Official 2012 Yard Sale Thread

[quote name='robwhois']man wish my area had garage sales on thursdays. Seems to be a Friday-Sunday thing here....[/QUOTE]

That's two more days than we get where I am. Garage sales seem to be a Saturday only thing here, I rarely even see Sunday sales anymore, and the few that I do are just leftovers from Saturday.
 
[quote name='spmahn']That's two more days than we get where I am. Garage sales seem to be a Saturday only thing here, I rarely even see Sunday sales anymore, and the few that I do are just leftovers from Saturday.[/QUOTE]

I would LOVE to see some Saturday-only sales around me. I work Monday through Friday, so if a sale happens during the week, I miss out. At least on Saturday-only, it's a level field.
 
Around here there are so many people out of work we have a few Monday sales though a majority are Thursday - Saturday. I too miss out on alot of sales since I work Monday - Friday. Whenever I see an advertised sale on Thursday that I want to go to it drives me nuts!
 
[quote name='Invicta 61']Around here there are so many people out of work we have a few Monday sales though a majority are Thursday - Saturday. I too miss out on alot of sales since I work Monday - Friday. Whenever I see an advertised sale on Thursday that I want to go to it drives me nuts![/QUOTE]


I feel the same way about saturdays, since thats the big sale day here, and I'm always working. I always hope for the good sunday sale...
 
I am off Thursdays and Sundays but mainly go out Friday before work since I don't work until 2:15. My new schedule starting next week starts at 12:30 though so I'll have to cut back on my Friday sale time somewhat, I can only go out for a couple hours.
 
[quote name='slowdive21']I'm glad you are finding stuff. I was always curious about that area! :applause:[/QUOTE]
which area? he might be the reason i am finding jack shit. lol
 
Picked up a model 2 genesis with controllers, vectorman, acme all stars, ecco, mkII, earthworm jim and for psx I snagged mega man x4 disc only, kings field 1 and ffVIII disc only all for $6, most of the genesis games are complete
,
 
I love going to yard sales. What always puts me off is the gas spent driving around - how much do you guys think you put in your tank in a weekend of saleing?

I felt like I drained a whole tank, but then I'm in milwaukee where everything is pretty spread out outside the city.

Guess that's what's been keeping me from wanting to go yard saling very much, that and the time involved. My old SUV gets ass for gas mileage and I feel like I'd be spending a ton going around. My wife has a new car but she doesn't really like going around to random sales as she's not much of a collector of anything and doesn't like buying used clothes..
 
[quote name='uiengineer']which area? he might be the reason i am finding jack shit. lol[/QUOTE]

Schaumburg and the surrounding areas.
 
It may not be worth it for you if you are spending a ton of time and money on gas and not getting anything week after week. Especially if you are looking for PS2 Xbox stuff most of which is pretty cheap on ebay. If you go you just have to look for more than games or else its not really worth it since you could just buy the games outright for the money you spent on gas for sailing.
 
Went out with my mom. Didn't really get anything. Me thinks everything was picked out by the time I was there. :[ Told her next time, we need to get out earlier. Lol.
 
[quote name='Olengie']Went out with my mom. Didn't really get anything. Me thinks everything was picked out by the time I was there. :[ Told her next time, we need to get out earlier. Lol.[/QUOTE]
I HATE going game chasing with my mom -_- she spend hours upon hours in yardsales and buys nothing.
 
I went to a few sales today but most of them I didn't even get out of the air conditioned car because it was 97 degrees with a heat index of 100 or over. I also made the mistake of going to a church sale that I go to every year but I couldn't stay more than 15 min because of the heat even though I drank a ton of water. I did get one saturn game, which I hardly find, its sega rally but in a different case. The case looks to be in good shape which is a rarity for saturn cases.
 
[quote name='SaraAB']It may not be worth it for you if you are spending a ton of time and money on gas and not getting anything week after week. Especially if you are looking for PS2 Xbox stuff most of which is pretty cheap on ebay. If you go you just have to look for more than games or else its not really worth it since you could just buy the games outright for the money you spent on gas for sailing.[/QUOTE]

I agree.

