Garage Sale Hunting! Tips, Hints and Advice

[Star_Cards]

Yeah, I got the cabinets friday. saturday was a bunch of small sales or some that advertised but didn't set up because of possible rain.

I went to a storage auction about 18 months ago. There were a ton of people because of the TV shows, but things went for decent prices. There was a lot of complete junk though. At the time I wasn't really selling more than just cards on ebay. I've picked up a lot of knowledge of things that sell over the summer. I've thought about hitting one again but you really have to have outlets for a variety of things. I'd recommend going to one and then planning to have a garage sale after you sort it. Unless you have a thrift store it may be hard to sell a lot of the cheap stuff you'll get.


side note, I just sold my Teddy Ruxpin and books for 34.99 after having it listed for 2 hours on ebay. Paid $2.50

[Star_Cards]

tons of neighborhood sales this weekend in my area!!!

[andrewconnors9]

Jackpot!!

[Wickabee]

make sure you do some good research for sure before you do anything with them cuz you just never know. Keep us updated also with what u find, I will update the OP with any relevant info :)

Ok, so after e-mails to multiple art galleries and native art galleries I came up basically empty. One of the insurance companies in town was holding free appraisals, so I took them in. Between the three I have, she said there's about $1000CDN broken down as $200, $200 and $600. She said the market being what it is now though, I'd probably be lucky to get $80-$100 for each the two small ones but I shouldn't have too much trouble getting anywhere from $450-$600 on the big one. She told me she's actually never sold or even seen one that size, and it's very neutral colouring (which apparently is important with native art as strong colours don't always match to room decor).

Also brought in a jewel of my mom's that is apparently more than likely fake (it's been in the family since the 50s so disappointed, but not out of pocket or even really surprised) a whatnot stand (apparently that's the name) that she valued at around $350-$400 and a pocket watch that we couldn't get open, so she couldn't be sure of anything. She did, however, get excited when she noticed "HMAS" embossed in the fob clasp and told me if that means it's a steamship it could be over $2000, but I have to get it open to know for sure. So I'm going to be heading to a watch shop in the next week or two to see what I have. She did have nothing but good things to say about the watch, besides minor damage, but said even that wasn't a huge deal IF it's a $2000 watch.

[Sportfreund]

Is it just me or do garage sales not happen as much now as in the 90s? I've been on the lockout for one nearby to get some cheap 90s base cards but there aren't many happening.

[Star_Cards]

They happen all over in Indianapolis. I've gone out every saturday for about 2-3 months except for when I was on vacation.

I grabbed some decent stuff this weekend. Bought a G5 Apple for $35. Should be able to get $150-$200 for it.

Also picked up 5-6 transformers, a 1977 6 million dollar man thermos, 1980 superman II thermos, a sega dreamcast with 8-10 games for $12, and a few other older action figures. It wasn't a big day. There were a ton of neighborhood sales but people just didn't have a ton of good things to sell. Sometimes the neighborhood sales have lots of very small sales since people figure why not try to sell some things and haven't cleaned out like the people who do it on their own.

[polamalu43favre04]

a sega dreamcast with 8-10 games for $12

Dang.. nice deal there... I'm kind of jealous hehe

[Wickabee]

Ok, so after e-mails to multiple art galleries and native art galleries I came up basically empty. One of the insurance companies in town was holding free appraisals, so I took them in. Between the three I have, she said there's about $1000CDN broken down as $200, $200 and $600. She said the market being what it is now though, I'd probably be lucky to get $80-$100 for each the two small ones but I shouldn't have too much trouble getting anywhere from $450-$600 on the big one. She told me she's actually never sold or even seen one that size, and it's very neutral colouring (which apparently is important with native art as strong colours don't always match to room decor).

Also brought in a jewel of my mom's that is apparently more than likely fake (it's been in the family since the 50s so disappointed, but not out of pocket or even really surprised) a whatnot stand (apparently that's the name) that she valued at around $350-$400 and a pocket watch that we couldn't get open, so she couldn't be sure of anything. She did, however, get excited when she noticed "HMAS" embossed in the fob clasp and told me if that means it's a steamship it could be over $2000, but I have to get it open to know for sure. So I'm going to be heading to a watch shop in the next week or two to see what I have. She did have nothing but good things to say about the watch, besides minor damage, but said even that wasn't a huge deal IF it's a $2000 watch.

