Garage Sale Strategies II?

[OldSowBreath]

I keep turning these over in my mind but can't come up with a good answer:

Let's say you've got ten garage or yard sales to hit. They all begin on Saturday at 8 am. Nothing in the ads indicate that they are much different from one another. Roughly the same type neighborhoods.

My questions are - Do you go to the closest one to your house first and work outwards, or go to the farthest away and work your way back? If you see signs that weren't on Craigslist, do you deviate and hit those, then resume your route? Do you hit a multifamily first, regardless of distance? Will you do a rolling eyeball of a yard sale and not stop if you think there's nothing worthwhile there? And finally, do you give priority over church or other organization garage sales even if they are farther out than you planned?

Gas is getting to where it is eating up my profits. Any thougths are of course, greatly appreciated.

 

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[Goldmanford]

The staggered time that many yard sales in our area help us determine which ones we hit first. In your scenario, we would probably start with the closest to our area and work outward. On occasion we do rolling searches but that is usually if they only have one or two tables with what appears to be clothes. There usually aren't many signs that are not already listed in our newspaper but if we see one, we usually stop our route and hit that particular sale before commencing our planned route.

I have found that church or other group yard sales don't produce much of anything around here and mostly are a waste of time. It seems the workers scoop up the goodies first.

Around our area, the thing that comes up most often is the same households having multiple yard sales during the season. If they have crap the first time we stop, we are very hesitant to ever go back. I'm sure we have missed a few goodies that way.

 

[clovis97]

I start at the closest sale, and work out from there.

Of course, if I know that a certain place has really good stuff, I will try to hit that first.

 

[jerseyben]

I always deviate and follow signs if I see one; less competition at those sales. I always give #1 priority to church rummage sales as I have scored very well at all I have ever attended. I routinely do "rolling stops" and often drive by a sale that looks like it is a bunch of clothes/baby stuff. During really nice days in the summer there could be upwards of 300-500 yard sales within a half hour radius of my house so you have to be picky but thankfully that usually means hitting 30-50 sales in a day is not uncommon plus there is plenty to go around.

 

[Beans]

I use to think of the best way to hit yard sales and estate sales etc etc. Go early stand in line, cut lines, tell people some one is breaking into thier car so they would leave, tell them the estate/yard sale was canceled. You know all the things an experienced junk hunter would do. But now I tell myself....If there is something for me then I will get it no matter what, if not, then not ment for me to have. A lot less stress and now I have more fun.

 

[famous turtle treasures]

I use a compiled list of garage sales that I have numbered #1 through whatever with #1 being closest to my house.

I do not deviate from the list unless the garage sale sign looks very promising or if there are estate sales that look better than the rest. In my experience, I end up wasting precious time looking for poorly placed / hard to read garage sale signs.

I very rarely roll by garage sales without stopping I have found some awesome stuff at garage sale that looked like there was nothing there. I have the " dig all of your targets " mentality when it comes to sales.

 

[diggummup]

In regards to your specific "what if" scenario... I would start with the closest one first and work outward. If I happen to see a "fresh looking" sign while en route, I would deviate and hit it too. Sometimes i'll do a drive by if there are 5-10 items sitting on a lonely table and you can hear the crickets chirping.
This is the exact thing I did today because there were not many sales. The best find came from a not listed sale that we happened upon while on the way to the first one on my list. Scored a nice mans Sterling w/ cz ring, size 15, finally one large enough that I can wear it myself. LOL

 

[OldSowBreath]

All good advice and thanks! I'm changing my strategy.

Diggumup - I was at an estate sale and they had the usual imported jewelry by the check-out girl. One item was a loose CZ, encased in very elaborate holder with a very elaborate, signed and numbered "Certificate of Authenticity" that it was an actual CZ!

 

[diggummup]

All good advice and thanks! I'm changing my strategy.

Diggumup - I was at an estate sale and they had the usual imported jewelry by the check-out girl. One item was a loose CZ, encased in very elaborate holder with a very elaborate, signed and numbered "Certificate of Authenticity" that it was an actual CZ!

I believe it. I've seen complete junk with high dollar prices in some of those cases at the check outs at estate sales. Of course the good stuff is always overpriced too.

 

[cyberdan]

On Friday i go through about 3 pages of craigslist and a local online yardsale listing. I also check a few real estate websites, sometimes they organize many homes in their area. I record the address and start times.

