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Cha-Ching!
Tips for a Successful Day of Yard Sale Shopping
by Nancy Twigg
Yard sale
season is now in full swing. For those of you who truly want to save money on
your family’s expenses, yard sale shopping is a great way to find gently-used
clothes, toys and household items for pennies on the dollar. Here are some tips
for making your yard sale shopping trip as fun and profitable as possible.
- If you don’t subscribe to
the newspaper, buy or borrow one the day before your shopping trip. Or, if
your local newspaper lists all garage sale ads online, save yourself a
little money and get the yard sale listings there. Just make sure that the
paper’s online listing is complete. Some newspapers charge advertisers
extra to have their ads posted online. A quick call to the newspaper’s
advertising department can confirm if the newspaper’s website contains all
the yard sale ads or not.
- On the day of your shopping
trip, you want to spend the majority of your time actually finding bargains,
not driving all over town. Before you leave home, use the classified ads and
a map to locate areas that have the most sales. To save time and gas,
concentrate on hitting all the sales in those areas.
- Once you know the general
area to which you are headed, take some time to map out your exact route. A
map-making computer program such as Rand McNally’s StreetFinder comes in
very handy for this. Or simply use a city map or Yahoo Maps online at http://www.maps.yahoo.com
to locate sales and get directions.
- Your yard sale shopping
experience will be more pleasant if you—and any family members who go with
you—are comfortable. Make sure everyone wears weather-appropriate clothing
and comfortable shoes. Sunscreen and hats are also helpful if your crew will
be out in the sun for long periods. Don’t forget to make sure everyone
hits the bathroom before you leave the house!
- To keep you and your young
yard sale shoppers’ hunger and thirst at bay, take along a small cooler
with easy-to-handle snacks and drinks. Of course you could stop for
fast-food when stomachs start to growl, but doing so would take time away
from bargain-hunting.
- Rather than carrying your
purse, you may want to carry your money and any essentials in a fannypack or
small change purse you can put in your pocket. This leaves your hands free
to inspect the merchandise and also frees you from worrying that your purse
being stolen.
- You can’t judge a book by
its cover, and you can’t judge a yard sale by your first impressions,
either. You never know what kinds of bargains lurk in the seller’s garage.
Sometimes you find the best deals at the sales that are least organized
because the sellers just want to get rid of their stuff.
- If your kids shop with you,
save yourself a lot of hassles by making sure they each have their own money
to spend. Give them a pre-determined amount to spend before you leave the
house, or have them bring their allowance money. This saves you from being
the bad guy when the kids ask for things you don’t want to buy. Many times
they decide they don’t want the items bad enough to spend their own money.
- Negotiating is the name of
the game. Most sellers are willing to deal as long as you are fair with
them. Asking the seller to take $2 for an item marked $20 is pushing your
luck. The seller may be more than willing to sell the item for $15 or even
$10, depending how late in the day it is. Remember too that yard sales
provide an excellent opportunity to teach children about negotiating. For
the young or shy shopper, you may have to help out a bit by saying something
like, "My son wondered if you’d take $1.00 for this game."
Eventually your child will learn to make these requests on his own.
- Going to yard sales early in
the day (as soon as the sales open) has the advantage of getting the best
selection. If you are looking for a big-ticket item such as furniture or
electronics, you’ll probably have to go early. Going later in the day has
its advantages, too. Sometimes sellers are willing to practically give their
stuff away rather than have to pack it up and carry it back in their homes.
- Be sure to carry lots of
change and small bills. Of course it is the seller’s responsibility to
have change, but wiping out the seller’s entire change supply with a $20
for a $1 sale is inconsiderate. Save your change throughout the week to use
for your Saturday yard sale trip.
- If your time for shopping is
short, you may want to concentrate only on one-day sales. If a sale runs on
both Friday and Saturday, there is usually little left by the time Saturday
rolls around. To get the biggest return on your time investment, visit the
one-day sales first; then if you have extra time, you can stop by any sales
that have been running for two days.
- If you try to negotiate with
the seller on a large item but the seller won’t budge, leave your name and
phone number along with the price you are willing to pay. Tell the
proprietor to give you a call if the item doesn’t sell and she decides she
accept your offer.
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