Holy moly! Picked up a TON of good stuff last week. Found a bunch of great stuff at thrift stores and then with the weather forecast to be 70 degrees last Saturday, there were suddenly a TON of garage sales.
Was pretty busy Monday and Tuesday last week, so I didn't make it out to thrift stores until Wednesday. My first stop was Savers. The DVD/VHS/Video Game section is just inside the door. It rarely has anything good, so imagine my surprise when I see these:
Wow! Paid $27 for all of them and valued at $137.
But wait! That was JUST the video game section. I also found a couple of bags:
These were $9 and I think I can get $50 for them.
My next stop was a consignment store. What I've found with these stores is that you can't go in too frequently or they won't have time to get anything new in. I hadn't been to this one in like 2 months and found a few good things:
The men's Diesel jeans are especially nice even though they had dirt on them. That was actually a good thing as they gave me an additional 50% off. I paid $35 for everything and think I can sell them for $80.
My final stop of the day was Goodwill where I found a few good things:
I paid $20 for everything and think it's worth $115 (if the DVD/VHS players work).
In total on Wednesday, I spent $92 and think I can sell everything for $382! Pretty sweet when things work out like that.
As mentioned above, the weather forecast for Saturday called for sunshine and 70 degree weather. Unsurprisingly, many folks decided to have their spring garage sale that day. We got started at 7:00 and didn't quit until around 1:30. I think in total we made it to 25 sales! There were still another 10-15 sales that were on our list that we didn't have time for.
The first sale we went to was either cancelled or a fake (they listed late 80's early 90's video games) so we headed on to the 2nd. Found this guy:
Paid $2 and value him at $40.
The second sale had listed LOT'S of toys from boys aged 5-12. Was hoping to find some Star Wars, GI Joe or Transformers. They didn't have anything like that, but here's what I got:
I took a chance on the shoes, but knew there was value in the other two items. I ended up paying $60 for everything...which ended up being WAY too much as I only value this stuff at $80. Oh well!
Our next stop was at a sale that I'm pretty sure is a reseller. She tends to have sales at a bunch of her friend's houses throughout the summer so you never really know what to avoid. I will sometimes buy stuff from her. This time I did.
The LEGO set was a bit pricey at $10, but the Littlest Pet Shop were only $3 for the bag. There are 21 figures in there and they average about $2 each, so definitely an easy purchase. Total value is probably around $60.
The next sale was also a bit of a mystery. The couple seemed to be mis-aligned in how they were operating the sale and we definitely heard the lady mention selling stuff on Ebay, but the husband was in charge of the electronics. Here's what I found:
I only paid $40 for everything, which makes me suspicious that some of this will not work, but I decided to take a risk. If everything works, it's valued at $165. Maybe more as I can't really figure out how much that Sony Vaio digital music streamer is worth, but there's one on Amazon for $50.
The next sale was mostly old-lady stuff, but I did find this set there:
Paid $5 and can probably get $30 for it.
The next sale had a ton of potential when we pulled up, but was mostly a bunch of stuff that was in bad condition. I did take a risk on these two things though:
The backpack ended up being in worse condition than I thought and is bound for Savers, but the DVD/VHS is good and I can probably sell it for $20. Not as much as I hoped, but I only paid $5 total for both things, so not bad.
The next sale was a pretty common "household goods" sale and we found a small pile of these collectible statues. We scanned all of them quickly and this one seemed like it might sell within a few months:
Only paid $5 and I'll list it at $50 and see how it does.
The next sale we went to was not on our list. We've found we can do VERY well off-list just by finding sales that are "sign only", but we try not to do it too early in the morning after we've hit all the sales we marked that have potential. Did pretty well and picked these up:
I LOVE buying video games. I know this category well and there is still a TON of profit to be made here. WiiU games have been especially rare to come across, so that was cool too. Paid $10 for everything and I think I can get $60 total.
Close to the end of the day, I found this box of controllers:
He only wanted $5 and all of the sticks are tight so I picked them up. They still sell for around $15 each, so $45 from $5 is pretty good.
At the last sale of the day, we found a closed garage. My girlfriend however was quick to point out that they left a bunch of stuff by the road for free. Here's what we got:
Wow! Those guitars are still selling for around $40 each! I took a chance on the Sirious unit but think I can get $35 for it if it's working. The new in box Guitar Hero III set is a little more complicated. It's definitely brand new still and never played. There are NO completed listings for something like this, only stuff for sale, and those prices are RIDICULOUS. I may have to list this as an auction as I feel like I just have no idea what a fair price is.
In summary:
Total spent: $145
Total value: $766
Total profit after fees and expenses: $465
Pretty good for the first day out at garage sales this year! My girlfriend and I were discussing how much we bought and we may have to raise our minimum value price from $30 to $40. We'll see. Of course, that excludes video games and anything we just think is too fun to pass up. :-)