I am huge into PS2 right now, common games can be had on eBay for less than $5 a piece, shipped, sports games are even cheaper. "Better" games are still usually less that $10 shipped. I have been buying and selling a bunch lately over there for $5-$15 each shipped. Not bad really, and it's been decent stuff, God of War, Castlevania, Shadow of the Colossus for example.

There are a few sellers that offer free shipping. You can get 4 decent games for around 10-20 shipped in decent shape. Harder to find stuff like Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2 may be cheaper at a yard sale, but I've yet to see one, and I got mine cheap by watching auctions.
 
[quote name='burritoman']I agree.

I am huge into PS2 right now, common games can be had on eBay for less than $5 a piece, shipped, sports games are even cheaper. "Better" games are still usually less that $10 shipped. I have been buying and selling a bunch lately over there for $5-$15 each shipped. Not bad really, and it's been decent stuff, God of War, Castlevania, Shadow of the Colossus for example.

There are a few sellers that offer free shipping. You can get 4 decent games for around 10-20 shipped in decent shape. Harder to find stuff like Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2 may be cheaper at a yard sale, but I've yet to see one, and I got mine cheap by watching auctions.[/QUOTE]

Exactly my point, now if you want to buy random things, things for the house, or used clothing then yard sales are a must. If you are going with a female, then used clothing is a must buy, because you will see lots of it, and you see all sizes, unlike the thrift stores which only stock certain sizes at least here. Almost every single sale I go to has a table of women's clothing, and that is no joke. Yard sales are also an absolute must if you want to buy kids toys or baby things especially for kids under 5 years old. But honestly, most last gen games (Xbox 1 , PS2) are around $5 each at yard sales here, and most are crappy titles from the Walmart Bargin bin. It is incredibly rare for someone to actually be selling good games around here at a yard sale. I would probably have to spend the whole summer to find a couple decent titles, and for the money I spend on gas, I might as well just go on ebay and bid for my games and save some time. It seems more worth it for me to be able to choose my games from ebay, where they are about $5 shipped each, and you can get a lot of good titles for around $10 each shipped. If you watch auctions you can do very well especially in the summer when game buying isn't that intense. You will do worse if buying during the holidays or just after, but if you shop in the off-season its a buyer's market out there. Gamestop also has some nice sales every now and then on PS2 games and most of their stores seem to have PS2 games at least here.

As far as old games its just about dried up over here, so I can't count on that anymore. When you find a house with old games, they want higher than ebay prices and again, the titles are usually crappy shovelware... I did make out really well on N64 stuff, and I am sure the value of my N64 collection would far outweigh the time, effort and gas I put into looking for those games, but I haven't seen a single N64 game in about 2 years around here. If I were to purchase the same games I have in my N64 collection on ebay I would be spending several hundred especially if you consider all the duplicates I picked up and sold in the process.

This is also A LOT of work, 90% of games that I get from sales do not work, so they have to be opened and cleaned, especially if its a cartridge. Discs are usually filthy, but that can be fixed quickly. Now I can do a better job on that than most ebay sellers, and if I buy a game from an ebay seller I usually have to still, open it and clean it to my satisfaction even if the seller says its cleaned and tested because their definition of cleaned and tested most always doesn't match mine. So its the same there.

It all comes down to the fact that last gen games are devaluing faster than I can type this message, especially when you are talking about shovelware games. I don't even think PS2 shovelware is worth $1 a game at this point, and if its a bad game then it just ends up taking space. N64 and many other older games hold much more value than these games do, but now its to the point where all you see is PS2 gen stuff if you see anything at all.

