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This weekend, front lawns across Canada will begin sprouting yard sales like mushrooms after rain. But gone are the days when it's enough to empty your closets onto the grass in the hopes of making a little extra cash. The lowly yard sale has become very big business indeed.

According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, about $4-billion (U.S.) is exchanged in the estimated nine million to 10 million such sales held in the United States every year. Take a look around your own neighbourhood and it will be evident that Canadians from Parkdale to Prince Rupert are in a similar sell-it-or-bust mentality.

What's driving the yard sale's newfound respectability? Call it the eBay effect: The giant digital marketplace has made casual buying and selling a worldwide phenomenon. Advice books (The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Garage and Yard Sales) and websites (yardsalequeen.com) abound. Professional yard-sale bargain hunters troll city streets on weekends. With a marketplace this hot, how can you cut through the clutter and make the most of your sale?

You can make eBay work for you by checking out some of your items on-line to see what they typically fetch. Vintage pieces like rotary phones, portable record players and old typewriters are cool collectibles, as are fashion finds like tooled cowboy boots and seventies caftans.

And when you get the stuff outside, it's not enough to pile it on the front lawn and wait for the hordes to arrive. It's all about "fluffing."

"Take the time to organize your stuff into groups," says Barb Woolley, a Toronto graphics designer, who recently took part in the giant yard sale that is a 15-year-old tradition on her street in Toronto's Leaside neighbourhood.

"We group things according to an aesthetic," she says of the approach that she and her artist husband take. "And we tend to be neat people; when we do a sale, we want to do it well."

If they're selling an old chair, they'll fold a blanket (also for sale) over the arm, for example, or nestle a child's teddy bear on the seat. As much as possible, Woolley tries to create clusters of complementary itemssuch as dishes, toys or glassware.

This year, the couple arranged a jewellery display, a home decor display, a grouping of antiques and collectibles and another made up of kids' stuff and multimedia items.

"We buy inexpensive festive plastic cloths to cover tables or lay on the ground for display," she says. And, of course, the cloths are for sale at the end of the day.

The best items, that antique coat rack or the trio of sea-grass baskets that you have no use for should be arranged at the front to catch the eye of passersby. Hang a straw hat or the curling sweater you haven't worn in years on the rack. Fill the baskets with back issues of magazines.

Woolley's 13-year-old daughter organized a small bake sale to raise money for the humane society and she took on the task of selling her old toys. "In all, she raised $110," Woolley says.

Rolls of vintage wallpaper leaning against a wooden stepladder (so what if it's broken, someone will be willing to repair it) surrounded by tins of unopened paint that you never got around to using make an attractive display.

Baby equipment -- high chairs, playpens, strollers and toys in good condition are hot items. But make sure they're clean, Woolley says. "Take time to arrange the table displays neatly. Things that are stacked should be stacked nicely. Books should have the spines out."

You should also make it easy for people to walk around and inspect things and keep some of the interesting items at the back of the sale area to pull people in.

Pricing is perhaps the most crucial part of the equation. Experts recommend tagging everything, no matter how small. Or create $1, $5, $10 tables of disparate items. Place similar items in attractive boxes -- door and window hardware or kitchen gadgets and sell them as $5 or $10 lots.

"I don't think anyone knows what sells and why," Woolley says. At her last yard sale, she says, "we had this roll of chicken wire in our basement. I have no idea how it got there. My husband wanted to put it in the sale, but I said, 'Who would buy that?' And it was the first thing that sold. I was gobsmacked."

Of course, people will always try to haggle, so give yourself some wiggle room. At the end of the day, do you really want to schlep all that stuff back into the basement? Let it go cheap. Or leave it out with a "Free" sign after the sale and let it find a home.

Bring in the buyers

Yard sales have grown so hot in Toronto, the city is planning to limit residents to no more than two sales a year. Here's how to make it count.

Make a cool poster. A colourful retro image will bring out the hipster collectors.

Price everything, and have plenty of change and plastic shopping bags.

Group similar items (toys, kitchenware, sports) and label each station.

Borrow tables and use laundry drying racks or ladders to display textiles.

Use an extension cord so buyers can test electronics (and you can play tunes).

Fill vases and other for-sale containers with fresh flowers from your garden.