One of the great things about being a yard sale shopper is that you can time your purchases with the season or an event that’s coming up in your life.

If you’re planning a flamingo-themed birthday party, for example, you can go yard-sale shopping and “think pink” as you browse. That’s when you’re snatching up everything flamingo-friendly that you come across.

On the flip side, yard sale hosts should always organize their wares in such a way that your shoppers can immediately detect a theme. If you’re selling your collection of Rolling Stones merchandise, put it all together and list it in your classified advertising. If you’ve got a lot of Corvette items, then make it known in your ad and display them on the same table.

Sellers should consider the same advice when you know a major holiday is approaching. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are on their way soon enough, so weed through your decorations now and put them in your fall yard sale today.

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One the hardest parts of owning “stuff” is knowing when some of that stuff needs to go. Here at Yard Sale Secrets, your team of intrepid bloggers certainly has learned how to make those tough decisions, so with that in mind, we offer you a series of tips on the right time to ditch your stuff.

1. YOU BOUGHT A NEWER VERSION – If you just bought a new recliner, don’t just plant it next to your old, beat up recliner for more sittin’ space. Get rid of the old one. Our suggestion: If your old thing still useable, sell it at your next yard sale.
2. YOU DON’T HAVE ALL THE PARTS — You’ve got just about all the pieces to your “Jaws” action game from 1975. But darn it, somehow you lost the fishing pole. Our suggestion: If you think the parts themselves may be valuable, put them on eBay.
3. IT’S OUT OF STYLE — You may have no more love for your leather bomber jacket, but someone else may still totally be into the idea of looking like a WWII flying ace. Our suggestion: Style is definitely relative. Put it in the yard sale.
4. YOU DON’T HAVE THE ROOM – After you bought a whole bunch of other things at other people’s yard sales, that vintage Coca-Cola cooler doesn’t have a good home anymore, so you’ve buried it under some plastic tubs in the garage. Our suggestion: If it’s collectible, save it for next year’s yard sale or put it on an auction site. If it’s something practical, try giving it to a local charity store.
5. IT’S NO LONGER APPROPRIATE – For the last two decades, you’ve been a proud owner of a blinking Schlitz Beer sign. Now that your mancave has been taken over by your eight-year-old, it just doesn’t seem right. Our suggestion: Yard sale fodder.
6. YOU NEED THE DOUGH – You just bought this incredibly ornate antique chandelier. Your friends and family are wowed by it when they come over. But then you get your daughter’s first bill from college. You panic. How are you gonna pay? Well, maybe that chandelier should go back — or on the auction. Our suggestion: Ask those friends who were ooh-ing and aweing over it. If they aren’t interested, take out a classified ad!

 

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“Permanent” yard sales.

We hate them.

Regular yard sale attendees are sure to know what we’re talking about here, but just in case you haven’t been clued in, a “permanent yard sale” is when someone keeps trying to sell the same stuff over and over again.

• Some of them tear down the sale at the end of the weekend, and just put it back up the next weekend.
• Some of them wait a year in between the sales, but they always have the same stuff.
• Some of them don’t even bother to do either, they just leave their tables and merchandise out — all year long.

For the Yard Sale Secrets team, there’s nothing more aggravating than getting excited by a new classified ad or following some signs and then arriving at a permanent yard sale — one we’ve been to before.

With that in mind, here’s our tips to recognize a “permanent” yard sale.

You know you’ve stumbled on a permanent yard sale when …

• Thee grass under the table is taller than the grass next to the table.
• You pick up an item and see that the table is a different color under the object.
• The glassware has stains on it from where last week’s rain evaporated.
• The florescent price tags have been bleached white by the sun.
• You remember the signs from the last time you were there.
• The oil on that “brand new” car part has leeched into the table.
• You remember the hosts from last year.
• A swarm of wasps is nesting in the old football helmet.
• You have to knock on the front door to buy something.
• You recognize the address from the classified ad.

 

 

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Reports have surfaced over the last few days (here and here, for example) about a North Carolina artist who scored an incredible prize at her local Goodwill store. Here at Yard Sale Secrets, we think of Goodwill as a permanent indoor yard sale, so we’re happy to talk about this interesting bit of news.

The woman, Beth Feeback, 45, is a professional artist who was shopping at a Goodwill store a few months ago. Along with a few other items, she picked up a couple of paintings for $9.99 each.

One of them, a modern-looking red, white and blue piece, was especially big and she figured she would just reuse it for some of her own work — usually google-eyed cats.

But something stopped her from doing it again and again until she had a friend look at the painting. Her friend figured that it was something worth looking into and eventually they discovered the painting could be worth as much as $20,000. An auction in September through Sotheby’s is planned.

So yard-sale fanatics, how does one spot such a goldmine at your local yard sale or charity store? Some tips (even though we’ve never managed such a coup):

• JUDGE ITS UNIQUENESS: Look at the item and try to determine how unique it is. If it’s a piece of art — from a sculpture to a painting — try to figure out if it is a reproduction or not. If it has a manufacturer’s logo, it’s probably mass produced. In paintings, look for “piles” of paint versus a flat screen print. In sculptures, look for fingerprints and other “non-polished” marks that imply it’s one of a kind. If it has seams, it probably isn’t.
• JUDGE ITS AGE: First edition books can be extremely valuable. If you see a pile of old books at a sale, look at the title page and try to determine if it’s a first printing. You also want it to be a recognizable book too — you know something by Jack London or Ernest Hemmingway. Old paintings and other works of art can also be extremely valuable. Originals or first printings are a must.
• JUDGE ITS SELLER: Look at all the other stuff the seller is trying to get rid of. Are they clearing out their grandma’s house? Do they appear to know what they’re selling? Does this old and unique item seem to be out of place? Or does it look like it was forgotten until now? All these can be clues to a great find.
• JUDGE ITS PRESENCE: This is about as abstract of a tip as we can offer, but take a look at the item — does it seem to stand out? Does it just have some indescribable quality? No matter how big or how small it is, does it just take over the room (or in the case of a yard sale — the table)? If you answered yes to some or all of those questions, you might have something.

