To the Garage Sales!

I managed to haul myself out of bed yesterday morning and went biking around to the garage sales. Surprisingly, there were not many - I guess it is still a bit early in the year. It was nice to get outside and chat with the different people.

Here are the items I found that I considered - remember I don't want to spend more than 20% of my stake to reduce the risk of busting:

1) Computer speakers for $3 - Although these were below my budget of $4, I hesitated to buy these as computer speakers are quite common. I don't like buying computer things in general as they get out of date so quickly. Not sure that speakers fall into that category since speakers are speakers. They definitely looked old and it was the first garage sale so I passed.

2) A vintage star wars millenium falcon - This was intriguing. Some people say you can make a lot of money on vintage toys, but you have to know your stuff. For this one I went back and did some research and found the item on Ebay for $50, but this was a new unopened one. If collectors can buy new ones, they probably don't want an old used one so I let it pass.

3) Garage sale 2 was a dud. Nothing there that caught my eye.

4) Garage sale 3 was more promising - she had a lot of antique looking stuff, but most of this was on its way out. There was an old night table for only $5, which I might have sold for more, but it was scratched up and I thought I might have to fix it up before I could sell it - also people usually want 2 night tables not 1 so I let it pass.

5) She also had two doll high chairs for $1 each, which I thought someone might buy for their little girl. They were wooden and seemed to be in good shape. I went on line to check and found one for sale for $20, which means I might be able to make a hefty profit. Looking closer, I could see that only one person per day looked at the ad, which told me that the market for these was pretty small. I wasn't sure anyone would really drive out to someone's house just for a little doll high chair - the market seemed pretty small for it so I passed again.

6) The last place had a toaster oven for $8. I thought about it and decided that people don't usually like to buy old stuff for their kitchen, and plus I didn't know how well it worked, etc. so I passed again

7) There was a crazy pirate ship kite for $10. The price didn't seem low enough and I think the market would be small again so I passed.

At the end of the day I didn't buy anything, but I am ok with that. I really don't want to get stuck with someone else's junk, although I hope I'm not being too picky.

On my way home I saw a beer bottle and I couldn't help picking it up. Since finding beer bottles are tax free, I am up 10 cents. At least the day wasn't a total dud.

Flip