what's your strategy when going to a sale???

[acevillav]

I'm devoting my "off season" to becoming better at locating and buying loot at garage sales/flea markets. I was wondering what types of strategies everybody uses when they go on the hunt for treasures? I believe that most people are not willing to walk any farther than they have too. I always start at the back of flea markets and work forward. I have found that these tables get the least traffic and have the best prices. Garage sales for me are a crap shoot. I usually give everything a quick once over pick up any obvious loot and then go back again to see if I missed any trinkets. What do you do ?? I open my mind to TNET'S wise and learned followers please teach so I may learn.......

Ace Villa-v

[jnkhntr]

The best advice I have gotten came from previous posts on this forum. Cyberdan has said many times, "ASK". I routinely ask, "Do you have any foreign coins or tokens?" Not only have I gotten lots of foreign coins, many times people run inside and bring out US Silver coin etc. I know most folks on the forum swear you can only get coins if you are an early bird. Contrary to that I like to ask later in the day when sellers have taken in some cash. I think this loosens them up a bit and they are more willing to let things go to add to there cash pile. Just an opinion. Works for me. I have also asked about items with railroad marking and had some success. Whatever your specialty ask. The worst thing that happens is that you sometimes get, I have lots of_______ but I'm keeping them.

Ask at Flea Markets also, some dealers are reluctant to put coins or smaller items on display for fear of theft, ask they may have them tucked away!

[diggummup]

jnkhntr gives good advice. I would also add... research, research and more research. Knowing what sells, knowing what price to pay for it, knowing what not to buy, being able to identify all these things adds to the profits.

[creeper71]

jnkhntr gives good advice. I would also add... research, research and more research. Knowing what sells, knowing what price to pay for it, knowing what not to buy, being able to identify all these things adds to the profits.

altho everything that has been suggested alreadyis good advise..it is not something you will learn in one winter season... It took me atleast 5 years to know how not to get screwed.... an another 10 to know what I am looking at....

[Goldmanford]

I agree with some good posts here. Ask and ye shall receive...well sometimes it works. There is one older gentleman that hits the yard sales around here. His question to the seller almost everytime I run into him, "Do you have any guns, swords, or guitars?" On one occasion, the lady hollered for her son and he came out of the house with a rifle to sell.

Sometimes I do take care of who is surrounding me before I make any requests. No sense in everyone else knowing what I'm looking for.

[Beans]

Sometimes I do take care of who is surrounding me before I make any requests. No sense in everyone else knowing what I'm looking for.

I keep what I am looking for quiet also. There are certian toys I look and ask for. If I blurtted out "do you have any --" then everyone else will start asking. Why is an a Old guy asking for toys, must be a reason.

[cyberdan]

Sometimes I do take care of who is surrounding me before I make any requests. No sense in everyone else knowing what I'm looking for.

Good advice. Once when i asked I notice a guy's ears perk up and when the lady brought out some silver dollars he hovered around. I made an offer but he didn't say anything. I bought the coins. Later in the morning we ran into each other again and had a friendly conversation. (he had no intention of stepping on my toes earlier & we buy basically the same things)

[robtx38]

I try to do a quick glance at the garage sale and pick up all the resellable items. I always ask for jewelry, knives, coins etc...Then with the stuff in hand, I'll check the condition. Thats very important to reselling. I'll present all the items to the owner with the hopes of better deal on the bundle.

[jnkhntr]

When I "ask", I do it discreetly. When I first started asking I didn't, and I almost got trampled by 2 Florida retirees. Discretion is the way to go. The original poster wanted to learn some strategy. Better to learn discretion here than out at the sales!

[jerseyben]

Don't ever underestimate the value in negotiating. Almost regularly, I end up buying an entire "lot" for pennies on the dollar compared to buying 1 or 2 pieces.

Example: Records priced $1 each, asked how much for entire lot of 100+, bought for $5! Jewelry priced at $1 per piece/pair, asked how much for entire box, bought all for $10, etc.

[diggummup]

jnkhntr gives good advice. I would also add... research, research and more research. Knowing what sells, knowing what price to pay for it, knowing what not to buy, being able to identify all these things adds to the profits.

altho everything that has been suggested alreadyis good advise..it is not something you will learn in one winter season... It took me atleast 5 years to know how not to get screwed.... an another 10 to know what I am looking at....

How true it is. I'm still learning and will be 20 years from now. You can never know everything.

[kennedyfan]

I've posted some of my strategies before, but here is my current thinking on garage sales.

- Say Hi; connect with the owner for a moment before asking for specific stuff. I feel that you are more likely to get a yes if they like you. I've had many sales where they start to say no, but then think about it for a moment and remember something that matches what you are looking for.