But I have other purposes by going to yard sales, I don't just look for games, I look at the whole sale, and I go with my mom, and we both buy a lot of clothes when we can find our sizes. We used to buy more when the cousins were small, but now they have grown and while they will still gladly accept yard sale clothing its very hard to find it in their sizes. I say if you have kids to buy for that are under 6-7 years old you will do extremely well, but almost no one sells clothing or toys or stuff for kids older than that, so when your kids are young you have to get all their stuff at yard sales so you can save for when they are older and actually care about what they are wearing and when their clothing is much harder to find second hand.
 
Had a pretty wild day of finds today... We ended up hitting a community sale today, and spent the majority of the day there. Having a 7-year and 4-month old tends to slow you down.

At the first house I stopped at, at the entrance to the neighborhood, I picked up a few toys to resell, and asked about video games. The woman told me that someone had already been by there asking about video games, so I expected the worst when it comes to finds. Based on how the trip went, they were the worst game collectors/flippers ever, or the person was a soccer mom looking for cheap Wii shovelware.

At one sale, some guy had a used (but box and shell case included) Black 3DS for $200. I laughed when I saw the price and politely informed him that they can be purchased new for $170. He pulled it out and said "But it also comes with this case, making the price reasonable." It was a cheap plastic shell he probably picked up from FiveBelow. I laughed to myself and was ready to walk away, but then noticed a few games. I ended up with Zelda:OoT and Super Mario 3D Land :3ds: and two Professor Layton games (don't recall which ones) and Mario vs Donkey Kong, all complete even with Club Nintendo codes, for $10/ea for the 3DS and $5/ea for the DS games. Not astounding, but not too bad. Definitely a lopsided seller who had absolutely no idea of the value of the stuff he was selling.

At another sale, I picked up Soul Fighters (DC) and a FFVIII guide for $.25/ea. I also picked up a 32X with cables for $1, a PS2 Component cable, a dreamcast light gun for $1.

At another, there was an SNES and a bunch of games. The lady wanted $75 for the lot. Asked about just the games and she said $25. Countered with a dick'ish $10 and she accepted. Games in this batch are Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars, Lion King, Mario Kart, Mickey Mania and a few sports titles.

The last sale I stopped at didn't have much left left, but as we were driving by I noticed a few old Xbox controllers. I hopped out and saw two Dukes and an S all with dongles attached, priced .50/each. The girl said they work, but the Xbox doesn't. I asked her about it and she pulled a bag out with an OG Xbox in it and gave it to me for free. She also threw in an extra controller dongle that was laying on the table. Not too bad for $1.50, even if the Xbox is dead, I can always use for parts.

Other random pickups are: Disc only Mario Party 7 :gc: for $3, disc-only Paper Mario :gc: for $1.

I'm sure I'm missing a few, but I haven't even gone through the bags since we got home.
 
No yard sale stuff for me today, but got FIFA 2010 PS2 for $5 @ Walmart (it sells for a SUPRISING amount on eBay).

Next week I am eyeing a "50 House Community Sale" that is 7 miles from the house. We'll see if it sucks or not.

And again, I agree with you SaraAB, so much easier to get games for cheap on eBay. We go to rummage sales to find DVDs, CDs, games, books, music instruments, and interesting antiques/Americana. We have found a lot of cool stuff, but as far as high end items for a dollar, we never see that stuff.

We see a lot of barely used exercise equipment, kid's clothes, old lady clothes, shoes (lot of shoes). As far as the treasures we are looking for, I see a lot of the Walmart guitars for $50, no Fenders, romance novels that are older than me, gospel cassette tapes, VHS movies (we don't have a VCR or I'd look more at these)....

I go mostly for the fun. Sometimes I have an American Pickers like experience, where I meet someone and they tell me about what they have and the stories behind it. It honestly gets us out of the house and we always go out for lunch, and we rarely do that. I really just look at going to yard sales as having a good time and laughing with my best friend--my wife.
 
I see a lot of clothes too, and until recently I just passed them by. Last month my friend opened a Hut 8, and they pay cash for name brand clothes. So far I've turned $18 in yard sale clothing into $80 cash @ her store. I don't know how common Hut 8s are, but it might be worth it to look into something similar in your areas. It made some days that would have been a BUST worth it by at least covering gas $.
 
