Garage Sale Buying Percentage?

[GarageSaleKing]

I literally visit about a thousand or so garage sales over the course of a year. Most of them are just stuff I don't make any money on. You know, baby clothes and baby items, people who just don't have anything but old clothes, etc. I know you can make some money on this stuff, but I don't mess with it and don't plan on doing so anytime soon. Anyway, I usually buy at only about 15% of the garage sales I visit. I look for your usual picker items, antiques, collectibles, toys. So, what percentage of garage sales do you make a purchase at.? My number seems low, but maybe it isn't. Thanks

 

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[ethanfez]

Some days I'll go to 20 and buy nothing. Some days I go to 30 and buy at 35% or more.

 

[captain flintlock]

It's hit or miss with us here in Ct. Sometimes 50% or more, sometimes none at all. And now that y/s season is coming to an end soon, it'll be nothing at all. Except for the occasional flea market or auction.

 

[Beachkid23]

Here it depends where you go. If it's a community sale then the average is pretty high close to 50. However driving around town if you're not the early person in the morning you're looking at like probably 15%. A lot more asking people if they have anything seems to work better.

 

[bigcaddy64]

100% for me but i target sales as opposed to the blanket approach.

I don't do the volume thing and shop my sales before hand. Last weekend was one sale that netted me 3 large boxes of late 1970s Stewart Warner automotive indicator gauges. The ad showed something else i wanted in the pictures but his price was too high. I paid plenty for the gauges but i've already made my money back and have sold less then 10% of the total which doesn't include the premium stuff.

Lately i've been so busy with work, including a 4-10s to 5-8s schedule change which takes my Friday to go picking, that i just look on friday evening for something good. If i don't see anything, i will spend the day with my girlfriend or work on endless projects around the house. With the holidays coming up, i'm ready for my picking "vacation". No more getting up early unless the sale demands it. This is my time of the year to enjoy family, charity and peace & quiet.

 

[Beans]

Very low percent. If I had to guess I would say 10 percent. I stay away from the west side of town. They think there crap is better then anybody else. May visit the middle income area but as stated most items are clothes and baby stuff. My favorite area which I will go out of my way if I find a sale is in the old part of town. Not much left as the city is tearing down as they move out. But I find the best items there for me anyway. I do limit my self so may be why only 10 percent.

 

[GarageSaleKing]

Wow, 50% is impressive. I live in Ohio and most weekends during spring, summer, and fall I hit the community sales if I can, but I don't get anywhere near 50%. Although I only buy to resell online, I don't do the flea market thing. Not sure what you do, but there must be some nice areas by you to do that well.

 

[JimDon]

I am a casual yard saler and opportunistic. Therefore my pick rate is probably 10%

 

[Beachkid23]

Wow, 50% is impressive. I live in Ohio and most weekends during spring, summer, and fall I hit the community sales if I can, but I don't get anywhere near 50%. Although I only buy to resell online, I don't do the flea market thing. Not sure what you do, but there must be some nice areas by you to do that well.

I might add that that depends on the sale. On the community that is. Some of them people wait a long time to get into. Those are also the sales I've managed to make friends in so I can get in early...

 

[dejapooh]

I'd say I'm at a solid 10%to 15%. I like community sales, since you can hit so many more sales.

 

[billjustbill]

Around the DFW Metroplex here in Texas, you can increase your take-home by doing some homework. The majority of the time, we find a wider assortment to look through in your higher income neighborhoods. Googling your ads' addresses help arrange your morning's route.

There's two more things to consider in answering your question. Since my wife and I go SALES together, another pair of eyes can see more than one person can see.... I can let her out while I go park. She knows what she looking for, but while getting to her interests, she can help me by pointing to the area as I walk up or just picking up an item until I can get there. Plus, I run across items she likes as I'm going through the sale and will hold them until our paths cross to see if it's something she wants...

