Profiting From Garage Sales (Finding Hidden Gems)

We have all driven past them before.  We have seen the sight stapled to trees and telephone poles and even posted in the grocery store on the community bulletin board.  Garage Sales (sometimes listed as yard sales, tag sales, estate sales, etc) are everywhere around us.

This weekend I saw over a dozen such sales in my neighborhood.  As I was talking to my wife about this we didn’t remember here being this many yard sales last year.  I decided to stop and talk to some of the “garage sale merchants”.  I was amazed at what I found out, my conversations actually confirmed my initial thought process on this recent boom in garage sales.  As the unemployment rate continues to climb and remain near recent highs individuals and families are cutting back and selling “The Family Junk” (as it were) to make extra cash.

The consensus I found in my conversations was that the economy wasn’t getting any better anytime soon so they were preparing themselves as best as possible.  I also realized that the home owners having the garage sales were very open to negotiating the selling prices of their wares.  I realize that garage sales are meant for negotiating but I have never been able to drop some of the prices to 10% of the original asking price.  This was at more than one of the numerous sales I stopped at.

So how can you profit from this recent boom in garage sales?  Here are a few ways you can take advantage of them:

*Look for deals for personal use – One persons junk is another person’s treasure.  I saw almost brand new bicycles for $5.00 each.  It doesn’t have to be brand new to be a good deal.

*Collectables – Estate sales are wonderful for these types of items.  Family members are selling off all of the assets form a parent or other family member that has passed on.  Usually they have no idea what they have their hands on.  You need to know your market to make sure you are not overpaying but if you get a deal here you can make a small fortune reselling the item.

*Resell what you buy – Places like craigslist.com and backpage.com are great places to resell your items and both of these are free to use.  You could also use paid sites such as ebay.com.  If you have some knowledge about books go to my post on ”Selling On Amazon Click Here   to learn more on selling your items on Amazon.

Strategy Based Profits TIP: - When looking to profit from garage sales be familiar with the items you are looking at.  Also the key is to negotiate, negotiate, and negotiate.  Did I mention you need to negotiate!  Most important be willing to walk away from the sale.  Don’t show the seller you want the item more than they need to sell it.

Robert J. Roy
Money Man