[quote name='SaraAB']I went to a few sales today but most of them I didn't even get out of the air conditioned car because it was 97 degrees with a heat index of 100 or over. I also made the mistake of going to a church sale that I go to every year but I couldn't stay more than 15 min because of the heat even though I drank a ton of water. I did get one saturn game, which I hardly find, its sega rally but in a different case. The case looks to be in good shape which is a rarity for saturn cases.[/QUOTE]

I never thought 100 was that bad. Of course the summers in Fresno tend to be warm :D
 
Saw some hilariously overpriced stuff today ($70 DS lite with broken hinge, etc) but got some things.

Got a Silver GBA SP with charger and carrying case plus
3 CIB games (Zelda: LTTP, Super Mario World, Prince of Persia: Sands)
and 4 loose games (F-Zero, Rocky, Donkey Kong Country, and another Super Mario World)

$15 for all that. Lately I have a small obsession with boxed GBA games so I was excited.

Also got a spare Xbox 360 power supply for $2. Seems those are still pretty easy to sell.
 
[quote name='dasme313']Today I had my best gaming find of the season. A sealed copy of Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition for Gamecube... .for $0.50! :bouncy:[/QUOTE]

Nice! I would have been thrilled to find that at all for that price, let alone new!
 
I haven't had luck in my area. Went to about ten sales and only bought from the first one (I won't even bother with pictures). I got a platinum Gamecube with cords, two controllers and complete copies of Animal Crossing and Super Monkey Ball, all for $10. Not too too bad I suppose. The other yard sales were a laugh. The only other thing I found was a slim PS1 with four throw away games for $50! Prices in my area are insane. I'd love to score some Nintendo (64 or NES) games for cheap.
 
Not many games but I did find a roomba 560 for $10. Needs a battery.


[quote name='te619']I see a lot of clothes too, and until recently I just passed them by. Last month my friend opened a Hut 8, and they pay cash for name brand clothes. So far I've turned $18 in yard sale clothing into $80 cash @ her store. I don't know how common Hut 8s are, but it might be worth it to look into something similar in your areas. It made some days that would have been a BUST worth it by at least covering gas $.[/QUOTE]

I don't have a hut 8 anywhere remotely near me but was wondering what brands do you buy?
 
first post here and i just came asking a question. a guy at a sale this weekend had like 30 strategy guides in pretty good condition asking 5 bucks a piece for them. they were mostly ps2 rpg's (such as FF X, X-2, XII, Xenosaga etc) and a few popular pc ones (diablo, warcraft).

i got him down to 3 bucks a piece and picked up 2 of them, I was just wondering if i should have bought more and/or if there is a place to look up some sort of referencing value for guides like games themselves and vgpc. thanks!
 
[quote name='NiiNJA']first post here and i just came asking a question. a guy at a sale this weekend had like 30 strategy guides in pretty good condition asking 5 bucks a piece for them. they were mostly ps2 rpg's (such as FF X, X-2, XII, Xenosaga etc) and a few popular pc ones (diablo, warcraft).

i got him down to 3 bucks a piece and picked up 2 of them, I was just wondering if i should have bought more and/or if there is a place to look up some sort of referencing value for guides like games themselves and vgpc. thanks![/QUOTE]
Just check them on Amazon
 
Although guides are never sure fire sells on amazon. Particularly ones like mario kart wii which at one point was valued at $100+ new...but high value trade ins are always good
 
[quote name='TiKi2']Not many games but I did find a roomba 560 for $10. Needs a battery.




I don't have a hut 8 anywhere remotely near me but was wondering what brands do you buy?[/QUOTE]

This probably sounds like a commercial, but really just an FYI. I read some other posts about picking up books and made a few dollars off of that, so I'm trying to share some other money making ideas since we are out looking amyway :)


There are other stores like it for example Plato's closet. I'm sure there are other chains. It's not going to make you a million dollars, but I've been able to make some extra $. This weekend I picked up 18 items for $20, traded them for $37.50.