The other thing happens at those "Special Garage Sales" where there are many worthy finds at the same sale....and the prices the sellers give just thrill you down to the heels! Last week, we went to a family operated estate sale that opened at 10:00 a.m.. We were early. As we entered the house we asked if there was any costume jewelry. He pointed down the hallway. In one of the bedrooms was a 12"x12"-4" deep cardboard box full of jewelry sitting on the dresser. The chief family member came in behind us. As I looked through it, my wife opened a small white box about half way down the depth, I saw a ring with a 14kt marking.... I said "The whole thing for between $25 and $35, and I left the room. My wife asked and he quoted "$30 for the whole box". so she bought it. She paid for it and I took it straight out to the pickup....and went on my way. Ten minutes passed and she walks up to me with a small 4x8" single layer jewelry box that nobody had taken the time to look through. Inside it would be a pair of diamond/gold earrings. With my finds of a "Morris-Starrett" wire rope cutter that sells new for over $200, a small new plastic trash can I put some scrap copper tubing and a 8" brass bowl in, along with a banding machine and a new 7" metal grinding wheel, we headed for the pricing chief. I held up and tipped over the trash can, and the smaller wooden jewelry box, and pointed to where I left the 1" wire cutter on the floor and offered $15. He said, "That sounds great to me."....

In a new post I'll put up later this week, you'll see that out of that $45 total, we found an actual 4.9gr gold nugget made into a pendant, a quarter carat diamond white gold ring, 14kt and 8 small diamonds in white gold pair of earrings, 10kt, thirty grams of 14kt., even three small bands of 18kt gold, and 95gr. of sterling jewelry. All totaled, there's conservatively $1,100.00 in PM's....if the 5 gram gold nugget tests 22+kt, it's closer to $1,300.00 dollars.... There's enough costume jewelry to resell at our garage sale to cover at least half or more of the $45 cost. All from one sale. So a low percentage of garage sales with good finds may not be the true measurement of how "lucky" you are by looking at a higher percentage of hitting profitable sales per day....

By bringing a partner, going early, ALWAYS ASKING FOR WHAT YOU COLLECT THAT YOU DON'T HAPPEN TO SEE, and hitting your middle and upper level income neighborhoods may reduce your number of garage sales but raise your Percentage of Profit....

Bill

 

[lookindown]

10 to 20 percent.

 

[ARC]

Around the DFW Metroplex here in Texas, you can increase your take-home by doing some homework. The majority of the time, we find a wider assortment to look through in your higher income neighborhoods. Googling your ads' addresses help arrange your morning's route.

There's two more things to consider in answering your question. Since my wife and I go SALES together, another pair of eyes can see more than one person can see.... I can let her out while I go park. She knows what she looking for, but while getting to her interests, she can help me by pointing to the area as I walk up or just picking up an item until I can get there. Plus, I run across items she likes as I'm going through the sale and will hold them until our paths cross to see if it's something she wants...

The other thing happens at those "Special Garage Sales" where there are many worthy finds at the same sale....and the prices the sellers give just thrill you down to the heels! Last week, we went to a family operated estate sale that opened at 10:00 a.m.. We were early. As we entered the house we asked if there was any costume jewelry. He pointed down the hallway. In one of the bedrooms was a 12"x12"-4" deep cardboard box full of jewelry sitting on the dresser. The chief family member came in behind us. As I looked through it, my wife opened a small white box about half way down the depth, I saw a ring with a 14kt marking.... I said "The whole thing for between $25 and $35, and I left the room. My wife asked and he quoted "$30 for the whole box". so she bought it. She paid for it and I took it straight out to the pickup....and went on my way. Ten minutes passed and she walks up to me with a small 4x8" single layer jewelry box that nobody had taken the time to look through. Inside it would be a pair of diamond/gold earrings. With my finds of a "Morris-Starrett" wire rope cutter that sells new for over $200, a small new plastic trash can I put some scrap copper tubing and a 8" brass bowl in, along with a banding machine and a new 7" metal grinding wheel, we headed for the pricing chief. I held up and tipped over the trash can, and the smaller wooden jewelry box, and pointed to where I left the 1" wire cutter on the floor and offered $15. He said, "That sounds great to me."....

In a new post I'll put up later this week, you'll see that out of that $45 total, we found an actual 4.9gr gold nugget made into a pendant, a quarter carat diamond white gold ring, 14kt and 8 small diamonds in white gold pair of earrings, 10kt, thirty grams of 14kt., even three small bands of 18kt gold, and 95gr. of sterling jewelry. All totaled, there's conservatively $1,100.00 in PM's....if the 5 gram gold nugget tests 22+kt, it's closer to $1,300.00 dollars.... There's enough costume jewelry to resell at our garage sale to cover at least half or more of the $45 cost. All from one sale. So a low percentage of garage sales with good finds may not be the true measurement of how "lucky" you are by looking at a higher percentage of hitting profitable sales per day....