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After years — make that decades — of going to yard sales, the Yard Sale Secrets team has seen some crazy stuff available for purchase. We’ve seen demolished cars, brand-new kitties and broken statues for sale. Sure, someone might want to buy a cat, but really, it’s quite easy to get one for free. A broken statue might be good filler for the bottom of a flower pot. And yes, you can fix a car.

But sometimes we see things we just can’t figure out why people would think “this will sell!’ and even more, we worry about people who say “I need that!”

So here’s our list of things not to sell (or buy) at yard sales.

OPEN CANS OF PAINT -- More than once we’ve seen stacks of old, open cans of paint for sale at yard sales. They are often half empty, dented and crusted with dried paint.

• Why you shouldn’t buy it: Aside from the fact that old paint will separate into its component parts, you also can never be too sure what kind of paint it is. It could have lead in it, for example.
• What you should do with it: If you’re an owner of some cans of old paint, fill them up with

USED MAKEUP –You might see these bottles and palettes on a table with new stuff or as a kit in with girls’ toys. But there it is, makeup that’s been partially used — sometimes a dab out of some rouge or a lipstick that’s been worn to a stub.

• Why you shouldn’t buy it: Makeup can house bacteria and dead skin cells from the previous user. These people are putting it on their lips and eyelids. Do you want to swap germs with a random someone? Probably not.
• What you should do with it: First and foremost, we’d say throw out your old makeup. If you can’t bare to do that, then let your kids have it to paint or draw with.
  

SWIMSUITS – Maybe they lost weight. Maybe they bought it but only tried it on when they got home and it didn’t fit. Whatever the reason, some people think you want their old swimsuits.

• Why you shouldn’t buy it: Well, they had their private parts jammed into the thing. Even with a good washing it seems kind of weird.
  
• What you should do with it: Really, just throw them out. The world will be better for it. Although you might be able to use the mesh out of swim trunks to go fishing for minnows.
  

OPEN BOXES OF CRAYONS – Yes, crayons. People will put out boxes of crayons for sale. From the big cases with a 100 or more to the sample packs that only have four colors. Somehow people think we’re desperate for crayons.

• Why you shouldn’t buy it: Chances are you can get a free box of crayons at any sit-down restraurant. Beyond that, crayons that have been used by multiple people tend to be broken, stubs of their former selves and kind of dirty.
  
• What you should do with it: Just keep the crayons. For goodness sake, sometime in the future you might need to color something — a yard sale sign, for example. Heck, you can even melt them down and make a candle or something.
  

ICE CUBE TRAYS – We can’t say how many times we’ve seen people trying to sell old ice cube trays. We’re not even talking about the ones that make the fancy shaped ice. Nope, just plain old rectangular ice.

• Why you shouldn’t buy it: Even if you clean it 10 times, you’ll have a few lingering questions in your head: Why did they want to get rid of this ice cube tray? What did they put in it?
  
• What you should do with it: Use an old ice cube tray to store things in your workshop. Washers, staples and tacks can go in them. Artists can use them as a paint tray. Or you can just throw them away.
  

WELL-USED MEN’S CLOTHES – No we aren’t talking about a suit coat or even a pair of jeans that were barely worn. No we’re talking about old T-shirts with the designs wearing out, flannel shirts with torn sleeves, old belts with stress marks on them and baseball caps that just hit the decade mark.

• Why you shouldn’t buy it: Call us sexist, but men are sweaty and do lots of gross things like mowing the lawn, gutting fish and working on greasy cars. That all adds up to a lot of ground in gunk on their clothes. We don’t really need to pass that gunk along, do we?
  
• What you should do with it: Turn them into rags for cleaning up.
  

“COLLECTIBLE” FAST FOOD CUPS – Starting in the 1980s, the entertainment and sports industries decided that people who eat at Hardee’s really love to stare at their gallon-sized cup of Mountain Dew. “Why not put one of our logos or characters on it?” those industries asked themselves. And with that, the collectible fast food cup was born.

• Why you shouldn’t buy it: Do you really want to buy a 1994 Mark Messier N.Y. Rangers collectible cup? What would you do with it? Put it on your mantel? Ask yourself these simple questions.
• What you should do with it: Put it in the recycling bin. It’s that simple.

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Hey, look at that! We’re famous!

A few weeks ago, the Yard Sale Secrets team was contacted by a reporter from Hippo Press, an independent weekly entertainment newspaper out of New Hampshire, to tap our knowledge on what makes a going to yard sales so much fun.

We spent a few minutes talking to the reporter and she must have liked what we told her, because there we are.

Even better, the article throws out some tips for yard sales that we haven’t seen before. Some highlights:

• Bring a tape measure: To check the size of items before you commit to buying them.
• Don’t forget blankets and padding: To protect your new-found treasures on their their way home.
• Have a magnifying glass: To inspect tiny baubles and jewelry for imperfections.
• Put a flashlight in your pocket: To check for problems underneath furniture and other hard to see spaces.

Good advice indeed. Consider them official Yard Sale Secret tips!

 

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