Brands were:
Chaps, Pink (Victoria's Secret), Hollister, Old Navy, Aeropostale, Abercrombie, and Nautica.

Different brands/different types of clothes have different values. My rule is to never spend more then $1 on anything. So far I've made profit on it all.
 
[quote name='NiiNJA']i got him down to 3 bucks a piece and picked up 2 of them, I was just wondering if i should have bought more and/or if there is a place to look up some sort of referencing value for guides like games themselves and vgpc. thanks![/QUOTE]

The ones you listed aren't worth much but RPG guides can be valuable. At $3 each, it would be hard to profit when buying them blind . . . if you bought 10, you'd likely have a few that are worth something but maybe not much more than $30 total.

The best source for value would be Amazon.
 
[quote name='te619']This probably sounds like a commercial, but really just an FYI. I read some other posts about picking up books and made a few dollars off of that, so I'm trying to share some other money making ideas since we are out looking amyway :)


There are other stores like it for example Plato's closet. I'm sure there are other chains. It's not going to make you a million dollars, but I've been able to make some extra $. This weekend I picked up 18 items for $20, traded them for $37.50.

Brands were:
Chaps, Pink (Victoria's Secret), Hollister, Old Navy, Aeropostale, Abercrombie, and Nautica.

Different brands/different types of clothes have different values. My rule is to never spend more then $1 on anything. So far I've made profit on it all.[/QUOTE]

What a great idea! I never thought to buy clothes to bring to Plato's Closet and will definitely be looking to do so in the future. Many thanks
 
I haven't been posting my finds because there haven't been many. I have been saving them up in a box to post them all at once at some point, but I had to share the following find:
Went to a yardsale that didn't have much videogame wise, at least not that I saw. I did notice an Odyssey 2 with 2 controllers and 4 games w/$10 on the box. I thought about it while I looked at some other stuff (sale had no one at it). I looked in a box that had 2 PS2 guitar controllers and found a bag that had a Black Nitendo DS lite w/charger, mario cart DS, and Guitar Hero GBA. I asked the lady if she had more games for the DS and she said no. So I asked about the DS (have one, didn't need it but I was thinking I would use it to bargain for the Odyssey). She said "$3 for the box". I about fell over. There were some other things in the box as well, so I said yes and asked her if she would take $5 for the Odyssey, which she accepted. The DS works fine, haven't tried the Odyssey yet. There was also a Nerf gun and a DS first party multi-game case/extra stylus in the box. Crazy deal!
 
[quote name='NiiNJA']first post here and i just came asking a question. a guy at a sale this weekend had like 30 strategy guides in pretty good condition asking 5 bucks a piece for them. they were mostly ps2 rpg's (such as FF X, X-2, XII, Xenosaga etc) and a few popular pc ones (diablo, warcraft).

i got him down to 3 bucks a piece and picked up 2 of them, I was just wondering if i should have bought more and/or if there is a place to look up some sort of referencing value for guides like games themselves and vgpc. thanks![/QUOTE]

The Limited Edition version of Final Fantasy XII and Xenosaga 3 might be worth fooling with at that price; for pc stuff you have to really know what you're doing though--with a diablo 2 guide for example it would only be worth something as part of a battlechest.
 
[quote name='schultzed']The ones you listed aren't worth much but RPG guides can be valuable. At $3 each, it would be hard to profit when buying them blind . . . if you bought 10, you'd likely have a few that are worth something but maybe not much more than $30 total.

The best source for value would be Amazon.[/QUOTE]

Some non-RPG guides are worth a lot that you'd never expect - Golden Axe: Beast Rider, Disney's Cars, etc. As suggested, it's totally worth hopping on Amazon and looking through all the guides to see what is valuable.
 
