Getting a List of Upcoming Garage Sales in my Area

[Recyclersteve]

I remember several people on this site talking about their successes at garage sales. How do you come up with a list in advance of garage sales for Saturday and Sunday morning so you aren't wasting a lot of time driving around looking on those mornings?

I did put a message on nextdoor.com, but haven't heard anything constructive back at this point. Thanks in advance!

[hobo finds]

https://gsalr.com/garage-sales-tucson-a ... 72&zoom=12

[Recyclersteve]

Hobo: Wow! This site is fantastic- thanks a bunch! Looking to make a little extra money now! I just hope I'm not stupid enough to buy costume jewelry which looks like real gold and waste my money...

[Recyclersteve]

I found 16 garage sales in my general area for tomorrow. This should be fun.

[Dr. Cadmium]

Garage sales are generally a waste of time. If you view them as such, or perhaps as a cheap form of entertainment, you won't be disappointed.

craigslist and garagesalefinder.com are good online sources in most parts of the country, and don't forget your local papers. Plan a route the night before, and watch for any unadvertised sales along the way.

I have been buying at garage sales for profit off and on for the past 10 years. General keys to success:

1) have low expectations - There is an unbelievable amount of overpriced garbage out there.
2) go early - Usually the best stuff goes before the sale officially starts.
3) go late - At the end of the day, people don't want to pack stuff up. They just want it gone. You can often get stuff for cheap or free.
4) ask questions - People generally have garage sales to make room in their house and make money. They're often more than happy to dig out more stuff for you to buy.
5) have a very large and varied shopping list - If you're just looking for one or two specific items your chances of success are near zero.
6) be persistent - Hit as many sales as you can and go as often as you can.

When all else fails, remember the first point and expect 90% of sales to be a complete waste of time and gas money.

For example, today I went to 44 sales in four hours. If I was spending the whole day at this, I would have hit 100+.
I bought items at 20 of the sales, and spent just over $100, including $25 on scrap items which will turn into about $55 next week, which pays for the gas. The other items I bought will turn into about $150+ in sales over the next month, plus many items I purchased were just for personal or business use (clothes, tools). This was a moderately successful garage sale morning.

Last weekend I hit about 25 sales in 6 hours. I spent $100 which will hopefully turn into about $250 in sales and the only scrap item I got was worth $6.50 which I got for $3. This was one of the worst mornings I've had doing this all year. Several of the items I purchased were mistakes that I should be able to break even on. Were it not for two unusual and lucky finds the morning would have been a complete waste.

A few weekends ago I spent less than $100 and picked up over $4,500 worth of inventory. That was a highly successful way to spend five hours, and the best garage sale morning I've had all year in terms of total profit.

[everything]

Wow Cadmium that's great, do you have a short list of things your grabbing up that you can flip, and which avenue do you move the items. I never know what to go for. Last Friday the best I could do was 3 14 kt necklaces weighing in at 2.7 grams and a 10kt that was so thin and light, hardly anything to it, plus some sterling, which doesn't add up to anything really. I just google garage sale finder and also use craigslist. It definitely pays to map out your thing the night before somewhat so your not driving all over the place. Some of the best sales I find are completely unlisted and I find them on my way to the ones I know of. Brass is the only other thing I find that I can pile up. The other day I found a hefty roll of copper wire sitting next to a stoplight, I'm like wow are you kidding me, nobody wants that. This weekend I also found some really nice light fixtures for a dollar each and upgraded all the single bulb fixtures in my condo to doubles. Another tip, many older folks are often down sizing so they can move into assisted living or condo's, these are good garage sales to go to, not always though. Estate sales can be good and bad, often they are well attended though. Moving sales can have allot of goodies, richer neighborhoods, often have very cool things. I often wait for the neighborhood sales when they have many garage sales in dense areas so I can hit more sales at one time.

[Dr. Cadmium]

Gold and sterling below spot are always great finds! Yesterday I found $13 worth of gold filled pins for $1. I find silver every few weeks, but I have only found solid gold twice in my life at garage sales - out here there many very aggressive pickers and the supply of precious metal is limited, partly because most people move out of state when they retire and partly because of a highly educated population. I find bargains on gold filled pieces a few times a year because a lot of people still ignore the stuff.

I find that moving sales tend to produce some of the most outrageous buys, and have less competition than estate sales.

do you have a short list of things your grabbing up that you can flip, and which avenue do you move the items. I never know what to go for.

