Almost a Disaster...Garage Sailing - Saturday 05/28/2011

So this last weekend rather than waste precious time on Saturday morning between the 8 and 10 o'clock hours looking for garage sales, I wanted to be more proactive in planning the night before. So on Friday night, with my trustee iPad in hand and the iGarage Sale Lite app, I searched for the most promising garage sales in my area. I picked the best sounding Craigslist posting at 8am, 8:30am, and 9am. Since I only chose one at each of these time slots, it allowed us time to roam around to nearby garage sales before the next one started.

Overall the strategy seemed to pay off. At the first garage sale there was a lot of neat antique furniture, but they weren't exactly great bargains, nor was it anything that I was looking for. Right before we left, I was looking through the $1 table and I found a Pampered Chef apple peeler and corer. I picked it up immediately as this is worth around $15 (going rate on eBay). Worst case scenario, if it didn't work, my wife being a Pampered Chef consultant could get a free replacement. This garage sale also had some comics from the 70s and 80s (Superman & Action Comics) but nothing of value.

The next garage sale at 8:30am had the best finds of the day. Everything was really poorly organized at the sale, so nothing caught my eye until I was about to leave. As I was walking away a guy my age pulled out a Gameboy Color with some games from a miscellaneous box of toys. I probably would have bought it had I seen it, but that wasn't that wonderful of a find. I did however search through the boxes of toys and discovered a Texas Instruments TI-83+ calculator and a BlueAnt ST3 Bluetooth speakerphone. The guy charged me $2 for both. The going rate on eBay for a used BlueAnt ST3 is about $28 and the TI-83 could net about $32. I was actually in the market for the Bluetooth speakerphone so I will keep it.

The reason I titled this post "almost a disaster" was because after I paid for my two great finds and went to my car I realized that my pocket no longer contained a loose $20 I had when I had arrived at the show. After searching around for about 5-10 minutes and talking to the host of the show about the missing money, someone overheard me and handed me my $20 bill. I said "THANK YOU!" to the lady, and said a prayer of thanks to God in my head. I vow never to keep money outside my wallet again...

The last sale we hit up we immediately knew the people were anxious to get rid of their stuff...and cheap. I was stoked to get a nice money clip that has a fold out knife and file for $1. I tried to find a value for it online, but nothing came up. They also had a brand new Casio fx-260 Solar calculator for $2 and my faithful wife got it for $1. eBay average for a new one is $16. And finally I wasted a buck on an old Nancy Drew first edition of "The Sign of the Twisted Candles". I thought since it was an original copy from 1933, it may be worth $10, but my searches didn't seem too promising.

All together it was a pretty good day. Now to list all this crap on eBay...

Garage Sailing - Saturday 05/21/2011

Well, I got on the road at about 8:15am last Saturday to start the day looking for crap to keep/sell.

Using my trusty iPad with the "iGarageSale (Lite)" app the night before, I knew the general areas where there were some sales. When I got to driving around though I was floored at how many sales were actually going on. I can't remember the last time I had seen so many garage sales.

When there are that many garage sales you really have to be selective in how you spend your time, as the first 1-2 hours is critical if you want to get any real good finds. The three places I spent most of my time were pretty much duds. Two of the three places were in really nice neighborhoods which is usually a good sign. I stayed long enough at both sales to realize that they had sales either the day before (Friday? I know lame right?) or a week or two before. Needless to say these places were picked clean and I came away empty handed.

The third sale at first glance seemed too good to be true. There was nice old fashion furniture, model cars in the box, action figures, sports memorabilia, and lots of other neat stuff. As I was looking around I overheard the seller say that he regularly attends swap meets and his wife does a lot of selling on eBay. Immediately the red flag in my head hit high mast. These people knew what they had and of course knew what they were worth.

I was able at least to finagle his wife to sell the CDs which were priced at $1/each for 3 for $2 instead. Unforunately she disappeared so when I tried the same trick on the DVDs which were $2 each the husband wouldn't go for the 2 for $3 bit.

But at least I came away with a consolation prize:

Gladiator 2-Disc DVD set - $2

The Iron Giant DVD - $2

Offspring - "Americana" CD - $0.67

System of a Down - "Steal This CD" CD - $0.67

Foo Fighters - "One by One" CD - $0.67

~

Total Spent - $6

*Note: And of course all media is already on my home server.

Apple Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse - Craigslist

I love bargain hunting. This is why more and more I have enjoyed going to garage sales, searching Craigslist, or "Slickdeal" shopping online.

So I thought it would be interesting (for me at least) to write about the items my wife and I pick up at garage sales, etc. and the prices we finagle out of the poor saps.

So here we go. My brother graciously sent me a link on Craigslist from a guy who was getting rid of some computer equipment. The title of the Craigslist ad was "COMPUTER PRINTER AND NICE SPEAKERS, CHEAP! - $15 (BURBANK)". At first glance, I had no idea why my brother sent this as I have no interest in either a printer or speakers. But then as I opened the link to the ad, I realized why he sent it. I have been looking for an Apple brand bluetooth keyboard to use on my new iPad (1st Gen), but a new or like new keyboards are going a little above my price range on eBay, etc. at around $50. Within this poorly titled ad, an Apple bluetooth keyboard and a bluetooth "Apple Mighty Mouse" was listed at unbelievable $20 for both! Considering the "Mighty Mouse" is worth on average around $20 by itself, I was stoked. After arriving at the seller's house I tested the keyboard on my iPad and saw the mouse power up. I paid the $20 and got $2 back by selling four extra batteries I had with me to test the keyboard.

So all together $18 and four AA batteries for around $70 worth of Apple products. I purposely didn't try to bargain the guy down on the price, because both the keyboard and mouse were mint.

Apple Bluetooth Mighty Mouse; Model No: A1197

Apple Bluetooth Keyboard; Model No: A1255