- I'm going to agree with jnkhntr on the timing issue. If you come in right at opening or during early-bird time, the seller is going to be a bit stressed out. Yeah, it's conceivable that they might have put some goodies out that the earlybirds might beat you to, but most stuff like coins don't get brought out. So asking early or late isn't going to make a big difference.

- Discretion in asking is a nice ideal, though it's often not easy to do if there are lots of people around. Besides, I have gotten a few leads from a fellow shopper hearing me ask about coins, and say that *they* have something to sell. So it's some good and some bad.

- Save driving/walking/bicycling time and miles by pre-planning your route! If you have a list of addresses from Craig's List or other sources, enter them into MapQuest's Route Planner and let it rearrange your stops. http://www.mapquest.com/routeplanner ... Of course there may be some signs that you spot along your route, so you might deviate, but at least those signs are usually right in the neighborhood.

- Be prepared for a tentative "yes, but" answer where they don't have what you are looking for available *right away*. Perhaps they have them in storage, or inside but inaccessible, or they are at another house. People are generally happy to get your phone number to call you when they find it. Ask if it is OK to get their phone number and call them in a few weeks if you haven't heard from them. Why? Because THEY WILL NOT CALL YOU. Really, I've traded one or two dozen phone numbers over the last season, and never gotten a call from anybody. But if I call, and I can reach them -- I don't bother trying to leave a message on their machine since they NEVER seem to call back -- I've been able to meet later (at their home, or a coffeeshop) and buy some stuff from them. I've gotten a few really nice collections that way, and I'm still working on meeting up with a number of leads I made over the summer. (It may take *months* for the seller to finally dig up their wares. If they aren't ready to sell yet, just be friendly and mention that you'd like to call them again in a month or so to see if they are ready.)

- This is something I've tried, but not with much success. If there are some garage sales that got listed on Craigs List too late, or maybe you couldn't go that day, or you just couldn't get to all of them, I try and email them (using the anonymous email address Craigs List provides) and explain why I couldn't make it to their sale, and ask for the goodies I'm looking for. Usually my emails are ignored or I get a very friendly "sorry, no" reply. I did get one hit and we ended up meeting but she was asking too much. Anyhow, it seems like it can't hurt to try. I suppose you could even ask people who are holding garage sales a little bit out of your usual geographic area. One caveat: Craigs List seems to have a limit on the number of messages you can send this way, per day, so you can't practically do this *too* much. I'm curious if anybody else has used this technique.

(I definitely prefer to visit the sales, though. I think you are more likely to get a Yes if they have met you. Occasionally when I ask for coins, they ask if I had emailed them earlier; I guess there is somebody else who emails everybody without visiting them. I don't think you're likely to be as successful.)


I haven't really had any luck with Flea Markets, though I suppose if I had plenty of time, I'd go with jnkhntr's idea to ask at booths where they don't have any coins & trinkets on display. The ones that do (usually in the glass cases) charge WAY more than they are worth.

[billjustbill]

Know your neighborhoods. There are exceptions to every suggestion, but the likelyhood of finding good items at bargain prices, at a higher percentage of the time, will be in your upscale neighborhoods. Boots, watches, tarnished silver jewelry (white gold hides there, too) are just some of the best bargains found.

Getting there early has more good chances than bad. My wife found a leather man's beltbuckle with a mounted Walking Liberty half-dollar for a buck....

Listen to the owner's conversations between themselves or their neighbors, you can learn a lot. One sale was held in an upscale neighborhood, was because a guy and a gal were divorced from their first spouses, but were getting married and combining households, then moving to the Dallas Metroplex. She had bagged up all her old jewelry, from what I overheard was full of old not so good memories from her first marriage. She had many baggies of costume jewelry for $7.50 a bag, but she some of it labeled with "lots of Sterling" in seven bags at "$12" a bag. The smallest bag of the bunch turned out to be a bag that had 35 ten point diamonds in a 10kt gold tennis bracelet that I had a local jeweler look at just to be sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me...

Stop, read, and follow unlisted garage sale signs as you go from listed ones to another. These have been places where I've found some of my best Adrenalin Pumping finds.

The last one that works for me is when I find a box lid or small cardboard box of jewelry on a tabletop. To have some control, I pickup up the whole lot and pull out what I'm interested in, there's always somebody who will walk up and begin going through the inventory. Otherwise, if it is spread out, you've got to pick up the jewelry or baggies that look interesting as quick as possible, then walk to a place close to the owner and take a slower time to look over and pick out what you want to make an offer for.


Bill

[clovis97]

One of the best tips that I can share is this:

I hear people say ad nauseum to get out early. This is excellent advice. My best buys come, generally, before 10:30 am, at garage sales.