A list? If I gave you list of everything I'm looking for, it would break the character limit per post set by this BB system. Also, what works for me may not work well for you. My general advice would be to start with what you know, and occasionally try a new item or venue. Here are my general outlets:

scrap - My main business is electronic scrap. I've never counted all of the categories, but I deal in around 200 different materials, everything from light iron and base metals, all kinds of electronic scrap, exotics, and precious metals. Scrap is my favorite find aside from cash itself because it's the fastest money, and it's my specialty where I have the most advantage.
direct sales - Tied with scrap for my favorite category. Given a choice, it's always better to do business with someone you've known for years. Their shopping list adds on to my shopping list! For example, I know someone who repairs power equipment. I'm always looking for deals on power equipment to give to them to repair and flip.
flea market - I have access to a great flea market near me, and I know what sells there. Often I get better prices there than selling items online, and it's defintely easier and faster money.
Amazon - Amazon is an easy and stable platform to sell on, but difficult to setup an account and get started, and a lot of categories are gated now. However, I've had an account for years so I use it.
eBay - I still find the occasional item to sell here, but the platform has become very unreliable. Still the best place to sell some items.
craigslist - Great for vehicles, appliances, furniture, and also for meeting local people. Profit margins tend to be larger on larger items, because the homeowners want the stuff gone and a lot of my competition doesn't have a large enough vehicle to move it or space to store it.
auction house - Some items do better at local auction than anywhere else. I'm also always looking for a find to send to a high end auction house.
consignment shops - Some items do better at specific consignment shops. I deal with two right now.

Also, I'm looking for:
tools and supplies - For business use and personal use. See all of the categories above? Cutting tools for scrapping, display pieces for the flea market, packing supplies, etc.
clothes - Yesterday I bought 6 shirts that fit me for $0.50 each. I rarely shop retail.
items for my hobbies - Which as you may guess, are many.
consumables - Motor oil, cleaning supplies, food, booze, ammo, etc. A couple of weeks ago I bought new boxes of cereal for $1 each. One of the best garage sales I ever went to produced 2 free bottles of wine.
cool and interesting stuff - It's always great when I find something I've never seen before and know nothing about.

I'll add one more category that I'm always looking for:

people: - They are my greatest resource. People to buy and sell with, and friends, too! My best business over the years has come through word of mouth. Behave yourself when out sourcing and consider carrying business cards. I'm always amazed at the niche businesses I find people running out of their homes and garages. You never know who you'll meet, what you'll learn, or the stories you'll hear!

[everything]

Thanks for all that info and time you put into that post Cadmium, I'm still naive to all the different items that may have gold in them outside of coin and necklaces and rings. I've been to consignment shops a few times looking to move things I've gathered up at garage sales, and they've taken them for considerably more than I paid before. Last year a duplex within walking distance was literally being cleaned out with a dumpster bigger than a regular size van being refilled multiple times. So I'd go visit this thing like it was my friend. First it started with personal possessions then they would throw lawnmowers, snow blowers, everything went into this thing, eventually the place was gutted and then all that went in too.

I found this made in india tea table in this dumpster and had to have it, dug it out after work in the middle of the night, it had all kinds of pewter and brass inlays, the time that must have went into it, I have photos, so yeah mesmerized by it. Well, I held onto it for awhile, just admiring it, never used it, finally put it on craigslist and someone gave me $75 for it.

My main thing has been electronic scrap as well, and this guy I work with has a half dozen old computers, like windows 95 that I can't wait to get my hands on. My last fun one was some old rack file servers, heavy, 4 of them, so heavy, usually I just toss the little iron I have onto someone elses truck when I get to the scrap yard, iron was up and the guy said put them on the scale, 5 dollars. Indeed, I have received more scrap over time just by word of mouth.

I used to really be into aluminum because it's so easy to find, doors, windows, and I still sort of am, but I was always disappointed with the time I put in vs. what I got for it. I have met allot of good people in my junking and hunting travels. I buy clothes at garage sales as well. The business card is a great idea. An amusing thing I acquired this year, an old lawnmower with an aluminum deck, I'm like wow, got to have it, brought it out of town to where my garden is, got it running and was using it although it is way past it's time, lighter and more nimble than anything you can find these days.

I love old stuff, and often say some of the only places you can still find good well built items that say made in usa on them is garage sales.

[everything]

Garage sales starting back up again.

[horgad]

I can usually get a at least one sterling item and a few brass items below spot on a given day in my area. Old aluminum pots and pans are the most common and you can get them for almost free. Gold almost never. But it is pure entertainment. Just not enough weight to make it worth the time. And I usually end up in the hole from buying junk that I didn't really need.

[CopperSilverGold]

I usually look at the listings on Craigslist on Saturday mornings. I do keyword searches and then cut and paste the info (and quick directions) on Microsoft Word. Once I have identified the sales I want to visit, I plan out my route on the Word document and then print it off. Community-wide and neighborhood-wide sales are big around here, and I look for those. Also look for church/school sales since they can be pretty large. I don't find much scrapping wise, but it's still fun to get out and talk to people.