UPDATE:
I got the back off the watch! Here's the info I now have:
CASE:
Made in Canada by American Watch Case Company (A.W.C.Co.)
Model: Empress (which means it's a gold filled)

WATCH:
Model: Admiral
Movement: Swiss
7 Jewels
2 Adjustments
USA. Pat. May.24.1904

It was made by the TACY Watch company, which came to being after a merger between the TAvannes watch company and the CYma watch company. I know it was bought near Vancouver, but I don`t know when. From my research it`s either from between 1910-24 or 1936-42. Either way, it`s the difference between $50 and $200 and I`m probably going to just keep it, since it`s nice I like it.

For garage saling, after the research I`ve done, I`d say this: If it looks old, works and is under $10, buy it. Most are only worth about $50, but profit is profit. There also seems to be a sizable market for old parts watches, but it`s obviously a lower end market. I`ve also learned that if you open the back and see the word Empress, that means the case is gold fill, not Gold. Gold fill is basically plating over brass. There is some gold there, but not much.

There`s some good links, info and a helpful forum for watches and clocks of all sorts here - http://www.nawcc.org/

[andrewconnors9]

Not a bad Saturday this week, will make a few bucks for sure.

First was a sports cards garage sale, didnt end up buying any cards (a lot of 90s stuff overpriced), but picked up two different blue jays old cups from world series era and a long baseball poster from Eggo with all the jerseys from the 1800s to 90s. That cost me 3$, then he had piles of stacked magazines, pictures, posters, etc. all under the tables so I asked about it all and he said.... FREE. I backed the car in and took the works of everything. Tons of old Becketts, magazines, cereal boxes, posters of early 90s cards sets and more. Not a bad deal for 3$, especially when I found some nice PC stuff like two price guides with Gilmour on front, one of Andreychuk, and two of the same Tim Horton posters (about 8.5 x 23).

This was fine and dandy for the start of the day, next stop I picked up:

Old Cracker Jack tin (same as this one):
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/CRACKER-JACK-...item3a79adb958

unfortunately im missing the lid, but I like the baseball graphics on it, so its placed upon one of my shelves with other PC stuff. Cost 1$

From this same garage sale I also picked up this very unique designed jewellry box, made of metal, has a small HK stamp on the back, gonna have to do a little research on this. Cost 1$

On way out of this garage sale, I took a quick look through a record/lp box, picked up Pink Floyd - The Wall dual LP, Cost 1$; a little new jersey devils ceramic jersey decoration, cost 0.50$


And last but def not least, last sale of the day on my way home, walked through and spotted TWO ti-83 graphing calculators, so when I asked I was expecting AT LEAST 20$ each for them (if anyone doesnt know these range from 80 - 100$) to buy in store), and she said 5$ each. Second hand on ebay these still sell consistently at 40 - 50$.

Spent a total on Saturday of 16.50$. Calculators alone will bring in about 90$

Not a bad day!

[Star_Cards]

I had some decent finds but nothing extraordinary. I did run into some baseball cards for the first time this season... well at least more than just a small stack from a few packs. It was an older guy and they were form the early 90's. He had 6-7 albums of 90's upper deck stuff. The album surely had been in some heat (garage or attic or barn) because the pages were all stuck together. I think the albums were sets. He had "make offer" on them. He had 5-6 unopened boxes boxes of 90's UD stuff, all baseball. I wanted those and the album that had the 93 SP set in it. The Jeter looked pretty nice but last I checked only sold for in the $15 range or so. I could tell that he was looking for close to what he had paid for the lot so I didn't even offer. He was a little gruff sounding when I spoke with him so I didn't want to get into a conversation about price since wasn't going to pay more than a few bucks per box and album.

I did pick up a few hundred vintage postcards from the 60's 70's and 80's for $5, a few N64 games, an 80's transformer (jeep) that's pretty worn, some WWF figures, a ton of Disney figures, 6-7 cans of spray paint for $1 and a manual camera lens for $2. I think I spent about $30 in total and have some decent things to sell.