I am lucky to live in a town that has 40 – 60 garage sales per weekend during the fall and winter. Unfortunately, it is also a blue collar retirement town so the items I do find are not the pricey, higher quality items. A person living in Scottsdale or Palms Springs will have better luck finding nicer items and true collectibles. A person in the South or Midwest will do better with older collectibles, and antiques at their garage and yard sales. Also bad for me is that during the summer – the garage sales here are completely dead. People find it hard to shop in 120 degree temperatures!
Anyway, here is my Find It System:
Wednesday Pre-Planning:
1. I pick up the local White Sheet Sales Circular. This has most of the garage sales in town and a map of the location. There are ususally more than I can possibly get to so I do not bother getting a local newspaper which also has a garage sale map in its Friday paper.
You need to find out the best sales circular or newspaper for garage sales listings in your town. Most of the listings are also available online so that is a source as well. I prefer hard copy because I just mark up the paper and the map and take it with!
2. I usually only have one day – Saturday – for garage saling (sailing?) so I grab my printed map and color each of the dots that BEGIN on Saturday with a colored marker. It is important to go to the ones that begin on Saturday because there are so many garage salers in this town that ones that started on Friday are already picked through, and I don’t want to miss the best Saturday deals. On the other hand, Friday’s garage sales sellers might be burnt out and willing to dicker more. So it is six of one, half a dozen of the other – you decide what is best for you. Remember, you can always go back and hit the others later if you have time.
3. I have premade pages that have these categories across the top:
Number Time Address Comments
Number refers to the number on the White Sheet Map, the map has the garage sales location numbered.
Time refers to the time it starts and ends.
Address is the physical address.
Comments is left blank for my personal comments unless I want to comment that there is one that has something I really want to see. Usually though, I make comments about things they have like “Lenox China $120 – willing to go down if it doesn’t sell” to remind me where the Lenox China was in case I want to go back, or write down their phone number. I also usually write what I bought there in the comments just in case there is something I want to go back for – rarely happens though.
4. I then fill in the table based on what time they start and end, and where they are located, putting one right after the other in the table, according to the route I will be taking and the time they start.
5. Check the blurb in the Sales Circular about what they are selling. If it is an arts and crafts show, don’t bother, unless of course, that is what you plan to buy to sell online.
6. I punch holes in the table and put in a three ring notebook, not sleeved, because sometimes I write in the comments column.
7. I do plastic sleeve the map and the addresses from the Sales Circular so those don’t get torn up and place those in my notebook as well.
8. Voila! Wednesday night I am ready to go early Saturday morning with my printout of the map, and my route all written out.
Friday the Day Before:
1. I fill up with gas on my way home from work and go to the bank, withdrawing enough money for my purchases. If I am really organized, I will go into the bank and get one dollar bills. However, most of the time, people can make change. I also collect my change all week so that I have plenty of quarters and loose change. I one large bills ($20s) in a separate section of my fanny pack, change in a separate section, and ones and fives in a separate section.
2. I get my fanny pack ready with my Blackberry (indispensable!) cell phone, driver’s license, tape measure, magnet, magnifying glass, and money like I said. I also fill up my stainless steel water bottle so I have plenty of water to drink. I make a little bag of snacks like string cheese, power bars, and apples to snack on to bring for energy so I don’t have to waste time stopping for food. I get my pedometer out so I can track how far I walk – great exercise!
Here is my Fanny Pack ready to go with Blackberry and money on top of my 3 Ring Notebook and Map:
3. I get the coffee maker ready and wash out the thermos. I find my travel mug and make sure it is clean.
4. I get plenty of sleep!
Saturday the Big Day:
1. I get up EARLY and try to be out of the door right at daylight so that I can be at the first sale as day breaks. If they are not open, I may wait around but will usually just go to the next sale. I do not pound on the door or try to get in the sale early. Personally, I think that is rude although there are plenty of people who even go the night before to get the best deals. If you are gutsy, go for it.
2. I have a Garmin GPS unit (absolutely essential) and I program each address in so I don’t have to worry about following a map. It wuold probably let me program the whole route the night before if I could just figure out how to do it! And believe me, I have tried. Thre are lots of GPS units available and are all pretty easy to use. A GPS unit is essential and will save you much aggravation and headache trying to find an address.
