Driveways Full Of Baby Clothes - Grrrrrr

[Junk_Puppet]

Things have changed

 

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[kali_is_my_copilot]

It's probably been two months since I found anything worthwhile at a garage sale, I've been sticking exclusively to flea markets, thrift stores and antique stores for a few weeks and found it a much better use of my time. I can't afford the gas I use driving from driveway full of kid's clothes to driveway full of kid's clothes. Going to try again this Saturday though, they can't possibly *all* suck, right?

 

[Junk_Puppet]

I know the feeling Kali - I started buying and re-selling on Ebay in Sept of 2000. It was NOTHING to pack my truck to the gills with great finds. My Paypal account was HUGE! I made thousands of dollars each summer, it was nearly effortless. Now, as the generations have changed, and 4000 reality shows concerning collectibles have been aired it's become increasingly difficult to put ANYTHING in the truck! I recently had an 84 year old woman tell me how much money a Crissy Doll was fetching on Ebay......yeah!

There are still finds out there, they are just few and far between compared to a decade ago. Like yourself, I hate to commit the gas money to these wasted Friday and Saturday mornings. I have two flea markets to chose from every Sunday morning, one is 5 miles away and the other is 50 miles away. I havent been to either this summer because of the Friday and Saturday dissapointments. Maybe ill get up this Sunday and see whats out there. I do miss the Sunday hunt......

 

[OldSowBreath]

I mull over this all the time. Since I'm in a big city, there are usually plenty of garage and yard sales. I now have a pretty good idea of neighborhoods and I avoid the neighborhoods that are primarily Hispanic (mainly kids clothes), or where young yuppies have their first starter homes and babies. On Craigslist, I tend to avoid any sales that say "baby stuff". We have lots of areas where brand new three story townhouses are going up. I avoid the ones that say they've just moved in as most of their good stuff was sold or thrown away prior to their move. I avoid any listing that says "by appointment only". I avoid sales in the predominately Asian areas of town because they tend to think their Ikea stuff and rice cookers are one of a kind priceless. ("Ikea coffee table - new $200.00. Will sell for $190.00."). What I look for are the older home neighborhoods with garages, especially where they are tearing down the homes for new mansions.

Then the thing to do is look for trends. And that is what's great about this forum.

 

[2ndisbest]

I live in a heavily populated palestinian/arab area. I have never bought a single item at any of their garage sales. Though I do enjoy asking how much then no matter what they say I say, I will give you a quarter for that. A little payback for the garage sales I have run. I still laugh about the time when the arab was selling a refurbished big screen tv for $200 over retail. He is trying to tell me it is brand new when all over the box it says refurbished. So he shoots me a $600 price on a $400 dollar tv, and in my most serious tone, I say "I am interested, how about twenty five cents?"

If you run a sale and ask .25 cents for a shirt they will counter with .10. And they will walk away when you say no. And if you go to their sales everything is is bad condition and way overpriced. If I am in a hurry I won't stop anymore, but I will for the lulz if I need a pick me up. Ya I can be a prick sometimes.

 

[Tnmountains]

I understand your pain. I had an estate sell not long ago for an Aunt. I did not hire a company to do it and actually made out pretty good and gave good deals. But it looked like a bomb went off every day. Luckily I had friends and family to watch the sticky finger shoppers. Some shoppers I had a language barrier with. But it was their loss not mine for not knowing the language as the only thing we both understood was how to count. So it was hard for them to deal me down much.
I like to go to the living estate sales or the sales where people are moving into retirement. Yard sales not to much.