Twenty to thirty years ago one could drive from yard sale to yard sale in the same neighborhood. All the yard saler’s used to race from sale to sale to get there first. We even had deals worked where I will look for what you buy if you look for what I buy. For example someone would keep their eye out for stereo equipment for me and I will would look out for camera, books, jewelry, or lawn equipment for them. Either we would hold it for one another or buy it for one another. We were all friends, well sorta lol. Yard sale prices were so cheap no one got hurt in terms of $. There were literally hundreds of estate/tag/yard sales in any given neighborhood or town on Sat./Sun. It was really a fun time in my life for many years jetting from sale to sale. Fast forward to 2017 there are still a few sales here and there but the 100’s at a time are gone. The days of filling up my car with stereo equipment, unloading at my house and repeating this two or three times on both Saturday and Sunday are over. At least in my neck of the woods in NY yard sales seem to be a thing of the past? There used to be a whole section in the local newspaper devoted to listing the local garage sales, no more…just a few now. Craigslist has a section where local garage and house sales are listed but many are just opportunists with pictures and phone #. I have found that many of the yard sales are “priced or tagged.” They go on ebay and find the current listings with asking prices and apply that to what they are selling. They have no clue about completed auctions or what that particular item sells for, in other words it’s average selling price. They have no idea about fee’s and work involved on selling online. Just the highest asking price is used, as the saying goes…A little information is sometimes dangerous.” You go there and everything is a collectable or is rare, and hence the same price as your telephone #, hahahha. Personally, I used to love the yard sale scene and it was an important part of my life for many years. You could find anything and everything for a fair or reasonable price. Even rare and one of a kind items. Not so anymore. In my area we have people who run many of the estate or yard sales. These are individuals, wanna-be dealers or “companies” that take over the particular property or estate for the owners and run the yard sale so the owners don’t have to deal with the public. Basically they are middlemen for a yard sale. They are not doing this for free. Many times they acquire the valuables / riches of an estate. There are many angles or cons that can be used, and they surely do take advantage. That’s ok, they run the estate sale and sit in what usually was an elderly persons home for two or three days. Most are dirty, smelly with road-ants, roaches and other uninvited guests. They deserve to make the money for organizing, running the whole thing. Dealing with the relatives or owners of the property with money can’t be an easy or pleasant thing. Promising to empty the house by a certain date surely is a job in itself. Most people wouldn’t do it for any amount of money. It’s not like it’s rocket science, simply put most people don’t want to spend at least every weekend in filth even if they go home to sleep in a palace. There is even one couple that runs estate sales that only let a few people into the sale at a time. That means there is a line of gray haired individuals waiting outside to get in, even when it’s 10 degree’s outside, lol. Sorta cruel, arrogant, and they are obviously not making money from what the people buy or don’t buy…hmmmm. Anyway’s, long story short—they deserve every penny they make since they work extremely hard running estate sales for the owners. Ok, why did I explain this? Because it SUCKS for you and I. Do we need a middle man for a yard sale? Do we need someone dictating the prices or telling us we can’t enter upon arrival and have to wait like dirty dogs in the street for hours even in bad weather? They act like they don’t need you or your negotiation? Does that sound like a common yard sale where the owners bargain and want to move the stuff? Most relatives or people moving want the contents of the house gone since the hosue is sold or shortly will be. Do you really think the owners or people who inherited the property care about a few grand here or there? They just selling or sold the house for $500,00 to over a million bucks. Do you really think they care about uncle Joe’s handed down filthy dust coverd Marantz? Or aunt Dorothy’s old furniture that has been covered in plastic for one hundred years? NO, they want the junk out regardless of it’s worth. They keep or even sell the gold jewelry, rolex watches, coins, antique cars, signed art, authentic collectables, etc., stuff that’s worth real money. Everything else is pretty much expendable and will go into the dumpster if unsold. So does this company type yard sale even make sense? NO, it’s not a real estate or yard sale anymore. It’s a contrived, set-up, BS, Con/hustle job for everyone BUT the people running the show, lol. Looky here, ebay again that’s why I am selling this for half the price of the “bay.” Ok, why don’t you go on ebay yourself and show us how it’s done? Show us how you turn a profit on something a half century old. Show us how it works with Paypal’s 180 day money back guarantee, and fee’s paid, and packing, and shipping, (even paying ebays taxed shipping fees), and handling, and dealing with crooks with item as not as described, and all ebays anti seller rules. Let’s see your DSR’s and FB selling electronics or anything that has to function. C’mon show us what a wonderful deal your giving us at half the ebay asking prices. So you see, half the price of ebay selling prices are still NOT WORTH IT. Both experienced buyer / sellers and people who can at least complete a 5th grade math problem can figure this out. Put another way, you just purchased a Dynaco amplifier from one of these “estate sale managers.” He/she says it works, since they plugged it in and it lights up, lol. No you get it home and the left channel is blown or you get a ground shock touching the metal cabinet. You paid half ebay price for this piece of broken crap, how much is worth? That is just one of almost infinite possible scenario’s. Or what it worked and self destructs the next day? Remember it’s near 50 years old. What if the buyer gets it and…smoke? So the new age of yard / estate sales run by companies is bogus. Whether your a tinkerer, collector, or a reseller you should be paying from 1/5 – 1/3 the AVERAGE SELLING PRICE OF COMPLETED EBAY AUCTIONS. Even then you probably won’t come out a winner unless you can repair equipment yourself, have all the time in the world, and have a good parts supply. It would be rare of these estate / yard sale managers or companies to ever give you a fair or reasonable price on what you want to buy. Many get a piece of the selling pie, although most have other dastardly tricks up their sleeves to get the estate owners money or wares. Me myself well I never go to these “set-up” estate sales for many of the above reasons. A couple of my family members had gone to a few against my wishes and learned quickly it was a total waste of time.
So are yard / estate sales good? From what I am told, in some parts of the country they still exist and it’s possible to still find treasures at a reasonable cost. I went to a local sale last weekend and picked up an early Radio Shack tube amplifier for $10.00. Not very powerful and not worth much in dollars, but it has a super cool paint job and sounds awesome. Replaced a couple of capacitors in the power supply and it came to life. I was happy! My opinion is that the yard sale is still the only place you can find an affordable treasure. As long as the sale is run by owners, relatives, or even friends it’s cool and there is fun and hope. Just stay away from the cooked estate sales run by companies, estate managers or dealers. Even if they have something you want, your not getting it. Sorry, to rephrase, your not getting it at a good price. Good luck…Spring is the best of the yard sales seasons.
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