Who goes garage-sale'in?

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Originally posted by: Mo0o
not worth the effort w/ gas prices now. spend all today going from one garage to another w/o really finding anything of value.

It's good if you're just starting out and you need a lot of basic necessities

gas prices aren't that bad.
😕

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: BlahBlahYouToo

Originally posted by: Mo0o
not worth the effort w/ gas prices now. spend all today going from one garage to another w/o really finding anything of value.

It's good if you're just starting out and you need a lot of basic necessities

gas prices aren't that bad.
😕

seems more convenient to just look on craigslist to find something you actualy like and just go directly to pick it up.

Garage sales are so hit or miss and mosto f the time you just end up buying stuff you never really wanted/needed just because its cheap

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: vi edit
If you have kids, garage sales are the best place to pick up clothes and toys on the cheap.

I don't know about used clothes for infants even though those prices are dirt cheap. Children's Place sells good quality shirts & pants for $5 and even have some for $1ea. sometimes. It's not that bad. It's not like you have to buy that many.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Every Friday and Saturday morning for the last 10+ years. My wife covers one part of town and I cover another. We do it primarily to find inventory for our eBay hobby/business though I did buy a nice riding lawnmower for my own use a few weeks ago. It's usually like looking for a needle in a haystack but finding that item for a few bucks that brings in a few hundred on eBay is a lot of fun.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken
Every Friday and Saturday morning for the last 10+ years. My wife covers one part of town and I cover another. We do it primarily to find inventory for our eBay hobby/business though I did buy a nice riding lawnmower for my own use a few weeks ago. It's usually like looking for a needle in a haystack but finding that item for a few bucks that brings in a few hundred on eBay is a lot of fun.

While at the sale, how do you know how much that item could sell for on ebay? Just from experience or is it a gamble?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Originally posted by: jjsole

Originally posted by: rh71
man for $1 items, why waste time sitting out there selling?

Yup.

I had 1 garage sale in my life and it'll never happen again. Atleast if I give things to goodwill I can feel good about it and get a tax writeoff, instead of selling something a fraction of what its worth and still have people try to get it at 1/2 that.

Lol, you don't hold a garage sale to make money, you hold one to get rid of stuff so you don't have to waste time and money hauling it away.

 

[SunnyD]

Originally posted by: Mo0o

Originally posted by: BlahBlahYouToo

Originally posted by: Mo0o
not worth the effort w/ gas prices now. spend all today going from one garage to another w/o really finding anything of value.

It's good if you're just starting out and you need a lot of basic necessities

gas prices aren't that bad.
😕

seems more convenient to just look on craigslist to find something you actualy like and just go directly to pick it up.

Garage sales are so hit or miss and mosto f the time you just end up buying stuff you never really wanted/needed just because its cheap

Except half the time you have to go to Nigeria to pick anything on Craigslist up these days.

 

[LurkerSince2001]

Originally posted by: Mo0o
not worth the effort w/ gas prices now.

I go on my bicycle lately. It's a (slightly more) fun way to get a few hours of exercise, rather than going to the gym or walking around in circles at the track.

I don't usually find much that I want to buy. Backpack holds a few books/clothes/etc and if I find something big that I really want I make arrangements to come back with a van.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken
Every Friday and Saturday morning for the last 10+ years. My wife covers one part of town and I cover another. We do it primarily to find inventory for our eBay hobby/business though I did buy a nice riding lawnmower for my own use a few weeks ago. It's usually like looking for a needle in a haystack but finding that item for a few bucks that brings in a few hundred on eBay is a lot of fun.

While at the sale, how do you know how much that item could sell for on ebay? Just from experience or is it a gamble?

Most of the time it's experience. When I see a pair of Klipsch Heresy speakers in nearly perfect condition for $10 I know I'm going to make some coin. My wife and I both tend to stick to what we know. Sometimes we take a chance though. An estate sale last year had a lot of really nice things but nearly everything was overpriced. I found a small pink jewelry box marked 5 bucks, probably the cheapest item in the place. I looked inside and there was a lot of jewelry, but I wasn't sure if it was real or not. Since it was a professionally run estate sale I didn't expect them to miss something like that. Picked it up anyway since it was so cheap. Took it to a local jeweler friend and it turned out all the jewelry was real, including an antique 18K stick pin with a rose cut diamond and a saphire. Made $175 on the stick pin alone. All told we made a little over $500 on the jewelry and old WW2 military pins that were in that box. Now I have a jeweler's loupe and know how to look for the proper marks. So gambles can turn into experience.

 

[theknight571]

A friend of mine found some funky "gothic" looking lamp at a garage sale... he bought it for $20.

He later sold the lamp on eBay for $7500.

 

[dud]

people up north can expect their garage sales to start picking up now while here in Florida it's over with until October. The "big" sales happen in Feb and March.

it's too damn hot to go outside ...

 

[daveymark]

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken
Every Friday and Saturday morning for the last 10+ years. My wife covers one part of town and I cover another. We do it primarily to find inventory for our eBay hobby/business though I did buy a nice riding lawnmower for my own use a few weeks ago. It's usually like looking for a needle in a haystack but finding that item for a few bucks that brings in a few hundred on eBay is a lot of fun.

While at the sale, how do you know how much that item could sell for on ebay? Just from experience or is it a gamble?

if you are experienced in reselling 95% of the time you can accurately guestimate, this gets more true the more of a niche you are in. use a smartphone for the other 5% and also to confirm hunches.

 

[xboxist]

I have yet to find some naive old man or his widow that offers me a box of "these stupid comic books" from the 1940s for $5.

Therefore, garage sales suck.

 

[nakedfrog]

Years back I heard from a co-worker who got a great deal on his van at a garage sale, so I went with my wife and her friend garage-saling in hopes of finding a second car for us.
$350 for a car I drove for two years, then sold for $300, and all I ever had to do was get a new battery when the first winter hit.

 

[pontifex]

do you guys go looking for something in particular or do you just stop and look around to see what they have? today was garage/yard sale heaven around here. I figure 95% of the time you're just going to find junk or nothing you need, so it seems kind of pointless.