If you are looking for one particular item while garage saling -- like I was looking for a monitor a few weeks ago -- you are unlikely to find it your first trip out, as I've discussed before.
One way to improve your chances of finding your item is to simply ask sellers if they have what you want. There's always a chance that you just don't see an item -- having discussed sales with friends after leaving them, this occurs more frequently than you would think -- or that the seller forgot to put the item out or didn't think to try to sell it.
This trick obviously will work better for more common items. I've seen it work for photography equipment a few times now. It only takes a few seconds so if you really need an item it's worth it.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
8/18/12 Purchase Summary
I got some amazing deals yesterday; yesterday was probably the best day I've had in years. Sadly, I was the only person to have a good day because my friends didn't get any good deals.
Yesterday seemed like it was going to be a slow day at the start; we experimented with a new route that proved to be a poor choice but, luckily, it picked up at the end of the day. I ended up spending $5.25 for seven items, shown below.
My first purchases were the textbooks. I got both for $0.50. As it turns out, one is worthless but I can sell one to my sister's university for $6.00. Not great but it at least pays for my purchases today. At a later sale I bought the gas mask and the PlayStation game. I worked the seller down from $5 to $0.50 for the gas mask and, when I realized he was a pushover, offered him $0.25 for the game which he accepted. I assumed the game was worthless (I just got it on a whim) but as it turns out it starts on Amazon for around $19 after shipping, which means I can probably sell this copy for $25-$30 plus shipping considering I have the case and the manual. I'm going to play it a little bit before I decide if I'm going to get rid of it or not.
I purchased my last three items late in the day. I got the Motorola Droid, the Flip UltraHD (4GB), and the game boy case plus accessories for $4. The seller was unsure if anything was working which is why he was selling it for so cheap. The camera and the phone both work perfectly. The camera starts at $95 used on Amazon and I could probably sell the phone for $25-40 but I'm keeping both. The only item of the three purchased at the sale I intend to sell is the Game Boy carrier for which I anticipate making anywhere from $10-$30.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Two Sides of the Spectrum
I didn't get around to posting last week because I was on vacation -- backpacking in King's Canyon National Park -- without any sort of internet connection. I'm finally back and recovered so I thought I should get around to updating. It seems I've gotten pretty bad at even posting once per week.
As I've pointed out before, many sellers have no idea what many of the items they are selling actually are. These sort of sellers come in two varieties: the "good" (the seller assumes the item is worthless and will sell it for next to nothing) and the "bad" (the seller assumes the item is worth a lot and often refuses to bargain).
The easiest way to determine with which sort of seller you are dealing is to simply examine the item or ask about its condition. Good sellers are usually pretty passive and often don't know if the item works or not; sellers who are determined to make more than the item is worth often come across as short or even aggressive. You can always try to bargain with bad sellers but it's often not worth your time, unfortunately.
As I've pointed out before, many sellers have no idea what many of the items they are selling actually are. These sort of sellers come in two varieties: the "good" (the seller assumes the item is worthless and will sell it for next to nothing) and the "bad" (the seller assumes the item is worth a lot and often refuses to bargain).
The easiest way to determine with which sort of seller you are dealing is to simply examine the item or ask about its condition. Good sellers are usually pretty passive and often don't know if the item works or not; sellers who are determined to make more than the item is worth often come across as short or even aggressive. You can always try to bargain with bad sellers but it's often not worth your time, unfortunately.
Saturday, August 4, 2012
8/4/12 Purchase Summary
Today was a good day for both my friend with whom I went saling and me. I ended up spending $6.
The first sale at which we stopped had Nerf Guns. I bought three -- a Long Strike and two Deploys -- for $1. I have these listed on Craigslist with two other guns (one of which I bought in May) for $60 but I really expect to make $40-$45. Not bad for a $1.50 total investment.
The rest of the day was really slow until the last few sales. I purchased a copy of Monopoly Deal for my sister for $0.50 in the in between time but that's it. At the last few sales, I bought a copy of Lego Star Wars for myself ($1), a Christmas present for my mother ($1), and, finally, a new monitor ($2.50). I desperately needed the monitor and it was the only widescreen I've seen in the last few weeks. It doesn't have the best resolution (1440x900) but I really needed it and I got a great deal. I have now replaced my entire old computer (except for the mouse) for $26.63.
The first sale at which we stopped had Nerf Guns. I bought three -- a Long Strike and two Deploys -- for $1. I have these listed on Craigslist with two other guns (one of which I bought in May) for $60 but I really expect to make $40-$45. Not bad for a $1.50 total investment.
The rest of the day was really slow until the last few sales. I purchased a copy of Monopoly Deal for my sister for $0.50 in the in between time but that's it. At the last few sales, I bought a copy of Lego Star Wars for myself ($1), a Christmas present for my mother ($1), and, finally, a new monitor ($2.50). I desperately needed the monitor and it was the only widescreen I've seen in the last few weeks. It doesn't have the best resolution (1440x900) but I really needed it and I got a great deal. I have now replaced my entire old computer (except for the mouse) for $26.63.
Baader Meinhof Revisited
Back in June, I talked about the item of the day, the phenomenon in which particular items keep showing up at different sales throughout the day. Today's item, for example, was sleeping bags.
Serious salers will also notice "items of the month" or items for even larger periods. For whatever reason, some uncommon items appear not frequently enough to be considered the item of the day for any particular day but still far more frequently over a period than you would normally find them.
I know the paragraph above doesn't make sense so I'll try to describe it here. Take, for example, XBox 360 games. These are pretty uncommon; before last April I had seen them maybe once or twice at sales. Starting in April, I started seeing them at maybe two or three sales per day every day we went out. They weren't that common but we were still finding them more frequently than we normally would over a sustained period. We kept finding 360 games through May and June but in July they disappeared.
Another thing I've noticed regards searching for common items. I've recently been looking for a new computer monitor because the one I had was quickly dying. Monitors themselves are fairly common but I wanted a cheap widescreen one; I didn't want a square panel. What surprised me is how many monitors you do see at sales. I guess I never noticed until I started looking, but I've been seeing at least five or six monitors every time I've gone saling the last few times. Unfortunately, until today, all the monitors I saw were square panels. I finally found a widescreen today, but I'll talk about that in my purchase summary I'll be posting directly after this. My point is that you tend to ignore the really common items you see to the point that you don't even realize how common they are.
Serious salers will also notice "items of the month" or items for even larger periods. For whatever reason, some uncommon items appear not frequently enough to be considered the item of the day for any particular day but still far more frequently over a period than you would normally find them.
I know the paragraph above doesn't make sense so I'll try to describe it here. Take, for example, XBox 360 games. These are pretty uncommon; before last April I had seen them maybe once or twice at sales. Starting in April, I started seeing them at maybe two or three sales per day every day we went out. They weren't that common but we were still finding them more frequently than we normally would over a sustained period. We kept finding 360 games through May and June but in July they disappeared.
Another thing I've noticed regards searching for common items. I've recently been looking for a new computer monitor because the one I had was quickly dying. Monitors themselves are fairly common but I wanted a cheap widescreen one; I didn't want a square panel. What surprised me is how many monitors you do see at sales. I guess I never noticed until I started looking, but I've been seeing at least five or six monitors every time I've gone saling the last few times. Unfortunately, until today, all the monitors I saw were square panels. I finally found a widescreen today, but I'll talk about that in my purchase summary I'll be posting directly after this. My point is that you tend to ignore the really common items you see to the point that you don't even realize how common they are.
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