Friday evening I go to my computer and open up the digital version of Thomas Brothers map and get the page and grid # of every address. In the summer it could be 50-70 addresses.

I made a copy of 12 pages of the printed thomas brothers map and taped them all together. It almost covers my dining room table.

I numbered two rolls of copper cents and put coin #1 on the page/grid of the first address. I do all addresses in my list.

Now I can visually see where all the sales are. I plan a circular route based on the best grouping of sales. Could be 50-60 miles.

Saturday morning I turn on my GPS and tell "her" one address at a time. I always follow signs and "Emily" gets me back on track every time.

I usually try to limit my list to about 30 addresses because I like to follow signs. I do not usually get to the bottom of the list because I call it quits around 12:30 as many have closed up by then.

 

[Nightowl 280]

I pick a area normally that i didnt do the in the last few weeks . I got a few maps i of areas i got that i have printed on photo paper and taped together . I normally puts dots and times on the map and got to http://gsalr.com/garage-sales-tampa-fl.html and map a route thats oilier circuit . circle route with a up down path and try not to back track ever . i dont like estate sales for the most part so unless the day is dead or one hits late on my route i avoid them . Thurs and Fridays sometimes i do the estate sale circuit but unless i know one of the good cheap companies is running or a family i wont touch most of them . Today i hit a one of the what i call travelling antique stores estale sales I now have a new red x on address to replace where it was last few months on my maps . They will try to feed on the noobs with high prices and older stuff that wont bring those prices on resale .

my take on the buy resale stuff .
Community garage/yard sales - In good middle class hoods normally good for the profit items assuming they dont do 3-4 sales a year
garage/yard sales - best deals if there just throw together offer most bang for the buck
family run estate sales - Barring mental issues normally a great place to buy in bulk .
Fair company run estate sale - Barring insane pricing normality willing to deal the higher amount you buy if they know ya .
High end estate sale companies - Normally price at or above retail and not willing to deal until the end and normally pull the good stuff night before the last day for auctions
traveling antique shop Estate sale - preys on uneducated buyers or wants only non resellers .

Knowing your area and whats around is always to your advantage . Not to mention good knowledge on what things are worth either threw real knowledge or google phone knowledge . i find a good trick is to look at sat view on google maps to get a idea of age and state of a unknown area .

map tricks
tree cover - google sat veiw lots of tree cover = older hood
Street veiw - Google look whats in the yards is a tires and a toilet or is it a BMW .....
http://www.zillow.com/ - housing prices high end new could mean no money for good stuff or lots of Waterford wedding gifts that help pay the mortgage this month for them .

Overall i like community sales in middle class older hoods . You get a good variety of stuff from old to new and they always have some disposable income to buy higher ends antiques and higher end household/collectibles . Which they get bored with garage sale away to clear more space .


my take on tampa area

 

[OldSowBreath]

Very good info from the pros. Thanks to all! My city is 70 miles wide, so I don't know if that's a good thing or not. I try to look for clumps of sales.

One little trick I use is that I usually cross paths with a guy that drives a very distinctive vintage pristine Volkswagon bus, he does his homework on sales, so I usually follow him if he is heading away from sales I've already hit (Hey - are you on this forum?)

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I start by searching craigslist using "garage sale community" in the search engine. I try to hunt community sales first if there are any. I can hit 40-50 easily that way. If there are no community sales then I use "garage sale (item here)" I replace the item as I search...examples "antique, gold, metal detector, close out, rare books, collectible" what ever your expertise is or you like...

After I search Craigslist, I search the local newspaper on line using the same search citeria. I rarely drive by any garage sales I see unless they look like they are all kids clothes.

I check everything with in a 10 miles radius of my home, map it out and label the address as 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on.....

I also go on Sundays, found some nice buys that way. I went to one on a Sunday, lady told me everything left is a quarter. There were 2 adult wetsuits still there, I asked her even the clothes, she said everything is a quarter, I want it gone..... I bought both wetsuits and sold them both on Ebay for a total of $60 plus shipping... I found an old bible full of wood engravings at another one, I paid $5.00 for it, sold it for over $50...

