First yardsale in many months.

[cyberdan]

I used to do 40-50 yardsales every saturday for several years. (it put my daughter through 6 years of college) I retired three years ago and move to Northern Cali. Very few yard sale up here. The local newspaper is no help, every several months there is a yard sale saturday throughout the town. The paper even makes a map and then what do they do? Print it on saturday morning. That is too late to plan a route so I have retired from yardsales too.

Yesterday morning (saturday) I saw a facebook post for a YS on the other side of town. It had a lot of photos. I saw a few things that interested me. So I went, small town and only took 5 min to get there. Boy was I disappointed. The photos showed pewter mugs, old clocks, very old crank style phone and more.

I never even knew this side of town existed. It is really the other side of the tracks and we don't even have trains in this county. Weeds three feet high everywhere and many front yards that looked like they were having yardsales. The streets are all gravel and not well maintained.

These people had no idea what they had or what things were worth. They wanted $10 each on the pewter mugs. (I have bought dozens at $1 each) They wanted $50 for a vintage looking clock. I picked it up and saw it was battery operated. They tried to push the old phone on me and I pointed out it ras a repro radio. I had to point out phones do not have cords on them that plug into 120 v outlets.

I could go on but this is getting long. Guess I will go back into yardsale retirement and go list something on feeBay.

 

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[gunsil]

Sorry to hear the hunting isn't so good where you are now. I have enjoyed seeing some of the good scores you've made and posted over the years.

 

[smokeythecat]

I haven't done any in years. Weeds 3' high...

 

[Keith Jackson]

I have the next handful of Saturdays off so I am hoping that I can get out for the first time in a while.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Hunting yard sales and thrift stores have been a disappointment lately.

 

[GarageSaleKing]

Yeah, sales in general are not as good as they used to be. More people with smart phones looking everything up, people knowing other people who made money on sales, and so on has led to fewer great sales.

 

[Force_of_Iron]

My father was not a wise man but he would occasionally come up with some really good insights.

He told me at the height of the antique boom that it would crash and then eventually come around again. He had seen it a few times in his life.

And here we are. The antique market crashed starting in 2008, lately ebay is starting to become barren territory. I haven't got anything good there in months. At the same time the auctions are returning to the good old days. Devalued collections that once went to better venues are now being sold in local auctions for a pittance. Auctioneers of the old school that knew the merchandise are all retiring and mostly gone. They have been replaced by people that know as little as the auctioneers of the pre boom days that I used to take advantage of in my youth.

Its just about come full circle.

The internet is the real surprise. I thought it had changed this market forever but its still the same cycle.

Live and learn.

 

[captain flintlock]

Yard sale season has ended for us here in New England with the cold weather coming in. I’ve seen over the last several years the value of antique furniture drop drastically. I can pick up 18th and early 19th century chairs for next to nothing. I buy them knowing that they’ll come around again. Everything has its cycle.