My suggestions for optimal yard sale/garage sale searching - Add Yours Too?

[kennedyfan]

Here are my thoughts from my experiences; I'd love to hear followup suggestions!

* Plan ahead:

- Set up a search on Craig's List (which, for me at least, has a lot more listings than local newspapers) for the neighborhoods you want. Bookmark this page so you can come back to it from week to week.

- Check the classifieds of your local newspaper(s) for your area.

- Any other online sources, like Patch.com in your area? You might find a few listings there.

* Collect the addresses

- Put addresses you've collected into a spreadsheet.
- Make a note of start/ending times so you can skip 'em if they won't fit into your schedule
- Also note special items they mentioned, whether it's a block sale, etc. in case you need to prioritize
- Put your house as the first item - see below for why.

* The morning of the sales, check online one more time and add any new entries. Some people don't submit their listings until the last minute!

* Map your route

- To save on distance to travel, use a computer to help you map your route
- I use MapQuest's service: http://www.mapquest.com/routeplanner … There may be others but this works the best.
- MapQuest lets you import your spreadsheet, if the columns are set up correctly. Saves lots of time entering data!
- Be sure to let MapQuest rearrange your stops to minimize time/distance! (Your starting point, the first item on the list, always stays at the top.)
- You may want to rearrange your route manually if you need to delay visits to yard sales that open later in the morning.
- Print out your map and address list to take with you.
- Scribble notes about the stops on your map so you remember when they are open, anything specific they mentioned, etc.

* On the road

- Be sure to keep your eyes out for signs along the way, or driveways set up by people who didn't advertise in advance.
- Actually, have a friend or family member do the above so you can keep your eyes on the road!

* At the sale

- Greet and be friendly with the owner
- After browsing a bit, and buying something if you found something you want, then ask if they have any of the other things you're looking for. (They may not have thought of bringing them out, or consider them too valuable to just leave out for sticky fingers). IT'S CRITICAL TO ASK!
- If they have things you're looking for, but not available at that moment, see if you can trade phone numbers. Be sure to get *their* phone number; they are not very likely to call you later so you'll want to drop them a line in a week or two.

These are my best practices. They work pretty well for me! My only frustrations are:

- MapQuest sometimes gets the addresses and the map routes jumbled up if you rearrange them manually
- MapQuest only allows you to import 26 items from a spreadsheet. However you can manually add further stops.
- When I get somebody's phone number for cases where they say they have something to sell me later, it's amazing how hard it is to get people to actually call me back. (I've gotten to where I don't bother leaving a message to ask them to call me back!) After a few months of no luck, I just give up and drop them from my list.

Further suggestions and ideas?

[hombre_de_plata_flaco]

Excellent post. I have it bookmarked. Usually I just check the Thursday edition of the paper, get up really early, have a cup of coffee, and start driving around on Friday and Saturday mornings. The sales are everywhere around here. J&J Flea Market in Athens has regular vendors inside the buildings, but the outside is all "yard sale" tables that are rented out for like $6.00/day. J&J is like a 3rd world country now but you can still find some good stuff there.

[Fla-Gal]

Great advice !!!! Thanks for sharing w/us....

[bazinga]

Wow, that sounds like a lot of work.

Here is what I do:

Wake up. Start the car. Drive around. Stop at sales. Buy stuff. Go home.

[kennedyfan]

Wake up. Start the car. Drive around. Stop at sales. Buy stuff. Go home.

He he. Well, that works too! I guess my way is nice because I'm less likely to miss sales, and I can cover a LOT of sales in a pretty short time. You'd be amazed at how many there are within a block or two of each other....

[diggummup]

kennedyfan- you do pretty much the same thing I do. I don't use mapquest or a gps, I just route them out prior using google maps if I need to, either starting closest to my home or earliest start time or whether it's an estate sale that I want to hit first, depending. I also double check or cross reference the supposed "estate sales" to see if I can find out whether it is an actual estate sale or some schmuck calling their garage sale an estate. I do this by doing a quick address search on the county property appraisers website. Get the name of the owner, then check the obits for the name of the owner or sometimes the house will be listed in the name of "Doe, John Est." for example. I try and stay away from most of the estate sales that are run by so called "professionals," they're usually too high priced for the most part.