The Plato's closet idea sounds like a great one but based on reviews that I have read they are extremely picky about what they buy so I am not so sure if I would pick up clothing solely for the purpose of trying to sell it there as it may end up being a lot of wasted money. I will test out my local Plato's and Clothes Mentor if I am able to and report back. One thing is for sure if you are going for clothing resale buying and selling plus sized clothing on ebay is an almost sure way to generate some funds provided you can find like new clothing with no stains, tears or holes... the larger the clothing the better! The reason being is fat people need clothing too but a lot of them are too embarrassed to try clothing on in a store so they head to ebay or online outlets for their clothing. I have had the best luck with plus-sized clothing as far as clothing sales go. It almost always sells. Teenage clothing is a dime a dozen on ebay and so is middle range sized women's clothing. If you have something like pants in a 10 long or a 14 short then you will probably be able to sell it, since the odd sizes seem to sell the best. But a 12 average might not sell as good since its common in stores.
 
[quote name='dasme313']Today I had my best gaming find of the season. A sealed copy of Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition for Gamecube... .for $0.50! :bouncy:[/QUOTE]

:applause: nice
 
Thank you SaraAB for the tips.

BTW

IMG_4889.jpg


I couldn't resist posting a pic ;)
 
[quote name='dasme313']Thank you SaraAB for the tips.

BTW



I couldn't resist posting a pic ;)[/QUOTE]

Very nice! Looks like $115 value on that. That's got to be the best $0.50 you've ever spent.
I've come close to that profit margin before once, board game for $3 sold for $105 on CL.
 
I prefer my profit margin on the $2 Panic Restaurant NES Cartridge I picked up at a yard-sale that I ended up selling for $325 on eBay. But, a decent find nonetheless.
 
[quote name='Doomstink']Some non-RPG guides are worth a lot that you'd never expect - Golden Axe: Beast Rider, Disney's Cars, etc. As suggested, it's totally worth hopping on Amazon and looking through all the guides to see what is valuable.[/QUOTE]

I didn't mean that other guides don't have value but the poster mentioned RPG guides. If you can buy them cheaply enough, its worth taking a chance on any guides. They are also fun to collect just because of the pics.

Here are a few that I've flipped:
http://www.amazon.com/Lego-Star-War...44313175&sr=8-2&keywords=lego+star+wars+guide

I sold about 8 copies of this one a few years ago that I bought for $5.98 each at a local store:
http://www.amazon.com/Myst-Ages-Pri...TF8&qid=1344313615&sr=1-4&keywords=myst+guide

I got $160 for this one early this year:
http://www.amazon.com/Resident-Evil...44313231&sr=8-15&keywords=resident+evil+guide
 
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[quote name='pulsar0510']I haven't been posting my finds because there haven't been many. I have been saving them up in a box to post them all at once at some point, but I had to share the following find:
Went to a yardsale that didn't have much videogame wise, at least not that I saw. I did notice an Odyssey 2 with 2 controllers and 4 games w/$10 on the box. I thought about it while I looked at some other stuff (sale had no one at it). I looked in a box that had 2 PS2 guitar controllers and found a bag that had a Black Nitendo DS lite w/charger, mario cart DS, and Guitar Hero GBA. I asked the lady if she had more games for the DS and she said no. So I asked about the DS (have one, didn't need it but I was thinking I would use it to bargain for the Odyssey). She said "$3 for the box". I about fell over. There were some other things in the box as well, so I said yes and asked her if she would take $5 for the Odyssey, which she accepted. The DS works fine, haven't tried the Odyssey yet. There was also a Nerf gun and a DS first party multi-game case/extra stylus in the box. Crazy deal![/QUOTE]

Great find! :applause:
 
I've got some stuff to post from this weekend's venture, but I have to pull a Slowdive and wait until I can get some pics for it. More to come...
 
I am pretty sure my biggest profit margin ever was about $75 on a $2 boxed strawberry shortcake doll. I also did well once selling a NES with the 3 mario games for about $130 though I don't actually remember how much I paid for that stuff. I haven't had any huge profit margin's like $300 yet. I also made a nice profit on a 50 cent copy of NSMB I picked up for the Wii that traded in for $24 at Best Buy.
 
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