HOW TO FIND GREAT BARGAINS AT YARD SALES

Here are some tips I wanted to share with you on how to find great bargains at yard sales, garage sales and flea markets:

1) Be open minded.  Try to imagine what an item could look like with a fresh coat of paint or stain or some new fabric.  To get the best bargains you have to look beyond the dust, bad paint job and stains.  Most old pieces of furniture have "good bones" and are made of high quality lumber with great details and craftsmanship but will usually have some wear and tear.   Remember that the worse a piece looks, the better the price is going to be.

2) If you find a piece at a yard sale try to imagine how you could repurpose that item to fit with your furnishings.  An old bureau can become a storage cabinet in the dining room.  Old luggage can be used for storing blankets, an old trunk can be repurposed into a coffee table.  Tool boxes or hat boxes are great for storage.  Picture frames can be made into bulletin board surrounds.  Baskets are always great for all types of storage and you can even recover sturdy shoe boxes with fabric to use for storage as well.  Old wooden ladders can become a plant stand or a night stand.  Your options are only limited by your imagination.

3) Finding the yard sales.  I find the best places to check are Craigslist as well your local newspaper for a list of yard sales and garage sales in your area.  Specifically look for large church yard sales or fundraisers that have alot of items in one space.  Also look for townwide yard sales that have alot of sales in the same town which saves on gas because everything is close by. 

4) Use MapQuest to map out the yard sales you want to go to.  They have a great tool under their "options" tab where you can choose "Allow MapQuest to reorder stops".  This then puts all the addresses in order. This is a great tool especially if you're not familiar with the streets and also prevents you from having to backtrack.

5) Start early in the morning to find the best items.  However, don't be an "Early Bird" which is someone who comes before the time the yard sale is supposed to start and tries to buy things as the seller is still in the process of setting up.  Most sellers will get annoyed at you and some will even advertise that early birds will pay double.

6) Bring cash and have it in small bills(mostly $1's and $5's) and bring lots of change.  Also, only bring the amount of money you want to spend and don't bring more than that.  It's very easy to see a great "bargain" and because you have the extra cash, you end up buying an item but then you never end up using it.  Also, to prevent yourself from overspending, ask yourself if you really need that piece, if the answer is no, don't buy it.

7) Don't dress up too nice in expensive shoes, designer clothing or drive up in a very expensive car.  If the sellers see this they will charge you alot more because they will think you have alot of money to spend.
 
8) Make yourself a list of items that you are looking for and be sure to include measurements.  Always bring a tape measure with you so you can measure the items you want to buy to make sure it's going to fit in the space.  There's nothing worse then finding a fabulous piece and getting it home and realizing that you can't use it anywhere in your home because it's too big.

9) Make nice with the seller.  If you are friendly with the seller he more than likely won't charge you as much when it comes time to make your purchases.

10) Buy in bulk.  Be sure to look around the entire sale before you pay for anything.  Check to see if you can find more than one item that you want and then bring them all up together to pay for them.  You can then ask the seller if they will for example take $5 dollars for everything.  I have found that when you ask a specific price this puts you in control and the seller will usually say yes.

11) The art of bargaining.  Bargaining at yard sales, garage sales and flea markets is expected and can actually be alot of fun too.  For example, if a seller is asking $10 dollars for something, you can then ask if they will take $5 dollars.  They may say yes, or they may say that they will take $7 dollars for it.  I think that at this point, the bargaining should stop because over-haggling simply takes the fun out of it.  At this point you should just make the decision to take the item or leave it behind.  If it's something you absolutely cannot live without, I would say to buy it, because the price you'd pay at a retail store for the same item would probably be more than twice the price you paid at the yard sale.

11) Finally, and most importantly when going to yard sales, JUST HAVE FUN!!

***Tell me about the great bargains you found at your local yard sales and garage sales!!***