ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Expert Yard Sales Tips For Finding Your Yard Sale Treasures

Updated on May 28, 2014

Some Fantastic Yard Sale Signs

Efficient yard sale experts have a "Passion" for saving...
Efficient yard sale experts have a "Passion" for saving... | Source
Yard sale philosophy.
Yard sale philosophy. | Source

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and everyone is emerging from their winter hibernation. There is a serene sense of calm as the sun dances on the morning dew and fresh cut grass can be smelt as you awaken to a warm spring morning. Suddenly, you burst out of bed when you remember it is one of the most important times of the year, it is the beginning of yard sale season!

Every year, millions of individuals and families awaken to the same startling revelation, they have too much stuff. Rather than look to be the featured household on an episode of hoarders, many will set up a makeshift marketplace and put out their excess for sale. This is where you, the avid yard sale aficionado comes in. There are plenty of amateur yard sale attendees that participate in this offbeat buying scenario. However, "yardsaling" is easy to start, but much more difficult to master. There are some special ways that you can become an expert when it comes to the roadside sale. Here are some tips that will help you to get some of the best prices, and find the best stuff at your friendly neighborhood yard sale.

Get In The Yard Sale Mood & Sing Along!

1. Show up early – If you are an early bird looking to catch a big fat discount worm, being the first one out can be a great benefit. You will usually get first dibs on anything for sale if you can manage to roll out of bed early on a weekend morning. However, be careful that you do not make a nuisance of yourself and come with flashlights before the sun has even risen. Nothing will annoy a seller more than having to chase away early morning birds that become vultures when they try to dig before the seller is set up and open for business.

2. Mind the weather – Nothing will hamper a yard sale adventure more than soggy or scorching shopping conditions. Even if it is raining on your yard sale parade, there are some advantages and disadvantages to this situation. The first advantage is that you will see less buyer competition. If you put on your parka and bring an umbrella, you will see fewer people out then on a sunny day. Another advantage is that since sellers will be seeing fewer customers, they will be willing to negotiate on price more since they will have fewer opportunities. These advantages are very situation-specific, and bad weather brings some disadvantages.

The first is that shopping in the rain is much less enjoyable. It will be tough to get excited about finding bargains when you need to buy a boat to get to them. Another issue is that many what I like to call “fair-weathers”. These are sellers that will close early or not even open at all if weather conditions are adverse. Those yard sale flyers you follow like a treasure map may lead you to nowhere if the weather is bad enough. Another disadvantage is the potential for damaged items. If you end up buying some clothing or linens that were only to be washed at the dry cleaners, bad weather can end up ruining them before you can get them home. A final weather disadvantage is that sellers may be in less of a mood to negotiate with you if they have had to get soaked covering their goods, or they have been baked in the sun all day.

A Group of Yard Sales is the Greatest Ally for a Savvy Yardsaler
A Group of Yard Sales is the Greatest Ally for a Savvy Yardsaler

3. Seek out the gems – If you are going “yardsaling” then you should jump in with both feet. I have encountered plenty of half committed “salers” that will go to a few houses, but then abandon their search for that one special item. If you want to become an expert yard sale patron, you need to be willing to get your hands a little dirty. Don’t be afraid to investigate an interesting looking box near the back of the garage, and be willing to drive the extra mile to a more far off sale, who knows what you may end up finding. Leave any whiners at home and be prepared to make your yard sale trip into a complete value finding expedition.

4. Create Clusters – While it can be worth it to go out of your way for a special find on occasion, if you spend hours searching you will just end up with an empty gas tank and a trunk devoid of any yard sale treasures. One way to avoid this is to know the best environment for quality yard sales. The first of these is to look for community yard sales. Whenever a group of families are setting up to sell together, there will be plenty of opportunities to hunt for great deals. Also, if you know the area you will be shopping in, try to stick to places with houses close together, that way you will maximize your trip to a single location. A third option is to keep an eye out for piggy back sellers. If you arrive at a house with a sale because they had a newspaper ad or posted online, there will likely be some neighbors putting on a sale as well. They will be looking to capitalize on some free exposure, and giving you more buying opportunities. A final point is to effectively plan your trip. If you are able to chart a course that takes you to as many sales as possible, and minimizes your time spent in transit, you will become a much more efficient yardsaler.

5. Put yourself out there (A little bit) – Feel free to chat up the seller whenever you are at a yard sale. They are likely not professional salesmen; they are just average folks looking to clear out the garage. My point in telling you to put yourself out there is that if you become friendly with them you can probably get yourself a discount on some items. Also, if you find an item you really want, and can let the buyer know the worthy cause you have for the item (such as using that baseball glove to play catch with your kids) you will be able to pull on heartstring that may save your wallet a little bit. However, moderation is needed for this scenario as well. If you are explaining to the seller that you need this certain book they are selling in order to complete a set so you can make a big profit selling it on Ebay, you will not be getting any discounts. Keep any resell thoughts to yourself, and don’t make yourself seem desperate if you find your Holy Grail of yard sale purchases.

6. Come late – Just like there are benefits to arriving at a sale early, the same can be said about coming later in the day. One benefit is that you can serve as a cleanup assistant. If you arrive at a yard sale in the final stages, keep an eye out for large, heavy items that would be annoying to move around. You have a much greater chance of getting these items for cheap later in the day. The reason for this is that a seller goes into inventory burning mode when it is almost time to pack up. You can transform an item that was previously a garage eye sore that now has to be repacked and stored, into a few bucks in a seller’s pocket, AND they don’t have to deal with it anymore. Your negotiating skills become much stronger when you are making the seller’s cleanup load smaller. This tactic has some downfalls though. Of course the first is that you may miss out on rare or sought after items by coming to the party later. A second issue is that you can miss a sale altogether by coming too later. Walmart might be 24 hours, but a yard sale can close at a moment’s notice if there are no customers or a seller has something more important to do. Finally, do not arrive at a sale after the posted time has ended. While my family was moving we had some enthusiastic buyers show up an hour after we had cleaned up, expecting an antique road show treatment and for us to unpack everything again just for them. Obviously we chose to decline the offer for obvious reasons.

If you are able to follow these pointers you will be able to become a well trained yard sale expert. Just remember that the key is to avoid becoming an annoyance by arriving to early or two late, make the seller value you as a buyer, and plan your trip accordingly. If you follow these steps you will have great success this yard sale season. Good luck and happy hunting!

Maybe You Too Will Become a Famous Yard Sale Patron.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)