It's been said before on here, but YARD SALES are a goldmine people

Thought I would share. This is just another income source for those that have an active yard sale scene in their neck of the woods...it pays to get up on Fri and Sat to go to them.

This is the latest killer deal I found (and I find a ton of smaller $20-30 items I flip on FB yard sale groups sometimes the same day and double or triple my money)....2 GIANT mountain bikes (a men and womens). Now I only buy bikes in REALLY good condition unless the margin is there...in this case the men's either would need a new tube or a new back tire....both CHEAP fixes (ie <$30). I bought NEGOTIATED (because you always negotiate and that is what I do) for $100 for the set (he had wanted like $130/set). I knew the brand name and that they would sell for a min of $150 EACH...in this case, they should sell around $200 EACH.

I took the one bike to my bike shop I use...just a new tube and a new battery for the speedometer...total investment (and they put it on and glanced at it to see if anything was obviously an issue) $18...so I am in these $118 plus the time I took to go to yard sales on Fri and Sat (about 4 hours maybe total) and I bought a couple of other things (I kept a 6' fiberglass ladder I grabbed for $10...TEN FRIGGIN DOLLARS...sticker on it was $55 at the store).

Listed them for $220 and $200 respectively (the men's slightly higher because of the electronic speedo) TODAY...on craigslist and FB yard sale groups.

ONE HOUR LATER...guy came and bought the men's bike....$220, he offered $180, I said well, $205 and we settled at $200....NOTE: pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered....ie MAKE THE DEAL AND GET ON WITH IT.

So $82 profit AND I have another bike I will probably sell around $175 if I just want to turn my money where I can buy and flip more....that my friends is $257 or about $65 AN HOUR. I will take that ALL DAY LONG EVERY DAY....



So, figure something you like, become knowledgeable enough to get by and make that $$$$.....I taught my oldest when he was 14 to flip lower end bike (Huffy's etc)...we don't buy anything that needs repair other than a seat maybe (I grab any seats I find for $1-2 each at yard sales for extras) because there is no margin.....here they will sell at $40-50 and about $75 for an all aluminum frame one (Mongoose)....we pay $20-25 MAX for them. Margins would be like $20-30 MAYBE $50 a pop. He made $700 in about 4 months doing this and even got to watch a guys mouth hit the floor when he went to buy a medium level road bike...he broke out the cash and negotiated it for $175 (I helped a bit)....flipped for $320 in less than 2 weeks. At 14, that is a pile of money LOL. 25% had to go into his college account and the rest was his.

Anyways...just wanted to share. Go out and make some extra $$$$$

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Originally Posted by HipoGear

I received a couple of boxes of costume jewelry from a storage unit recently. I know I can sell some of it on ebay but it feels like a chore.

There is one couple selling costume jewelry on ebay I was looking at. They start all their auctions at 99 cents. But get this ... they list 500 items per day! That's a **** good payday if you can do it without going insane.

Yep it is...granted the last time I got some costume jewelry, I sold a ton at a yard sale (made the money I bought it with back x2 or x3) and then the leftover I dumped as a bulk buy to someone...I don't have that kind of time to list and sell $1 items. They must have some system to be able to bulk list as doing it via Ebay's interface...well that would take so many hours I could not imagine it. Maybe they have a point if sale or ecommerce system that dumps to Ebay via their feed.

I love Ebay for harder to sell items, but most of what I find...say kids items, I can flip by the afternoon locally.

You are right on the gold/silver. I have found several pieces of broken stuff that I got for .25 or $1....one chain I sold at like $120 in scrap. You should grab a cheap loupe off Amazon and take it. Makes looking at the really small markings much easier...oh and make sure to have your smart phone to look them up along with spending a bit of time getting familiar with the major marks. I found a silver platter at Goodwill that someone missed because it had an European mark...I looked it up to make sure and ran like I stole that thing. I think it cost me $5-8 and it ran about $300 on Ebay for that piece.

Some people resell Goodwill clothes (Our Goodwill for instance gets all of it's stuff from a pretty high end county locally) for a KILLING....you can buy IZOD and other nicer shirts for $3/each and sell for $10-20 EACH....again, invest in a clothes dummy for pics, great listing etc and off you go. Some people I have seen on YOUTUBE go to like 3-4 a DAY and make $200-300 EVERY DAY.

MORAL of this story...for people that say there isn't any way to make money (granted you might not be able to live COMPLETELY on methods like this or get super rich), they are idiots. You just have to THINK, use what is available and put in the work. Someone SOMEWHERE generally wants something you can get your hands on. My company name (and forum name) tells you all you need to know...I BUYSELLTRADESTUFF. If there is a legal market for it and I can make enough to justify the time and effort, then yep, I am doing it.

