Tips for Garage Sales Newbies

[Raence]

Hello one and all! I hope I have the right section for this. I seem to have rather horrible luck when I hit garage sales and can't seem to find a thing. IF someone could partially impart some wisdom I would appreciate it. Although I do tend to see plenty of sports Memorabilia or star wars figures. I've hit every gamestop within a 40 mile area...that and I'd love to expand my snes and nes collection.

Thanks for the help!

[jcalder8]

NES_Rules has some great luck at them but I just asked him how long he normally spends on a Saturday doing it, his reply? 6-7 hours. That's probably the best advise you can get. Spend 6-7 hours hitting every sale in the paper/internet/whatever and you will find deals.

[Ghost Soldier]

#1 Tip - Don't driveby yard sales real slow and think there is nothing there.  Carts are awful hard to see from the street.

#2 Tip - If you see LPs or 8-Tracks laying around ask if they have atari games.  Most of the time they have a few buried in a box in the garage.  Sometimes this leads to other finds such as: INTV Games and CV Games.

#3 Tip - Just because its later in the day and you think that all is lost keep looking.  Some of my best finds happen in the afternoon.  Plus as an added bonus there willing to give better bargains.  Less crap to hall to the thrifts for them, better price for you.

#4 Tip - My order of events goes like this: Yard Sales, Thrifts, Pawns, Game Stores.  Any giving weekend I hit them in that order.  Something always turns up at one of them.

[Beardcore84]

I would add


*Ask them if they have anything game related. You may have to use different words like "nintendo games" or "game tapes" etc.  I've had a few finds where they didn't even have the stuff sitting out and I would have never known if I hadn't asked. The worst that can happen is they say no.

[NES_Rules]

NES_Rules has some great luck at them but I just asked him how long he normally spends on a Saturday doing it, his reply? 6-7 hours. That's probably the best advise you can get. Spend 6-7 hours hitting every sale in the paper/internet/whatever and you will find deals.

Yep, the best thing to do is just go to as many as you can. I average about 50+ miles of driving and a good 6-7 hours like jcalder wrote, in one day. I've tried counting how many sales I go to, but I loose count quickly, but I'd estimate it's around 50.
Also, if you see 90's and 80's stuff (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, LEGOs, etc) you can bet there were some games in that house at one point, so don't be afraid to ask about them.
Make sure to be friendly, as soon as you make eye contact walking up the driveway, exchange "good morning"s or "hello"s, people will be more likely to give you a deal if you do find something there.
And, don't be afraid to haggle. 99% of the people selling at garage sales just come up with a random price for stuff and a lot don't really care what they get for it. I usually start out at 1/2 the asking price, but it really depends on how much you want the item.

[Sirgin]

I've tried counting how many sales I go to, but I loose count quickly, but I'd estimate it's around 50.

I wish we had that here in Belgium. Garage sales are pretty much non-existent here. People take their stuff to flea markets, but the random people often don't have that many games for sale. Usually there are some people "specialised" in selling games, but they overprice (overprice comparing to prices you might expect at flea markets)

[ganonbanned]

I usually just get up real early and walk from rummage to rummage.  I usually ask even if I don't see anything, and rarely it yields results.

[Chainclaw]

If you really want to optimize your garage sale time, do some research on the neighborhoods in your area a few days ahead of time. Your best bet is to find a neighborhood where a lot of the kids are either starting college, or will be off to college soon. So many parents use this as a good time to get rid of stuff the kids left behind, like video games. Neighborhoods with young couples can often yield good results, as well as with young kids. They'll be looking to get rid of a lot of stuff that they might not actually want to part with, because they need the room, or the money.

Also pay attention to who the major employers in the area are. I live in Microsoft town, so it's not surprising to see new, sealed 360 games for dirt cheap. Even if you don't live in a gaming town, you can use your garage sale spoils for trades on craigslist, or elsewhere. You'd be surprised what people are willing to trade. I saw someone post some Magic cards on Craigslist, looking to trade for a guitar.

If you don't want to go garage saling alone (it's boring by yourself), try and bring someone who's interests don't overlap with yours. If you've got another game collector with you, you'll have to split the spoils. But if you grab a friend who's into something else, then you'll both get good finds.

Also remember that the chances of people having what you are looking for are really low. Notice the trend in this thread that the successful garage salers in this thread mention countless garage sales a weekend? NES_Rules said he goes to 50 a day when he goes saling. You might think that people are consistently lucky with garage sales, but it's more often persistence. Someone like NES_Rules isn't going to post all the failed garage sales he went to, that's boring. He's going to post his excellent finds.

[NES_Rules]

You might think that people are consistently lucky with garage sales, but it's more often persistence. Someone like NES_Rules isn't going to post all the failed garage sales he went to, that's boring. He's going to post his excellent finds.

I could probably write a book each week on all the sales I don't buy stuff from.

And like Chainclaw said, having a partner makes things a lot easier. I bring my dad with me; he looks for tools and stuff like that, so we aren't generally looking for the same stuff, although we do mess with each other by buying something we know the other one wanted. Plus, when you have two people, one person can navigate while the other drives. My dad has the paper and tells me which is the closest to where we are and I just do the driving.