I have also heard people say "don't waste your time if you can't get to the sales early". This is a load of hog wash.

When we adopted our little one, we had to take mandated classes every Saturday morning. If you miss a class, you have to make it up the next time they schedule them, which could be months and months away.

I was severely bummed to be forced into sitting through 6 hour classes listening to some childless, unmarried, right-out-of-college 23 year old drone on for hours about how to be a good parent, while I missed tons of garage sales. It was even worse because I make a living buying and selling junk/stuff, and I was at the high point of the garage sale season.

We started hitting garage sales right after those classes let out, often at 2:00 in the afternoon.

I made some obscene amounts of money just going at 2:00pm. I cleared about $600 in profit one Saturday at 4:00 pm at a sale.

Yes, I agree, the earlier you can get out, the better. You will be able to pick the best stuff, and have more quantity.

But, if you can't get out early, go do what you can. It is amazing how much good stuff will still be left at the end of the day.

[billjustbill]

Going late does have an advantage, but going back does too. If the sale is a Friday-Saturday one, when you go the first time be sure to ask if they will have more items the second day.

Some sellers are so tired by the end of the day, they don't want to pull out more. But, there are as many more that just don't get to put out all the things they could sell, yet when the dollars start flowing in, it gives them something of a push to bring out more the next day. When you ask, you can tell in their voice what the odds are going to be for which way they'll go...

So go back and see what's new.

[jnkhntr]

I'm devoting my "off season" to becoming better at locating and buying loot at garage sales/flea markets. I was wondering what types of strategies everybody uses when they go on the hunt for treasures? I believe that most people are not willing to walk any farther than they have too. I always start at the back of flea markets and work forward. I have found that these tables get the least traffic and have the best prices. Garage sales for me are a crap shoot. I usually give everything a quick once over pick up any obvious loot and then go back again to see if I missed any trinkets. What do you do ?? I open my mind to TNET'S wise and learned followers please teach so I may learn.......

Ace Villa-v

Ace,
You might want to check these older posts. There are some good hints here: http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.p...tml#msg2602989

[OldSowBreath]

Be nice and polite. Make conversation. I usually buy something right off the bat for .50 or a dollar (something I'll use at home like a tool or knife, and then let them see the cash in my wallet). If an item is .50 cents, I usually just say "oh, just make it a dollar." This generally lets them know you're a swell guy and not a thief (I'm not kidding- I get people following me around garage and estate sales like The Thomas Crown Affair). I take off my Rolex, though, and since I drive a Lexus, I park a little ways down the street. If I don't buy anything else, I'll then hit them with "My dad collects coins, or guns, or trains, or Beatles albums or whatever and then ask if they have any.

In the South, we're still having garage and yard sales. When it gets too cold, research ebay. I try to only look at vintage (whatever the subject) and Complete Sales. Also look at what gets a lot of bids (example: Polaroid XS-70 cameras.)

[jerseyben]

Be nice and polite. Make conversation. I usually buy something right off the bat for .50 or a dollar (something I'll use at home like a tool or knife, and then let them see the cash in my wallet). If an item is .50 cents, I usually just say "oh, just make it a dollar." This generally lets them know you're a swell guy and not a thief (I'm not kidding- I get people following me around garage and estate sales like The Thomas Crown Affair). I take off my Rolex, though, and since I drive a Lexus, I park a little ways down the street. If I don't buy anything else, I'll then hit them with "My dad collects coins, or guns, or trains, or Beatles albums or whatever and then ask if they have any.

In the South, we're still having garage and yard sales. When it gets too cold, research ebay. I try to only look at vintage (whatever the subject) and Complete Sales. Also look at what gets a lot of bids (example: Polaroid XS-70 cameras.)

I had to laugh at this one. I recently got a BMW and since I started driving it to sales, I noticed people's reactions to me are probably hurting my negotiating edge. I do best when I drive my van to a sale and wear some old "metal detecting" clothes.

[cyberdan]

tarnished silver jewelry (white gold hides there, too)

Yes, and also Platinum. Looks like old silver too. Once picked up a ring in a junk box of jewelry, thought it was silver till I looked inside and saw PT. I asked how much and paid the .25¢

[jnkhntr]

please teach so I may learn.......
ope
Ace Villa's

Spend some time learning foreign marks for gold and silver. EX: left facing lion British sterling, 585, 750 equals 14k and 18k gold in Europe.
Learn a few items that are always good sellers, EX: Polaroid film, Legos, Flashbulbs. There are hundreds of other items like these that you can rely on, learn a few. Check ebay completed sales on these items. Check out some of the garage sale vids on YouTube for some great advise.
You can definitely put the down time to good uses. The more you learn the more "LUCK" you will have!