What do you find at garage sales.?

While out garage saling yesterday i ended up with just over 5kgs of brass ornaments, I got a newish looking dryer which had a sign on it 'not working suspected thermostat' the guy saw me looking at it and said make an offer, I said il take it for free, he said 'done' well that's now on trademe (New Zealand's version of ebay) and at another garage sale I spotted an old rusty laundry tub out the back of someones yard asked the lady about it and she said its going to the dump. I offered her $1 for it and hauled it off.. First one and really enjoyed breaking this down today, ended up with copper pipes with brass ends, aluminium stainless and light steel.. I also ask for dead car batteries at every garage sale, I get some funny looks but I often end up with a couple. The tag below is my blog I started a couple months back. Intend to hourd all my non ferrous for 2 years, to buy a small truck..

I find it a bit hard to get brass at garage sales for below spot scrap price. Once and while I score, but often people value them as art or have sentimental value to them. Guys at garage sales let go of brass easier (especially if its a trinket) than gals do.

Nice idea saving all your non-ferrous up for buying of a truck but it makes me cringe a bit in the possibilities that someone might find out about your stash and steal it sometime down the road and you have nothing to show for all your hard work. Another thing is that we can't predict the economic conditions in the future and scrap prices might be low and be staying low when you decide the truck urge is really upon you. I suggest you sell every once an while and have a nice savings account or even an investment vehicle to make some extra money. Sure, there's a possibly that scrap value will gain a lot more in value than safer investments but typically they're better protection than a thief in the night. Of course, if the shtf all bets are off in both cases (hording metal or money in the bank or investment house)...

I look for tools in the garage sale ads. The non-tool sales are mostly kids' clothes and ugly decor.

Find a lot of extension cords , old plumbing fixtures, and tools.
Picked up a box of old fixtures for 75 cents and gleened $10 of brass out of it.
Box of drop cords, 2 50 footers and 4 25footers for $2.25. Needed new ends. Just on the scrap wire it was over 20#'s. But I'll fix and use them or sell for 5-10 bucks a piece ,nice heavy duty ones.

I'm always looking for any electronics, there is quick turnaround by posting their goods on a national level.
Clothes, purses, and equipment of that sort brings profit.

Donnella: Congrats on your goal, focus, and desire. I wish you luck, courage, and determination. You may want to show others your success, but the true beneficiaries will be the two little ones when they learn the extent of your ambition and apply it to their lives.

Finding scrap metals for a decent price doesnt happen very often for me. My fav is sterling items (esp. jewelry) and gold jewelry. I am holding onto the csrap pieces. The ones that can be sold as jewelry, I am looking into selling.

Patriot76 : thankyou so much they are really kind words.. my kids (5 and 7) enjoy learning about scrap metal also they collect aluminum cans for pocket money and help me out. I have photos of them kicking the plyboard in, that was screwed on the back of a laundry tub I scrapped in the weekend, now they really enjoyed that.! Unsure how to upload photos at this stage. And they know I do this so we will be better off as a family. And to scrapme : I love finding jewellry at garage sales too.. last weekend picked up a sterling silver bracelet for 50c but have come accross several items of gold in the past inc a 18kt vintage ring weighing 5.5 grams... Metal detecting is my other hobby so a fund a bit of gold n silver jewellery that way also.

I love them people price things in so many weird ways you can tell how much they worked for one thing and just bought on impulse for another. always check the free boxes there cash cows and people hate me doing this but I always scout them a day or so after for all the free curb shopping lol

Donella,

Lots of good scrapping info on this thread.

I just wanted to add to Dakota's word of warning about your stash, and that is the unknown element of people who may see your blog and decide to put 2 and 2 together....to take your stash. Unfortuately, we don't have any control of who looks at our web postings...from saints to bottom feeders!!

Of course, I'm assuming you are talking about collecting stuff on your blog...if you don't say anything about your stash then the concern isn't quite as large.

You really should consider cashing it in and saving it in a bank. Put it into an interest-earning fund of some sort so it will continue to grow as you collect more metals. 'Way more secure!!

Good luck and I admire your drive. Your kids will prosper from the practical learning you are presenting to them!!

Jon.

Yep free box is funny! Any metal in there or electronics I take. I get mostly insulated wire and some brass. Good ones here are at the end of church sales they sell you a bag for $1 - $2 to take all you can fit in the bag... lots of metal this way just make sure to take the aluminum pan lids FIRST before you fill up the bag with the steel ones! if room you can add the steel later to the bag! LOL

Yes ive been giving this some serious thought have decided not to mention my blog on facebook.. I thunk im too trusting.. unfortunately my blog all about hoarding the metal (for 2 years) posting pics of my pile growing etc then cashing all in at the end for a car.. im thinking I should stop the blog for now, write it all up at the end maybe or cash in every 6 months instead of waiting 2 years..

I'd like to find more "junk" silver and gold jewelry but I don't know if I have enough patience to wade through all the faux precious stuff at a sale. Maybe just need to develop an "eye" for it more. Sort of like Copperhead's "feel" of his trash bags!! I used to watch vids from a guy called "silverpicker" who would find silver and gold jewelry at rummage sales but then he turned into more just doing straight deals for stuff (and his vids were sooooo long). But he was ballsy. He'd just ask people flat out if they had any coin collections and if they wanted to do some deals. It seemed to work for him.

Like the others have said, "free" boxes are always good to check out and if a neighborhood is having big rummages, crusing back through there that evening after its over is a good deal sometimes. My bedroom burg is having their "all-city" garage sale this weekend. Always trying to refresh my strategy of both buying and cursing from last year.

There are not nearly as many thieves in the world as your local television news would have you believe. You always hear about the one person who got mugged, you never hear about the millions that went about their lives in perfect comfort. This creates a confirmation bias in favor of "OMG everyone is a murdering thief" and turns people against one another.

When you hear someone talking about OMG TEH STEALERZ!!!11 you know they are a tool.

Don't let the Nancy boys get you all scared.

Your blog sounds fantastic, keep it going.

Balderdash-

I'm not overly scared of thieves, doubt I'll ever have a break in, but if your hording lots of non-ferrous such as copper that is fairly transportabale for its weight, it only takes one a88hole to ruin a lot of work. You want to play the percentages of having a blog and hording non-tracable metal for multi-years, be my guest. That's your choice. I think if you checked through past threads there a members who have lost a good amount of $$ by thieves. This doesn't mean it happens every day or to everyone, but it does happen. I don't know how bad the theives are in NZ but maybe its something for her to think about...

I bought a tool box big grey composite ones with a bunch of crappy sockets and wrenches on top. As i went through it found a set of snapon 1/4 and 3/8 sockets on a rail in the bottom and a few loose matco and blue points. All for $5.

I can honestly say that I've never been to one outside of my front yard.......I've had 3 of my own. I usually sleep in on Saturday. I love fleamarkets, Craigslist, and Ebay....hmmmm....I think I'm going to go yard selling this weekend. What's the best way to do it....random driving or a methodical approach by searching the classifieds the night before?