Buying eBay Products at Yard Sales

This is a follow up to my article about Garage sales.

In this follow up, I want to share another piece of advice about yard sales and then I'll tell you about a specialized resource containing lists of items you will see at yard sales.

Finding Killer Yard Sales

Some people like to make lists of attractive yard sales by looking in the classifieds, and then plot a route. Usually the sales are selected based on keywords in the ads.

For example, my dad is sure any ad with the word Fiesta in it is a good sale. (Fiesta Ware is tableware made by the Homer Laughlin Company and is very popular with collectors.) He'll also go to any yard sale containing trains.

He's a great example of a plotter. He drives me nuts because he will drive right past a sale to get to the next one on his map. I can't stand it because I want to stop and see what every yard sale holds.

He's a extreme example. Some plotters will stop at sales between the ones on the list, but others ignore them.

On the other hand some treasure hunters are quadrant shoppers. (There has to be a better name for this - maybe you can suggest one?) Quadrant shoppers ignore the classified ads, and just go to specific neighborhoods and hit every yard sale.

This is what I do. I drive up and down the half streets looking for signs. I stop at every yard sale. My typical day starts at a church rummage sale or estate sale and then finds me driving up and down streets in my favorite neighborhoods.

Over the years, I have learned where the better neighborhoods are. I also know where the time wasting sales are. I know which neighborhoods are not worth the time.

Here in Arizona, we have a large immigrant population. Mostly from Mexico and South America. These are people who came here with very little and their sales are usually newer cast offs. Cheaper used clothes, car parts, and low quality tools.

The immigrants tend to cluster in neighborhoods. These neighborhoods are not worth shopping in. Note - within these neighborhoods are homes filled with fantastic treasures. Find an estate sale in those areas and you will find gold. This is because some people have held onto their homes as the immigrants took over the neighborhood. They have lived in their homes for 20, 30 or more years.

Another common mistake made by treasure hunters is to concentrate on the better areas of town. This is not true. You want yard sales in middle class neighborhoods. Even lower middle class neighborhoods.

I used to keep a pin map of all my purchases. Each pin represented a purchase. East of where I live is a huge concentration of retirement housing. Back when I had the pin map, I saw some trends. There is a square mile area of upper middle class homes. I rarely bought anything there.

All around it are middle class, and lower middle class retirement homes. The map was full of pins.

To the north and south are lower class retirement areas. These are mostly trailer parks, and apartment/condos. While I make more purchases in these areas than in the upper class areas, it's still a lot less than in the middle class areas.

This same pattern holds true all over the Valley. (I live in the Valley of the Sun - This is where the sun spends the summer.)

Anyway, think about your area. I am sure the same strata applies. Get a large street map and start marking off areas where you find great items at yard sales.

I think people who search neighborhoods do better than plotters because there are so many plotters competing for a limited number of good sales.

Either way you do it, yard sales can be fun and rewarding. Whether you are adding stuff to your collection, or buying for resale, you will surely find interesting items in your travels.

Elaine Smith was one of the first readers of my Auction Revolution manual. She followed the advice in the second half of the manual and leveraged her eBay auctions into a great book about selling used books on eBay.

Now Elaine has created another valuable resource in her specialty, and this one has an interesting twist.

"Most Valuable Children's Picture Books" contains lists of books you'll surely see at yard sales. You can print the book out - it's an eBook like Robbin Tungett's garage salebook - and take it with you on your the yard sale trips.

Think about it. How many expensive children's books have you walked past at yard sales? It's like walking past money on the sidewalk and not looking downward.

After reading "Most Valuable Children's Picture Books", you will know what to look for in Children's books. And almost every home has them because all parents buy books for their kids.

Even better, because the book is a PDF, you can also search it. I have a box of children's books I bought a few months ago because the box contained a doll I wanted and I talked the seller into throwing in the books. I was able to look up the titles of the books quickly to see if they are worth anything.

Sadly, my box didn't have any books worth at least 30 dollars. Then again, I only paid $20 for the box and the doll is worth much more than that so I am not disappointed. It's a chance to learn, and some of the old books are interesting to look at.

"Most Valuable Children's Picture Books"also has information about the types of buyers you'll attract on eBay and the best way to list the books.

I told you there was a twist to the story...

An interesting thing about the book is it's a joint venture between Elaine and her son Carter. Carter even gets a portion of the proceeds from the book.

Now, the book is cheap, so Carter isn't getting rich on it.

In fact, the book has more value to you than him, but what a wonderful way to empower her son while teaching him some entrepreneurial skills. Bravo. I bet Carter turns out to be a wonderful businessman when he gets older.

Elaine's other teenager, Colin, is also involved in the eBay book selling business and is working on an eBook with Elaine.

You can read more about Carter and Elaine's book here.

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Terry Gibbs has taught over 7,000 people how to make a good living on eBay. Terry's most recent eBay instruction manual is The Auction Revolution . The Auction Revolution is your guide to eBay and beyond. Here on Iwantcollectibles.com, you will learn about buying and selling antiques and collectibles, and about eBay.

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