Simplitudes

I used to love to go yard sailing ( saleing if you’ll allow the pun).  It’s really true that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure and at a yard sale you can prove the cliché.  When people put out  items they no longer care about you can find true treasures at very low prices.

One problem I see for shopping at garage sales is that you’re likely to find many items that you didn’t know you wanted, and really never needed, but are available at a price to which you just can’t say no.

When you see an item offered at a garage sale that you want but the price is too high for your liking, simply ask the owner to lower the price.  Nine out of ten times he will.  If the owner is unwilling, asked him to take down your phone number and call you should be unable to sell the item at his asking price.  Most people will negotiate rather than having to bring the item back inside and live with it forever.

In Florida, where I live, yard sales take place occasionally on Friday afternoon, usually on Saturday mornings and ending by one o’clock.  It’s rare to find a yard or garage sale on the Sunday.  When I lived in rural New York state, most yard sales took place throughout the weekend.

No matter what day the sale begins you’ll have your best chance of finding bargains if you begin early in the morning.  Scour the newspapers days before to see   where the Yard sales will be, then map out the smartest route to cover the most territory in the shortest length of time.

Yard sales can yield all sorts of treasures, from household items and furniture to clothing and baby items, from kitchenware, to tools, toys, bikes and even cars.  Many times the newspaper ads for the yard sales list specific items for sale. Take advantage of the knowledge you can gain by being aware.

Baby items are probably the most common yard sale item, since babies aren’t babies are very long and soon outgrow their use for baby items such as car seats and cribs and baby clothes.  Clothing is also very popular item since people seem to outgrow their clothing more rapidly these days.  It is not always possible to try on the clothes at a yard sale, but the price is usually so low that if it doesn’t fit not much is lost and you can always resell it in your own yard sale sometime down the road.

If you’re in the market for furniture look into moving sales and estate sales.  People in that position are often willing to negotiate rather than have to pack and ship items.

Kitchen items, house hold items and jewelry can be readily found at yard sales, but these shiny objects can lure you into making a purchase that you really don’t need.  The nice thing is you can pick it up cheaply, and if you change your mind sometime later on, you can resell it again at your own yard sale.