Tips on Garage Sale Shopping.

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My Uncle John is the Garage/Yard Sale King.  Every year around May he asks me for my list.  Actually, he demands it.  Yes, he gathers garage sale lists from everyone in the family and puts them in his special garage sale book.  It's like having a free personal shopper and the goods are cheap!  So, I've consulted my uncle and put together some garage sale shopping tips to share with everyone.  This is what the "Garage Sale Expert" told me with a spin of my own, of course.

Finding the sale.  A lot of people having garage sales will post ads in different places.  You can look in newspapers (a lot of which are online), on craigslist, garagesalestracker, and yardsalesearch.  However, some people will not pay for ads and may not post online, so keep an eye out when you go to one for other signs leading to other sales.  Also, subdivisions will often have a bunch of homes having sales all at once, this saves you gas and time by basically one stop shopping.  

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Why you should look for kids' clothes (if you have kiddies).  Don't be scared.  I know a lot of people don't like the idea of buying other people's clothes.  Here are a few reasons why you should reconsider.  First of all, kids grow so fast that paying full price for clothes they may only wear once can be very expensive.  So you can save money by shopping at garage sales, just be sure to wash everything first.  Now, if you're completely opposed, and I can understand that, you should still reconsider because a lot of sales have brand new clothes.  This is for the same reason, kids grow fast and may not be able to wear all the clothes they have.  So it can't hurt to take a look; you might save yourself some dough.  

Best times and best prices.  Most garage sales begin at 8 or 9, so if you know a sale has something you want, try and get there in the very beginning so it doesn't sell.  A lot of people are die hard garage sale shoppers like my uncle and show up really early to catch a deal.  However, if you are just looking for good prices but not looking for something specific, it might be best to go to sales at the end of day or the last day of the weekend to get a better price.  When people really want to get rid of all their stuff, they will often lower prices at the end of the day.  So plan accordingly. 

You can always negotiate.   Almost all of the people having garage sales are willing to negotiate because they want to get rid of their old junk.  So don't pass something up just because of the price.  It can't hurt to ask if they'll take less.   But you also don't want to get annoying and ask for everything to be lowered because people can get offended and you're never going to get a deal.

Make sure you are getting what you pay for.  When buying electronics, don't just take the seller's word for it, unless the price is THAT good.  Ask them if you can plug it in for a second to test it out before you buy.  When buying a game or other packaged item, open it up and make sure everything is there.  Sellers are not necessarily being dishonest, but may forget to check that something has all its pieces or that every case has the dvd or cd in it.

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There are more than just garage sales to check out.   Estate sales, which used to make me a little uncomfortable, can be great places to find larger items like appliances and furniture for a good price as they are selling everything in the house.  There are also flea markets all over, which have loads of different booths of different people selling all sorts of different things.  It's like one huge garage sale and you can find almost anything.  Churches and other organizations will also have rummage sales that are worth checking out and everything is usually very inexpensive. 

Thanks Uncle John for your tips!  Save on my friends, save on.