By bringing a partner, going early, ALWAYS ASKING FOR WHAT YOU COLLECT THAT YOU DON'T HAPPEN TO SEE, and hitting your middle and upper level income neighborhoods may reduce your number of garage sales but raise your Percentage of Profit....

Bill

Not only well said... but the words of a true fellow serious picker.

I will add... buying stuff... no matter where... takes a skill that is developed over years and years of doing it... hardcore and skillfully.

 

[captain flintlock]

Not only well said... but the words of a true fellow serious picker.

I will add... buying stuff... no matter where... takes a skill that is developed over years and years of doing it... hardcore and skillfully.

I totally agree. For me, some of the things I buy are for my personal collection and not for flipping for profit. It's just another symptom of the disease we all have!! [emoji38]

 

[GarageSaleKing]

Around the DFW Metroplex here in Texas, you can increase your take-home by doing some homework. The majority of the time, we find a wider assortment to look through in your higher income neighborhoods. Googling your ads' addresses help arrange your morning's route.

There's two more things to consider in answering your question. Since my wife and I go SALES together, another pair of eyes can see more than one person can see.... I can let her out while I go park. She knows what she looking for, but while getting to her interests, she can help me by pointing to the area as I walk up or just picking up an item until I can get there. Plus, I run across items she likes as I'm going through the sale and will hold them until our paths cross to see if it's something she wants...

The other thing happens at those "Special Garage Sales" where there are many worthy finds at the same sale....and the prices the sellers give just thrill you down to the heels! Last week, we went to a family operated estate sale that opened at 10:00 a.m.. We were early. As we entered the house we asked if there was any costume jewelry. He pointed down the hallway. In one of the bedrooms was a 12"x12"-4" deep cardboard box full of jewelry sitting on the dresser. The chief family member came in behind us. As I looked through it, my wife opened a small white box about half way down the depth, I saw a ring with a 14kt marking.... I said "The whole thing for between $25 and $35, and I left the room. My wife asked and he quoted "$30 for the whole box". so she bought it. She paid for it and I took it straight out to the pickup....and went on my way. Ten minutes passed and she walks up to me with a small 4x8" single layer jewelry box that nobody had taken the time to look through. Inside it would be a pair of diamond/gold earrings. With my finds of a "Morris-Starrett" wire rope cutter that sells new for over $200, a small new plastic trash can I put some scrap copper tubing and a 8" brass bowl in, along with a banding machine and a new 7" metal grinding wheel, we headed for the pricing chief. I held up and tipped over the trash can, and the smaller wooden jewelry box, and pointed to where I left the 1" wire cutter on the floor and offered $15. He said, "That sounds great to me."....

In a new post I'll put up later this week, you'll see that out of that $45 total, we found an actual 4.9gr gold nugget made into a pendant, a quarter carat diamond white gold ring, 14kt and 8 small diamonds in white gold pair of earrings, 10kt, thirty grams of 14kt., even three small bands of 18kt gold, and 95gr. of sterling jewelry. All totaled, there's conservatively $1,100.00 in PM's....if the 5 gram gold nugget tests 22+kt, it's closer to $1,300.00 dollars.... There's enough costume jewelry to resell at our garage sale to cover at least half or more of the $45 cost. All from one sale. So a low percentage of garage sales with good finds may not be the true measurement of how "lucky" you are by looking at a higher percentage of hitting profitable sales per day....

By bringing a partner, going early, ALWAYS ASKING FOR WHAT YOU COLLECT THAT YOU DON'T HAPPEN TO SEE, and hitting your middle and upper level income neighborhoods may reduce your number of garage sales but raise your Percentage of Profit....

Bill

Wow, that type of a score is probably equal to my best score ever. Sometimes, I will also take along my wife, but she has a hard time controlling her spending. While I pick up things to resell, she will just pick up items that lay around the house till our next garage sale. So, usually it is just me going to the sales.

 

[silverdust79]

Mine is pretty high...I would guesstimate around 50-75% of what I hit - I find resell-able items (definately wasn't like this when I first started).

I'm picky too I'm def not a bulk guy.

A couple things I've learned along the way is - I know which areas I want to be in & I start watching the ads on Monday. I print out my address lists on the morning of & get my pick on!!

HH