Found another one where a lady was cleaning out her kids rooms who had moved out, lots of collectibles dolls, and characters from comics and movies still in original sealed boxes..... Made a killing there. When I go to garage sales I also always take a computer so I can quickly check the value of something if I am unsure.... I usually check EBay to see what they have sold for recently...

Takes a lot of time, but in todays economy it helps, especially if I can't go hunting for some reason....

 

[Sterling]

just remember that if one starts at 8:00 am Im there at 7:30, and most of the time they will let me shop. If the sale is listed states no early birds do not get there earlier for it will make them upset..PS...old saying! "The early bird gets the worm"

 

[bluehunter1973]

I check the area. If its in an old area out in the sticks far from town that one is always number one. Not much competition and stuff is usually older. I wouldnt think of hitting a yard sale or estate sale that is in a new neighborhood or house over a sale in an older part. If their are lines I go to the next sale. I might lose out on some good deals but when you dont have a lot of hands in the cookie jar there is a lot more cookies. I have paid between a quarter upwards to five dollars on items that I have sold for five hundred to over a thousand dollars. I also learned if you hit an area more than once people doing the yard sales learn your face. So if your nice and polite and never overly aggressive they throw you good find from something they have or a family member. I had one elderly lady I impressed at her yard sales ask me to come back when she was done with the sale. I thought to myself she was going to give me the left overs but as it turned out she had a basement that she couldnt get down the stairs to that she couldnt put it into the yard sale. She stated that I could have what I wanted or goodwill was going to get it. I told I bought items to resale and if thats what I would do with the stuff in the basement. She stated that her husband had done the same thing for the last sixty years and this is the stuff he was going to sale. She was moving to a retirement community in two days and it had to be gone in one day. I was so impressed with this lady I told her for everything I sale she would get half. I understand a lot of us pay as little as we can for an item so we can maximize our bottom dollar but I learned if you get a reputation of being a crooked dealer your just shooting yourself in the leg. A lot of you look at some of your competition and you know what I mean. Yes it is competitive and nobody else pays your bills but stooping to the next guys level isnt worth yourself being known as a crook in your home town. Other than that whatever works best for you.

 

[billjustbill]

......I wouldnt think of hitting a yard sale or estate sale that is in a new neighborhood or house over a sale in an older part.

If it's a brand new edition, I can see your point. But think about this viewpoint:
If the area is one that's at least 5yrs or older, those homes and town homes have had older people in them. At some point, they have to move into their kids' place or to an assisted living place, and they start selling...
I've picked up things like a large old ground mounted farm bell with cast iron side supports that have "Sears & Roebuck 1899" cast in then. Another place had the lady's daughter with her, and I found 13 pieces of Sterling silverware for $8. Still another community/neighborhood sale of 15 year old homes built 8 feet apart, where I bought some Rhinestone jewelry sold by Carnival Cruise Lines, and with it there was a thin 14kt white gold necklace with 3/4 carat diamond pendant I had tested to be sure.... The diamond is large, but not very firey, but all of it was just $5....

Just this morning, in another neighborhood of close-built houses about 15 years old. Even when it's just one garage sale, like today, those that live there have a reputation for running the ad but not opening up until an hour or two later, but a retired couple had a real antique "Oval" shaped, double iron bed with matching rails and matching footboard for $50.

It seems there is no real way to see which garage sale will be 'The One', but it's always an adventure with a "Plus or Minus" surprise inside each one.....

 

[MRBeyer]

Cyberdan, love the way you work it out. Good idea.

One thing I like is garage sales run by college freshman coeds (no not for that reason). Their back from college and want to sell their old stuff to get new stuff to be cool like their friends. Bought a bunch of silver jewelry off one kid who was selling everything just to buy some new jewelry since her stuff was out of date. I pointed out the total she made wouldn't buy her one piece of jewelry. She said that was what the rest of her stuff was for. Her dad and I looked at each other, he shrugged his shoulders, and walked away laughing shaking his head. I promptly assisted her in her life lesson and bought out her silver jewelry.

 

[EDDE]

When going to estate sales/auctions when I find item/s I want.Say in a "junk" flat,box,container,whatever.I will "hide" the wanted item under the cardboard flap/s Styrofoam what ever the situation calls for...Or move the item or items into another box just before the sale starts.I take notes in the auction card of items I want, which box they are and what I pay for them.I started doing the last thing when I bought a bedroom set once without a clue how it happened.