Here's how I maximize garage sales. Community garage sales are the best - you can spend all day on just a few streets.
- Buy some stuff - even just a token book or two. Especially when you see things like 27" CRT TVs they want $25 for.
- Leave a card offering your clean-up services. Around here, explaining that you recycle material and keep it out of a landfill works great. The Austin area is very green and eco-friendly. I don't offer to pay. At the end of the day, many people just want the stuff gone. Make a point that you'll take their dead electronics as well - even stuff they're not selling at their garage sale.
- I take all electronics (working or not) - electric, cordless, battery. All books, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, video games. All adult clothes. All power cords, extension cables, etc.
- No furniture, no CRT TVs over 27", no toys, no kids clothes. Other stuff on a case-by-case basis (knickknacks, etc.).
Electronics
We all know what to do with these - break them down unless we want to keep them for ourselves.
Books
First try
http://www.cash4books.net/ If they aren't buying it, I go to Half-Price Books. If you don't have a HPB, Goodwill will take them.
CDs, DVDs, Video Games
First try
http://www.secondspin.com If they aren't buying it, I go to Half-Price Books. If you don't have a HPB, Goodwill will take them.
VHS tapes
Half-Price Books or Goodwill
Clothes
Local consignment shops for name-brand, especially women's plus sizes. Otherwise Goodwill. You'll get the most bang for your buck by taking the clothes to consignment stores a season before they're needed. Right now, I'm finding a lot of winter stuff. I'll hold it until autumn then take in. No one is buying winter clothes right now - but they will be come September. I've found that consignment stores pay one of two ways - either when you bring it in, or when it sells off their rack. I prefer to get cash when I bring it in.
Blue jeans are a different story. Quilters love 100% cotton blue jeans. Don't try this with blue jeans that aren't 100% cotton. They stretch and quilters don't like that at all. Those go straight to consignment or Goodwill. Also, they must be clean and not smell, i.e., no grease stains or cigarette smoke smells. They also take a bit of preparing - kind of like your steel. You'll need good fabric scissors, a quilter's rotary cutter, square templates, and a seam ripper. Check out your local Jo-Ann's or Michael's. First cut out all the material as close to the seams as possible. Cut the material into squares using the rotary cutter and square templates - sell on
eBay. See
Example 1 and
Example 2 and
Example 3. The pockets can be sold separately. See
Pockets. Even the labels can be sold. See
Levi's Labels. Zippers in blue jeans are brass - just trim the fabric off them and the weight adds up fast.
Other stuff
Baby car seats I will take every time. They go straight to Goodwill. I like giving them some good stuff to go along with all my stripped out TVs and monitors. I don't like knickknacks usually - but will take if there are things like brass candlesticks.
Sorry for the long post.
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