What are your Garage sale must finds?

[ThisIsTheYear]

I recently went to a garage sale and bought a bike rack that I knew was worth some money. I made a $50 profit within a week by selling it on Craigslist. I always see Precious Moments and I wish I knew which ones were worth money. My husband does good by looking for tools. I never see gold, probably because I'm too late. lol If you go to garage sales looking to eventually resell items, what do you normally look for?

 

[ceecee]

Resale on Precious Moments isn't great. The first 12 (I believe it was 12?) are worth more and may be more collectible.

 

[DaniB]

My DD went to a "free" garage sale today (meaning they were giving stuff away, not selling).

And she came home with a Disney popcorn bucket (with lid) filled a third of the way with pennies! Free!

What a way to kick start her Disney cruise spending fund!

My husband told me I wanted to check out the free yardsale and I didn't listen...

EDITED to add: I realized afterwards this thread said "must finds". I skipped the word "must" and thought the OP was asking what were people's garage sale finds they had lately.

 

[mrsklamc]

I think the best way to do that is things you are interested in yourself. That way you don't mind researching/becoming an expert on in and then you know whether or not you are getting a great buy. For example, I too have a couple of precious moments statues that are probably not worth much more than I paid.

I try not to buy stuff to resell any more because once we got to a certain income level it didn't seem worth my time any more. But I used to sell books on half.com. I would also look for American Girl stuff (not really interested any more) or cheap clothes that might make a profit at a consignment store if they didn't fit me or anyone I was shopping for.

I say I 'try' not to because I ended up buying an antique desk a few weeks ago for $20 (That cast iron is HEAVY) because it was 'too good to pass up,' But I DID have the willpower to withstand some fiestaware at $2 per piece.

 

[stitchlovestink]

I recently went to a garage sale and bought a bike rack that I knew was worth some money. I made a $50 profit within a week by selling it on Craigslist. I always see Precious Moments and I wish I knew which ones were worth money. My husband does good by looking for tools. I never see gold, probably because I'm too late. lol If you go to garage sales looking to eventually resell items, what do you normally look for?

bolding is mine....
the resale market for precious moments really stinks right now and is alot of work for a little bit of profit right now unless you get a highly sought after piece or for a couple of bucks but even then, they still may not fetch much when reselling....

Resale on Precious Moments isn't great. The first 12 (I believe it was 12?) are worth more and may be more collectible.

Very True on both counts...
the original 12 tend to be more sought after and valuable.
And you have to be very careful that they haven't been chipped or broken and glued back together. and the original box is very important to some collectors.
the value of them on the secondary market has plummeted dramatically lately. I don't know that I would bother unless you were getting them for a $1 or 2 and they werent broken.

 

[ThisIsTheYear]

And she came home with a Disney popcorn bucket (with lid) filled a third of the way with pennies! Free!

 

[ThisIsTheYear]

I think the best way to do that is things you are interested in yourself.

I think thats my problem - I don't really have any collections, hobbies, etc. I guess I will keep looking out for bike racks.

 

[IDoDis]

My DH looks for old video games. Some of them (especially if it comes in the original box) go for hundreds of dollars on ebay -- for one old game that doesn't even run on 99% of the computers nowadays.

He doesn't like to go to garage sales but if I see games, I call him and give him the titles. He knows which ones will sell and if he's not sure, he looks them up online and tells me whether or not to buy it. He finds old games on Craig's List and then resells them.

One time he found directions to a magic trick that was on 2 pieces of 8.5x11 paper. He sold it on ebay for $85.00. He could have made copies and sold several of them, but he didn't.

 

[hsmamato2]

my ds loves tag sales for old video games/systems,etc. he is collecting a lot, not to resell I don't have the time or energy to buy stuff for resale, but I'm always looking out for something I can use myself! Right now I'm looking for some solid used dining furniture.....

 

[cndij]

A friend of mine found a language video training set (sorry can't remember the brand) for $5 at a yard sale and sold it on Ebay for $75. Her husband is always picking up books to resell (he also makes a weekly round to th Goodwill stores in our area for the same thing). He does pretty good with the books, but he knows what to look for.

 

[mrsklamc]

I think thats my problem - I don't really have any collections, hobbies, etc. I guess I will keep looking out for bike racks.

I guess you could go to the library and look for books about collectibles....I saw two cabbage patch dolls this morning that I was pretty sure were valuable but they fell under the 'not worth the effort' category.

 

[DawnM]

I have done some resaling.

I just have to know my stuff. Stuff I don't know about, I don't get.

I bought a room purifier that I knew was worth something for $2 at a yard sale. I sold it for $50 Stuff like that.

Dawn

 

[swilshire]

My DH looks for small stained glass things to hang around the porch. He must be up to 40 by now. He usually pays 50 cents to a dollar for them, though yesterday he paid $2 for one that wasn't even very pretty. Not sure what got into him.

I collect bigger stained glass items. Found a fire screen yesterday (which we have no use for) but it had a large circular stained glass insert (easily removable) and two small ones. I may hang the big one in my office window. I'm getting tired of the one I have there now and this one has pink flowers in it which will match the begonia I also have there.

Sheila