Again, look at what you have available or LEARN something new, figure out how much can be made from it and RUN IT UNTIL THE WHEELS COME OFF....when that market changes, rinse and repeat with something else. I learned never to sell one thing, I will sell them ALL and when a new widget or market opens, sell that too. I don't need the largest piece of one single pie, I want bites out of ALL the pies....hint, you will get more pie.

I once bought 2 silver dollars for 2 bucks ?!

Originally Posted by HipoGear

Was that in 1964???

no it was less than 10 years ago I still have them , I think they call them eagles ?

Originally Posted by submarinepainter

no it was less than 10 years ago I still have them , I think they call them eagles ?

Good investment...$16.44/oz at the time I just looked....so $32.88...invested $2....annualized return of 32.3% (total over life is 1544%). Um, yeah....doesn't suck! your 401K would have LOVED that kind of return LOL

Just a quick update...sold the women's bike this morning for full asking price (he didn't even haggle once he saw how go of a condition it was in).

So the math is $118 total invested....$200 for each bike is $400 total....so $282 profit (238% gain). All of this in 4 days total. **** sure beats loading and scrapping however much steel that would be.

Keep looking my friends...money is all over the place...just have to look for it.

I agree 100% with you. It takes knowledge and experience to profit from these situations. Luckily we have this forum and generous contributors like you. So the basic knowledge is there with a few bucks anyone can start slow and grow from there.

Keep it up, Mike

Originally Posted by miked

I agree 100% with you. It takes knowledge and experience to profit from these situations. Luckily we have this forum and generous contributors like you. So the basic knowledge is there with a few bucks anyone can start slow and grow from there.

Keep it up, Mike

Appreciate it Mike. One thing I learned a long time ago...people helped me, pointed me in the right direction etc...it was then up to me to educate myself and do...but people who came before me (on here and elsewhere) graciously passed info along to someone like myself who was trying to figure whatever it was out. I subscribe to the "pay it forward" method as well. I am HAPPY to help people when I know something. I will happily help you get pointed in the right direction...all I ever ask, is for someone to take the initiative to LEARN about whatever they are asking about (for instance this forum is a flippin' GOLDMINE of info from ALOT of smart people...and it is basically FREE). Get help but take the initiative to put the work in to further your knowledge. When I 1st got on this forum, I kept my nose out of anything for several months (I know a TON about computers, but very little on recycling etc)...I read basically the entire archive over a few weeks, did some GoogleFu to broaden my knowledge and borrowed the best knowledge from those that knew more that I. THEN, I started contributing based on my knowledge and then over time experience.

All that to say, I am happy to give back since I was given so much. It will pay you back...in SPADES.

Charles Jones

Originally Posted by t00nces2

I love garage sales. I also like garbage sales. Did I understand you to say you can sell on facebook too? Would you mind giving a quick rundown on how to do that?

Ok sure...let's put this info here where everyone can use it.

I am going to assume that everyone knows about Craigslist and some alternates (like Kijiji for instance). I assume people know about Ebay and selling on Amazon (Amazon FBA)...if not, there is a fairly extensive set of info on thie board for Ebay certainly and probably a bit on Amazon FBA.

SO FACEBOOK...FB has GROUPS for everything...I mean EVERYTHING. Anyone can start one for FREE. I took over admin duties for 2 of the yard sale groups in my area. These are just like they sound...people sell yard sale items and it quickly can get in front of a literal TON of people, complete with pics etc. BEST PART...IT IS FREE...no fees, no nothing.

So to find these groups, use the search facebook box in the upper left once you log into facebook. Try terms like, "yard sale <insert county or close city name>". In my case, there are several for Athens, GA, several in Oconee County, several in Clarke County and many more in other surrounding counties. All of these might be where I do business, so I become members of all of them. Read the rules of that group (I have a fairly extensive list of them to keep out bullSH%^ and fake accounts). List or buy stuff...just that simple. Now, there can be specialized groups...I help admin "North GA Big Boy Toys"....cars, motorcycles, 4 wheelers, tools...you name it. There are groups for tools, clothes...**** near anything since starting a group takes minutes and is free. To put it in perspective, I have 7500+ members on each of my groups. We get 40-50 posts a day many times. I can post items I have and generally sell them within hours or a few days.

you can explore the group search to find all sorts of things, and I would suggest you do so...many times it can affect or be a source for your business. MAKE SURE TO READ THE RULES...if it says NO business posts, don't submit one for approval...many admins will just ban you from the group. Be nice to the admin, they can ban you with a click...I have done so quite a few times to asshats or fake accounts.

Feel free to hit me up if you have questions and I will help when I can. Hope that gives you enough to start with.