[kennedyfan]

I'm happy to go to an estate sale (real or imagined), but I do avoid the estate sales run by the local person/company whom I know collects coins for herself! :-)

[jerseyben]

What is the consensus on arriving early? I usually subtract 30 mins from the start time of all sales. I would say 99% of the time I am not the first person to get to a sale but quite often I am the 2nd.

[SEANO]

After gathering as many listings for garage sales as I can, and deciding which ones I am going to go to, I number them 1-whatever. My next step is to enter the addresses into my Iphone Map App. the night before. This way the next day, I just need to input a character or two for the address to pop-up and get me directions. Probably not the best way, but it works for me.

If I could only figure out how to tell if an estate sale company is running the show(s). I try and avoid those as much as possible. Some of them are very careful not to give it away in the listings. May have to try Diggum's strategy...

[billjustbill]

Here are my thoughts from my experiences; I'd love to hear followup suggestions!

* Plan ahead:

- Set up a search on Craig's List (which, for me at least, has a lot more listings than local newspapers) for the neighborhoods you want. Bookmark this page so you can come back to it from week to week.

- Check the classifieds of your local newspaper(s) for your area.

- Any other online sources, like Patch.com in your area? You might find a few listings there.

* Collect the addresses

- Put addresses you've collected into a spreadsheet.
- Make a note of start/ending times so you can skip 'em if they won't fit into your schedule
- Also note special items they mentioned, whether it's a block sale, etc. in case you need to prioritize
- Put your house as the first item - see below for why.

* The morning of the sales, check online one more time and add any new entries. Some people don't submit their listings until the last minute!

* Map your route

- To save on distance to travel, use a computer to help you map your route
- I use MapQuest's service: http://www.mapquest.com/routeplanner … There may be others but this works the best.
- MapQuest lets you import your spreadsheet, if the columns are set up correctly. Saves lots of time entering data!
- Be sure to let MapQuest rearrange your stops to minimize time/distance! (Your starting point, the first item on the list, always stays at the top.)
- You may want to rearrange your route manually if you need to delay visits to yard sales that open later in the morning.
- Print out your map and address list to take with you.
- Scribble notes about the stops on your map so you remember when they are open, anything specific they mentioned, etc.

* On the road

- Be sure to keep your eyes out for signs along the way, or driveways set up by people who didn't advertise in advance.
- Actually, have a friend or family member do the above so you can keep your eyes on the road!

* At the sale

- Greet and be friendly with the owner
- After browsing a bit, and buying something if you found something you want, then ask if they have any of the other things you're looking for. (They may not have thought of bringing them out, or consider them too valuable to just leave out for sticky fingers). IT'S CRITICAL TO ASK!
- If they have things you're looking for, but not available at that moment, see if you can trade phone numbers. Be sure to get *their* phone number; they are not very likely to call you later so you'll want to drop them a line in a week or two.

These are my best practices. They work pretty well for me! My only frustrations are:

- MapQuest sometimes gets the addresses and the map routes jumbled up if you rearrange them manually
- MapQuest only allows you to import 26 items from a spreadsheet. However you can manually add further stops.
- When I get somebody's phone number for cases where they say they have something to sell me later, it's amazing how hard it is to get people to actually call me back. (I've gotten to where I don't bother leaving a message to ask them to call me back!) After a few months of no luck, I just give up and drop them from my list.

Further suggestions and ideas?

You've got some good info here, thanks. I'll add these:

These next few weeks, sellers still want to set early start times like 6:00 or 7:00 a.m.

The sun comes up later and later, it's still dark so bring a good flashlight. It can help you see the good stuff... and also see that you don't put your hand down in a box with a Black Widow or scorpion..... (I brought home one of each)

Having a small pocket magnifier comes in handy...it seems the later in the morning it is, jewelry found is usually small and thin, and the silver or gold marking are very hard to see for those that are quick in and quick out. Pulling out the little magnifer is the last resort for the seller to see, but it can keep you from leaving it or buying something that you're guess at...

