In the art of Garage Sailing – the saying “The Early Bird Gets the Worm” is an understatement
- Look for sales posted in your local paper, Craigs List or other forms of local advertising (dailygazette.com, timesunion.com) – for Craigs List – when doing keyword searches, include terms like: “tag, yard, barn, garage, rummage, church and estate” with “sale”
- Go through the sales and write down each one that interests you – try to keep them in a certain mile radius from your home in which you are comfortable
- When making notes, be sure to include the address, time / day it starts and a quick little reminder why you liked the sale – did it have “jewelry” or “lots of kid stuff”
- Try to go on the first day of the sale – IE if a sale is Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and you can’t go until Saturday – don’t make this sale a priority – not to say that it won’t be good the second day, but usually they get “picked over” pretty quickly
- Number your list of sales according to time and location. Sales usually start between 7am-10am so if there are two sales in Albany, NY and one sale in nearby Delmar, NY, you will want to hit the two Albany sales close together (if the sale time frame allows) and then move on to the neighboring town.
- Map your route – if you have a GPS in your car, that would be best, or you can mapquest your stops and print it out before you leave home. Be sure to check that your route has a nice flow and maximizes your time.
- Make an offer when appropriate. If a seller has $5 on something, they are probably willing to take $4 – unless it is the very beginning of a sale, or if you really want something and don’t want to offend the seller. Also, if you are nice / endearing, the seller is more likely to go down in price because they like to see their items going to a “good home”.
- Buy in bulk when you can – if someone is selling 10 Starbucks coffee mugs at $1 each – offer to purchase all 10 for $7 – remember people are having sales to get rid of things and make a little money – buying in a “lot” is usually a win for both parties
- Be quick! Unless you are looking for a social event, don’t hang around and chat it up with sellers and other buyers – shop quickly and move on – you have a lot of deals to steal!
- Don’t let an unorganized sale get you down or overwhelm you – sometimes these are the best ones to uncover that valuable treasure! Don’t turn your nose up at sales that are just thrown together – a bunch of boxes overflowing strewn about the yard – quickly scan / rummage through the boxes – you never know what you can find
- Remember that buying “used” is buying “green” and in turn you are $aving “green” too!
- When you get home – go through all your newly found treasures – call a friend and share stories of your winnings and the interesting people you met – it’s so good for the soul!
