still loading stuff onto your yard or driveway as people arrive. That's good for business, because the serious people will wait until every item is on display, giving them a lot more time to find things they would otherwise have overlooked. If you've got neighbors adding their goods to your sale, have them make a complete list of items and prices marked on them rather than having them listed as they sell.

That means any losses will be their responsibility, not yours, and chances are good a few items could be shoplifted. Keep the list near your change box, which should have a roll each of quarters, dimes and nickels, twenty one dollar bills and a few fives and tens. If you get stuck without change, you'll wind up giving the customer an unnecessary discount and that costs you money.

Try to have an extra pair of hands around until noon, when traffic will slow considerably for the rest of the day. Have your children keep their eyes open for shoplifters, and unless the item stolen is a valuable one, it may not be worth your while to stop the thief or press charges.

Have a good selection of electrical outlets, make sure they're grounded, for testing appliances and any other electrically powered items. Heavy duty extensions for lawnmowers or block heaters should be sufficient.

If by noon things have not gone as well as you've hoped, think seriously about dropping your prices. Mark everything unsold down by 25% and if that doesn't help, reduce the price to half your original asking price by 3:00. If you're not prepared to do this, you're having your garage sale for the wrong reason. The object is to convert junk to cash, and if you're reluctant to price things competitively, it's not junk and will not sell.

You will be asked to drop your price almost on every item. A good rule of thumb is not to split the difference, but to keep in mind what the person asked and hold firm for at least the first couple of hours. If a $50 piece of furniture is fetching several offers of $20, you should probably be asking $30 for it.

You'll get a feel for these things as the day progresses, but don't bring your prices down too soon. It's easy to get the feeling that the person you're talking to is the only one you'll meet all day who is interested in the particular item, and it's not usually true.

If you have furniture for sale, don't be afraid to let the buyer leave the piece with you until later. You won't be going anywhere, and as long as there's a SOLD sign on it, it does nothing but add to the impression that you have a lot of goods. Variety is a strong attraction, especially with neighbors who just happen to be passing by.

Don't be too picky about keeping ledgers on everything you sell. It will help to have a receipt book in case you get asked for a written receipt, but you are selling at a loss on almost every item compared to what you paid for it, and it won't count as income at the end of the year so there's no sense cluttering your files.

Once you decide to shut your sale down, and you may do it before your advertised hour, if you're really running short of goods, divide all remaining goods into three categories: goods to be donated to charitable groups, goods to be resold at next year's garage sale or a neighbor's garage sale later in the season, and goods you should have sold in the first place. Keep the first group in boxes by the front door so you'll remember what to do with them and the second group in labelled cartons for easy access. If you used masking tapes on these items, be sure to remove it right away. The gum on this tape tends to stick much harder than regular tape, and removing it 1ater might be a real problem. It's good to remove price stickers of any kind in all cases for that reason.

If you've been reselling items you bought cheap at other garage sales and making a profit from them, you are technically required to charge sales tax and pay income tax on profits. If you hold garage sales on several consecutive weekends, chances are good you'll receive a visit or letter from the tax people asking about your activity.

Many couples hold weekly garage sales as a source of extra income, though it usually does not pay off your effort since the best items always goes first and you either have to keep buying new items to sell or reducing prices regularly to move your stock. As a general rule, you'll sell more of your less popular items faster at a flea market where buyers expect slightly higher prices.

HAPPY SELLING AND GOOD LUCK!