If the sale says it's open that early, most likely the "Dealers" have hit it the afternoon before as the seller is trying to get things out and organized. You might try their tactics, but from what I hear the next day, be kind and understanding with the seller. One seller said in a rather frustrated voice, "I had to start and stop so many times yesterday as people would just come up and start digging through my stuff...."

Your point about don't forget the garage sale signs you see in between the ones on your route... I can tell you that three of my best finds came from following garage sale signs: 1. Here on this forum, I've posted a tall floor-standing jewelry box filled with tangled jewelry that I bought for $45.... I pulled a third-carat diamond pendant on a thin 14kt gold chain, and over $400 in sterling and gold...(then sold the cabinet and the rest at my garage sale for $55), 2. I bought a Router raiser for $15, still new in the box that had Woodcraft's $369.00 tag still on it. 3. I pulled into a country garage sale on the way back from a community-wide sale and bought a 4' diameter roll of a three wire run of 1/0 aluminum wire almost 150' long...for $5.

Follow those signs when ya see them....

[goldinmypan]

I do follow signs but in my area so many people don't take down last weeks signs that you can waste a lot of time chasing ghosts.

[kennedyfan]

I do follow signs but in my area so many people don't take down last weeks signs that you can waste a lot of time chasing ghosts.

Good point! A pet peeve of mine! It was better earlier in the summer when there weren't many signs up, so they were more likely to be fresh. By this time of the year, a given street corner looks like a maze of telephone pole signage!

[Goldmanford]

Here's my wee bit of wisdom. In my area there are certain families that like to have sales over and over and they have crap. We try to update a sheet with the crappy addresses so if we see them listed we can decide if it is worth it or if we should bypass it. Saves time when you drive all the way to a specific place and find it's those folks who always have nothing!

[SEANO]

Here's my wee bit of wisdom. In my area there are certain families that like to have sales over and over and they have crap. We try to update a sheet with the crappy addresses so if we see them listed we can decide if it is worth it or if we should bypass it. Saves time when you drive all the way to a specific place and find it's those folks who always have nothing!

Ha, I do the same thing! Great idea!

[bazinga]

Here's my wee bit of wisdom. In my area there are certain families that like to have sales over and over and they have crap. We try to update a sheet with the crappy addresses so if we see them listed we can decide if it is worth it or if we should bypass it. Saves time when you drive all the way to a specific place and find it's those folks who always have nothing!

I think around here it is a max of 2 yard sales in a season, so groups of people set up at a different house every weekend to get around this law. It's such a pain in the ass seeing the same junk every weekend.

You could be a bit of a jerk and ask them questions like you are thinking about operating a business out of your home as well. Ask them how much they are paying for liability insurance, how they deal with sales tax, etc.

Of course, I just keep my mouth shut since I have more sales to go to and don't feel like starting an argument that could take up valuable time.

[batcap]

Here's my wee bit of wisdom. In my area there are certain families that like to have sales over and over and they have crap. We try to update a sheet with the crappy addresses so if we see them listed we can decide if it is worth it or if we should bypass it. Saves time when you drive all the way to a specific place and find it's those folks who always have nothing!

Amen, my route today was to be 22 stops totaling 54mi one way. Between all the people that changed their mind overnite and stayed in, and the "Professional" Yard Sales, I think I actually hit 10 or 11 real yard sales. The messed up thing was that I didn't get through my plotted route before time ran out (3 or 4 packed up before I arrived - it was time to give up) because of all the slackers and pro's w/nothing to offer.

You know what? I don't care. It's October and this is all coming to an end for that long cold bitter winter soon upon us. I don't wanna stop. The yard sales are still "happy hunting grounds" compared to the year round flea markets. Oh Lord, it's 5 months to March 1st.

[00midwest]

I use this site: http://yardsaletreasuremap.com/ It aggregates craigslist postings onto google maps.

You can even create a route on the site and send it to your phone.