The garage sale phrase that has never failed me. "What if I buy them all?"

[dieselram94]

There is a market for everything, just have to market it correctly

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[batcap]

I do this with jewelry with amazing success.

That is So True! People tend to undervalue the things they have a lot of. They look at all that (you name it jewelry, cigarette lighters,matchbox cars, music CDs,coins) and think it's going to be a big problem to sell little by little. If you ask (not too eagerly) how much for everything, they will often lowball themselves far lower than I'd ever have the nerve to offer.
Even though I know this to be true, sometimes when I have a big pile of one particular thing, I'll sell it short too, it's human nature.

 

[Mzjavert]

Great hint. I wish I'd done that a few years back at a sale where they had a ton of old buttons. The ones I did buy, My Mom made a tidy profit off of them.

 

[voodoo]

great deal CyberDan!, But yes buy them all or another strategy is; if their price is a little high, have a few items in mind and if they won't come down to your price say "I'll pay your price if you throw in those three (or however many) items. Just make sure it's items you actually want. Cheers all and happy yard sales!

 

[Keppy]

Now this was a very interesting and informative thread……. Wine corks who would have thought….

 

[dieselram94]

Now this was a very interesting and informative thread……. Wine corks who would have thought….

I bet prices on those wine corks would be higher in San Francisco... lol!

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[sliverofsilver]

Crafters
I sold them 200 at a time some months back. After fees and shipping I made about $200. Here are some recent sold listings: 200 wine corks | eBay

great you had to say and show them corks
ive got enough things to collect ,now i got to collect these
im laughing out loud here, i had no idea.even though i use them for fishing
thanks
HH

 

[jnkhntr]

Finding things like wine corks doesn't excite me but since I'm out at sales and there they are, it's a great way to pay for the gas. Here's a few others: scrabble games are often at sales for $1 or less. Buy these for the letters and the wooden tile holders ( crafters again buy these)scrabble letters | eBay

Beat up older typewriter don't need to work, buy them for the keys (crafters are your customer again)typewriter keys | eBay

Any Polaroid film that is still in the package. Again not exciting but a good way to cover the gas.

Care to add to the list?

 

[MT_Joe]

I have to agree. We have a garage sale at least once a summer and I'm just begging someone to come along and make me an offer on a bunch of stuff just to get rid of it!

 

[Ursus]

Finding things like wine corks doesn't excite me but since I'm out at sales and there they are, it's a great way to pay for the gas. Here's a few others: scrabble games are often at sales for $1 or less. Buy these for the letters and the wooden tile holders ( crafters again buy these)scrabble letters | eBay Beat up older typewriter don't need to work, buy them for the keys (crafters are your customer again)typewriter keys | eBay Any Polaroid film that is still in the package. Again not exciting but a good way to cover the gas. Care to add to the list?

Little things like this from yard sales? I will add Scrabble tiles to my list but special edition Monopoly games. Almost always I part them out - people love the special tokens. Risk games. In good complete shape just sell them. Boxes tore up? Sell all of those pieces as a lot. Plus the dice for a few bucks more (guess hard to find those red dice and, if you ever played much Risk you still never had enough pieces!). Oh, and Tickle Me Elmos. Always good for 7-20 dollars, depending.

 

[Fushek]

Care to add to the list?

Thanks for the ideas! I'll share a couple of mine:

Sewing Patterns (McCalls, Butterick, etc) - boring as hell, but lately I've been finding them in bulk (averaging around .25/ea) and they typically sell for $5 to $15 each. I've made a couple hundred off of them. Not always fast sellers, but they have sold consistently. Best to find them UNCUT!

Patches - Most people likely already know about these, but I bought a bag of 40 or so used distributor patches (Peterbilt, Vernors, Schweppes, etc) for a .25 and have been selling them for $3 to $8 each. Made profit of $75 to date and still have a few out there.

Neither exciting but, as you said, they pay for gas and maybe a little more.

 

[cyberdan]

Any Polaroid film that is still in the package. Again not exciting but a good way to cover the gas.

Yep. pay $1 sell for $10 or more. Any time i see a SX 70 polaroid camera I always ask about film. Only once did someone go in and bring out a pack.

 

[Bassmaster96]

Keychains bought in bulk sell good. I bought a 5 gallon bucket full at an auction and done pretty good off of them.

 

[Ursus]

Yep. pay $1 sell for $10 or more. Any time i see a SX 70 polaroid camera I always ask about film. Only once did someone go in and bring out a pack.

I do that also. Only once at a garage sale two years ago did they say that they HAD some but, in preparing for the garage sale, they threw all the film away. After all, who would want old expired packs of film ...

And yes, the trash had already ran!

 

[cyberdan]

they threw all the film away. After all, who would want old expired packs of film ...
And yes, the trash had already ran!

I feel the pain. ;(

 

[Kevo_DFX]

What got me into selling on eBay was a garage sale find like this. I was perusing this sale that had a bunch of older vintage stuff. In the corner was a tub with hundreds of scope mounts in it, NOS. I don't know much about vintage gun parts, I just have a deer rifle and a shotgun and a couple of handguns. Anyway, I knew there was probably some money in there, but I was new and unwilling to commit that much money. I saw a few pieces I thought might sell, but I was unsure, so I just decided to buy the whole thing. We dickered for a while and I ended up paying $80 for the whole tub. Made 1,500 dollars off of it, the Redfield and Williams mounts went very well. If I would't have bought them all, the pieces I THOUGHT were worth more money were some of the lower end sellers.

In the end, I was left with about a shoebox full of stuff that I couldn't sell on Ebay. Put it out at a yardsale and got another $40 for it!

 

[dieselram94]

That's the stuff dreams are made of!

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