3. I take coffee in a thermos and also drink lots of water. I keep a hat in the car for shade if it ends up being hot and a jacket for if I get cold. The car is already stocked with Rubbermaid plastic tubs and bubblewrap/paper to hold the items and keep them from breaking. There is nothing worse than getting that BIG FIND home and discovering it got chipped in transit. OUCH!
4. Off I go usually with Hubby who helps by programming the addresses into the Garmin.
5. At the sale, look on the ground, under tables, back in the garage. Look by the side of the house where they haven’t pulled stuff out yet. If you specialize in something, ask if they have any of your specialty. I once asked if they had old cameras and the man pulled an old Polaroid out of the house which I purchased with the original leather case for $1.00. I later sold on Ebay for $70.00! He was going to throw it away because film can no longer be purchased for it. I sold it to a customer in France. Fun!
Have business cards made (You can do it yourself on your computer) with your name, phone number, and what you collect. For example, mine says ” I Buy I Sell I Collect Pottery Tableware Flatware Mexican Ceramics” with my name and phone number. You can leave those cards with people who have items you are interested in but are too expensive. If they don’t sell the items, tell them to call you!
I was just at a garage sale this weekend where the garage sale was way expensive, and I purchased nothing – everything was waaaay too much money and he wouldn’t go down on anything. However, the man had put tons of stuff out for free by the street, some of which I took and put up for sale on Ebay. We will see if any of it sells or not. That man had more people digging through his trash pile than he did at his sale! I recently sold an old Bell motorcycle helmet for $20.00 which I found free by the side of the road after a garage sale was over. You can’t beat that for having low inventory costs! So keep your eyes open.
6. Once you get your items together (and try to get a pile of stuff) – mentally figure how much it would all be and then ask, “what is the best deal you can give me for all this stuff?” I say mentally calculate it – otherwise, you might end up paying more than what it would be separately! I have done that as well when I wasn’t really paying attention to business. If you have $20 worth of stuff, try to get it down to $12 or $15. You always want to be able to sell the item for AT LEAST $10 more than what you paid, so a $5 should be able to be sold for $15.00 on Ebay is my rule of thumb. Sometimes you might pay more for one thing, but get a real deal on another. It does seem to work out.
7. Be friendly to the person running the sale, they are tired from getting up so early and dealing with rude people. Do not insult their stuff or their intelligence. Compliment their items “Wow you have a bunch of great stuff!” or “Wow this really looks old.” If you are purchasing something old, try to get the story behind it, “This belonged to my Grandma when she lived in Germany during WWII.” It helps to locate and place things in time for your writeup on Ebay. If purchasing dishes and flatware, try to get the name of the pattern. This will save time later – write it down in your comments section. Always offer less, all they can say is no, and it helps to practice your negotiation skills.
If they say, “this sells for $100 on Ebay and I only want $20!”, don’t argue. Just smile and nod your head, and tell them no doubt an Ebayer will realize that and purchase the item. No need to be sarcastic, just go on to the next garage sale.
8. I typically do not tell people I sell on Ebay; this seems to scare them for some reason. Although if they start talking about it, I will admit it. If they admit selling Ebay, though, think long and hard before buying their stuff. It probably didn’t sell on Ebay so you probably won’t be able to sell it either!
9. I try to buy something at every garage sale because it forces me to buy things that I never considered before and opens up new markets for me. However, I will not pay more than $1 for something I am unsure of.
10. It helps to bring people with other expertise. For example, I know nothing about fishing equipment or tools, but Hubby does so he points out the fishing items and tools that are high dollar, although he ususally just takes the tools home and puts in his own workshop! I find that widows sells their husbands’ fishing equipment dirt cheap and vice versa, so there are good deals out there.
11. The garage sales all close up about noon in my town so I give myself 4 -5 hours to scour the town and then call it quits. Since I have a 15 hour time maximum that I spend on Ebay each week, that is about right for the Finding section of my quest.
12. Now it is on to Listing!
